IIt has been 50 years, but New Zealand cricket great John Reid jokes he can finally rest easy.
The former national captain has been in Dunedin visiting his son, former New Zealand cricketer and Otago Rugby Football Union chief executive Richard Reid.
But earlier this year he was in England to catch up with old friends and follow the Black Caps on their tour of England.
He sat in on the three tests and was not impressed with what he saw from his countrymen.
"I'll tell you a little story and I'll try and keep it clean," he said, bursting into a mischievous laugh.
"I have had nightmares for 50 years that I captained the worst New Zealand cricket team to England in 1958. Now I can sleep peaceful."
He delivered the punchline with all the timing of one of his drives through the covers.
But there was a serious message.
It saddens him to see so many New Zealand batsmen getting out in the same way.
"They lack technique," he said.
"They say, 'Oh, JR, the game's changed'. Well, I say, you wear helmets and you get paid. That's the only way it has changed.
"You still need technique to play fast bowling and a lot of footwork to get into line and play the ball.
"These guys get out too often in the same way, time after time after time. You must have noticed that."
The all-rounder played 58 tests, scoring 3428 runs at an average of 33.28, including six centuries.
He took 85 wickets at 33.41 and, just to prove he could really do everything, he also made one stumping and grabbed 43 catches.
Remarkably, at one stage, Reid held the New Zealand records simultaneously for having the most runs, most wickets, most catches, most centuries and playing for and captaining New Zealand the most times.
Not bad huh? When New Zealand achieved its first test victory - against the West Indies in Auckland in 1956 - Reid top-scored with 84 to help set up the victory.
He was a punishing batsmen who attacked the bowling.
It was often left to him to hit his country out of trouble.
But despite his aggressive nature at the crease, Reid said it was important to have discipline in shot selection.
Something which he believes was lacking during the Black Caps tour of England.
One player who he thought adapted his game and reined in his natural tendencies was Ross Taylor.
"Ross Taylor looks good and, in the last couple of innings, he's learnt some discipline in his stroke play."
Surprisingly, Reid is not a fan of twenty/20 cricket - a game which would have seemed well-suited for his approach.
"I'd have been magnificent at twenty/20. They used to accuse me of playing one-day cricket at test level. And I'd be a millionaire today," he added.
"I'm not sour about that because it was not around in my day. There was no TV or sponsors and we had to live by the seat of our pants."
With Reid now sleeping easy these days, his biggest problem, he suggested, was trying to figure out how to get the saw he won in a charity golf tournament on the flight home to Taupo yesterday.
The 80-year-old, who shares the same birthday as Colin Meads (June 3), needs it to lop off some branches on the trees on his property.
Perhaps the Black Caps have some pruning to do as well.
