Vale Kevin Burns
Kevin Burns, DO Neely Collection
Kevin Burns, who passed away last week aged 63, was one of Southland’s finest cricketing sons.
Alongside his place as a pivotal figure within the Southland Hawke Cup side of the 1980s and early 90s, including as captain of their fine 1989-1992 tenure, Burns became a feature of Otago’s Plunket Shield sides through the 1980s.
Burns’ record does him a disservice, being from the last generation of players who could get away with something approaching classical stonewalling. Maybe his most famous knock was his grinding hundred against Northern Districts in 1988, making 136 in 585 minutes.
His longstanding Southland and Otago teammate Richard Hoskin was at the other end for much of that effort, and well remembers watching Burns pad the ball away for hours on end.
“Bryan Waddle coined a nickname for Kevin from that innings where, as I say, he kicked the hell out of the ball. He became known as 'Leg-Bye Burns' in cricket circles and commentary from that point on.”
In some respects, the cricketing stories of Burns and Hoskin are almost intertwined. They debuted together for Otago in both Brabin Shield (Under 20) and First Class cricket, they hit their high water mark in Plunket Shield cricket in the same season, and exited that stage within a season of each other; their Hawke Cup careers came alongside one another; and they had a happy knack that whenever one had a good day at the crease, the other man always seems to have been at the other end, contributing to a hefty partnership.
Outside of cricket, as Hoskin says, “we’re very good family friends. Kevin’s wife Lynne and my wife Sally are very close friends, we’ve holidayed with them overseas. My daughter is going to be maid of honour for Kevin’s daughter at her wedding.”
Burns’ Otago career deserves to be told in its own right – particularly in managing to return to First Class cricket from a spinal fusion. This tribute to Burns’ life and career focuses on his Hawke Cup years for Southland, from weathering the storm of the years after Southland’s great 1970s Cup stint, to being leader of the side when they came out the other end with a couple of great tenures of their own.
That story starts in 1979, when Southland earned their first challenge since the end of the 1973-77 run – the tenure of the Alabaster brothers, Jumbo Anderson, Neale Thompson and company.
Like so many other teams, Southland travelled to Nelson’s Trafalgar Park for an inevitable walloping. An at-short-notice unavailability led to coach Gren Alabaster donning the whites, disrupting the balance of the side and forcing the demotion of a young Burns to 12th Man as a consequence.
“And he wasn't happy about it,” Hoskin remembers. “So for that whole trip he hardly went to bed at night and enjoyed himself because he knew he was 12th Man, and he secured the name of The Owl as a result of that.”
“On his coffin at the funeral there was a big picture of a portrait of an owl with Kevin beside it because he was commonly known as The Owl.”
It wouldn’t be until 1982 that Burns would play in his first Hawke Cup challenge, again taking on Nelson and again suffering a thrashing at Trafalgar Park. Burns wouldn’t make many runs that day, and whatever hint of a serious contest might have threatened to burst through were well shattered when Steve Gill made a hundred for Nelson from number nine.
In 1984 the men from the deep south tried again, unfortunate to again come a cropper against a Nelson side who had regained the Cup the game prior. There were better signs though – they held Nelson to 325, which stacks up well given Nelson would make 641/7 against Taranaki in their next defence.
Added to that, the ‘new’ players – those who came into the side in the years after losing the cup in 1977 – now had some cricket under their belts. So against Bay of Plenty, playing at Blake Park in Mount Maunganui, Southland weren’t fazed even after a poor first innings showing of 169.
It was the bowlers, rather than Burns and Hoskin, that earned their plaudits that day. The spoils were shared around, but John Lindsay’s figures (17-10-15-4) stand as quite remarkable. As it played out, the real contest wasn’t against Bay of Plenty but against the weather which threatened to rob the challengers’ chances.
Southland defended successfully four times, with Burns holding down the fort as captain despite a relatively lean period with the bat. Hoskin repeatedly brings up the respect with which players held Burns as captain.
“He was a player and a captain that was, do as I do, not do as I say, and he led by example both on and off the field.
“And I guess in really simple, high-level terms, that's how you would describe him. Not a big talker by any stretch of the imagination, but had everybody's attention, everybody's respect, and was hugely liked, respected on and off the field. Hugely.”
Burns truly cemented his place as a Hawke Cup great a couple of years after that first run of defences, when he captained his side on a tour to Whangarei. Taking on a Northland side almost unfairly stacked with talent, Burns made a century, and Hoskin 80, to make a successful raid on the Cup.
Northland were coached by the ex-Southland great Jumbo Anderson, a man never afraid to speak his mind. Hoskin recalls Anderson being sure Northland would “streamroll” their opponents.
“We won that game very well. Jumbo is a man with a lot to say, and he’s very loud. Well, he was very, very quiet that evening, I remember that.”
And while Burns was the hero of the hour, you wouldn’t have heard about it from the man himself. “Some of the speakers at Kevin’s funeral were saying how humble he was,” Hoskin says, “and if he scored a hundred you would never know. If he played well no one would ever know unless they found out from someone else.”
The win over Northland was the start of a long tenure, fifteen successful defences. It remains equal-second in the all-time stakes, but also took the side one match ahead of their 1970s Southland counterparts. “That was quite a goal for our team,” Hoskin remembers, “to better that era. And we managed to do it.”
Burns played a number of key hands during those games, including two more centuries. By 1991/92 the captaincy had passed over to Hoskin, and Burns was missing when Southland eventually lost the Cup.
While that would be the end of Burns’ Hawke Cup years, he left behind a substantial legacy as both a batsman and captain. Matching the great Manawatu team of the 1930s, and behind only Nelson’s remarkable 1958-1965 run, Burns captained his side through one of the great Cup tenures.
“To a man,” Hoskin says, “he had everyone's respect, everyone followed him. […] He’s a good bloke, and a good bloke off the field.”
“He was a man’s man. He was a stoic man. He was a man of few words.”
Sort of like the classic, stereotypical southern man. A Speight’s man.
“That was his favourite drink.”
Burns is survived by his wife, Lynne, and three children: Henry, Jack and Maggie.
KEVIN JAMES BURNS (07.07.1960-20.05.2024)
FIRST CLASS: 58 matches, 2729 runs, 29.03 average, 3 100s & 16 50s
HAWKE CUP CHALLENGE: 17 matches, 688 runs, 40.47 average, 3 100s & 1 50
Note: Our thanks to Richard Hoskin for sharing his memories of his Southland and Otago teammate.
