Adrian Dale - be busy at the crease
New Zealand Veterans Cricket | May 29, 2023
Adrian Dale is the Captain of the New Zealand Over 50s cricket team.
Prior to moving to New Zealand in 2005 Adrian had a stellar first class cricket career playing for Glamorgan Cricket in the United Kingdon.
In 251 first class games from 1989 to 2004 Adrian scored 12,586 runs at an average of 33.29 and hit 23 centuries and 58 half centuries. His highest score was 214 not out.
With the ball Adrian took 217 wickets at 38.12 with best figures of 6 for 18.
Adrian played 314 one day games for Glamorgan scoring 6,606 runs including 2 centuries and 32 half centuries. He took 258 one day wickets at 31.70 with best figures of 6 for 22.
Adrian won the prestigious Glamorgan Cricket Player of the Year award in 2000 and 2001.
Let’s find out more about Adrian’s journey in the game.
Adrian Dale batting for New Zealand Over 50s cricket team
What year you were born?
1968. I was born in Germiston, Johannesburg.
My parents are Welsh but my father had an engineering contract in South Africa, which explains the oddity. I moved back to Wales at 6 months so didn’t pick up much of an accent.
Can you remember you first game of cricket?
At Chepstow Cricket Club, South Wales. I was 12 years old and it’s was an internal game against other boys at our club, which included my brother Gary. I don’t recall how I went but my mum, Mo, said she still smiles remembering how big my pads were – coming right up to my waist. The running between the wickets was comical.
Tell us briefly about your cricketing journey?
My father, John, was a club stalwart at Chepstow. He recently passed and the Chepstow scorebox is now called the John Dale Scorebox in his memory, which make our family unbelievably proud. So the start was watching him and playing around the boundary ropes with the other boys whose fathers played.
I only played one game at school (which they arranged specifically for me as they had heard they had a pretty good young player in the ranks) and so I played a few seasons of junior cricket at Chepstow before being moved quickly into the men’s second team and then to the 1sts. I had some great mentors, like Charles Toole, and it was a great learning ground for me. I still hold the joint record for the youngest centurion in the league, 15 years and ‘a number of days’ I can’t remember. When I say ‘joint’ it’s because I matched it, to the day, with a player called Steve James who I played a lot of 1st Class Cricket with and who eventually went on to open the batting for England in a few Test Matches.
From there I played for Welsh age group teams and was identified as a potential future Glamorgan player. Glamorgan supported me financially to go though university in Wales and join their Colts programme and when I finished, I went straight into 15 years of 1st class cricket for Glamorgan.
I was selected for England A to tour South Africa in 1993. It was the first official cricket tour to South Africa of any kind post-apartheid; which made the tour unbelievably memorable.
Adrian Dale batting for Glamorgan
What were your strengths as a player?
It took me longer than it should of to work out my game, but when some pennies dropped (a few are still falling) my ability to get off strike quickly as a batter; be busy at the crease and be able to contribute with bat, ball and in field (and I hope as a good teammate) gave me the longevity in the team.
You made your first-class debut for Glamorgan in 1989 at the age of 21. Can you share with us how you found out you’d been selected in the Glamorgan team and what do you remember about your debut?
I was told by Alan Butcher the recently appointed captain that I had made the team.
We were a shambles of a team at the time. Very unsuccessful and so Butcher decided to ‘blood’ some young players like myself for the future and it didn’t go down well with the old pros in the team at the time. I remember hardly anyone speaking to me.
The game itself was terrible. We were smashed. I walked in at 3 for 20 and didn’t last long and we were rolled for under a 100. I managed 44 second innings and I got my first wicket, a stumping, which is slightly embarrassing for a medium pacer!
The dream is not always a reality, so mixed feeling for sure! It got better!
12, 586 first class run including 23 centuries and 58 half centuries is quite an incredible career, how do you look back on your first class career?
I look back with great amount of pride. I loved the whole experience, good and bad.
Cricket is a game which teaches the ultimate life lessons and I feel I’m a better person for the whole experience.
Was there a particular bowler or scenario in a game in first class cricket where you thought, this is going to a challenge and a step above the norm?
Heaps. I felt like that weekly!
I could write a book on this but two I’d like to pick out now are;
In 2002 Surrey scored 438-5 against us (Glamorgan) in a list A one day 50 over game. How to you respond to that! Well, the way our team re-grouped unbelievably and took the game to Surrey to finish only 9 runs short. One hell of a game and testament to our mental strength at the time.
In my last game of 1st class cricket game I batted for virtually a session with 9 players around the bat to survive and secure a draw against Hampshire. The bowler, the great Shane Warne. I think the fact that I already knew my career had finished simply helped me relax and take on the challenge. Mike Kasprowicz, the Australian quick bowler, batted with me and we managed to hang on.
In 1993 you shared an unbeaten 4th wicket partnership of 425 with Viv Richards for Glamorgan against Middlesex. Can you share what it was like to not only play with Viv Richards but to share such a monumental partnership?
Viv was huge personality and a great competitor. We were a young team and his job was to show us how to win, which meant he wasn’t always ‘nice’ or ‘friendly’ but you didn’t dare give anything but your best. Overall, he was an amazing influence on us.
The partnership was amazing and I remember him being ’very firm’; about not giving my wicket away to a part time bowler. He also refused to take a picture for the media at the end of the game, so I only have a blurred picture of us walking off the field together – which is still cool.
Viv Richards
Who were the best three fast bowlers you have played against?
Alan Donald -pure speed through the air.
Courtney Walsh – He could bowl for whole sessions with aggression and hostility
Waqar – you knew the reverse swinging yorker was coming, but it still cleaned you up!
Alan Donald
Who were the best three spinners you have played against?
Shane Warne – we all know how good he was! But I also loved how he went out of his way to talk to opposition and spectators. For a rock star he also seemed very grounded to me.
Muttiah Muralitharan – took of spin to a new level
Phil Tufnall – he could turn it on glass (his own words)
Shane Warne
Who were the best 3 batsman you’ve played against?
Based purely from innings they played against us;
Andy Flower – had about 5 varieties of reverse sweeps!...and he used them all
Andrew Symonds – so much power. He hit me for a six so big that even my own teammates started laughing.
Mike Gatting – despite the ‘ball of century’, one of the best players of spin I’ve ever seen.
Andy Flower
Who played the best innings you’ve seen firsthand playing with or against?
In 1997, Glamorgan need to beat Somerset with maximum bonus points, in the last game of the season to win the County Championship.
Our captain Matthew Maynard scored an unbelievable hundred. It was controlled power hitting to the point that his 100 didn't contain one single. To pull out an innings of that destruction, under pressure, was remarkable and it set us up for the victory.
Matthew Maynard
Who was the best wicket keeper you’ve seen firsthand playing with or against?
Colin Metson. He was our Glamorgan keeper and widely regarded as the best keeper in UK by many. His lack of batting skills cost him higher honours but I recall an entire season of first-class cricket where I didn’t recall him dropping catch. A real craftsman.
Who was your childhood hero?
Ian Botham
What was your favourite ground to play at?
Cornwall Park, Auckland
Wanderers, Johannesburg
Lords.
What’s been your most memorable moment in cricket?
There’s a few outside of professional cricket.
Winning the British university championship with Swansea University and scoring 100 in the final v Durham.
Winning the Auckland Club championship with Cornwall CC in my first season as an overseas player.
I broke the record for most runs in a season in Auckland club cricket at the same time and I felt very proud to be a part of the history of such an amazing club.
New Zealand Over 50s team in Brisbane July 2022 after winning the Tri Series final against Australia. The Tri Series included New Zealand, Australia and Sri Lanka Over 50s cricket teams
What’s the best advice you’ve received?
You are never as good or bad as you think you are.
You’re now the captain of the New Zealand Over 50s cricket team. When and what promoted the move to NZ and what’s the best part of playing veterans cricket?
My wife Ruth is a Kiwi and when I got too old and slow to play cricket, we decided NZ was the place to bring up our three children Jess, Luke and Georgia. I’ve lived here for 17 years.
Veteran’s cricket is a new lease of cricketing life. Its competitive, within our peer group, but without the ‘bullshit’, if you know what I mean. I’m so thankful to people like Stirling Hammond and Jim Morrison who have made this possible.
Adrian Dale with South African cricket legend Barry Richards after Adrian won the man of the match award in a game at the 2020 Over 50s World Cup in South Africa
What advice would you offer anyone over 50 who might be thinking about playing cricket again?
Life’s not a dress rehearsal. Do it!
What’s your occupation?
I’m a Mortgage Broker for Trilogy Financial Solution in Auckland.
If there was one match up, a bowler and batsman going head to head at their peak, who would you choose?
Viv Richards (no helmet) v Malcolm Marshall
