New Zealand: Comrades reunite (7 December 1998)

7 December 1998

New Zealand: Comrades reunite

The Christchurch Press

Forty-nine years on, Bert Sutcliffe still refers to Walter Hadlee as "captain", and both retain vivid and happy memories of the 1949 New Zealand cricket tour of England.

Sutcliffe travelled from Auckland in company with fellow 49ers John Hayes and Geoff Rabone, and Martin Donnelly came from Sydney to honour their former captain during a weekend reunion in Christchurch. A highlight was the commissioning of the Walter Hadlee Entrance to The Willows Cricket Club ground near Loburn yesterday, in recognition of Hadlee's six decades of service to cricket in Canterbury.

"It's just force of habit," said Sutcliffe of his deference to his former skipper. "It was my first tour, my first big experience, and I was pretty reliant on the wisdom and guidance of those who had been there and done that."

Merv Wallace and Frank Mooney could not travel to Christchurch, and John Reid -- the "baby" of the 1949 team -- is referee of the Ashes series in Australia. But Hadlee said all eight survivors planned to meet for an official 50th anniversary reunion at Wellington in mid-March.

"We were all for one another, and that was the basis of our success," said Hadlee of a team which drew all four tests with England and lost only one of its 32 matches.

Source :: The Christchurch Press (https://www.press.co.nz/)