Coach Paul Unwin and his Hereworth first XI cricket team who have booked a berth as CD champions at the T20 national in Lincoln in November. Photo / Paul Taylor
Coach Paul Unwin and his Hereworth first XI cricket team who have booked a berth as CD champions at the T20 national in Lincoln in November. Photo / Paul Taylor
The seductive flame of talent that burns with a promise can be quite easy on the eye but take a closer look at the lamp and you'll find the twisted wick goes all the way down to the good oil.
That analogy rings true when putting into context the prowess of the Lindisfarne first XI cricket team who have qualified as the Central Districts' representatives at the National Secondary School Cricket Championship at Lincoln, near Christchurch, in December.
That reservoir of good oil comes in the mould of Hereworth School, a feeder intermediate to the Lindisfarne College in Hastings.
"I think it's a natural progression for a number of our parents and has been for a very long time to see the benefits we put into our boys," says Hereworth first XI coach Paul Unwin as his charges also head for Lincoln in November for a Twenty20 national tournament as the CD flag fliers after winning the Milo Cup last month.
Unwin says the sense of continuity for the Farne cricketers, who Colin Schaw, of Tikokino, mentored to the Gillette Cup finals last summer, is entrenched under the tutelage of Hereworth school of grafting at their picturesque grounds in Havelock North.
"When you put both teams together, I think, there are 20 boys who are at Hereworth or are Hereworth old boys so it's something that we're very proud of," says the 51-year-old Year 8 schoolteacher who also had an illustrious career as a first-class cricketer.
For the record, five years ago, before the inception of the Milo Cup, Hereworth had won the CD tourney in Palmerston North to book a berth at the nationals so the current first XI will progress to Lindisfarne amid a promise of accolades at high school nationals.
"They [Lindisfarne cricketers] were the first ones to congratulate our boys so, to me, that epitomises what our school develops within the boys and also how our boys see Lindisfarne first XI making the Gillette Cup finals and they want to do that so there's the natural progression," he says.
So what makes Hereworth such a robust breeding ground for talented cricketing proteges?
Unwin, who represented the Central Districts Stags (1986-87, 1989-90; 1992-93) and had a season with the then Canterbury Wizards (1993-94), believes it's to do with their ability to mentor the boys and train them three nights a week.
"The expectation that they've got to play a summer sport — and it's one of the three we offer — so there's less spread, I'd say of that," says, revealing softball and tennis are the other summer codes.
Nevertheless, it boils down to how much time Unwin and his stable are able to invest in the youngsters in coaching rather than just training sessions.
"That's right from the little tackers, you know, from the Year 5s and below who come through the school which is the strength."
Unwin says the school, who house 42 boarders, sets the bar high when it comes to achieving in just about any facet of development in helping pupils build a tensile-strength template.
"We've got the tradition of the school to really look after to make sure our boys value and understand those traditions of Hereworth.
"You know, our parents send their boys to Hereworth not just for the academic but that whole approach which I think is an important trait that comes out on the boys in the field as well as the classroom."
Lindisfarne cricketers Sam Cassidy (back left), Sam Moore, Bailey McDonald, Tom Klingender, Hunter Lowe, Fred Mowat, Max Devonshire and Lovepreet Padda with Hereworth counterparts. Photo / Supplied
Unwin reflects on a grandfather the other day who was immensely chuffed that his sons and grandsons had gone through the hallowed hallways of a school — that is a product of amalgamation from two cities — "to become positive members of society".
It is a merger of Heretaunga School — founded in Hastings in 1882 before it was relocated at its current site in 1913 — and Hurworth — founded in Whanganui in 1901 — in 1927.
"That encompasses everything — the spiritual, the sporting, the academic and the cultural."
It is impressed and reinforced on the schoolboys to conduct themselves in a manner that isn't befitting just the old boys but also society.
"You know, it's a pleasure to be associate with boys who are having that upbringing," Unwin says, emphasising the collective takes precedence in a code that masquerades as a team sport but where players live and die by their individual statistics.
"It's an individual game where you can't do well without your teammates supporting you so it's a funny game but a great one," he says.
Known as "Unners" in New Zealand cricketing circles, the former Hawke's Bay senior men's cricketer in 1989 took a five-wicket bag against the touring Australia team in a first-class county cricket match for Somerset.
The former Cornwall Cricket Club member's outstanding domestic performance in New Zealand was for the CD Stags against Otago in Palmerston North in 1988-89 when he took 10-152 in the first-class match.
After his cricket career ended, Unwin taught at an American Abu Dhabi school from 2005 but two years later moved to the English Modern School for Years 7 to 12 students in Doha, the capital city of Qatar on the coast of the Persian Gulf, before returning to Hastings two years ago to be with his mother, Diane.
His father, the late Reg Unwin, used to run the Cornwall park clubrooms and was "a walking encyclopaedia" on everything cricket.
