Reekers, Doody and Donkers
Mainland men, a touch of Dutch and the Legend of Marty Banks
I’ll admit it, straight off the bat, these three players were grouped together for their titular potential. Funny sounding surnames are no stranger to me. I mean, look at my own. But cricket provides a wealth of names ripe for immature minds. Ganguly, Dickwella, de Kock and Joe Root. Hell, even our own Henry Nicholls as been reduced to Hairy Nipples by the ACC, the dons of funky monikers and nicknames.
But it’s all in good fun and good spirit, as is this article. Darron Reekers is a former Otago and Canterbury all-rounder, who went on to play for the Netherlands, enjoying many fine seasons in the Netherland Cricket League Hoofdklasse with Quick Haag. a soccer and cricket club based in The Hague. When my former Permaclean teammate Hamish “Mush” McDowell found out I was working on a piece about Reekers, he recalled a story about his former junior representative coach.
During a club cricket match in Aotearoa’s deep south, Reekers was dismissed for a second ball duck and copped a hearty Mataura send-off as he made his way begrudgingly back to the pavilion. Looking to make amends with the ball, he dug in his first ball to Mataura opening batsman McDowell, who promptly dispatched it for six, with his former coaches advice front of mind: “Trust your natural instincts”. Having not recognized his former protégé, the bowler walked down the pitch, ready to give the batsman a serve, before the penny dropped.
“Shit, is that you Mush?” Reekers said as his anger faded and both men laughed. The battle resumed and Reekers bowled a tidy spell, while McDowell made 38 not out before rain curtailed play, and the combatants retired to the clubhouse to share a coupla three beers.
Reekers only played 6 first-class matches in his career, but made a name for himself in the shorter forms of the game. A big man who was the Dutch version of Andrew Flintoff, Reekers was part of cricketing history when he helped his Netherlands side claim a famous win over England at Lord’s during the 2009 T20 World Cup. Playing primarily as a batsman, the then 36 year old hit 20 off 13 balls as his side set off in pursuit of England’s 162 for 5, before he was undone by Stuart Broad. But he’d belted a six each off Ryan Sidebottom and James Anderson to get the reply moving and later watched on from the balcony as his side got home in a nail-biting finish, a final over of mayhem from Broad, with scampered ones and twos from Ryan ten Doeschate and Edgar Schiferli.
In 2008 he’d belted 196 off 117 balls for the Netherlands against Norway at The Inch in Dublin. During the European Championship of 08 held in Ireland, Netherlands amassed 474 for 8 from their 50 overs against the hapless Scandinavians and then bowled them out for 104 to win the match by 370 runs, their only victory of the tournament. Reekers had hit 12 sixes and 20 fours before he was bowled four short of his double ton, and with Tom de Grooth they’d put on 290 for the first wicket. de Grooth was out for 96 against Norway, and almost a year later he was man of the match in that famous Lord’s win, with a crucial knock of 49 from 30.
The highest score of Reekers Hoofdeklasse career came in 2002 against Jinnah at Abcoude, when he smacked 15 sixes in an innings of 172, while in 2000 he hit 16 sixes in an innings of 164 against Koninklijke at the Sportpark Nieuw Hanenburg in The Hague. His best season for Quick Haag was in 2001, when he scored 932 runs at 62.13, hitting 4 hundreds and 4 fifties from 16 matches. He also took 24 wickets that season at 16.12, opening the bowling for his side. His highest score that year came in August, when he made 141 off just 88 deliveries, with 8 fours and 12 sixes. During a sequence in June, he hit 108, 18, 119, 73 and 121 not out as flailed attacks to all corners, hitting 28 sixes in the process.
He was the top-wicket taker in the 2005 Hoofdeklasse with 35 at 18.00, and all up took 271 scalps at 16.14 from his 198 career matches, while with the bat he averaged 40.01 and scored over 7,000 runs.
In 2003 he played for the Netherlands against a World XI at De Diepput in The Hague, where he hit 46 and claimed 2 for 21 off 7, getting the wickets of Gary Kirsten and Shahid Afridi. He got Afridi again the following year, in a rain ruined game against Pakistan in Amstelveen, where he took 2 for 19 before play was abandoned.
His only ODI hundred came in a match against Ireland in Nairobi in 2007, when he scored 104 from 83 deliveries and then took 1 for 18 off 6 as Netherlands beat an Irish side that included Eoin Morgan, who made 94. A month later and he was at the World Cup, facing up against South Africa, Australia and Scotland, where his highlight was scoring 25 off 19 against the Australians in St.Kitts, hitting 5 fours before he was caught by Michael Clarke off the bowling of Nathan Bracken.
In New Zealand he played 3 first-class matches for Otago in early 1998, and took 8 wickets at just 11.25, the bulk of them coming in a match at Carisbrook against Central Districts where he claimed figures of 3 for 25 and 3 for 35 as Otago won by 3 wickets. Amongst his scalps were New Zealand internationals Glen Sulzberger (twice), Mark Greatbatch and Mark Douglas, while a young Michael Mason got him out twice as he registered a pair. That same season he managed 14 wickets from 10 matches for Otago in the Shell Cup, before returning to Canterbury for the remainder of his domestic career in NZ.
In October of 2000 he got hit for 33 runs in an over during a Shell Super Max League match in Gore of all places, as Chris Gaffeney belted 103 off 27 balls in Otago’s second 10 over innings. Reekers went for 77 from 3 overs in the match, but did manage his own scores of 29 off 12 and 25 from 6.
In February of 2002 he was at the other end when Maya Pasupati took an amazing one-handed catch to dismiss Aaron Redmond during the State Shield final. It was to be his last appearance for Canterbury before he headed for the land of clogs, bikes and windmills, and he made 24 and took two catches in a losing effort from the Cantabs.
A teammate of Reekers at Canterbury was the left-handed batsman Brad Doody. BJK Doody probably never quite realized his potential during a first-class career that peaked in 1998, when he hit his maiden (and only) first-class century for the New Zealand Academy against Pakistan A at the Lincoln Green. Surprisingly put in to bat on day one, Lou Vincent and James Marshall put on an opening stand of 86 before Doody came to the wicket. He batted for almost four hours in facing 174 balls, and hit 18 fours and 4 sixes.
What should have been a starting point was sadly the beginning of the end. He managed to pass fifty just three more times in first-class cricket for Canterbury. He was a mainstay however in a strong Canterbury Shell Cup side for a few more seasons, enjoying ultimate success in 1999/00 before losing a 3 match final series to Central Districts in 2000/01, averaging in the mid thirties both seasons. His sole Shell Cup century came 9 months prior to his ton against Pakistan A, when he hit 109 against Auckland at Lancaster Park, holding the Canterbury innings together against a bowling line-up that included Chris Pringle, Andre Adams, Mark Haslam and Graeme Hick.
In March of 1999 he produced a fine knock of 223 for Canterbury Country against Nelson at Rangiora, as Country defended the Hawke Cup, in what was called the National District Championship at the time. He made another Hawke Cup century against Mid Canterbury in February of 2005, scoring 138 and sharing in a 258 run 3rd wicket stand with Robbie Frew, who made 131. Also appearing in that match was one Brendon Donkers (58 and 3 for 32). Doody and Donkers both made 70s in the side’s next match against Nelson, before Hamilton took the Cup back north after a Rangiora ram raid in early March, thanks largely to the bowling of Ben Windslade, and centuries from the Hatwell brothers, Jaden and Brook.
Doody holds top spot on his club’s honours board as well, at Oxford CC. He sits above even Peter Fulton, with scores of 192 against Ohoka in 1998 and 179 against Sefton in 1999. Peter Fulton holds spots 3 and 4 with scores of 177 not out and 171, while young Canterbury prospect Rhys Mariu is next in line after his 165 scored in 2019.
Brendon Donkers had a short-lived first-class career, playing in just 8 matches for Canterbury over a 13 month period in 2002 and 2003. An all-rounder who bowled medium pace, Donkers took 12 wickets (at 47.83) and scored 109 runs (at 21.80). On first-class debut he nabbed the wicket of Brendon McCullum at Carisbrook, while his best figures of 3 for 37 came in his second match, against ND in Rangiora. Bowling alongside the likes of Shane Bond, Chris Martin and Chris Cairns, Donkers broke a stubborn 2nd wicket stand of 41 between Nick Horsley and Michael Parlane, getting them both before adding the wicket of Scott Styris for just 1 not long after, six months removed from Styris’ debut Test century in Grenada. ND were reduced to 58 for 4 before Daniel Vettori hit a rearguard 81 at number 9 to lift the Knights to 236. Donkers then hit what would remain his highest first-class score in Canterbury’s reply, his 38 the second highest score of the innings behind Michael Papps’ 39. He shared in a 55 run 8th wicket stand with Chris Harris, batting a place below Donkers at 9, as Canterbury managed to equal exactly NDs first innings score, before the game petered out into a rain affected draw. He played 6 more matches after that but got limited opportunity in what was a relatively strong Canterbury side. Some of his remaining scalps do read like a bit of a who’s who of New Zealand One-Day opening batsmen: Chris Nevin, Peter Ingram, Jamie How and Craig Spearman.
Before representing Canterbury he played for Canterbury Country and in 1999 he scored a resilient 132 against a Dunedin Metropolitan side featuring the young McCullum brothers. He faced 310 balls in almost 6 hours of batting and shared in a 6th wicket stand of 208 with Harley James, who made 176. In 2001 he had figures of 20-10-25-4 in a match against Southland in Invercargill, and in 2005 he played in a match against West Coast that featured an 18 year old Marty Banks, who would go on to play professional rugby in places like Russia, Italy and Japan as well as playing for Buller, Tasman, the Hurricanes and the Highlanders and is still running around for the Southland Stags in this years Bunnings NPC.
A coaster himself, having been born in Hokitika, Donkers was 11 not out as Country managed just 169 after Banks had taken 5 for 44 from 21 overs, including the wickets of internationals Peter Fulton for 63 and Peter Borren for a two ball duck. Donkers then took 2 for 3 off 5 overs as the Coast made just 127, before two metre Peter and his brother David took revenge on Banks and his co-conspirators. David made 83 from 98 deliveries, while big Pete made 106 off 61 as he smashed 13 boundaries and 5 sixes, before he was caught by Banks from the bowling of Nigel Cochrane. West Coast were then skittled for 65 as Canterbury Country won the two-day match by 215 runs.
In March of 2008 he batted for over 6 hours in making 138 not out against Hawke’s Bay in Rangiora, as he and Robbie Frew batted the Bay out of any chance of claiming the Hawke Cup from them. Frew made 125 as he and Donkers added 218 for the 6th wicket, against a bowling attack that included Mitchell McClenaghan (34-7-84-3) and Doug Bracewell, who curiously only bowled 3 overs.
Perhaps the highlight of his playing days came when he turned out for Canterbury against a New Zealand Academy team, in a 3-day practice match at the Bert Sutcliffe Oval in Lincoln. The term “Academy” was used loosely here, with Nathan Astle and Chris Cairns turning out for the side, but Donkers tore in and claimed 5 for 31 from 17 overs, getting Martin Guptill, Astle and Cairns amongst his five wicket bag.
Donkers is now a Development Coach at Canterbury Cricket.
If you know any more about any of the players mentioned in this story or any of my other pieces, feel free to leave a comment below. I’d love to hear more about any one of them, and get a sense of what they were like as people. Cricketers are a funny lot, and there are always plenty of interesting stories going round!
Also thank you Mush for the story on Reekers. Much appreciated!!