Cricket star's ashes disappear

Cricket legend Bert Sutcliffe. Photo / Otago Daily Times

When cricket legend Bert Sutcliffe was alive and digging in at Carisbrook, he was almost impossible to get out. It seems the same is true in death.

The great New Zealand and Otago batsman died in April 2001, aged 77.

Some of his ashes were scattered at the Carisbrook ground in Dunedin, and the rest were buried there in a private ceremony.

It was a fitting resting place for one of Otago's most revered sportsmen.

But Carisbrook is being replaced by a new stadium, and its future is uncertain.

So the Otago Cricket Association asked the Sutcliffe family if it could move the ashes to its new headquarters, at the University Oval.

The family agreed, and Otago Cricket had a plaque installed and planned a ceremony to mark the occasion today.

But one thing is missing - Bert Sutcliffe's ashes.

"Dad's ashes are proving as elusive as bowlers found taking his wicket," son Gary said yesterday.

Otago Cricket has not been able to find the ashes.

The association has poked probes into the turf and even borrowed a sonar device from the University of Otago to seek the buried urn.

Yesterday, a contractor searched the ground with a metal detector.

"Nobody recorded precisely where they were when they were interred," Otago Cricket chief executive Ross Dykes said.

"We've spoken to all the people who were at the ceremony, but we haven't been able to find the ashes."

No one, it seems, remembers exactly where the urn was buried.

The groundsman at the time, Mark Perham, believes the ashes are on the terrace side of the ground.

Retired broadcaster Iain Gallaway, who was at the service, thinks the spot is closer to the halfway line.

So it is a large area to search, and the nine years that have passed have not made the task any easier.

But Gary Sutcliffe says the family are relaxed about the situation.

"Maybe there is a message here. Dad's wishes were that he would love to have his ashes scattered at Carisbrook.

"Carisbrook was his home ... Even though he played quite a bit of cricket in Auckland and Hamilton after we left Dunedin, it was always Carisbrook."

Ross Dykes agreed.

"We are adopting the attitude that this is just Bert's way of saying he is quite happy where he is."

- OTAGO DAILY TIMES