Glenn Turner Photo: Photosport
New Zealand cricket fans might take a while to get over the disappointment of the test loss to Australia in Christchurch this week.
But rewind the clock 50 years and, in the same city, different emotions took hold as New Zealand beat their trans-Tasman rivals in a test for the first time.
At a sun-drenched Lancaster Park, feisty New Zealand wicket keeper Ken Wadsworth - who would die just two years later of cancer - hit a four to seal a famous win, triggering raucous scenes.
At the other end, not out with his second century of the test, was New Zealand opener Glenn Turner.
His double of 101 and 110 not out was by far the highest aggregate in the match.
"Boring old me is just going to say that I'm not greatly into celebration. I'm more into doing," Turner, 76, told Checkpoint this week, looking back 50 years.
"At the end of it, when you're taking your pads off you're entitled to purr a little bit, but other than that, as the Dark Destroyer, Shaun Wallace, says on The Chase: 'Just another day at the office.'"
It meant much to the thousands who turned out on a glorious late-summer day to see New Zealand get over the line on Wednesday 13 March, 1974, successfully chasing down 228 runs to win in the final innings.
In a low-scoring match on a typical seaming New Zealand pitch, Turner - the master technician - batted more than 11 hours and faced more than 600 balls. Australia had a good attack, though they were minus star bowler Dennis Lillee.
"It was a struggle... The pitch was bowler friendly, which meant that you played and missed quite a bit in the first innings, which means you've got to have a bit of luck to not nick it," Turner said.
"In the second innings things levelled out a little bit, so that helped from my point of view to not play and miss so much, and we saw it through by five wickets. In that sense it became reasonably comfortable at the end."
Test wins against Australia are rare now. New Zealand have only had one in 31 years.
In 1974, just playing tests against Australia was something to savour. Until that summer the two countries had played just once, in Wellington in 1945/6, which ended in a shattering defeat inside two days for New Zealand.
John Parker opened the batting with Turner in the Christchurch win, scoring a patient double of 18 and 26, as the pair put on more than 50 for the first wicket in each innings.
"New Zealand really hadn't played Australia for a long time," Parker, 73, told Checkpoint. "Australia didn't deem New Zealand important enough to play tests against."
Earlier that summer New Zealand toured Australia, where they lost the series, but between two big innings defeats was a bright spot for Parker and the team. At the Sydney Cricket Ground, Parker scored a century as New Zealand seemed on course for a win.
"We could have and should have won the test in Sydney," he said. "When the last day was rained out Australia was wanting another 420, when the highest score in the test was [312] in the first innings that we scored.
"So when the Christchurch test came along we were - typically New Zealand, I hope - quiet but smilingly confident."
Turner said Australia showed New Zealand cricket a lack of respect.
"That was, I suppose for some, a motivating force. Certainly, on reflection, I think a bit more about things like that.
"We were playing against Australia B sides. That's all we warranted in their eyes, and yet we were playing test matches against all other countries."
Perhaps also motivating for Turner was the verbal barrage he received from Australian captain Ian Chappell on the final day.
When Turner tried to calm the situation after an umpire wrongly signalled a four as a six during New Zealand's march to victory, Chappell turned on the opening batsman after a few choice words at the match official.
"It was just unnecessary," Turner said. "They were losing at the time and he wasn't, obviously, taking it very well because, after all, he's going to have the reputation of being the first captain of an Australian side to lose to the offshore island called New Zealand.
"It wasn't something that he would have liked on his CV. He was ungracious in defeat, which was sad really."
Parker, who had also played with Turner at English county Worcestershire, said his opening partner was cool no matter the conditions or situation he faced.
"[Australia] tried to get into Glenn Turner's head, as they always tried, but he was a master of all of those sorts of things and batted incredibly well.
"It was a reflection of context and history, really. It was a new era."
Leading New Zealand into that era was a young - and fast - Richard Hadlee, who picked up seven wickets. He was well-supported with the ball by his brother Dayle, Richard Collinge and New Zealand captain Bevan Congdon.
New Zealand spinner Hedley Howarth bowled only 11 overs, and one of Australia's two spinners, Kerry O'Keeffe, didn't bowl at all in conditions favouring swing and seam.
Turner said he'd recently seen O'Keeffe, when commentating on television, joke that he would have got Turner out.
After his dismissal, Parker watched on as Turner led New Zealand to the win - and more joy for Christchurch, still basking in its hosting of the Commonwealth Games.
There was not much time for the cricketers to bask, however.
"In those days what happened was everybody flew out of Christchurch that night because they had work the next day, and that's how it was," Parker said.
"I remember beating England in Wellington for the first time and by 7.30pm everybody has gone back to their parts of New Zealand where they lived and were ready to go to work the next day."
The Christchurch test was the second in the 1973/4 home series. The first was drawn and Australia won the third test to level the series.
New Zealand beat Australia more regularly in the 1980s and early 1990s, but since a win at Eden Park in Auckland in 1993 have only won one test - at Hobart in 2011.
