HISTORY: EARLY FORMATION
Resulting from a gathering of Auckland and Wellington Representative Players, at the old Broadway Clubrooms, sometime during the 1962 Season, discussion centred on getting the old players to meet annually for a game, somewhere central to both teams.

The men involved in this programme were, Alf Whelan, Jack Shanks and Bert (Pop) Chote from Auckland, and Norm Laws, Ray McRandall, Harry Atkin, and Bryan Furness of Wellington.

Pop Chote, a long time Auckland Softball Manager and Coach, and a dedicated Ramblers Club man, offered to donate a Trophy, hence the "POP CHOTE TROPHY".

The first Evergreens game between Auckland and Wellington took place at Taumarunui over Easter weekend of 1963. Ken Morgan who was then N.Z, Umpire-in-Chief, and was residing in Taumarunui, helped to organize the weekend.

Some early ground rules were set, mainly to establish qualification, and it was agreed that to qualify as an Evergreen player, you would need to have played Major A Representative Softball for your Province, but to have been out of Representative Softball for two years. No age limit was set.

So starting from 1963, and up to 1970, annual games were played in Taumarunui or Te Kuiti.

The teams would arrive for a get-together on the Thursday night. Friday would be taken up with a game of Golf, and both Auckland and Wellington could field a team of really fine Golfers.

The Softball game would be played on the Saturday, and sometimes a repeat on the Sunday morning before the teams headed home.

The whole point of these get-togethers was to renew afresh old friendships formed on the diamond, and to go over again so many of the games and fun times of previous Beatty Cup and John Lennon Tournaments, and so a real feeling of camaraderie developed and a long lasting closeness was formed.

Over the early years, the Trophy changed hands between Auckland and Wellington, and the following are a list of a large number of the players who participated over those years.

FROM AUCKLAND: POP CHOTE, JACK SHANKS, ALF WHELAN, COLIN HENDRY, BUDDY CORLETT, KEN JONES, BOB COWLEY, JACK RAMEKA, BRIAN WAREHAM, DAVE STEWART, RON GOODIN, GENE VERRALL, RON RIELLY, HILTON EARLY, ROCKY CHOTE, TREVOR PINCHIN, ERNIE SILVIA, PETER LISHMAN, JOE LUCKIE, DICK COOK, BILL SORENSON, RAY CRANCH, BRUCE BISHOP, DON POOLEY, KEVIN HORAN, ROY RUSSELL, SEL SHANKS, ALLIE GLASS, KEITH BINGLEY, PETE SILVERA.

FROM WELLINGTON: DIG NICHOLS, SCOTTY LAURENSON, RAY McRANDALL, BRYAN FURNESS, NORM LAWS, BRIAN WALSH, JOHN LOCK, DIG DALLEY, CHAS. DESLANDES, NORM DAGG, BARRY COOKE, BRIAN COOKE, HARRY ATKIN, VERN HUNT, BRIAN GIFFORD, PETER CAMPBELL, ROBBIE BRITTAIN, PIP ELLISON, RON DUNCAN, PAUL HIGGINS, GRAEME GAWNE, RAY RICHARDS.

Some famous Softball names among all this lot!

In 1971, Wellington and Auckland were contacted by TOM VOYLE of Waikato. Tom was organizing a Jubilee of the Cambridge Softball Club, and wanted to have Softball players from the 1950's and 60's era, and agreed to field a Waikato team and an invitation was also extended to Hutt Valley. This inaugural four team tournament resulted in a win for the Hutt Valley side under the guidance of JOE LIDDLE.

Hence the first tournament of the N.Z. EVERGREENS ASSOCIATION was officially formed with Bryan Furness of Wellington being appointed as the National Secretary.

The principal behind EVERGREENS was to have a loose knit association of past major players who could participate in a Tournament once a year, keep an interest in Softball, help to promote the Sport, and on their own home fronts, assist their local Associations, and help with Schoolchildren's Softball.

The Tournaments were initially played in the smaller Centres in the hope that a visit by teams comprising of past great players would assist in promoting the game in those areas.

Gradually as the years passed Bryan Furness and others were successful in getting more Associations interested to form Evergreens teams, and now there are up to sixteen teams regularly competing, with a lot of the Clubs still fronting up with their own "originals".

During the formative years, the Tournament grew as follows:-

To date, there has been 20 Evergreen teams that have participated in the National N.Z. EVERGREENS ASSOCIATION Tournaments

The list of teams and the year they came into the tournament is as follows: