March 7, 1967 is not enshrined in New Zealand cricket history as a day of any special significance – but a case could be made that it was where the belief started to emerge that was to later blossom into success on the playing arenas of the world
Lynn McConnell29-Jul-2002March 7, 1967 is not enshrined in New Zealand cricket history as a day of any special significance – but a case could be made that it was where the belief started to emerge that was to later blossom into success on the playing arenas of the world.It was at Pukekura Park in New Plymouth, one of the most picturesque grounds in the game, but one whose boundaries, especially square of the wicket, are too close for it to be regarded as a Test match venue.But in 1967, it was to be the location of the first international in a series played between New Zealand and what was, to all intents and purposes, the Australian 2nd XI.A useful 2nd XI for all that. Among its line-up, batsmen like Norm O’Neill had played 42 Tests, Brian Booth (26), Peter Burge (38), Les Favell (19), Barry Jarman (seven), bowlers such as Alan Connolly (five) and Peter Philpott (five).These older hands were given the job of grooming players like batsmen Ken Cunningham, Geoff Davies and Paul Sheahan and bowlers like John Gleeson, Bob Bitmead, Eric Freeman and Allan Frost.Of those players, Sheahan would play 30 Tests, Gleeson 30 and Freeman 11.So by most standards it was a more than reasonable Australian team.New Zealand on the other hand were starting to get the pay back from the decision of the selectors in 1965 to send four players still in their teens, Vic Pollard, Richard Collinge, Terry Jarvis and Graham Vivian, and Bruce Taylor, who was 21, on the tour to India, Pakistan and England.”They were either brave or foolish. But they got their dividend from it,” Pollard recalled to CricInfo.The memory does still make him shudder a little and he recalled his first experience of bowling at Lord’s, to Colin Cowdrey, one of the finest players of off-spin in the game’s history.”He milked me,” he said.All but Vivian were in the side that lined up at Pukekura Park. They were there with Barry Sinclair (captain), Graham Dowling, Bevan Congdon, Keith Thomson, Bryan Yuile, Dick Motz, Bob Cunis and Roy Harford. All but Thomson, Cunis and Harford had been on that 1965 tour.Australia, and the members of the Central Districts (CD) team in the side, Pollard, Yuile, Congdon, had to finish their game in Palmerston North and get through to New Plymouth to begin the first international of the tour the following day.The Central Districts game had been especially memorable for the display of fast bowling produced by Gary Bartlett on the first evening.Pollard was only 21 but had been entrusted with the captaincy of the CD side. He recalls the bowling that Bartlett produced that night as the fastest he ever saw.”He was lightning,” he said.”I didn’t have one fielder in front of the wicket.”Favell, a renowned hooker, had been attempting to have a go at Bartlett but had missed and because he was put on his rear end so many times, his trousers were covered in dirt from the pitch. He finally was out caught behind.”Gary didn’t get the bounce off the pitch, he tended to skid along the pitch at you and wasn’t so easy to hit.”But Brian Booth came in and he scored 200 against us.”Australia eventually declared at 499/5 with Booth 214 not out.However, Pollard and Yuile were concerned because between them they had taken one wicket at a cost of 107 runs. They weren’t feeling especially confident having to bowl to them up the road in New Plymouth.”Brian Booth had belted us all over the wicket, and we were worried going to New Plymouth,” he said.”It was a lovely ground to watch cricket at and one of my favourite grounds. It wasn’t a quick track and while it favoured spin, it wasn’t popping or turning square.”They had spinners as well, like Gleeson and Philpott,” he said.New Zealand won the toss and batted and were in some early trouble at 45/3 but Congdon and Pollard added another 44 before Pollard was caught and bowled for 20 by Connolly.Two more wickets fell by the time the score reach 142, with Congdon out for 63. The innings was given some lustre by Taylor and Yuile as they added 109 runs for the seventh wicket. Taylor reached 92 when he was run out attempting what the New Zealand Cricket Almanack of 1967 described as “an impossible run.”Yuile kept the momentum going and was last man out for 38 with New Zealand having scored 278. Connolly had picked up wickets all the way through the innings to finish with five for 61 from 35.5 overs.Australia lost Cunningham for seven to Motz’s bowling – one of two wickets that fell to New Zealand’s pace bowlers in the match.Favell and O’Neill added 52 before Favell was caught by Pollard off Yuile’s bowling for 46. O’Neill and Booth then took the score to 97, but disaster struck for Australia.O’Neill was bowled by Pollard for 28 and Sheahan followed for a duck. At 112, Peter Burge fell to Yuile for 11. Barry Jarman followed, also falling to Yuile for seven and Australia were 136/6. Nine runs later the decisive blow was struck when Booth edged Yuile behind and Harford held the catch. He had scored 35 runs.Yuile gained Philpott’s wicket for 12 to take five for 62 runs from 34 overs while Pollard polished off the tail to end with four for 26 from 31.4 overs. Australia were all out for 175, 103 runs behind New Zealand.The home team were quick to build on that advantage. Dowling scored 67 and Jarvis 38 in an opening stand of 80. Another 45 runs were added for the second wicket before there was a little hiccup as Sinclair (three) and Thomson (nine) both fell to Gleeson.However, Pollard (54) with two sixes and eight fours during his 80-minute innings, and Taylor again with 28, helped New Zealand reach 247/8 before declaring.That left a target of 351 for Australia.While the ball was still hard they fared reasonably well. Motz picked up Favell for 15.Then Pollard and Yuile took over. Wickets came regularly.”The Australians never really played off-spinners at all well,” Pollard recalled.”England always used to send a couple over there. The Australians would play away from their bodies.”If Peter Burge had connected it could have been more dangerous. He was a big boy and tried to swat me away and missed the ball and was bowled.”Burge had been the mainstay of the innings, scoring 26. Earlier, Cunningham had scored 38 but he was bowled by Pollard, who also got through the defences of Booth before getting Burge.Philpott stayed for 68 defiant minutes while scoring 12 but he was caught by Congdon. Gleeson was bowled by Pollard for 16.Jarman continued to battle and at tea on the last day Australia were teetering at 164/8.Just after the break, however, Jarman edged Yuile to Harford to be out for 27 and soon after Frost was bowled, also by Pollard, for 13, and Australia were all out for 191. New Zealand victors by 159 runs.Pollard had taken seven for 65 – they remained the best figures of his first-class career.The remainder of the series was rain-affected with the three games being drawn.”I liked playing the Aussies. When they lose, they’ve got such a good attitude. They don’t like losing, but they take it well. And they said to us, ‘Wait until you get to Australia’ which we were doing the next season, and I was worried about what it would be like,” he said.But New Zealand were on their way and over the next few years, the young tyros taken to India, Pakistan and England in 1965, were to take part in home victories against India and the West Indies, while also drawing a series in India 1-1 and winning a series in Pakistan 1-0.Pollard still believes, rightly so, that the side should have beaten England on the 1973 tour.”That trip was the reverse of 1965, we were so much more experienced. We deserved to win a Test there,” he said.Unfortunately, despite Pollard’s best efforts it didn’t happen.”I am pleased to have played during the era I did. There were so many great players from all the countries,” he said.Pollard said there was one thing that used to frustrate him amongst the media of the time.”The late Dick Brittenden often used to say that he wished I would float the ball more like some other spinners.”But I was a made offie, I didn’t have those skills. It was at Palmerston North Boys’ High School that it happened.”Ian Colquhoun wasn’t the coach but he did have a bit to do with it.”Toivo Vaikvee [who later played 11 matches for Wellington] was a leg-spinner and I bowled medium-pacers. I was told to hold things at one end while he took five or six wickets at the other.”It developed from there and soon after I started bowling off-spinners they picked me for Central Districts.”But what developed from that school experience was that I always bowled with the thought of the guy bowling at the other end,” he said.Pollard never lost the medium-pacers’ urges however, and his faster ball could be devastating. Wicket-keepers used to complain that he didn’t let them know when he was going to let it go.”I used to enjoy when the bowlers let them go at us in the nets, because I always kept that in mind for when I bowled to them,” he said.While the win over Australia didn’t count as a Test victory, Pollard was to take part in four of New Zealand’s later Test victories, against India at Christchurch in 1968, the West Indies in Wellington in 1969, India at Nagpur in 1969 and Pakistan at Lahore, also in 1969.