A cricket-playing Queenstown insurance broker’s off to Australia on Friday for his second stint playing for an over-60s’ New Zealand side.
Paddy Bartlett, who turns 61 next month, will be in the third of four NZ sides playing against Aussie state sides in Perth over a week-long 40-over tournament.
He played for NZ’s top over-60s’ side in the same tournament in Geelong, Victoria, a year ago, but has dropped down a couple of teams this
year.
Invercargill-raised Bartlett played under-age cricket for Southland, then for the Wellington under-22s and for Taranaki and Northland Hawke Cup teams as his job took him around the country.
An opening batter who nowadays plays for Otago’s over-60s’ side, he says he bats a lot more aggressively than he used to.
‘‘There’s more opportunities to score runs ’cos the fielding’s nowhere as strong as it used to be, and there’s no really quick bowling.’’
Bartlett says over-60s’ cricket’s the fast-growing age group in Australia.
‘‘It’s still competitive, but there’s none of the baiting or any of the verbals any more.’’
He notes, contrary to what many might think, cricket at that level is still quite physically demanding — ‘‘it’s stop-start, you bend over, the grounds are a lot harder than they used to be’’.
It helps, he adds, that he’s still ‘‘reasonably agile’’.
He warmed up for the tournament with a couple of games in Timaru last weekend.
His ultimate goal is to make an over-60s’ world cup tournament.
