KEY POINTS:
The great sporting memories are identified by a few seconds of magic _ Jack Lovelock's final sprint at Berlin in 1936, Yvette Williams soaring through the Helsinki air, Peter Jones storming to glory in 1956.
This month the heroes of the New Zealand cricket team who defeated England
at the Basin Reserve in 1978 will gather in Auckland and they will share again a special and sparkling memory.
The instant that changed a sad struggle into a triumphant charge to victory _ 3.53pm, February 14, 1978. G Boycott, b Collinge 1.
These comfortably middle-aged men will relive all the memories when they come together for a special fund-raising luncheon on August 22 _ hosted by the Westpac Halberg Trust.
They shared a great victory, sparked by that sumptuous rattle of Boycott the Barnacle's timber.
The test needed something special. For four days there was an icy sting in the Basin blast, whether coming from North or South. The pitch behaved more evilly with each passing anxious hour, denying the batsmen the comfort of easy runs.
To Mark Burgess, in his first test as captain, it was a tough dogged fight against the elements, faced by a team that regarded their opponents with a long-standing superiority complex.
England had the professional players, perhaps of varying standard, while we had some more-or-less professionals and the rest who also had to worry about working for a living. England was the last gem in the crown. We had won tests against all the other countries. We had gone close several times, especially in 1973, but had never finished them off.
The low-scoring test ebbed and flowed and almost stopped in its tracks while Boycott used up 442 first innings minutes to score 77.
His dismissal, incidentally, caused the entire English press corps (two superb men John Woodcock and Michael Melford) to stand on their seats, slap their notebooks together and proclaim joyously `he's out, he's out'.
New Zealand led by 13 runs on the first innings. By lunch on the fourth day New Zealand were building a winning position. By tea their castle had tumbled down, out for 123, England with four sessions to score 137 runs, as Boycott faced the fourth ball of Richard Collinge's first over.
Collinge huffed and puffed into the small gale, seemed to aim full at the off stump. At the last second the ball curved in, past the bat's inside edge, and into middle and leg stumps. "That was the great ball, I reckon it was the first doosra, slowish of pace and deceptively beating the inside of the bat," said Burgess.
That wicket turned the whole match, the crowd was cheering, our lads sparked up. The pitch was battered about and nasty _ one ball skidding low, the next flying past the nose, no helmets in those days. We knew that without Boycott the England batsmen could be in trouble facing Richard Hadlee down-wind and Collinge up-wind.
As sometimes happens every New Zealander was turned into a superman.
Collinge took wickets in his second and third overs. Richard Hadlee hit Brian Rose on the point of his elbow _ off to hospital.
Stephen Boock chased a ball from Bob Taylor to point, turned and threw from about 35 yards in one whirling action, and hit the single stump he could see for the run out.
Warren Lees and John Parker gathered in the edges, Hadlee tempted Ian Botham's hook and Boock soon caught the miscue.
Fifty-three for eight at stumps, 40 minutes drizzle delay on the fifth morning, two more wickets to Richard Hadlee, England out for 64, New Zealand the win by 72 runs.
The bubbly bottles came out, the England players were gracious losers, but the festivities were cut short. Bob Knowles, the New Zealand Cricket Council secretary and not one of the great spenders, realised the game would end on the fifth morning, so he cancelled the players' Wellington hotel booking and they were heading home by mid-afternoon.
Robert Anderson was the prudent one.
He had his car at the Basin, and needed some unopened bottles on board, purely for the sake of stability in the gale, you know. The heroes may be harder to shift from the Sky dining room on August 22.
