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22 Wednesday <strong>February</strong> <strong>13</strong> <strong>2019</strong><br />
Latest Christchurch news at www.star.kiwi<br />
SELWYN TIMES<br />
SPORTS<br />
News<br />
Humble identity still<br />
STAR: Ben Donkers made a significant contribution with bat<br />
and ball to lead his team to victory.<br />
Donkers paves the way for<br />
Leeston-Southbridge win<br />
BEN DONKERS proved to be<br />
a one-man match-winner for<br />
Leeston-Southbridge in round<br />
11 of the Canterbury country<br />
premier one-day cricket<br />
competition on Saturday.<br />
Donkers hit a brisk 60 with<br />
the bat and then took 5-29<br />
as his team defended 197,<br />
bowling Oxford out for 85. The<br />
112-run victory keeps Leeston-<br />
Southbridge second on the<br />
table. In spite of being on the<br />
losing side, Oxford off-spinner<br />
Mark Murphy took 5-28 from<br />
his 8.1 overs.<br />
Weedons’ batsmen looked<br />
to have posted a defendable<br />
total when they amassed 198<br />
all out against Southbrook at<br />
Southbrook Domain.<br />
Opener Shannon Dunnett<br />
made 69, and captain Sam<br />
Wilson made 64 – his third half<br />
century in a row.<br />
However, the competition<br />
leaders proved why they are the<br />
team to catch, chasing down<br />
their target for the loss of just<br />
two wickets with 14 overs to<br />
spare. Southbrook wicketkeeper<br />
Matt Brine made 83, while<br />
Shannan Stewart added an<br />
unbeaten 47. Kaiapoi overcame<br />
Darfield by three wickets in<br />
a low-scoring game. Darfield<br />
needed their tail to wag to post<br />
147 for nine.<br />
Darfield were 21-6 before<br />
Patty Readon made 40 and<br />
Alister Collins contributed<br />
27. Raj Saini was the chief<br />
destroyer, taking 5-31. Kaiapoi<br />
got home with an over to spare<br />
thanks to an unbeaten 41 from<br />
Wayne Bell.<br />
Sefton beat Cheviot by 17<br />
runs after defending 151 all out.<br />
Sefton opener Tim Harrison<br />
made 52 to anchor the innings.<br />
Opening bowler Brendon<br />
Wellington ensured that was<br />
more than enough after he took<br />
4-22.<br />
•On Saturday, Weedons<br />
will host Kaiapoi; Darfield<br />
will welcome Oxford;<br />
Leeston-Southbridge will<br />
face Sefton at Leeston Park<br />
and Southbrook will travel<br />
to play Cheviot.<br />
•Points; Southbrook 51,<br />
Leeston-Southbridge<br />
45, Sefton 36, Oxford 33,<br />
Kaiapoi 33, Cheviot 27,<br />
Weedons 24, Darfield 15.<br />
ROLLESTON HAS seen<br />
substantial changes over the<br />
years and few have seen these<br />
more than local identity, 82-yearold<br />
Alexander ‘Lex’ Cockburn.<br />
He was born, raised and lived<br />
his whole life in the Rolleston<br />
area and is happy to have done<br />
so. His focus on life has been his<br />
family, farming and giving back<br />
to the community.<br />
Lex was born in 1936 and at<br />
that time his parents were running<br />
a sheep farm on Hoskyns<br />
Rd, near the intersection with<br />
Maddisons Rd. His father, Alec,<br />
who had emigrated from Scotland<br />
and served in the NZ Rifle<br />
Brigade during World War 1, had<br />
purchased the property from the<br />
Marshall family in 1929, which<br />
the Cockburn family have owned<br />
it ever since.<br />
Lex recalls some of his earliest<br />
memories as being when he<br />
attended Weedons School on<br />
Weedons Ross Rd. He started<br />
school during World War 2 and<br />
at the time there were only 18<br />
children attending there.<br />
Life was simple and he remembers<br />
the female teacher riding<br />
her motorcycle all the way from<br />
Sheffield at a time when very<br />
little of the roading in the district<br />
was sealed. His parents had<br />
decided to send him to Weedons<br />
School instead of Rolleston<br />
because they did not want him<br />
crossing the railway lines and<br />
Main South Rd when walking<br />
to school. Three generations of<br />
Cockburn children have now<br />
attended the school.<br />
In the late 1940s there was no<br />
secondary school near Rolleston<br />
and the students had to travel<br />
into Christchurch by train to attend<br />
college. Each school day Lex<br />
would walk to the old Rolleston<br />
railway station and catch either<br />
the morning passenger train<br />
from Springfield, which had old<br />
wooden slat seats, or take the<br />
later Timaru train that had more<br />
comfortable seating.<br />
Lex attended Christchurch<br />
Technical College, which was<br />
located on the current site of<br />
Historian and district council staff member<br />
Wayne Stack continues his monthly look<br />
at <strong>Selwyn</strong>’s past. Anyone with suggestions<br />
for future features can phone Wayne on<br />
021 119 9107. This month’s feature is on<br />
Rolleston identity Lex Cockburn.<br />
HONOUR: Lex Cockburn cutting the Rolleston 150th<br />
celebration cake with <strong>Selwyn</strong> MP Amy Adams in 2015.<br />
Ara Polytech and only a short<br />
walk from the railway station.<br />
He claims he was no scholar, but<br />
enjoyed the practical skills he<br />
learned in engineering. Quite<br />
often he would skip class and<br />
spend the day at the ‘pictures.’<br />
Lex’s father died suddenly at<br />
home in 1951, and as the only<br />
child in the family, Lex had to<br />
leave school aged 14 to help his<br />
mother run the farm. <strong>Times</strong> were<br />
tough and the soil was light, but<br />
together they managed to build<br />
the business, increase the size<br />
of their sheep flock and build<br />
a new house on the property.<br />
The increasing prices paid for<br />
wool during the 1950s helped to<br />
achieve this.