Cricket: Passion took HB stalwart all the way to Lord's

David Black was also involved with fundraising for building the RC McInnes Pavilion at Nelson Park, Napier. Photo/Duncan Brown

When Karamu High School opened its main gate on February 3, 1962, for the first time David Black created history in becoming the second pupil through - but little did he know his brush with cricket there would engineer change on the landscape of the country's No 1 summer sport in Hawke's Bay.

"My older brother and father never played cricket," says Black after Hawke's Bay Cricket Association bestowed life membership on him at its 135th annual meeting in Napier on September 14.

For the record, Noel Usherwood, beat him to the main gate because he used to live right next door to the school while Black lived "a mile away".

But the honour of an HBCA life membership had caught him totally on the hop.

"My life membership is something I never looked forward to and never expected so it came as a total surprise. I'm very chuffed about it," says the 68-year-old, hoping HBCA trucks along as it has been doing very well.

While HBCA had found itself in the doldrums for a while Black says it's picking up again and becoming more professional under chief executive Craig Findlay.

Black's flirtation with the sport began while listening to the radio as a boy, chuckling while soaking up witty repartee from famous Australian commentators.

That was enough to spur the third-former to pick beans in the summer holidays to buy himself a cricket bat for three pounds to play the inaugural KHS first XI game in a quest to help build a team.

They played a Hastings Intermediate side at Windsor Park across the road and the high school newbies thought turning up was going to be enough because they were the bigger boys.

KHS were 34 all out after Hastings Intermediate amassed 234 on the platform of Peter Bevan's century.

"That didn't go down too well," he says with a sparkle in his eyes as the same boys went through KHS for the next three years making incremental gains.

Black the adult, who joined the Hawke's Bay Junior Cricket Board in the summer of 1985-86, went on to serve on various HBCA and Central Districts Cricket Association committees and boards.

Another Bay stalwart and life member, Ray Mettrick, had selected Black's son, Angus, for a Hastings East rep team but phoned him to inform him there was a catch.

"You've got to coach the team. If you don't coach then he's not going to play," Black recalls Mettrick saying of his son who is a former Te Mata School pupil.

He took it on, including a talented cricketer, Danny Lee, who went on to become a Hawke's Bay Magpie and All Black.

Lee's father, Bill, was a great help in taking the team through to Hastings Boys' High School (with CD stalwart Scott Briasco) and age-group rep teams.

A building material salesman , Black went on to become a fulltime cricket administrator, thanks to friends at Cornwall club, before retiring as club director of cricket in 2015 after also serving as club chairman. He retired completely from club management this year.

"I really enjoyed my time and really made some good friends," says the Outward Bound Trust life member.

He traces his passion for administration to keeping the now defunct Hastings High School Old Boys' Rugby Club, where he also was a life member, up to scratch in his heyday.

When he stepped down from the rugby role in the early 1990s it created a vacuum which his son's cricket filled.

He was involved in helping build the majestic pavilion at Cornwall Park.

As a player, Black simply enjoyed the fellowship in summer.

"I was never good at it. I played in Bruce Giorji's team at the Old Boys' Hastings Cricket Club for a number of years, which was called Giorji's Army," recalls the grandfather who went on to become affectionately and respectfully known as "Blackie" to anyone who ever had anything to do with the sport in the region.

It was a social team with fun as the common denominator. Black's claim to fame was 37 runs one day against Napier Old Boys' Marist in Napier.

"I bowled a little bit of legspin but it was the camaraderie of the men that kept me going really."

As vice-president of HBCA it was common practice for Black to attend annual meetings but he didn't have a clue he was to be made a life member this month.

"Looking back there was indication that something was going on because a lot of Cornwall Cricket Club members were there," he says with a grin, mindful it has traditionally been hard to persuade people to attend meetings.

He had seen at the bottom of the agenda a life membership reference and fleetingly wondered who it might have been for before moving on.

"Harry Findlay advised the meeting but I certainly was stunned," he says of the HBCA president and fellow life member.

Black's initial reaction was people receive that sort of recognition at the end of their careers and "when you have one foot in the grave".

"That did cross my mind and I thought, 'Well, she's all over'," he says with a smile.

He says the coaching and administrative aspects struck a chord with him because when he was a youngster playing cricket and rugby there were countless fathers coaching, managing and performing associated duties.

"I always felt I needed to do that to even the books and put back into the game something that young guys can enjoy today so it's been a bit of a payback work that I've done for the different sporting organisations in Hawke's Bay."

Cricket, he says, attracts good people and he has thoroughly enjoyed working with them.

"I love the game and to see young guys start at low grades and come out on top as good men and better cricketers gave me enjoyment."

That included coaching and managing involvement with players who went on to the international stage, such as former White Fern Erin McDonald when he was CD Hinds coach (1998-2000) and Napier-born Peter McGlashan, a former white-ball Black Cap renowned for his wicketkeeping/batting skills as well as technological nous in redesigning helmets.

Black was instrumental in establishing an overseas gateway in exchanging talent to and from Cornwall club, after he and wife Morag sold their home in Havelock North in 2001 to go to England where he coached men, women and junior sides at Bath Cricket Club for eight fruitful summers.

"I learned a lot about running a club professionally and brought them back to Cornwall and even make some suggestions to Hawke's Bay Cricket, which was a highlight."

Another memorable moment was managing the Bath men's team to Lord's for the national clubs final in 2002.

"To be given the keys to Lord's for 48 hours with the proviso that I could take anyone through the old pavilion as long as women were dressed in a skirt and men in a blazer/tie was amazing.

"I could even take them into the Queen's Room, which I did," he says, recalling the thrill of watching the game from the balcony despite losing the game by four runs.

Interestingly the Cornwall pavilion, punctuating the No 1 ground, has been dubbed the Lord's, which he says the late Mike Shrimpton and former Black Caps wicketkeeper Ian Smith, of Havelock North, used to say is the best club pavilion in the country.

He also took the Somerset women's team to the national tournament for two years. Two Bath players from that time, bowler Anya Shrubsole and batsman Fran Wilson, are in the England women's team who won the one-day World Cup this year.

Three Cornwall players have represented Bath and four from the English club have reciprocated in what he sees a credit to their clubs and themselves.

It is there that he picked up the emphasis England placed on women and junior cricket and hopes Cornwall will uphold those values.

Black formed Cornwall club's first women's team in the summer of 1996-97, shortly before his daughters, Heather, Katie and Sarah, came through the playing ranks.

HBCA this year revealed it was establishing a defined rapport with high schools to arrest the slide in numbers in the code but it was something Black had envisioned and acted on more than a decade ago with predominantly Hastings schools and with limited resources.

"I'm sure Hawke's Bay cricket are doing a great job with juniors, both male and female."
Briasco, Mark Greatbatch and Shrimpton had a major influence on level two New Zealand coach Black as mentors while Graeme Startup and HBCA president Harry Findlay emulated that sway as managers.

Shrimpton, a former New Zealand batsman who was under-17 co-selector with Black, had taught the latter a few management tricks as well.

Winning fairly was always a Cornwall club motto and pedigree players often got them over the line but he recalls Napier Technical Old Boys were traditionally "super strong".

"We had our fair share of winning championships and we did our best with some very good people," says the Cornwall club life member, acknowledging the input of marquee players such as Jason Pawley, Paul Unwin, Richard Kinnear, Brad Patton, Taraia Robin, Carl Cachopa, Dean Askew and Kirk Wotherspoon.

On the flip side, his other personal milestone was welcoming the Danger Islanders team to the fourth grade and coaching them for three summers.

The islanders, who predominantly work in the Hastings meat processing industry, hail from the Danger Islands in the Cook Islands group.

"They came with the drums and danced at our prizegiving night at Cornwall at the end of last summer," he says of the team who always pay their subscriptions on time and add colour to the club with their effervescent personality.

"I've enjoyed my time at Cornwall but my time has come to an end to be involved and it's someone else's turn," he says, satisfied he's found some successors who are doing well but they need more people because it's evolved into a much bigger operation, which isn't cheap to run and is time-consuming.

BLACK TRACK

■ 1985-93: Hawke's Bay Junior Cricket Board (HBJCB) member and its chairman for two summers from in 1990-92.

■ 1993-94: HBJCB representative on the HBCA management committee and also elected member of the Central Districts Junior Cricket Association for several seasons, going on to become manager/selector of the CD U18-20 teams to attend the national tournament.

■ 1993-2005: Elected HBCA member taking on the responsibility of coaching convener to oversee the development of junior cricketers but withdrew from the HBCA at the end of that summer to become Cornwall Cricket Club.

■ 2003-06: Rejoined HBCA management committee.

■ 2006-07: HBCA board of directors formed and Black became HB senior men's representative team selection panel member.

■ 2005-2015: Director of cricket at Cornwall club.