Club man Steve Batchelor still bowling them over
BY GLENN MCLEAN
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Hawera United medium pace bowler Steve Batchelor has been playing premier club cricket longer than some of his team-mates have been alive.
Batchelor, 45, was first called into the attack for Hawera Old Boys in a premier match when he was 19.
While it's common for bowlers to cut their run-ups as father time catches up with them, Batchelor, it appears, has been coming in left-arm over from the same marker for as long as most people can remember.
The same leant-back action hasn't altered much either, although the tea pot stance in the middle of the pitch after some deliveries appears more frequently.
It did so on Saturday, anyway, when Batchelor was asked to take the new ball against New Plymouth Old Boys.
His 2-25, off 10 overs, helped reduce Old Boys to 21-4 before it recovered to take a commanding position in the two-day game.
So what has kept Batchelor in the game for so long, especially in an era when it has become more fashionable for players to drop down a few grades and play social cricket by the time they turn 30?
"I just like to be competitive, without going over the top, and I obviously still enjoy it," he said.
That enjoyment has be tempered a little, however, by the way player attitudes have changed.
"I can't get over the precious attitude of some of the guys. A lot of guys think they have the right to be there.
"In the last 10 years you see guys who, if they don't get picked, they just don't play.
"It's either they play in the top team or not at all for them, instead of [them] biting the bullet and going down [a grade] and helping their club out."
Batchelor has never been shy of helping his club out. Since being involved in the merger of Hawera and Hawera Old Boys in 1985, Batchelor has been a permanent member of the merged club's committee.
On the field, he estimates he has snared between 700 and 900 wickets, including five performances that have earned his name etched on the Hawera United honours board – his best being 8-63 against Inglewood in 1990. His best match figures came two years ago against Stratford when he took 14-63 over a weekend.
And retirement? "No, I'll keep playing for as long as I can, pretty much."
- © Fairfax NZ News
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