Collegiate Cardinals Reunion
February 25, 2009
New Zealand
By GRAHAM LATTA
FORTY years on, one of the most memorable days in Southland sporting history
will be marked by a reunion of members of the champion Collegiate Cardinals
men's softball team in Invercargill next week.
On March 1, 1969 Collegiate achieved what no other Southland, or indeed
South Island, club team had ever done by winning the John Lennon national
interclub championship with a sensational 4-3 win over defending champion
Miramar (Wellington) in the last game of the tournament at Surrey Park.
Led by top international pitcher Kevin Herlihy and with a team stacked with
national representatives, Miramar was an odds-on favourite to retain the
title it had won in Lower Hutt the year before and was endeavouring to win
the trophy for the sixth time.
Miramar could call on the services of New Zealand captain Dave McKerchar at
short stop, legendary catcher Peter Priddey and other current internationals
in first base John Lowes and outfielder Dennis Cheyne in a well-rounded team
which had been unbeaten in the competitive Wellington-Hutt Valley scene that
season.
Also present was Railways, from Hutt Valley, the team which had won the
title six times since 1960 and which contained players of the calibre of
Bill Massey, Terry Nunns, Dave Sorenson and double internationals in later
All Black captain Andy Leslie and Robin Strong, a rugby league
representative in the Kiwis.
Collegiate's best-known players were pitcher Garth Tattersfield, who had
been in the first world championship New Zealand team in 1966, long-time
Southland catcher John Purdue, well-established outfielder Garry Pankhurst,
and experienced second baseman Bill Somerville, but most of the rest of the
team had also fashioned great playing records coming up through the junior
representative ranks.
Collegiate had in fact given notice the previous season that it would be a
competitive unit on its home patch by finishing in third place behind
Miramar and Railways when the tournament was played in Lower Hutt, matching
top Auckland team Ramblers and ahead of Auckland Marist and Canterbury's
Papanui.
After an exhaustive series of eliminations around the country, five teams
lined up on Friday, February 28 for the 1969 finals after second Auckland
team Cornwall belatedly withdrew, leaving Collegiate to take on new Auckland
champion Eden Roskill, along with Papanui, Miramar and Railways.
In a rain-ruined day Collegiate opened its campaign with a a comfortable 5-1
win over Papanui and then set about scoring the most significant win ever
achieved by a Southland club team when it hammered Railways 6-1.
Tattersfield was described as giving a virtuoso display of wet-weather
pitching and home runs by Gordon O'Callaghan and Somerville forced Massey to
give way on the Hutt Valley side's pitching mound as Collegiate took
control, and replacement Warwick Stead fared little better at the hands of
Purdue, Pankhurst and youngster Roger Keith.
Saturday dawned fine and sunny and the home team carried on where it had
left off with a stunning batting display against Eden Roskill. Power batting
by Graeme Stevens, Purdue, Pankhurst and O'Callaghan and nine Tattersfield
strikeouts gave Collegiate a 5-1 win with just the game against Miramar
remaining.
Miramar was also unbeaten after disposing of Papanui 1-0 and Eden Roskill
3-0 on the Friday, but had had to come from behind in its first Saturday
match to down Railways 5-2 to go in on level terms against Collegiate.
A huge crowd turned up to see history in the making, but after six and a
half completed innings it seemed Miramar was well on the way to its
predicted victory with a 3-0 scoreline in its favour.
Right fielder Cheyne led off with a home run in the first for Miramar and
after Lowes had crossed on an error in the third, Cheyne repeated the dose
in the fourth and another John Lennon Trophy looked in the bag for the
Wellington champions.
But in the fightback of all fightbacks in the last inning, Purdue, Pankhurst
and Alun Pennicott smashed hits into the outfield to score one run and have
two runners safe on base with none out. O'Callaghan forced an error and the
score became 3-2 and Keith's bunt and a subsequent error was sufficient for
Pennicott to level the scores and O'Callaghan to cross for the winner.
The feat, which stunned the New Zealand softball world and still ranks as
one of the greatest achievements of any Southland sports team, will be
remembered at a gathering of remaining team members next Sunday, the actual
date of the final.
Sadly, one of the inspirational players, catcher Purdue, died suddenly last
year and O'Callaghan died earlier this month after a long illness. However,
all the other players will be there, as will coach Brian ("Curly") O'Byrne
who these days lives in Australia.
The opportunity is also being taken on the Saturday evening, February 28,
for all softballers of particularly the 60s and 70s eras and earlier to get
together informally at the Invercargill Workingmen's Club to relive one of
the greatest periods of Southland softball.
