Sutcliffe travelled from Auckland in company with fellow 49ers John Hayes and Geoff Rabone, and Martin Donnelly came from Sydney to honour their former captain during a weekend reunion in Christchurch. A highlight was the commissioning of the Walter Hadlee Entrance to The Willows Cricket Club ground near Loburn yesterday, in recognition of Hadlee's six decades of service to cricket in Canterbury.

``It's just force of habit,'' said Sutcliffe of his deference to his former skipper. ``It was my first tour, my first big experience, and I was pretty reliant on the wisdom and guidance of those who had been there and done that.''

Merv Wallace and Frank Mooney could not travel to Christchurch, and John Reid -- the ``baby'' of the 1949 team -- is referee of the Ashes series in Australia. But Hadlee said all eight survivors planned to meet for an official 50th anniversary reunion at Wellington in mid-March.

``We were all for one another, and that was the basis of our success,'' said Hadlee of a team which drew all four tests with England and lost only one of its 32 matches.