Q’town’s inspirational cricket coach

• Published date: 14 March 2024
• Publication title: Mountain Scene

IF there’s a reason Queenstown Cricket Club’s on a good wicket, with flourishing numbers and ever-rising young talent, coach Emma Campbell’s a large part of the answer

Ask 16-year-old prodigy Hugo Bogue, probably the youngest ever century-maker at the national under-19s — ‘‘if it wasn’t for her I wouldn’t be where I am’’.

His mum, Angela Spackman: ‘‘I think she is a huge asset for our community ’cos her passion for the game gets lots of people involved.

‘‘She makes it fun, she gets excited about it so she gets other people excited about it, and she works tirelessly to make things happen in our region.’’

And club president Daniel Gibbons: ‘‘Her passion for children’s and women’s cricket has been amazing, and been extremely important to our success [like being New Zealand Cricket’s ‘club of the year’ in 2018].’’

‘‘She goes above and beyond, and the kids just love her because she genuinely cares — she just reaches them on their level.’’

Growing up in South Canterbury, Campbell was ‘‘really into rugby’’ and didn’t start playing cricket till ‘‘very, very late’’, at 16, when star White Fern, Timaru-raised all-rounder Haidee Tiffen, and then-White Ferns coach Mike Shrimpton visited her school.

Tiffen introduced her to the difficult art of legspinning.

‘‘I never really had any coaching other than this first moment.’’ But she stuck at it — she recruited friends for a school team which won the South Canterbury B grade comp, made the South Canterbury team and then the Canterbury development or ‘B’ side.

Meanwhile, after high school Campbell undertook a two-year polytech course in sports coaching, followed by a development officer’s role in South Canterbury including golf and tennis coaching.

After a season playing and coaching in Holland — preceding further stints in England and China — she made the Canterbury Magicians side and was ‘bowler of the year’.

However, the coach wouldn’t reselect her after she took a short coaching stint in Oamaru, so, with support from another White Fern, Katey Martin, she joined the Otago Sparks, playing 70-odd games for them over eight seasons.

In 2010, then-Ferns coach Gary Stead — now coaching the Black Caps — selected her for NZ for a one-dayer against Australia at the Adelaide Oval.

Unfortunately, Campbell tore rib cartilage during the game and was flown home — she cried on the flight home.

She got to play Australia again, in Invercargill, but never got another call-up.

Having taken a coaching job in...