The true story of 'that' photograph

In a recent radio interview during the second Test between New Zealand and England at the Basin Reserve, comments man and former New Zealand captain, Jeremy Coney, uttered an unfortunate 'alternative fact'.

He and visiting commentator Neil Manthorp were talking during a rain break about some New Zealand cricket history when the subject of the 1980 Test against the West Indies came up.

This match will be remembered as the upset one-wicket win New Zealand achieved, partly due to umpire John Hastie neglecting to give out John Parker. The frustration at that decision was forever reflected in the infamous picture of fast bowler Michael Holding unleashing a kick at Parker's stumps with an action more qualified for the winter sport played at the Carisbrook ground on which the Test was being played.

In telling the story, Coney, perhaps with tongue-in-cheek, [sadly such comments can quickly become accepted as fact] claimed that the picture did not emerge until three days after the event and was taken by an amateur photographer sitting at the end of the ground.

WRONG, Jeremy WRONG.

The photograph was taken by The Southland Times' chief photographer, who worked for the daily newspaper about 100 miles south of Dunedin in Invercargill.

The photograph did not take three days to surface. It appeared the next day on the front page of The Southland Times. It accompanied my own story outlining the West Indies' frustration at the umpiring in the match.

There is a kernel of reality in Coney's claim, it was a day or two before the rest of the world caught up with the photo.

The problem was that The Southland Times did not have a machine by which it could wire photographs around the world. Any photo, such as that of Holding, that might warrant more interest needed to be sent to Christchurch for one of their newspapers to pass on to the rest of the world.

That was what was undertaken, What transpired because of that is another story in itself.

It was a week or two before the management of The Southland Times realised they might be able to defray some expenses for the six-night accommodation for their reporter and the petrol for the photographer who made a day trip to secure his photo by printing a commemorative poster for public sale.

Not surprisingly, it sold like hotcakes.

It possibly also helped interest in the photo that BBC commentator Henry Blofeld happened to be touring the southern region with a Derrick Robins team. In Alexandra, he was shown a copy of the photo and mentioned it in comments he filed back to England.