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Speaker 1: You're listening to the Weekend Sport podcast with Jason Vine

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Speaker 1: from Newstalk ZB.

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Speaker 2: But another New Zealand cricket site is heading off to

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Speaker 2: a World Cup shortly. The New Zealand over seventies Cricket

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Speaker 2: team will participate at the over seventy World Cup in

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Speaker 2: England next month. Veterans Cricket has experienced substantial growth not

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Speaker 2: only here in New Zealand but around the world on

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Speaker 2: the last decade or so. Jeremy Wilson is chairman of

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Speaker 2: New Zealand Veterans Cricket. He joins us now, Jeremy, how

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Speaker 2: long has New Zealand Veterans Cricket existed as an organization here?

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Speaker 3: We started, Jason eight years ago with a group in

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Speaker 3: Wellington who got four over sixty teams together and since

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Speaker 3: then the growth of Veterans Cricket has been extraordinary, not

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Speaker 3: just in New Zealand but all around the world. And

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Speaker 3: today we have a New Zealand forties, fifties, fifty five,

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Speaker 3: sixties and seventies teams that compete in provincial tournaments at forties, fifty,

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Speaker 3: sixteen seventies level. We have World Cups with participation of

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Speaker 3: up to twelve countries in those tournaments.

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Speaker 2: Absolutely brilliant. So when you first got together eight years ago,

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Speaker 2: could you have imagined the explosion and popularity of cricket

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Speaker 2: of this type.

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Speaker 3: No, we had no idea. But what it does reflect, Jason,

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Speaker 3: is that my dad went to the Second World War

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Speaker 3: smoke cigarette and by the time he was sixty he

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Speaker 3: was shot a bit. But nowadays people are looking after themselves.

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Speaker 3: They're going to the gym, still viable to place, brought

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Speaker 3: into a rife old age, and that's what we're seeing

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Speaker 3: in this and plus participation is everything, and the guys

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Speaker 3: just loved still being involved in cricket, the camaraderie as

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Speaker 3: well as the sport.

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Speaker 2: Is it mainly players who have played cricket in their

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Speaker 2: younger days and just want to carry on their passion

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Speaker 2: for the game, or are you finding new players to

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Speaker 2: the game at this age group.

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Speaker 3: Surprisingly, yeah, we are finding guys who've never played cricket

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Speaker 3: and suddenly in their fifties they decided they want to

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Speaker 3: take it up as an example, and you know, their

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Speaker 3: skill is not the same as someone who's played it

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Speaker 3: since a very early age. But look, we just welcome

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Speaker 3: everyone and it's been an absolute blast. And just a

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Speaker 3: really good bunch of blokes who play it in the

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Speaker 3: right spirit.

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Speaker 2: Competitive though, Jeremy, I would imagine that there would still

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Speaker 2: be the spirit of competition and the competitive juices running

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Speaker 2: through some of the players.

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Speaker 3: Jason, you have no idea. We're out there to win.

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Speaker 2: Ha I love it. I love it, and I often

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Speaker 2: say that that the you know, the mind is willing,

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Speaker 2: but the body isn't necessarily I mean, are you still finding,

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Speaker 2: you know, relatively fast bowlers in the in the veterans landscape.

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Speaker 3: We've got a guy in over sixty Dean asked you

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Speaker 3: who played first class cricket. Deans about six foot four

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Speaker 3: six took five and he is seriously And then when

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Speaker 3: you get to the say the forties, with the Marshall

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Speaker 3: boys playing and some of those other ex internationals, you

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Speaker 3: know that they are very slippery and but we're all keen.

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Speaker 3: As Mustard, I saw a game with the Australian over

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Speaker 3: seventies team a couple of years ago and thought these

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Speaker 3: old blokes won't be much. They were diving in the aptfield,

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Speaker 3: firing the ball and they are very competitive and highly skilled.

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Speaker 3: And if you saw the size of the competition in

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Speaker 3: Australia and England and over age cricket. There's full county championship,

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Speaker 3: state championships and so on. It's extraordinary. But they yeah,

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Speaker 3: Theyarren good Nick and they still compete fiercely.

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Speaker 2: Tell us about the New Zealand team heading to the

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Speaker 2: seventies World Cup in in England next month.

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Speaker 3: Well, we've got a collection of guys that a couple

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Speaker 3: of X first class cricketers. Paul F. Curry played for Otager,

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Speaker 3: John Cushion played for Otaga in Auckland. John Cushion is

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Speaker 3: the man that got Jeffrey Boycott out once at Eden Park,

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Speaker 3: so he's very proud of that. But mainly they're just

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Speaker 3: a group of guys that have kept playing as keen

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Speaker 3: as mustard. We've got a training weekend coming up this

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Speaker 3: weekend in christ Church. He's a Richard Hadley Center and

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Speaker 3: from all around the country and they'll be going off

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Speaker 3: to England to play several games around the Windsor area.

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Speaker 3: The headquarters for the competition is at Warmsley, which is

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Speaker 3: Sir John Paul Getty's private cricket ground. It was on

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Speaker 3: on TV last night in an English program which which

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Speaker 3: had a setting of a cricket game and then our

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Speaker 3: opening function is at Eton, so it's going to be

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Speaker 3: a fantastic experience to go over there and play against

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Speaker 3: all these other countries in those sorts of settings.

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Speaker 2: You mentioned other countries who are you know, who are

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Speaker 2: involved and you talked about England and Australia. What about

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Speaker 2: the likes of India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Jeremy they have

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Speaker 2: Do they have veteran setups?

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Speaker 3: Yes, they certainly do. Pakistan won the first over sixties

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Speaker 3: World Cup. We got runner up that in the sixties,

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Speaker 3: that host of the forties World Cup tournament. South Africa

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Speaker 3: are very strong and Barbwe, USA and Canada are both strong.

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Speaker 3: They're very much made up of players or people from

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Speaker 3: x from the Asian subcontinent. So yeah, Wales. Yeah, it's

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Speaker 3: a full representation of all the cricket nations.

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Speaker 2: And you talked about some of the grounds that you

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Speaker 2: play on there. I'd imagine that be that'd be just

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Speaker 2: just sort of picture perfect grounds, wouldn't they. I can

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Speaker 2: imagine you're playing on you know, with picket fences and

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Speaker 2: and and delicious lunches, that sort of thing.

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Speaker 3: They kill you with kindness, the sponge cakes, they give

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Speaker 3: you a afternoon tea and ensure that you can't run

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Speaker 3: a three after after afternoon tea. And look the village

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Speaker 3: ground steppings are just fabulous. I think there's the county

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Speaker 3: competition over there is extraordinarily strong and and teams from

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Speaker 3: Wales and Scotland participate as well, and and they just

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Speaker 3: love their cricket in England.

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Speaker 2: Absolutely brilliant, Jeremy, it sounds magnificent. So, I mean, I

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Speaker 2: know we're in the middle of winter now in New Zealand,

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Speaker 2: but I'm sure this has piqued the interest of those

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Speaker 2: over the age of forty who are quite keen on

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Speaker 2: continuing their cricket journey. Do you have a website or

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Speaker 2: a way of getting in touch.

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Speaker 3: We've just been in the process of doing a new

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Speaker 3: website for Veterans Cricket because we've outgrown now existing one.

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Speaker 3: But New Zealand Cricket through their community contact page, have

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Speaker 3: got all the details of the coordinators in different areas

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Speaker 3: and we have provincial tournaments as well as the National

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Speaker 3: Games and we go over and play against the Australian States.

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Speaker 3: So there's a lot of cricket and we've got several

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Speaker 3: teams touring here next year from overseas and it just

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Speaker 3: continues to expand and grow. Our biggest issue is accessing

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Speaker 3: all the resources we need in the grounds and the facilities.

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Speaker 2: Well, from a fourteen tournament in Potny eight years ago

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Speaker 2: to where you are now, Jeremy, off to a World

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Speaker 2: Cup next year and lots of involvement for cricketers who

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Speaker 2: want to keep the flame burning. Thank you so much

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Speaker 2: for joining us on News Talk SeeDB this afternoon, and

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Speaker 2: all the best in England next month.

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Speaker 3: Thanks Jason, Thanks Jeremy.

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Speaker 2: Jeremy Wilson, Chairman of New Zealand Veterans Cricket.

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Speaker 1: For more from Weekend Sport with Jason Fine. Listen live

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