When twenty top players of the first 25 years of the game in Auckland were asked to name their top players, Brian Wareham was on every list.
   He was the first speedball, windmill pitcher to develop the rise, curve and drop pitches and use them to win titles with his blond hair and fiery style.
   If he started in the game today he would equal the best of Kevin Herlihy, Steve Jackson, Michael White, Marty Grant and Chubb Tangaroa. In his time he was the one and only, the man who could take any team to a title.
  
  He was in the Eden junior grades when some of the club’s top players decided that there was a need to create a club to compete with the all-conquering side which was winning local titles with ease.
   They formed the United club, sixty years ago next season, and so there were gaps in the Eden side, giving Wareham a surprise elevation when he was a teenager. He became the sensation of his time as he went on to win national titles and to create a legend which compares with that of Shane Warne.
   He studied other pitchers and found ways to hide his variety of deliveries, something that the others could not do then. There was also no hesitation to throw near the batters, or to pitch as soon as he had the ball returned, so as to unsettle the batters. He worked out the variety of tricks that have been passed on from pitcher to pitcher through the years.
   Henry Cooper, a future headmaster of Auckland Grammar, was scathing about softballers using gloves. He said that anyone could catch a softball without them, but the first pitch from schoolboy Wareham dipped late and broke Cooper’s finger, ruining his chance of playing cricket for Auckland the following weekend.
   For many years he disappeared from view, either in Rotorua where he was hunting in the hills, then to Great Barrier and then to Australia, where he now lives near Cairns, enjoying the sun.
   Perhaps Auckland would have created even more softball history but for a minor incident after the 1950-51 double wins in Te Kuiti when Wareham pitched Eden and Auckland to national titles, unbeaten. He was reprimanded for having his room trashed (the bed was apple-pied and the prints on the wall reversed and other minor “jokes”).
   But Wareham was at the railway station when it was all happening, waiting to return to his friends Alan McPherson and Brian Stanyer, severely injured in a motor bike accident a week earlier, while others were using the room while they waited for news of the train time. (McPherson’s injuries ended what was an outstanding playing career and ended in an early death, while Stanyer still has problems with his).
   Put before the administration, Wareham refused to dob anyone else in but was not listened to, as the administrators had learned of some previous shenanigans, most of which would be laughed at today. He was suspended for a week, despite his protests, and decided to leave Auckland and make a fresh start in Rotorua.
   “I regretted the action later, but I was in a state,” he said recently.

   That led to a huge lift in the Rotorua competition and the side was very competitive in club and representative play. In one game, against the champion Auckland side, Wareham pitched seven perfect innings, was replaced in the eighth and saw the side lose, on an error.

   There were times when he pitched 21 strikeouts in games, and he could bat too.
   In his greatest spell of pitching, according to information supplied by the late Alf Whelan, Wareham pitched 21 consecutive scoreless innings at a national tournament.
   Pitchers such as Neale Perry and Kevin Herlihy learned from him and the former figure-of-eight pitching style disappeared for ever. Rose Fletcher, of the Richmond club, took one look at Wareham’s fiery pitching and made her name as the first female windmill pitching expert, going on to captain the first New Zealand side to attend a world series and be equally feared in women’s play.

   A highly competent soccer goalkeeper, Wareham was lured into Eden by the master recruiter, the late Harry King and was influenced by the late Bob King, the international goalkeeper and New Zealand softball catcher. Living in Windmill Road, a very appropriate named road for the pitching style he developed, he was right in the heart of the softball territory and played with such greats as Don Brewer (now living in Wanganui) and Buddy Corlett (now in Pakuranga), two of the most inspiring infielders ever.

   There are many other stories of Wareham escapades, none authenticated, but his loss to Rotorua, and later to Wellington, changed the direction of the game here.
   Jackson, later to pitch for New Zealand when the first world title was won, was a man in the Wareham mode, capable of rising to any occasion. However Wareham was never a great one for training. Sometimes he would emerge from months in the bush to pitch two weeks of national tournaments, getting better each day as the man “with the iron arm”.
   Called the “daddy of New Zealand softball pitching” as long ago as 1980, Wareham led the way for Bill Massey, John Dawson, Herlihy, Jackson, Jimmy Fowler and the long line of New Zealand pitchers, down to White, Grant, Peter Meredith and co.

   As is often said, there is enough material in the Wareham life to make up a real-life novel.
   He is hoping to return to Auckland for the annual Evergreens’ bowling series in late February. Contrary to general rumours, he is still in the land of the living.

Records:
Played for the North Island v South for six years, with no game in 1951 or 1956 and was chosen in the first New Zealand side, even though it played only the Rest.
47-48 Started in top grade for Eden. Eden won title.
48-49 for NI (Auckland) in Wellington, pitching to Tommy Dell for NI. South won 7-2. Eden won the Auckland title. Auckland won nationals.
49-50 for NI (Auckland) in Christchurch, pitching to Ernie Sylvia for NI. North won 15-0. Eden won the Auckland title and the national club championship. Auckland won nationals.
50-51 Auckland won nationals, Eden won nationals for second time, still the only Auckland team ever to win two in a row. Eden was denied permission to travel the following year by the ASA as it was ruled to have a weakened team but still won the Auckland title, but Wareham had left for Wellington. No North v South that season.
51-52 Playing for Rotorua in Auckland, he pitched to his former Auckland catcher Ernie Sylvia for NI. South won 4-3.
52-53 (Rotorua rep) in Hutt Valley. North won 22-6.
53-54 (Rotorua) in Invercargill, pitching to Les Leeney. North won 11-1.
54-55 Moved to Wellington. North won 15-8. Wellington won nationals.
1 Jan 1955 (Wellington) For NZ in Hastings, pitching to Jack Shanks. Rest won 12-5. Wareham’s new club, Jenkins Gym, won Wellington and national championships.
31 Dec 1955 (Well) at Athletic Park, For NZ, pitching to Jack Shanks and Les Nation. NZ won 5-2.
1 Jan 1958 (Well) at May Road. For Rest v NZ. Pitching to Jack Shanks. NZ won 3-1. Wellington won nationals.

   In his eleven seasons at the top, Wareham won four Auckland titles, two national club titles with Eden and one with Jenkins Gym, as well as national titles for Auckland (3) and Wellington. He was in the New Zealand team twice, played for the North Island six times (with two years when there was no team) and once for the Rest v NZ.