Peter Lishman, the perpetual softballer. April 2012. From Trevor Rowse



            Softball’s opening days will never be the same again now that Peter Lishman will not be there, watching from behind the backstop at Rosedale Park, 75 years on from his first sight of the game, that October in 1938 when he sneaked into Blandford Park to see Auckland’s first-ever softball games.

            He had been to every opening day since, but in later years limited most of his watching to Rosedale, near to his home in Torbay. And it was at Rosedale Park that he hoped to watch next summer’s world series, the first men’s event to be held in Auckland. North Harbour softball was keen to have him as a special guest on that opening day as Peter had been one of the first players to sign up when that association started, playing for the North Shore United side.

Peter died in North Shore Hospital just after the end of the season, missing the day when his United side won the national championship, but he knew all about it. His link with United was strong as it was the club which took him on his greatest softball venture, a trip to the western states of the USA for a playing tour. Constantly carrying his ever-present camera, Peter enjoyed the best month of his life.

One of the first official Auckland Softball Legends, Peter fully deserved the title as the only person there on that first opening day who kept on being a softball fan, or fanatic.

From his house in Grafton Gully, now taken over by the University motorway exit, Peter heard the cheering from nearby Blandford Park and sneaked in through his secret entrance to find a game that fascinated him right from the start.

“I heard this noise and went to investigate,” Peter told the Auckland Star’s Peter Devlin, “and it was the 1938 game between Auckland and Wellington, plus a game between Pioneers and the Wellington side Jenkins Gym. They were the two pioneering teams in the country”.

It was his sort of sport and the star was the Scottish-American Tommy Dell who attracted most of his attention. Peter wanted to emulate that young man, then only four years older than the 12 year old, but wise enough to be captain of the Auckland team and Pioneers too, the first Auckland club.

“Tommy was the captain,” Peter said, “only 5ft 7 ½ inches but easily our best all-round player for many years. He was tremendously popular with the crowd. He’d dart round all over the place … he just sort of had that appeal”.

So the 12 year old started a life-long love of the game that day, playing until his legs gave out on him, taking photographs of all the major events, snapping every team that ever played, and even taking photographs of photographs to maintain his records. His first memento was a first day entrance ticket he picked up, having not paid himself. And anything relating to the game joined his collection.

He was batboy only days later, for the Pioneers’ side, and soon made his way into the team where Peter played alongside the legends of the early game. Ten years later he was one of the stars of the 1949 Auckland team which downed Wellington 4-0 and which played many games at the same Blandford Park, now buried under a city motorway. In one season he was a North Island rep.

“When we went to Wellington it was the hard way. Second class on the Limited express (it had a limited number of stops) with a 3pm departure to get the cheapest fare. Arrival in Wellington was at 7am the next morning. You could hire a pillow and try to sleep sitting up but it was hard. But it was time to talk and we were excited by the prospect of games.

“One time I went with the team to the inter-provincial champs in Invercargill. We had the same trip to Wellington, a day to spend in Wellington and then the night ferry to Lyttleton, the express to Dunedin next day and the bus to Invercargill. At the end of the champs it was the same trip back, taking over two days each way”.

In 1950-51, critics said that Lishman was the outstanding utility player in the city. In the same season, Peter married his Pioneers’ clubmate Mona Banks after playing softball all day. There were two long games, one said to be 11 innings and the other 14. Peter’s famous words afterwards were reputed to be, “I was not much good for anything after that”.

Peter’s collection of softball memorabilia is the sole link from the early days and without it, and his thousands of photos, there would be no Auckland history. As well he collected old bats, balls and gloves, programmes, meeting minutes and bits of uniforms.

One mystery remains. Pride of place in his collection is his old Pirates’ club uniform, part of a complete set he once had but made the mistake of lending out. No record remains of that side, well-known for driving a broken bat into the ground, crowning it with a real skull and putting a cap on its head next to the team area. “We were asked to stop doing that after Marist complained”, said Peter, who wore the Pirates’ top to this season’s Vic Guth.

The irony of his death mirrors that of Tommy Dell who went into hospital for a checkup and died the same night. Peter fell while trying to “escape” hospital to go home to where he was most comfortable, with his various collections, including his incomparable softball memories.

He was the ultimate softball fan, the perpetual softballer. But the world series will have to go on without him. He was 87.