Softball selection proves fortune teller correct

Press, 25 January 1989, Page 34

Softball selection proves fortune teller correct

By

TIM DUNBAR

The , stocks of fortunetellers have taken a rise in Canterbury sporting circles over the last couple of weeks with the selection of Lynda O’Cain to play women’s softball for New Zealand.

Many years ago, before she was married, O’Cain’s mother, Jan, paid a visit to an old woman who claimed to see the future. Among the things the for-tune-teller saw in her crystal ball (or in this case a piece of jewellery — Jan’s watch) was an All Black. One of her children was going to play for New Zealand, the old woman said.

“Mum always thought it was going to be my brother,” said Lynda O’Cain, now aged 25.

Her brother, now overseas, got as far as playing senior rugby for High School Old Boys, but it will be the female member of the family who’ll be pulling on a black shirt at the end of next week.

Lynda O’Cain was one of eight Canterbury players named in the two New Zealand teams to contest the Winfield South Pacific Classic at the new Cuthberts Green complex from February 3 to 12. They’ll be competing against the United States, Canada, China and two teams from Australia.

Together with Natalie Hazelwood and Jane Earnshaw, O’Cain will be in the New Zealand A team while another five Canterbury women are in the B team. “I’m thrilled — at long last,” said O’Cain of her New Zealand selection, announced after the national trials in Rotorua. The trials wound up what was her sixth national tournament in Canterbury colours.

“I thought I perhaps had a shot at one of the teams,” O’Cain said. “First-up we were there to win a tournament ... 1 guess I was like anybody — hoping to get a trial.”

The Albion and Canterbury outfielder led a slow start in the tournament, not really getting going until about the third day. “Once I got my first hit 1 relaxed and just enjoyed it.”

O’Cain had a particularly good game when Canterbury whipped Wellington, 5-0, to cement a place in the top three. Her batting average was an impressive .750 and she hit in two runs. Even so she was a little troubled when she was called upon to bat in the rain-shortened trials. The whisper at Rotorua had been that the national coach, Ed Dolejs, would only require the “borderline people” to wield the bat. “I thought, oh no!”

In the trials O’Cain said she did nothing outstanding. “I didn’t even get a hit,” she said ruefully.

Nevertheless she was sufficiently well regarded to make the New Zealand A team and thinks the fact she was picking up just about a hit a game — especially against some of the better pitchers — had helped her cause. As well, her on-base average was good. “Halfway through the tournament Robyn (Storer, the coach) put me into leadoff and on-base average is quite important for the lead-off.”

Her quickness in the outfield also probably counted with the selectors with more emphasis on specialist fielding skills, not just batting ability. O’Cain’s speed makes her a good runner of the bases as well as a respected outfielder, and it was strange to read in a tournament report that in one game she was replaced on base by a pinch-runner. The explanation was

simple, though. The Canterbury players wore shorts during the tournament and one slide into second base in an earlier game had left O’Cain with nasty grazes on the thigh. “It was pretty messy actually. It was weeping with no chance to dry out. Robyn was just trying to give me a spell.”

O’Cain has stuck to her familiar position in the outfield since joining the vaunted Albion premier women’s team seven years ago after a season with the youthful Burnside Red Sox. Apart that is from one game on the pitching mound for Albion which was “a bit of a laugh.” But before she played senior softball she dabbled in a few other positions. “I think I started off as a first base because I was tall then. Everybody caught up to me after that!”

Nowadays, O’Cain says, she much prefers playing in the outfield, citing things like more time to see the ball, more space

and being the last line of defence.

“I really enjoy trying to pull the ball out of the air. Sometimes you get some pretty big hits that require you to cover a bit of ground.”

Outfielders who catch (he ball one-handed always make her cringe, says someone who believes in a more serious approach. “In the men’s world series last year that Canadian right field totally blew it because he was too casual.” O’Cain noted the importance of cutting errors down -to a minimum in the outfield. “If you fumble a ball in the infield you can recover and it might not cost you; in the outfield it’s another base.”

For one still relatively young she has a fair amount of experience, those six national interprovincial tournaments being matched by as many national inter-club tournaments with Albion as Canterbury’s representative.

“When first playing for

warm the bench for too long,” O’Cain said. It was the same year another top outfielder, Danae Goosman, retired.

That 1981-82 season was a memorable one for O’Cain who made her debut for Canterbury at the age of 18. Canterbury won the inter-provincial title and her new club, Albion, the national club title — the last time either trophy has gone to the province. “That was a great year that first year — we haven’t quite been able to repeat it since. Winning the provincials was great, but I specially enjoyed winning that club title and New Zealand went on to win a world series as well,” she said. When New Zealand won the 1982 women’s world series in Taiwan, three Albion players, Hazelwood, Cheryl Kemp and Penny Salton, were in the team.

“We had the theory that if Albion was the top club in New Zealand and New Zealand the top team in the world that we must be the top club in the world. “Maybe it was not very realistic, but it made us feel good. It sort of made sense,” O’Cain said. O’Cain has also had to take the rough times, failing to make the Canterbury team for the 1985-86 nationals.

“It was pretty disappointing as I had a New Zealand trial the year before. But it was not a bad thing; you can tend to get a little complacent, especially starting off young.” O’Cain is well regarded in other sports, too, she plays senior hockey for Burnside at right-half and represented Canterbury B up to a couple of seasons ago. A lot of the last club season was spent recovering from a knee injury, but she hopes to get back into it this year. She also plays a little touch rugby, though the demands of softball training restrict her availability.

Rated a quick first fiveeighths, with good ball skills, O’Cain actually made the Canterbury women’s rugby team to play a touring American side in 1987, but hurt her knee and was ruled out. But she can claim to be one of those who made history as the first woman to play rugy on Lancaster Park’s sacred turf when Linwood Ladies met the Californian Kiwis there back in August, 1980. O’Cain has played virtually every position in the backline, but did not relish a brief stint at halfback. “I was too close to the forwards,” she said, echoing the woes of many a failed half-back.