Sat Feb XIII

Went to the 1 day International. NZ beat Australia. NZ 240-6 (50 overs) (Edgar 79, Coney 45, Howarth 34, Reid 20, Cairns 18no, Wright 18, Hadlee 11, Pascoe 1-36, Alderman 1-40), Australia 195 (46.5 overs) (G Chapell 108, Dyson 32, Hughes 16, Laird 11, Troup 4-44, Crowe 2-9). Chapell was man of the match. The players wore coloured kit A- Yellow/Green N.Z Beige/Brown and used a white ball with black sight-screens.

You can see that I enjoyed myself! It was the first game that Dad and I went to – and, I think, the last. We have been to many sporting events since, but I think this was the only cricket match. I am not sure why we have never been to another one, especially as this was quite a good game.

I was clearly keeping score quite assiduously. A quick check of the official record shows that I was out by a run here or there, but even so I’d say I didn’t do badly for someone attending only their second ever cricket match (even if I did spell Greg Chappell’s name incorrectly when it came to entering the day into the diary).

The game was played at Eden Park in Auckland. Even more so than now it was a rugby ground which hosted cricket matches, very low tech with masses of concrete and wooden benches to sit on. It has improved a lot since then, thank goodness. Fortunately, I was crazy enough about sport not to be put off by this comparative lack of comfort. I wonder if the same would be true for today’s children?