Sav's Sidelines: The special tournament that is no longer
Sav's Sidelines - the weekly column that looks at Southland sport, from the grassroots to the professional ranks.
In this week’s Sav’s Sidelines column I look back at the now defunct junior sporting tournament where names like Sir Richard Hadlee, Craig McMillan, Jeff Wilson, Dan Carter, and Chris Cairns emerged. I also provide an update on the reaction to last week’s “rant”. It’s been somewhat surprising.
For me, there was a sort of comical love-hate relationship with the long-standing South Island Primary Schools cricket tournament.
I played in the long-standing tournament in 1995 in Oamaru. That year names like Brendon McCullum, Nathan McCullum, and Daniel Carter also featured.
I ripped off the band aid some years ago by sharing in a column my horror cricketing memory from that South Island tournament.
I won’t go deep into it again, but as a bit of background I was part of a Southland team that was on track to become South Island champions. However, we delivered one of cricket’s all-time meltdowns by losing seven wickets without scoring a single run in a game against Marlborough.
I was the last wicket to fall that day. It’s somewhat haunting.
In all reality though, that trip to Oamaru that year was one of the more special sporting adventures I was part of. I’m still mates with players from that team today.
There are countless people who will have similar fond memories from that South Island Primary Schools tournament which was formed by Invercargill’s Neville Hoskin in 1963.
The 1964 tournament wasn’t played because of a lack of billets to house players, but from 1965 onwards it was played each year.
Over 30 future Black Caps attended the South Island cricketing gathering. As did other notable sportspeople, including the likes of rugby’s Carter, Robbie Deans, Justin Marshall, and Simon Culhane, football star Ryan Nelsen, Tall Black Mark Dickel, and golfer Greg Turner.
In 1965 a young Richard Hadlee impressed taking three five wicket bags at the tournament played in Ashburton.
In Gore in 1990 Craig McMillan averaged 155.5 runs - bolstered by a knock of 152 not out from 145 balls.
The year before, in 1989, Craig Cumming racked up three centuries in the tournament playing for South Canterbury at Christchurch.
In 1987 Jeff Wilson claimed the record for most wickets at a single South Island tournament when he took 37 wickets at an average of just 7.
Current Black Cap Jacob Duffy took six for nine for Invercargill Metro playing at the 2008 tournament held in Westport.
Chris Cairns remarkably played in five South Island tournaments all up. It’s impressive considering most got to play in just one tournament in their Form 2 year - or Year 8 in modern day terminology.
A few years back the New Zealand sporting landscape started to change somewhat under the guidance of Sport NZ.
Junior rep teams started to be phased out across many sports. The focus began to switch to participation and player development, and less so on selections, tournament winners, and in cricket’s case those in-depth stats.
In 2022, for the first time since the South Island tournament started in 1963, it was decided there wouldn’t be a tournament winner.
To be honest, I absolutely loved how the South Island Primary Schools tournament had its own historian - Derek Cockburn - who had recorded almost every stat and notable moment you can think of since 1963. (Here’s an article I wrote about Derek in 2012).
Amongst those stats is the fact that my mate Brad Sutherland was the leading run scorer at the 1995 tournament which featured future New Zealand Cricket Hall of Fame inductee Brendon McCullum.
The change eventually went one step further from not recording a tournament winner. The South Island tournament is now no longer.
Cricket has moved to “festival” type formats in each district.
For example, this week a Year 8 cricket festival was held in Gore featuring Invercargill Metro, Southland Country, Otago Country, North Otago, and Dunedin teams.
The Canterbury region has its own cricket festivals.
I personally would have loved for that South Island January tradition to continue, and I’ll admit I do find it a little sad that it hasn’t.
But change happens.
People far more connected to it than me obviously feel there is a better way for the kids - and the sport of cricket - in an attempt to increase participation and to make the whole experience more enjoyable.
The one thing that does remain is a group of youngsters still got to spend a week together playing cricket this week. Even if it was at a regional “festival” event and not the South Island tournament that was once a staple of the cricketing calendar.
Memories and mates will still come from that, as will the future Jacob Duffys and Jeff Wilsons - hopefully.
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The somewhat surprising reaction…
In last week’s Sav’s Sidelines column I again outlined my view that the Otago Volts and Otago Sparks should be renamed the Southern Volts and Southern Sparks.
It was written through the eyes of a Southlander, and I was expecting a reaction to it.
I probably wasn’t expecting the type of reaction though. The people of Otago have largely been good sports about it and in fact many believe there might be some merit behind the suggestion.
I almost feel guilty that for many years now I’ve painted Otago sport out to be some sort of collective evil empire - almost.
Long-time Otago Daily Times cricket writer Adrian Seconi addressed it in his column on Friday.
He acknowledged the point that there was a way to ensure history is retained through the four-day first-class team remaining Otago, but the T20 and List A teams playing under the Southern banner.
I also had a former Otago Volts player - who is Dunedin-based and Otago proud - who reached out. He agreed with the suggestion of retaining Otago for the Plunket Shield but renaming the limited overs teams.
That former Volt went as far as saying he would bring it up with an Otago Cricket Association staff member.
It was all very reasoned dialogue, and I felt like I was operating in some sort of twilight zone.
The discussion topic even made it into the commentary of a Volts v Canterbury T20 game this week.
Former Spark Katey Martin raised the matter with former Volt Hamish Rutherford during the TVNZ commentary. While the pair never offered up their view on the possible change, they were at least willing to make it a discussion topic, which hasn’t always been the case.
Rutherford revealed it was something his former Volts teammate Jacob Duffy has been hot on for some time with Duffy advocating for a name change.
By all accounts Duffy’ has gone as far as suggesting a completely new name. He’s offered up the Southern Freeze for consideration.
Time will tell if change happens, but I’m more buoyed now that the matter will at least be talked about.
What a shame about the South Island cricket tournament, and thanks for the shout out. We had such a great week (except the Marlborough game). Hopefully we see the name change to the Southern Volts for white ball cricket
In the 1970s Tennis NZ changed from individual provinces competing at at national level to regional based teams. for the first two years we were still called Otago and, indeed players tended to come from Otago. South Canterbury joined us, after not getting fair selection recognition from Canterbury, and when a Southlander got selected, we took the fair and obvious step and called it Southern Districts. The event is now only played at junior level and a large percentage of players come from Southland or Southern Lakes (Wanaka/Queenstown).