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MediaMarch 2, 2020

Offer the light: Taking in the last Test overs of Bryan Waddle and Jeremy Coney

coney-wadds

One of test cricket’s great partnerships has been brought to an end. Alex Braae listens to the last call of Bryan Waddle and Jeremy Coney on Radio Sport.

Watching Test cricket sometimes feels like sitting on the side of a pond on a summer day. Each ball is a pebble thrown into the surface, and you watch to see where the ripples will go. That rhythm becomes even more evocative on the radio. You only hear the splash, and the commentators tell you what it looks like. It’s a remarkably intimate way of following sport, and it lasts for hours.

A strange wander through the human psyche, there is nothing quite like a cricket broadcast. It rarely makes conventional sense, with the conversation progressing at two speeds simultaneously, as gentle voices carry on long conversations punctuated by the events in front of them.

And it keeps you company. With Radio Sport’s Test commentary rights coming to an end with this win over India, the prospect of a five-hour cleaning binge becomes a lot less appealing. Or setting up the transistor radio at a campground, or on the sidelines of a park game. Who knows, the loss of the rights might even show up in diminished confidence in the long-term outlook of farmers. It feels a bit like the last day of the last summer of cricket.

I know, that’s wildly melodramatic. There’s still more international cricket to play this summer, and NZ Cricket have made every assurance that there will be some form of audio commentary next season too. Who knows: it might all continue much as it has, just on another frequency. But don’t feel bad about indulging that feeling. For me at least, cricket on the radio has been part of my life forever. Pretty much all of that has been on Radio Sport, or, before that, Sports Roundup. In fact, it’s probably one of the few things that has never changed across the entire lives of many. Letting go of a defining version of that is hard.

There are two names that are linked to the Radio Sport call above all else. Bryan Waddle and Jeremy Coney. Coney and Wadds. You wonder if they’d be good company in real life. They’re almost an archetypal odd couple – tall and short, colour and crispness, comments like a crafty wrist-spinner and skiddy, direct conversational snorters. Sometimes their pairing threw up astonishing pieces of cricket coverage, even in the most throwaway moments like the end of a washed out game.

As Blundell and Latham accelerated towards the target this afternoon, the other commentators took a walk through the life of Jeremy Coney. They covered his teaching career, how he got the “Mantis” nickname, his dislikes and disappointments, and every biographical detail that attempted to explain how such a voice came into being. What could never be captured was Coney’s uncanny knack for the compelling and meandering mid-innings anecdote, that for the longest time felt like was going absolutely nowhere in the most pleasant way, before being resolved with a genuinely thought-provoking punchline.

He didn’t really get much of an innings at the last – the Black Caps’ batsmen didn’t give him the time. Of all things, the pair of them had to talk about the cricket in front of them. They took a few consolation wickets and bemoaned the state of the batting across the game. There was a nice chuckle for them right at the end when Jadeja’s presumptive wicket was overturned by a no-ball. The win came a few balls later, Bryan Waddle’s voice rising an octave to bring it home.

“Wadds has shown great alacrity to get down there,” said Daniel McHardy as Bryan Waddle dashed on to the field for post-match interviews. Jeremy Coney noted his friend’s increased fitness, and there was a touch of sadness when he mentioned how much more time he’d have now to work on it. “Terrific,” he concluded with a faint and affectionate chuckle. McHardy got one back at Coney, too, with a reminder that he was there on the wrong side the last time a team lost two Tests in a row by 10 wickets. It didn’t even happen today, but for a time it looked like it might have.

And McHardy didn’t hold back in his praise for both of them, and his many associates across the decades of test cricket in a final monologue of gratitude. The pair were gently roasted while being held up as an integral part of what made summer what it was. And McHardy thanked those that had kept the commentators company around the country for all that time too.

With a partnership like Coney and Waddle’s for Radio Sport coming to an end, it’s easy to forget that moves will be under way all over cricket broadcasting. When broadcast rights change hands, it can be an opportunity for younger commentators to come through. Scotty Stevenson left Sky when Spark nabbed the Rugby World Cup, and fronted their whole package. Previously he had primarily been a Super Rugby commentator, carrying it off with the sort of comfort and ease that allowed him to pick a word on Hauraki Breakfast during the week, and then drop it in a call on the night.

Not only will the Radio Sport version come to an end, the Sky Sport one will too. Spark Sport will be taking on the domestic TV rights. There are a whole lot of good commentators who could now be in the mix for either.

Speculating is largely useless, but it would seem certain that someone will try and keep the likes of Lesley Murdoch and Brendon McCullum in the mix. The underrated Mike Hesson and beloved Ian Smith will be staying with Sky. On the radio, Daniel McHardy leads an enormous cast across international and domestic cricket, including some pretty handy commentators who only get a run when a domestic game is in their region. Coney and Waddle themselves might go another round. Hell, you could do a lot worse than keeping Mark Richardson around, too. And behind the scenes, an army of ultra-professional broadcast workers will be moving to something new.

So probably, little will change in the rhythm of the summer, for those who accept the new changes and move with them. The tuning button on the radio makes it pick up a different frequency, and one of them will probably have a game on. It might be better, even. We don’t know, that pebble hasn’t been thrown.

All innings end. The Radio Sport team brought theirs to a close with a win, after helping some many fans through so many losses. But like all cricket, victory is always bittersweet. In this case it was knowing that it was brought to a close early, by a full two and a half precious days. Summer always seems to finish just before you’re ready.

It’s a sign.
It’s a sign.

MediaMarch 2, 2020

Announcing a new six-month paid internship at The Spinoff

It’s a sign.
It’s a sign.

Attention: aspiring writers and reporters.

Today The Spinoff announces a brand new internship, running for six months and paid the living wage, for writers without newsroom experience who would like to join our Auckland-based team. The successful candidate will spend six months based at our office, gaining experience across reporting, feature writing, editing, video production, podcasting and more.

Jointly-funded by the Auckland Radio Trust and the Spinoff Members, the internship can be taken up at any time in 2020, allowing candidates of the 2020 graduating classes to apply. The ART is funding this in memory of Vince Geddes, its long-time station manager, while The Spinoff Members is contributing to affirm our commitment to giving fresh voices a chance to join our newsroom and experience life in a modern news magazine startup.

When Madeleine Chapman started as an intern at The Spinoff in 2016, she had no formal writing or journalism qualifications, yet had written an extraordinary feature about her quest to meet the novelist Eleanor Catton. It was clear she was a major talent, and so it has proven – in four years she has won multiple awards, and become one of our most admired writers. In that spirit we are not limiting the internship to those with journalistic qualifications – if you believe you can create journalism, and have a passion for it, we’d like to hear from you.

Madeleine Chapman dressed as a landline. Photo: The Spinoff

I asked Madeleine to describe her experiences as an intern here. “I started at The Spinoff as an intern with no writing qualifications and no experience in a newsroom. I didn’t know anyone in the media, and hadn’t seen any young Pasifika writers in the newspapers growing up. All I knew was that I liked writing and wanted to get better at it. There’s an expectation that you need to start an internship fully equipped and ready to slot into the workplace as if you’ve been there forever. This is false. I had very little knowledge of the ins and outs of journalism, but I made up for it by being open to learning every new skill and also being open to failure.

“The Spinoff will give you as much or as little as you seek. And they’ll always have your back, whether you’re calling out racism and homophobia, presenting an alternate take on a cultural issue, or reviewing the best cooked taro in Wellington. Like every newsroom, there will always be transcribing and formatting and researching to do. But unlike every other newsroom, trying new things will always be encouraged. My first article published as an intern was a review of a home renovation show, because that’s what I’d been doing the week before and knew about it. I didn’t know about anything else, but by the end of my first year at The Spinoff I’d covered sports, done experiential pieces, and written a magazine-style feature on a political issue (something I’d never thought I’d be able to do).

“Internships aren’t about showing everyone what you already know, they’re about forgetting everything you know and learning ten times more. The Spinoff will have all the answers if you’re willing to ask the questions.”

To apply, please send a CV (no longer than one page), a cover letter (also no longer than one page), and one or two writing samples, to info@thespinoff.co.nz, with “2020 Intern” in the subject line. Applications close on March 31, and we will be in touch with any candidates we would like to interview within 10 days of closing.

The key points:

  • The internship is open to all writers who have not yet been employed for six months or more in a major media organisation and are eligible to work in New Zealand.
  • Applicants have until 5pm on March 31 to apply, and should send a brief cover letter, together with no more than two writing samples, to info@thespinoff.co.nz
  • The internship is jointly-funded by the Auckland Radio Trust, in memory of Vince Geddes, and Spinoff Members.