By Janika Ter Ellen
More than 250 people have turned out to honour the man who was New Zealand’s oldest living All Black and test cricketer.
Eric Tindill, 99, died on Sunday in his Wellington home, and though he didn't quite make a century - it was still a great innings.
Even in his later years, Tindill rarely missed a match so it was fitting he was fare welled at the cricket grounds.
“The only games he would've missed would be in the last few years when he was sick,” says Paul Tindill, Eric’s son.
“Prior to that, he came to all the tests and first class games as well. In the summertime the basin and dad were synonymous.”
Not only did Tindill represent New Zealand in rugby and cricket, playing test matches in both sports - he also refereed both at test level, and represented Wellington in table tennis and football.
Former All Blacks captain Graham Mourie says it is a rare feat nowadays to compete at a top level in more than one sport.
“It's very difficult now to achieve this in both sports, Eric was the only one to play test matches in both sports,” he says.
“…And then to go on and officiate as an umpire - it's an astonishing achievement.”
Mourie is not the only one who thinks so. It was standing room only today and since Tindall's death on Sunday, over 150 tributes from as far afield as India, Australia, the UK and US have appeared in the media.
All agreed - he possessed the grace only found in a man of a bygone era:
“He wouldn't have fitted into the professional world. The sort of fast and loose one of today,” says sports broadcaster Keith Quinn.
Former Black Cap John Morrison says Tindall was very “humble” and “fair”.
“He could never understand being paid to play for one's country,” he says.
“Snowy”, as he was known to those close to him, left the Basin Reserve for the last time today, draped in the New Zealand flag - a fitting decoration for a man whose simple and selfless goal was to serve it.
3 News