At the New Zealand Cricket Museum

Whenever there's a Test Match played in Wellington I arrange for a few days off work to go and see it. Sometimes on these occasions I visit the New Zealand Cricket Museum. I was delighted when curator David Mealing agreed to host the book launch for my cricket poetry anthology, A Tingling Catch: A Century of New Zealand Cricket Poems 1864-2009. It will be launched in October 2010.
The New Zealand Cricket Museum is a very inspiring place for cricket fans and supporters. At a Test Match between New Zealand and India in 2009, I wrote the following poem there after watching a video of New Zealand cricket great Bevan Congdon playing. Then, amazingly, he turned up afterwards in the flesh to visit the museum as I was leaving. Bevan was excellent as a Test captain in the 1970s:

MARK PIRIE

At the New Zealand Cricket Museum

i

Watching a video of Bevan Congdon;

Then stepping outside I actually see him.

ii

Older in suit and tie, he isn’t batting.

But what chance this my sole meeting.

iii

Against India he’d looked in command.

Powerful strokes, best when he captained.

iv

Oh age is what breaks a cricketer,

Now playing days are for the younger.

NZ v. India, Test Match, Basin Reserve, 2009

(from ESAW Christmas Surprise, Paekakariki, 2010 forthcoming)

© Mark Pirie, 2010