The Star: March 26, 2020

SPORT 21
Ellis pulls stumps
local sport
Proudly brought to you by...
Thursday March 26 2020 The Star
Tower JuncTion
Phone: 348 6020 Open 7 days 11am to late www.speightstowerjunction.co.nz
on long and successful career
• By Gordon Findlater
Canterbury’s longestserving
cricketer called
stumps on an 18-yearcareer
last week. Sports
reporter Gordon Findlater
caught up with all-rounder
Andrew Ellis to reflect
on his career and how
he hopes to help more
athletes succeed in his
next journey.
ANDREW ELLIS’ career in
red and black started with him
breaking a Canterbury record.
The record for the side’s largest
first-class 9th wicket partnership
of 115 with Gareth Hopkins was
just scratching the surface.
The all-rounder has gone
on to entrench his name in
Canterbury’s cricket history
while becoming just the second
player in New Zealand domestic
cricket to play more than 100
games in each format – including
117 T20 matches, 109 List A
matches, and 105 first-class
matches.
Growing up in Dallington,
Ellis played his youth cricket
for East Shirley and was one of
many players to come through
under the guidance of coach Bill
Duncan. Sport was a constant
in his life from an early age.
His father Malcolm Ellis hosted
an afternoon sports show on
Newstalk ZB for two decades.
“I used to get around with him
on a Saturday afternoon. At that
time, before he did it from the
studio, he would be around all
the grounds reporting all the
club sport,” said Ellis.
The right-arm paceman played
first XI cricket at Shirley Boys’
High School and made a natural
transition to senior cricket with
Easts. However, at the time
cricket wasn’t the only sport he
was playing at a premier club
level. During the winter Ellis
played football for Rangers.
Before dedicating himself purely
to cricket Ellis made three
national league appearances for
Canterbury United in 2003. The
team at the time featured Danny
Halligan as a player-coach and
Ben Sigmund.
His debut for Canterbury
United came just months after
his first-class cricket debut
against Auckland at Colin
Maiden Oval in February 2003.
Ellis remembers claiming his
first wicket by dismissing Tim
McIntosh LBW. However, he says
his first scalp should have been
one of the big names in cricket –
Mark Richardson.
“He [Richardson] was stone
dead in front, but was given not
out. Then I think Tim McIntosh
wore the brunt of an umpiring
make-up call. He was probably
wearing his black helmet at the
time, so the umpires were a bit
STALWART: Andrew Ellis represented Canterbury 331 times
across all three formats during his 18-year professional
career. ​
reluctant to stick their finger up.”
Later in the match, Ellis and
wicket-keeper Gareth Hopkins
combined for a record ninthwicket
partnership of 115.
Batting at No 10 at the time,
Ellis was a far different batsman
to the explosive middle-order
threat he became later in his
career.
“I was pretty cautious back
then. I had a good defence, but
lacked the audacity to go outside
of that.”
His rise to become a genuine
all-rounder involved switching
club and changing his mindset
to become more aggressive. Ellis
also says a successful surgery
in 2010 after a long battle with
stress fractures in his back played
a major role in the development
of his game.
“At East Shirley I was batting
five or six, but would hardly
get a bat because we were so
dominant. We had the Papps
brothers opening the batting,
Neil Broom and the Pawson
brothers. Because we were so
dominant as a team I’d come
in with 10 overs to go, so I
made the tough call to move
clubs and open the batting,”
said Ellis.
“There was a lot of work I had
to do on the mental side of it.
That probably culminated in
having surgery, which got my
back sorted and gave me a real
security in myself
“I always thought I needed to
have this mental restriction on
myself to score runs. Things just
grew from there. Bob Carter
played a big part in that by
basically forcing me to take risks
and push me out of my comfort
zone mentally.
“The technical stuff was there
because I had done so much
work, but it was those coaches
and Bob’s words around ‘if you
don’t those risks and take this
approach then you won’t make
it, there’s no chance of success’.
When it was laid down black
and white like that for me I knew
what I had to do and it sort of
snowballed.”
The new approach saw Ellis
go onto score nine first-class
centuries. Impressive displays
at provincial level also saw him
represent New Zealand in 15
one-day-internationals and
five T20 internationals in 2012
and 2013. However, Ellis says
the biggest highlights of his
career came in his five Plunket
Shield four-day title-winning
campaigns with Canterbury
in 2007/08, 2010/11, 2013/14,
2014/15 and 2016/17.
THE NUMBERS:
First-class: 5221 runs at an average of of 35.17
and 249 wickets at an average of 29.78.
List A: 2708 runs at an average of 31.85
and 154 wickets at an average of 29.84.
T20: 1258 runs at an average of 17.00
and 131 wickets at an average of 22.93.
BIG STAGE: Ellis represented New Zealand in 15 one-dayinternationals
and five T20 internationals in 2012 and 2013.
“Nothing can replace the
feeling of working over a six
month season. Getting to the end
and winning that Plunket Shield
was the pinnacle. That was the
vindication of all that work. The
four-day game was always the
true test of cricket – mentally,
technically and the whole piece
as a person. To come out with
five of those titles in a career is a
huge highlight.”
Arguably the most impressive
of the lot came in 2010/11.
Following the February 22
earthquake, the side still had
six Plunket Shield matches
remaining in their season. The
side made the decision to soldier
on and went undefeated for the
remainder of the campaign.
“I don’t know how we did it.
Like everyone at that time we
were in a daze just trying to work
out what was happening in our
own personal world and trying
to play cricket. We were out there
like everyone else shovelling
liquefaction,” said Ellis
“I’m immensely proud of what
that team achieved during that
time. I know everyone that was
a part of that probably changed
forever, in how they saw their
cricket and the team, probably in
a positive way.
“We realised what resilience
was. We had that successful
period in four-day cricket after
that. It was the start and who
knows, it may have been a huge
part of that. We knew that we
could withstand any challenge
that was thrown at us as a team
after that. There were guys like
Toddy [Todd Astle] and Fults
[Peter Fulton] who were the
spine of the team and each had
different earthquake experiences,
but we were able to take that
resilience for guys that came
in and out of the team and let
them know this is the way we do
things in Canterbury and this is
the way we play our cricket. That
culminated in a pretty successful
four-day team.”
After making the decision
to pull stumps on his playing
career, Ellis will remain
heavily involved with sport
in his new role as the regional
manager for Christchurch at
High Performance Sport New
Zealand. After previously trying
his hand at sales he admits the
transition to life after cricket has
come with its challenges.
“It was challenging to be
honest and harder than I
thought it was going to be from
a logistical point of view as
well as a mental point of view,
but it was an inevitable time,”
he said.
“You’ve got to find a job that
gives you that same sense of
fulfillment and that same sense
of pushing yourself, and that’s
pretty tough to do. It’s not just
the food on the table, but how do
I find a job I loved as much as my
previous job.”
With cricket now on the back
burner, Ellis also confirmed a
return to the football pitch is a
very high possibility sometime
in the future.