{"id":492542,"date":"2026-06-24T02:18:10","date_gmt":"2026-06-24T02:18:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/492542\/"},"modified":"2026-06-24T02:18:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-24T02:18:10","slug":"new-zealand-bowler-bob-blair-who-played-after-tangiwai-tragedy-dies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/492542\/","title":{"rendered":"New Zealand bowler Bob Blair, who played after Tangiwai tragedy, dies"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sutcliffe launched a defiant assault on the South African bowlers but when the ninth wicket fell the players headed for the pavilion, assuming the innings over. After all, Blair would not be batting.<\/p>\n

However \u2013 and players swore this is not the stuff of imagination \u2013 the 23,000-strong Boxing Day crowd fell silent as Blair emerged from the pavilion<\/a>, fumbling with his gloves, tears in his eyes.<\/p>\n

Sutcliffe, who was 29, walked over to the younger man, put an arm around his shoulder and told him: \u201cCome on son. This is no place for you. Let\u2019s swing the bat and get the hell out of here.\u201d<\/p>\n

In one over from the outstanding offspinner Hugh Tayfield, Sutcliffe clouted three sixes as the crowd \u2013 aware of the tragic circumstances \u2013 roared.<\/p>\n

When Blair swung Tayfield high over the mid-wicket boundary, the ground erupted.<\/p>\n

The pair added 33 in just eight balls before the game carried on to its inevitable conclusion.<\/p>\n

A TVNZ film<\/a>, Tangiwai, featuring Ryan O\u2019Kane as Blair and Rose McIver as Love, was released in 2011.<\/p>\n

Blair went on to take 43 wickets in 19 tests spread over 11 years. For Wellington, he was formidably difficult over a 14-season career, especially at the Basin Reserve, and in 119 first-class games took 537 wickets at 18 runs apiece.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sutcliffe launched a defiant assault on the South African bowlers but when the ninth wicket fell the players…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":492543,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[74,80303,49147,158822,66405,6179,7126,2740,117,111,139,69,61492,213,199578,12628,1299,80],"class_list":["post-492542","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-after","tag-blair","tag-bob","tag-bowler","tag-cricketer","tag-died","tag-dies","tag-former","tag-new","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-played","tag-sports","tag-tangiwai","tag-tragedy","tag-who","tag-zealand"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/492542","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=492542"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/492542\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/492543"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=492542"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=492542"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=492542"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}