Lance Cairns
Brian Bearshaw on Lance Cairns
Brian Bearshaw
19-May-2006
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Cairns, a strongly-built swing bowler, first played Shell Trophy
cricket in the 1971-72 season when he was twenty-two. He was soon
recognised as the finest hitter in New Zealand, a tail-end
batsman with a good eye, strong muscles and a deep desire to hit
the ball as far as possible. He first played for New Zealand in
1973 and two seasons later really captured attention with his
batting as he hit five fast 50s, three of them from fewer than 50
balls. He started with one in 40, beat that at 37 and then hit
another in 32 balls for the fastest of the season in domestic
cricket. He played one Test match that summer, the third against
India at Wellington, and in an innings of 47 he pulled one ball
from Prasanna so fiercely that Sunil Gavaskar, fielding a few
feet from the bat, took a frightening blow in the face and had to
have an operation on a broken cheekbone. Cairns's prodigious
hitting also brought him a six off England's John Lever on to the
roof of the Dunedin grandstand, and 60 in 46 minutes in a
Prudential Trophy match with England at Old Trafford. His
Prudential Trophy innings was played in 1978 when England were
coasting to a comfortable win with New Zealand 85 for six.
Cairns hit 60 of the last 67 runs, reaching 50 in 37 balls and
including four sixes. New Zealand still lost but it probably
cheered Cairns up after giving away 84 runs in 11 overs
during the England innings.
Cairns played an important part in New Zealand's first ever
series win over the West Indies, in 1979-80, when some
uncomplicated hitting helped bring victory in the first Test at
Dunedin and a 1-0 win in the three-match series. That same
summer, after several mediocre performances, Cairns produced his
history-making century for Otago against Wellington at Lower
Hutt. Bruce Taylor and Ewen Chatfield, both Test bowlers, had
torn an enormous hole in the Otago batting which was on its knees
at 42 for seven when Cairns went in. Soon it was 48 for eight and
Cairns decided to throw his bat at just about everything. In 24
minutes to the close of the first day he faced 28 balls and hit
68 runs, hitting Chatfield on to the grandstand roof twice from
consecutive balls, and twice lifting Taylor over the scoreboard
in one over. And Evan Gray, said one report, "seemed to be for
ever lofted on to the corrugated roof of the stand with a
deafening bang".
Cairns just kept going in the same rich vein the following
morning and the first ball he received again finished up on the
battered, dented grandstand roof. He was eventually caught in the
deep off a massive hit that was held back by the wind, with 110
runs in the Otago total of 173, having hit nine sixes, 11 fours,
three twos and six singles. His century had taken 45 balls and
of the 90 runs produced for the last wicket in 31 minutes,
his partner, Graeme Thomson, claimed an unbeaten four.
There was some discrepancy for a time over whether his century
should be recorded as 48 or 52 minutes. It seems somebody wanted
to knock four minutes off for the time it took to retrieve the
ball all those times from the grandstand roof. If that had
applied to some of the performances of old-timers like Gilbert
Jessop and Ted Alletson their times would have been incredible.
So Caims had to be satisfied with 52 minutes, beating Dick Motz's
century for Canterbury against Otago at Christchurch twelve years
earlier by one minute. At the time Cairns's hundred was also the
joint second fastest ever outside England, behind Algie Gehrs in
Adelaide in 1912-13 (50 minutes) and equalling Learie
Constantine's for the West Indians against Tasmania at Launceston
in 1930-31. The boundaries on each side of the Hutt Recreation
Ground were on the short side but as one spectator pointed out:
"No difference. Most sixes were well in, or on, the stand on one
side or over the large scoreboard on the other."
Cairns was often promoted in the batting order when the situation
demanded, especially in one-day matches. When New Zealand,
needing only 104 to beat Australia in the Test at Auckland in
1982, were dithering at 44 for three, Geoff Howarth sent in
Cairns who hit enormous sixes off Bruce Yardley and Terry
Alderman and brought victory close at hand with 34 runs in 21
balls. And when England, at the end of their 1982-83 tour of
Australia, went to New Zealand for three one-day internationals,
Cairns was among the first four batsmen in all the games. He hit
Geoff Miller out of the ground twice at Christchurch and had
innings of 19, 44 and 21 in his country's 3-0 win. England saw
enough of Cairns that winter, for only a few weeks earlier in the
three-pronged World Series matches in Australia he had scored 36
in four overs batting number three at Melbourne and 49 in 35
minutes at Adelaide. And all with that funny-looking, round-
shouldered, hump-backed bat he had started using.
New Zealand lost 2-0 to Australia in the finals but Cairns had
one more glorious moment with six sixes in an innings of 52 at
Melbourne. A few months later he was in England for one of his
country's greatest triumphs, when they won the second Test at
Headingley to record their first win in England after fifty-two
years of trying. Earlier that month, July, Cairns had hit four
sixes and seven fours against Somerset at Taunton, his innings of
60 taking 29 balls. At Headingley, however, it was Cairns the
bowler who did the damage with his career best return of seven
for 74 in the first innings. But he could not resist putting the
cherry on the cake by hitting two sixes off Phil Edmonds as New
Zealand went on to win by five wickets.
Cairns played professional cricket in the North of England and in
a game for Bishop Auckland in 1981 he scored 174 against
Glostrup, a Danish National League touring team. His innings
lasted 64 balls, with 15 sixes and 16 fours, his century having
occupied 36 balls (38 minutes) and his 150, 52 balls (58
minutes).
Excerpt from The Big Hitters by Brian Bearshaw