Bruce Richard Taylor, b 12 July, 1943, Timaru, d 6 February, 2021, Wellington. Canterbury 1964/70, Wellington 1970/80. New Zealand 1965-73. Tests 30, innings 50, runs 898 at 20.41, two centuries, highest score 124 v West Indies 1969, 111 wickets at 26.60, best bowling 7-74 v West Indies 1972. First-class 141 games, 4579 runs at 24.75, highest score 273 for Wellington v Otago 1972-73, 422 wickets at 25.13, best bowling 7-74. Two ODIs for 22 runs and four wickets v England 1973.
Modern cricket fans, unfamiliar with the days when New Zealand struggled for consistent exposure to Test cricket may wonder why so much is made of players of the past. But the recent loss of the two John Reids, and now Bruce Taylor, have highlighted the foundation those teams of the 1950s-70s laid for the teams of modern times.
Taylor was a classic example of a player who struggled to make the best of his skills, simply because of the lack of top cricket. Yet, he always had the ability to make fans sit up and take notice. He also enjoyed more luck than most.
One of Taylor's most enduring feats, his century and five wickets in an innings on debut – the first by any Test player in the world, might never have happened.
It occurred in the second Test against India, at Madras, in 1965 and resulted from the withdrawal of Barry Sinclair, due to illness, an hour before play started.
Captain John Reid described his debut as 'magnificent'.
It fitted the bill perfectly for the nickname he was given 'Haystacks'. That was based on the notion that such was his cricketing luck, it was almost certain that if he fell from an aeroplane, he would land in one.
Having played his maiden first-class game for New Zealand Under-23 in 1964, he made his first-class debut for Canterbury a year later. He was a late starter in his Canterbury debut when Dick Motz withdrew due to an injury. Taylor took his chance and scored 49 in his first innings.
Similarly, his inclusion in the 1965 tour of India, Pakistan and England, occurred only because fast bowler Gary Bartlett was not selected, for reasons that still arouse scepticism.
His century on Test debut was only the second time a New Zealander had achieved the feat. Jack Mills scored his in the second Test against England in 1929-30.
The tour correspondent for NZPA in 1965, Dick Brittenden, said that momentous start to his Test career, which was followed by another five-wicket bag in his second Test, set a precedent that was hard to follow on the remainder of the tour. In an international career lasting until 1973, he only achieved two other five-wicket bags.
"On the field, he could not be expected to keep going at the dizzy pace of the beginning. He had his failures, his frustrations, a full share of dropped catches off his bowling. His bowling looked likely to yield results. Although there were some erratic spells, his touch of genius was never far from the surface. Stricter discipline in control of length and direction could make Taylor an outstanding bowler," he said in his tour book Red Leather, Silver Fern.
Brittenden felt that with his natural talent, Taylor would score a lot of runs in his career.
In a more reflective profile, once Taylor's career was over, Brittenden felt it was Taylor's fate to be born too soon, the world of one-day cricket would have suited him ideally.
"He was a tremendously entertaining cricketer – at his best, a gifted fast-medium swing bowler, and a wonderful asset as a hard-hitting left-hand batsman. As well as these assets, he had the greatest gift of all – everything he did seemed to turn to gold," he said.
Yet, Brittenden would also note in Big Names in New Zealand Cricket, "There were times when there was a suspicion that Taylor was too good-natured to be a really good test player, but there were plenty of occasions when he responded superbly to pressure."
After his success on the long tour of 1965, in which he finished with 708 runs at 26.22 and 52 wickets at 28.53, Taylor struggled to gain a permanent place in a side that was beginning to play more regular Test cricket.
However, he demonstrated his worth on the big occasion again during the 'unofficial' first Test against an Australia XI at Pukekura Park in 1967.
This turned into a famous victory for New Zealand when spinners Vic Pollard and Bryan Yuile routed Les Favell's side. But the target the Australians were set was largely-based around the 92 runs he contributed out of 111 added while he was at the crease.
Two seasons later his blazing bat was again to the fore as New Zealand met the West Indies at Eden Park in the first Test of the series. New Zealand was put in to bat by Gary Sobers and was 152-6 when Taylor arrived at the crease. He made light of the bowling in posting 50 in 30 minutes.
By the time he had been at the crease 86 minutes, he had scored the fifth-fastest century in Test cricket, taking only 83 balls and passing into three figures with a six.
Again Brittenden said: "Taylor has scored quickly and spectacularly before, but never in his career, has he looked so free from fault." He ended on 124 in 111 minutes. Unfortunately, New Zealand was unable to build on it at the West Indies claimed a win. New Zealand won the second Test to level the series which was drawn after an inconclusive third Test.
Another tour to Britain and the sub-continent followed without the success of his earlier tour, and then in 1972, he found his bowling groove during New Zealand's first tour of the West Indies.
Left out of the first Test he responded in the second Test with 4-41 and 3-26. But, in the third Test he produced the finest figures of his career, 7-74 as the West Indies were dismissed for 133 in their first innings.
Sadly, as with all five Tests, neither side was able to defeat the other, and all the games were drawn.
Don Cameron, 1972 tour correspondent, said: "By mid-tour Taylor was honed down to the peak of fitness. No matter what the state of the pitch or the ball, he could, with his high action, coax out a little movement.
"Against the West Indies at Bridgetown he was superb. There was bite and bounce in the pitch, to be sure, and the West Indies' technique was indifferent. But Taylor struck one of those inspired patches which come perhaps once in a lifetime. He was good enough to realise he had struck a purple patch, and to make the most of it."
The ball with which he bowled rising West Indies star Lawrence Rowe at Bridgetown, he rated the best of his career.
Taylor passed 100 Test wickets in the home series against Pakistan in 1973 and also became New Zealand's highest wicket-taker when passing Dick Motz. During the 1973 tour of England, when New Zealand's emergence as a more consistent Test nation became obvious, he moved on to 111 Test wickets.
That proved the end of his Test career, though he remained on the first-class scene until 1980 when his Wellington side scored a famous win over the touring West Indies side in Lower Hutt. He also became an effective broadcaster on cricket.
He moved into selection for Otago and later New Zealand, his role coming to an unfortunate end after the 1992 World Cup when he was imprisoned following the theft of $300,000 from his employers due to gambling addiction.
In recent months he suffered ill-health and had a leg amputation in 2020. He died in Wellington Hospital on February 6.