Photo Left (left to right) : Paul Hobbs, Shane Robison, Marty Croy, Rob Lawson, Shayne O'Connor, Greg Dawson. Photo Centre (left to right) : Dermot Payton, Paul Hobbs, Joe Smele, Stephen Hother, Toivo Vaikvee, Bruce Edgar. Photo Right (left to right) : Ginny Fail, Willy Marshall, Paul Hobbs
By Paul Hobbs, Past Player Personal Development Manager - Republished from Outright 56
As we try to stay warm in the cooler winter months, it’s a good time to look back on the number of connections and reconnections made at our past player events over the summer.
In total, the NZCPA held 5 past player events over the 2023/24 cricketing summer. With the Australian men and the English women’s team all touring here within a few short weeks, we decided to host our events in conjunction with games played around the country involving those two teams.
We held events in Auckland, Christchurch, Dunedin and two events in Wellington were jointly hosted with the Wanderers Cricket Club.
The turnout at all the functions was excellent with people coming from around the country to meet up with some of their old cricketing mates and create new friendships with past players from different generations. At one of our events in Wellington, we even had female past player, Yvonne Taylor come over from Australia to join the day in the Peter Field Clubroom
high at the top of the RA Vance stand at the Basin Reserve.
We only experienced one small hiccup when we discovered a little known rule at the Basin Reserve that when the last wicket of the game falls, the external bar licences expire. Fortunately, quick thinking from Cricket Wellington enabled us to relocate to the Norwood Room. Great work Jasmine!
I’d like to thank a few past players in each of the cities who worked hard to corral attendance at the functions – Ben Harris, Shane Robinson, Peter Holland, Hamish Marshall, Penny Kinsella, Di Goodall and Prue Hyman …
One thing we have realised is that over summer, people are travelling and visiting places all around the country. We hope to send out a schedule of events to all past players, so everyone
can see if there’s a get-together near where you are.
Thanks to everyone who supported our events over the summer and we wish you a safe and warm winter.
Photo Left (left to right) : Vaughan Brown, Ben Harris, Jenny Olson, Paul Hobbs. Photo Centre (left to right) : Martin Snedden, Rod Latham, Anup Nathu, Max Bremner. Photo Right (left to right) : Jane Anderson, Denis Aberhart (background), Lesley Elvidge, Ben Harris, Jenny Olson.