Family and former team-mates of the late Graham Newdick have been paying tributes to the former Wellington opening batsman, after his passing in England earlier this week, following a long illness. He was aged 71.
A proud Lower Hutt man, Newdick was the youngest of three brothers and sisters and from the time he attended Waiwhetu School, Hutt Intermediate and lastly Hutt Valley High Schools, he centered his attention on sport, particularly cricket and rugby.
An older brother Richard Newdick remembered ‘Gray’ as a contrasting man who had a sunny disposition at the same time as being very serious around his cricket.
“He was almost born with a cricket bat in his hand,” Richard recalled, “and later on he would drive me crazy by the constant sound of him hitting a ball, which was hung up inside a sock inside the garage.
“He also used to do the same sort of fielding practice on his own that Don Bradman did as a boy and I think this together with his constant batting in the garage, helped to remarkably get him a place inside the Hutt Valley High School first eleven when he was just a third former.”
For his first few years after leaving Hutt Valley High, Newdick joined the Eastern Cricket Club, where one of his senior team-mates was Wellington player, Wayne Greenstreet. In 1969 at the age of 20, he was selected in his first Wellington representative team when he played in Christchurch as part of the Rothman’s under-23 tournament. His debut at the University Oval in Ilam, resulted in him scoring 56 in a 115 run third wicket partnership with his soon to be long time Wellington team-mate, John Morrison. He also debuted for Hutt Valley during the same season and in his maiden match, scored 37 against Manawatu, before falling leg before to the Central Districts and New Zealand left arm spinner, Bryan Yuile.
Between late February and early June 1970, Newdick along with Morrison and other current or future first-class cricketers, Cran Bull, Rod Fulton, John Flaherty, Barry Hadlee, and Andy Roberts, went on a New Zealand Ambassadors tour which featured 37 games spread out over Chile, Argentina, Brazil, Peru, Grenada, St Vincent, St Lucia, Dominica, Antigua, Lisbon, Gibraltar, England, Bermuda, Washington DC, St Louis, California (including Hollywood), and Honolulu.
The 21-year-old Newdick showed his potential as the second highest run-scorer (behind Morrison) on aggregate with 898 runs at an average of 47.20 including centuries against Gibraltar and Purley in Surrey. His unbeaten 107 against Purley came during an unbeaten opening partnership of 190 with Barry Hadlee when the side successfully chased down Purley’s score.
A bowler who like to bowl ‘invisible’ spinners, Newdick also picked up 23 wickets on the trip at an average of 16.83, which was just behind Morrison’s bowling average of 16.22 from his 32 wickets.
After the tour, Newdick went to England for a year and played in Surrey, where he flatted with the future New Zealand captain Geoff Howarth. He returned to Wellington for the summer and made his first-class debut in December 1970, scoring 12 and 46 against Central Districts at the Basin Reserve, in a game the visitors won by a tense three runs.
His first representative season saw him score runs consistently at the top of the order and on his 22nd birthday, he scored his first century with 143 against Auckland at the Basin Reserve. He finished the highest Wellington run scorer at the end of the season with 404 runs at a fine average of 50.50. He was also selected that season for the New Zealand U23 side which played Manawatu and Taranaki following the Rothman’s tournament in Auckland, while also later scoring 102 for the Hutt Valley against Nelson.
After playing for Wellington in 1971-72, he was selected and played for the New Zealand B team, which played in several one-day games in Melbourne. One of his team-mates in the New Zealand side was a young Canterbury tearaway fast bowler, Richard Hadlee, who was also on debut.
The following season saw Newdick score his second century for Wellington with 101 against Canterbury in Christchurch, while his third representative triple figure score came during an unbeaten 112 in 236 minutes against Otago at the Basin Reserve in December 1975. By this stage he was now a member of the Hutt Club, having switched from Eastern before the start of the 1973-74 season.
It was around this time that a young left-handed opening batsman called Bruce Edgar was making his mark with big scores for Rongotai College and then the Kilbirnie senior side.
Edgar recalled the time and how Newdick’s tough approach to the game, helped him development further skills required for representative cricket.
“There was an occasion when I played for Wellington against the Hutt Valley and I can remember how Nuds was giving me a good work over while fielding at short leg.
“He kept chipping away at short leg and later on when I got to play for Wellington, he came up to me congratulated me on passing the test. What he gave me was a new found maturity and life experience that was to prove so necessary at the higher forms of the game.
“Nuds was not a self-centered opening batsman by any means and he and I shared some great opening partnerships as it did not take long to understand each other. Overall, he was a top bloke,” Edgar said.
One of Newdick’s best seasons came in the 1978-79 season when he scored 541 runs on aggregate, including a very patient 119 in 388 minutes against Central Districts at McLean Park in Napier. It was his fourth and last century for WellingtAfter playing a decade of first-class, Newdick quietly bowed out of representative cricket in 1980-81 with 4 and 23 against Otago at the Basin Reserve. Overall, he played in 61 matches and scored 3292 runs at an average of 30.48, while also picking up five wickets at 26.80 along with 20 catches. He continued to play for the Hutt Valley before standing down at the end of the 1983-84 season.
He also provided yeoman service for the Hutt club with five centuries between 1973-74 and 1983-84. He then went on and became both a selector and a coach for the club before later also coaching the Wellington College and St Pat’s Silverstream first elevens.
John Morrison remembered his old team-mate as one who was ‘very loyal and who never bucked anything’.
“He was in some ways a no thrills cricketer who played within his limitations, but at the same time never gave me as the team captain any problems as he just got on with the job at hand.”
Outside cricket, Newdick continued work as a carpenter and later worked for the Building and Construction Industry Training Organisation (BCITO) as a mentor to up and coming apprentices.
“He was fantastic around young people,” recalled Richard Newdick, “as he always wanted to see them succeed be it either with sport or as an apprentice, as he gone down that path himself when starting out his work life and knew where it could lead”.
A handy outside back who played rugby for the Eastbourne club before playing senior for Hutt Old Boys, Graham Newdick moved to England last year with his wife Debbie to be closer to his two sons, Ashley and Jay.
At the time of his passing he had been an Honorary cricket member of firstly the Wellington Cricket Association and then Cricket Wellington for more than 25 years.
Article added: Monday 31 August 2020
