Bill Brown, Ian Johnstone, Keith Miller and more were flown in from Australia. Walter Hadlee, Eric Tindall and others came from around New Zealand and they gathered and nattered, flicking through memories that were littered with war days, high days and holidays.

Out in the middle, during the long frustrating afternoon before play began, Brown and Johnstone, both minds still razor sharp, said the pitch looked a ``beaut... grassier than we used to play on but hard and probably good to bat on if you get through the new ball''.

Which was the trouble for New Zealand - they failed to keep out England's new-ball attack. In fact, at 23 for five after an hour-and-a-quarter of cricket, the 42 and 54 of 50 years ago looked a mile off. To add insult, much of the damage for England was done by a New Zealander, a Christchurch boy, against the country of his birth, who was bowling with the look and the resolve of a man with a long-awaited mission.

Andrew Caddick has had a rotten winter during which he has been ignored by the tour selectors who doubt that he is of the right stuff. He had a rotten deal at the end of last summer too, when after a call to his adopted country's colours and a decent effort against Pakistan at Headingley when he took six wickets, he was dropped for the next Test at the Oval.

He has brought a fair bit of this doubt upon himself by some limp performances under pressure; through injury, which has struck at unfortunate times, and because of aggravating dressing-room references to New Zealand which fuel the arguments of those who question his commitment to England.

He must have squashed the commitment bit yesterday so purposefully did he approach the crease, so aggressively did he hit the pitch and the seam with the new ball and so honest was the joy in his triumph.

That he was given the new ball was a start and should have given him encouragement, albeit he was asked to bowl from the wrong end, the end into the wind. At first he appeared to try a little too hard, rushing to justify his delayed selection and doubtless to offer a few told-you-so's, which meant he bowled wide of off stump and for two overs did not make the batsman play.

There was some derision from the English section of the crowd, ``come-ons'' and ``go homes'' but he held his nerve and after two unlikely maidens, which may have helped him to settle, got the radar right and bowled much as he does for Somerset, with nip and with zip and with a deal of pace.

Batting against Caddick can be a demanding business. There is plenty of Hadlee in his style, some Ambrose in the wicked bounce he gets around off stump and some Garner in the way that the best of his bowling spits into the splice of the bat and jars the bottom hand.

Would that he could develop into half the bowler of one of these experts, and he could, for he has their natural attributes of slim but strong build and about six and a half feet of height that, added to telescopic arms, haunt the batsman as if he were a mantis. He is one of those bowlers who make a batsman feel claustrophobic, a bowler who seems to shorten the pitch and consume you from far less than the given 22 yards.

What he needs to find now is a touch of Hadlee's brain for bowling and the patience; a glimmer of Garner's consistency and ever-present hint of movement and an injection of Ambrose's fire. With a little of each of these he can secure his place in an England team who desperately need a bowler of his type to complement the more carefree styles of Dominic Cork and Darren Gough.

Too many England cricketers do not convert their county form to their country's cricket. Caddick has been one of these, one who finds it difficult to impose himself in a higher, harsher grade.

Yesterday he made a good start in what is a second and, perhaps, he feels, last chance. His opportunity is in his own hands for the rest of this tour and if he achieves as much as his ability suggests, then it is up to the selectors to support his unusual talent by recognising it as something that England lack rather than questioning it because it belongs to someone they do not trust.