SUMMER STUNNER: St John Tech winning the inaugural Coastal Challenge Cup was the warmest surprise of the summer.PHOTO/FILE
ONCE UPON a time, in a Whanganui cafe over a couple of lattes...
I don't know what it is, perhaps the excitment of the conspiratorial nature of such discussions, like a French resistance meeting.
But the only times since becoming your Wanganui Chronicle sports editor that I have been invited out to discuss stories with an offer from the interviewee to pick up the food and drink tab, has been over matters of cricket.
Back in January 2013, St Johns Tech's Simon Aitken and Jack Judd wanted to meet up with a bit of scoop on their new Premier 1 team concept.
By folding the Wanganui High School 1st IX back down to Premier 2 and borrowing their top players, while cherry picking a few of the somewhat unaffiliated young guns who had finished their school year at Collegiate or elsewhere on the local scene, Tech had a put together what was on paper the strongest group of Under 20s - seven of whom had already graduated to the Wanganui senior representative squad.
New Zealand Under 19 players Nick Blundell and Henry Collier were there, as were the Roebucks, the Locks and the Czerwonkas, along with a veteran like Bevan Hunter to keep them grounded.
Great, wonderful, something fresh.
Yet barely 10 days later I found myself sitting in yet another cafe, this time with Wanganui cricket chairman Stuart Gill and board member Danny Jonas picking up the tab, who with somewhat forced smiles explained that WHS must remain in Premier 1 and Tech would have to wait for at least another season before they debuted.
Simply wasn't done, dear boy, to have brand new teams crop up in the middle of the summer. Certainly the old guard of the United club made it known they weren't happy.
It seemed a wee bit of a power play had occurred within the new Council of Clubs, with WHS and Tech's Andrew Lock the key man, to get the side approved without the association's board being aware of it. Sneaky, sneaky.
Forgive me, I'm just having fun. Let's go back to the opening sentence because from those cloak-and-dagger days, a wonderful fairytale has occurred this week.
It would be unfair to have labelled Tech's place in Whanganui Premier 1 cricket as underachieving, but they did seem to slot in behind United and usually Marist in the pecking order.
Their successes were only begrudgingly acknowledged by the rest of the gang - Marton Saracens included - such as Tech's inaugural Premier 1 victory in November 2013, where it was pointed out Marist only had nine players.
Blundell and Collier came and went, as did import English bowler Paul O'Callaghan, gifted allrounders like Travis Bartels and Nick Harding were in-and-out, while the team did show a real progressive tact by helping future New Zealand A women's player Jessica Watkin develop within their ranks.
The amazing upset of United in the 2014 national 50-over knockout competition was dismissed as a one-off fluke, and there were more than a few grumblings when the actual 50-over championship final last March was a rematch of those teams.
Marist had a strong year and even arranged to fly their university-based players back for the match, but thanks to a superior run rate in a competition riddled with defaults, plus very different interpretations of the status of a previous match between the two, Tech got the nod instead.
Enter this season and the excitement of a new eight-team inter-district competition to really give a true litmus test to the depth of local club cricket when pitted against their Horowhenua Kapiti counterparts in the Coastal Challenge Cup.
Early on, it was looking like a disaster.
Tech, who captain Dominic Lock said had the goal of just making the inaugural semifinals, started with a win over what would be a disappointing Saracens, got their usual lashing from United, missed facing Weraroa thanks to the rain, and then were obliterated by Paraparaumu for 72 in another loss.
Elsewhere, it wasn't much better - United started to pick up momentum, but it appeared Whanganui would struggle to get any team in the top four, let alone at least two as hoped to make a solid statement for the local game.
But something was building amongst the boys in light blue.
The acquisition of Ross Kinnerley from Marist and the fulltime commitment of Harding gave Tech some sting with bat and most importantly, for at least the crucial opening 15 overs, with the ball.
Lock, after a winter season in England, still struggled at representative level, but took on full responsibility for crafting each innings for his club team and suddenly emerged as Coastal Challenge's most prolific batsman.
Watkin was bowling economically, Caleb Greene was giving a big effort, Devon Purvis was holding on to catches and slogging in the tail, all while Chris Friedel chirped away in the field - Tech were climbing and not through technicalities but genuine ability.
Come the last round robin weekend and it seemed United had to make the finals for any hope of a Whanganui team to grasp the Cup, with Tech the outsiders to finish fourth in a showing of respectability.
Instead, Tech wrecked Kapiti Old Boys on the way to an amazing three consecutive victories over the Horowhenua Kapiti squads to earn their first major trophy - in fact, a prize more prestigious than their three rival clubs have obtained in years, given the size and scope of this competition.
Lock played the game of his life in the semifinal against Weraroa, scoring 115 and then taking the last three wickets after having virtually no bowling time in two seasons.
Kinnerley and Harding destroyed the top order of Kapiti and then Levin Old Boys in the final, while Harding also went hunting the boundary rope as only he can with the willow.
It was perhaps the most unlikely of championship stories I have seen in the local game - Tech literally twice pulled the upset of the summer in consecutive matches.
Their success can no longer be begrudged, there is no asterisk point to suggest it was not deserved.
For United, Marist and Saracens, the reality of the new era has dawned, and Tech have the silverware to prove it.
Their named being etched first on the Cup is an honour that can never be taken away from them. Never over-ruled.
Right now, in Whanganui cricket. Tech leads, everyone else follows.