Facebook 'rant' leads to Taieri cricket reunion

Michael MacKenzie.
Michael MacKenzie.
It is never too soon to celebrate the recent past.

Fourteen of the 18 cricketers who helped Taieri win the Bing Harris trophy in 2002-03 will gather for a reunion at the clubrooms at Brooklands Park on August 15.

The club has won seven senior banners.

Its first title came in the summer of 1977-78.

It waited 10 years to hold the trophy aloft again and the most productive time in the club's history was shortly after the turn of the century when it won three titles in five years.

The 2002-03 team got the ball rolling and the players have remained a tight unit despite being widely dispersed.

People are coming from as far afield as London and Melbourne for the reunion.

The 2002-03 squad featured former Otago representatives Michael MacKenzie, Nathan Morland, Marcel McKenzie and Shaun Haig, as well as former Black Cap Peter McGlashan.

MacKenzie, who coached Taieri last year and is a sports co-ordinator at Kavanagh College, is looking forward to the occasion.

''There were some good players in the team back in those days,'' he said.

''The reunion sort of came about because I had a rant on Facebook about how the commitment is not there anymore.

''That went on the Taieri cricket page and went viral. That conversation went to all the friends of the page and then, all of a sudden, this reunion has happened.''

The celebrations will begin with a round of golf, with everybody then returning to the clubrooms to watch the Bledisloe Cup fixture between the All Blacks and the Wallabies.

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