Test matches between New Zealand and South Africa will be contested for the Tangiwai Shield as a tribute to a remarkable day’s cricket in the aftermath of a tragedy.
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Starting with the 2023/24 two-match series, New Zealand and South Africa will play Test matches for the Tangiwai Shield as a tribute to Boxing Day, 1953, when an unforgettable day’s cricket unfolded at Ellis Park in Johannesburg.
South Africa were 259-8 at stumps on day one. On the next day – Christmas, the rest day of the Test match – a train from Wellington to Auckland crossed Tangiwai. By the time the crew noticed that the bridge on the River Whangaehu had lost one of its piers, it was too late.
Driver Charles Parker and foreman Lance Redman managed to save some lives, but the locomotive, the tender, and five second-class carriages fell into the river. With a death toll of 151, the Tangiwai Disaster remains the worst rail accident in New Zealand history. Among the dead was Nerissa Love, fiancee of 21-year-old Bob Blair, who was playing for New Zealand.
When play resumed, the public announcement informed that Blair would not take field that day. He was in the hotel room with manager John Kerr. After South Africa were bowled out for 271, they unleashed young fast bowler Neil Adcock on a lively pitch.
Adcock hit Bert Sutcliffe on the side of the head. Sutcliffe fell, unconscious. Lawrie Miller coughed blood after being hit on the chest. John Beck was hit on the groin so hard that his box inverted on impact. And these were only the serious injuries.
New Zealand slipped to 57-5 with two men in the hospital and one in the hotel when Miller re-emerged. Sutcliffe reappeared as well, with his head heavily bandaged around a lump behind the left ear.
This is Tangiwai Shield – the new trophy for SA NZ in honour of Bob Blair's fiancée Nerissa Love passing away in the tragedy. And the day's cricket that followed, with Blair coming to the ground to avoid the follow on.
Truly one of cricket's great tales, lovely work by all… pic.twitter.com/LqrhRVH9dX
— Jarrod Kimber (@ajarrodkimber) February 3, 2024
Despite Sutcliffe’s brutal counterattack, New Zealand became 154 when the ninth wicket fell. The cricketers stopped on their way back, for Blair joined Sutcliffe, tears rolling down his cheeks. Kerr had arranged for a taxi.
Sutcliffe famously greeted him with the words “c’mon son, this is no place for you, let’s swing the bat at the ball and get out of here”.
Sutcliffe hit three sixes in the next over, bowled by the notoriously parsimonious Hugh Tayfield, and Blair one. At that point, the 25-run over was the most expensive in the history of Test cricket.
The pair added 33 in 10 minutes. Then they walked back, arms around each other. Blair’s six was his only scoring shot, while Sutcliffe made 80 with four fours and seven sixes.
South Africa won by 132 runs, but that was of little consequence. “It was a great and glorious victory, a story every New Zealand boy should learn at his mother’s knee,” wrote Dick Brittenden. Like many, he had no doubt over that day’s triumph.
The day’s cricket inspired a book by Norman Harris (Blair wrote the foreword), a play (Jonny Brugh did a solo act), and a movie (Tangiwai A Love Story, where New Zealand fast bowler Iain O’Brien played Adcock).
And now a shield.
