Richard Chilton with a copy of a book, about the history of New Zealand women's cricket, started by his late wife Adrienne Simpson, and completed by Trevor Auger. Photo / David Haxton
Richard Chilton with a copy of a book, about the history of New Zealand women's cricket, started by his late wife Adrienne Simpson, and completed by Trevor Auger. Photo / David Haxton
We know a lot about the history of men's cricket in New Zealand. But what about the women's game? Not much. Until now.
A new authoritative and entertaining book looks back through over 150 years of New Zealand women's cricket from its earliest humble beginnings to its glory days on the international stage.
The games, the players, the challenges and obstacles, no stone is left unturned in "The Warm Sun on My Face", authored by Trevor Auger and the late Adrienne Simpson.
The book's origins started in the late 1990s when Adrienne, a passionate cricket follower, started research and collected a large quantity of material to write about.
"She did a meticulous amount of research and had lots of files and photographs going right back to the early days," husband Richard Chilton said.
Adrienne had hoped to release the book in conjunction with the 2000-2001 Women's Cricket World Cup, hosted in New Zealand, but the scale of the project forced her to change her plans.
"She had structured the book and written about two-thirds of it, and the other parts were sort of cut and paste how she wanted to do it, but then she got cancer and started to become unwell."
Adrienne passed away on December 4, 2010, aged 67, before she could finish the book.
In early 2011 Richard, from Paraparaumu, gave the manuscript and research material to the New Zealand Cricket Museum, at the Basin Reserve, Wellington, for storage in their archives.
"I bundled everything into four big archive boxes, which included a lot of audio tapes as she had been interviewing older women cricketers, and took them to the museum.
"The boxes contained a load of material.
"They were put in the archives and I thought nothing more of it."
By 2013 Jamie Bell had become the museum's director, and with an interest in cricket history, recognised the treasure trove in the four boxes, which led to a team being assembled to turn Adrienne's book project into reality.
In 2017 Trevor Auger, who has been involved with cricket almost all his life, was tasked with the job of completing the book, which he has done commendably well.
A new book about the history of New Zealand women's cricket. Photo / David Haxton
"It was an easy invitation to accept, all the more so when I saw the wealth of material Adrienne had collated," he said in the book's introduction.
"Her four cartons have now grown to seven, but this book could not have been written without Adrienne's hard work or the ceaseless inspiration that her efforts have provided me.
"I am proud to share authorship of this book with her and I am sorry that we never met."
Richard, who knew of plans to finish the book, found out on December 4 last year, 10 years to the day after his wife's death, that the book, strongly supported by New Zealand Cricket and the New Zealand Cricket Players Association as well as many others, had been published.
