Steve Waugh visits Norfolk Island Cricket Club

What a huge weekend for Norfolk Island and the Norfolk Island Cricket Club.

Former Australian cricket captain Steve Waugh made his way to Norfolk Island to take photos and video for his upcoming book “The Spirit of Cricket – Australia” as well as a small documentary. Steve has already been to many beautiful places around Australia taking photos of people playing cricket in front of many significant landmarks including Uluru. It was a pleasure to have Steve interested in the cricket history of Norfolk Island, with Kingston home to the oldest cricket field still played on in the southern hemisphere. Steve spent Sunday afternoon interviewing Teddy Evans about the history of the pitch which was first played on the 10^th October, 1838.

The discussion also included a hand carved cricket bat from Pitcairn Island which was used to play in a match against a visiting Norfolk Island pilgrimage in the 1980’s. We thank Jonno Snell for allowing us to showpiece this historic bat. Steve spent Monday morning taking photos of the iconic Kingston site with a number of people dressing up in traditional bounty attire and playing cricket on the field. A huge highlight of the weekend was a sportsman’s dinner held at Castaway with people able to mingle with the former Australian of the Year and treated to an in depth interview about his cricket career, his interests in writing books and photography as well as his humanitarian efforts particularly for children in India. We thank Steve for giving up his time including signing two handcrafted Norfolk Pine bats which were donated by Brentt Jones.

These bats had the Norfolk Island Cricket Club logo burnt into them and were auctioned off. A huge thank you to Jess Miller and Rob Frazer for their generosity and we hope they enjoy their personalised memorabilia. We thank Sarah, Tony, Jason and Erin of Castaway and Norfolk Island Brewing for their generosity in providing two rooms for Steve Waugh and his assistant photographer Scott Stramyk and the function area for the sportman’s dinner as well as whipping up some delicious Pizzas and Cheese Platters. Thanks to NIHH for donating a vehicle for Steve and Scott to use as well as Alex McGillycuddy and Glencar Luxury Villas for the lend of the red moke. Lastly thank you to all the people who bought tickets to the function, it certainly was a treat to hear from one of the most iconic cricketers of all time and a great person in general.