August 29, 2026 • 14 mins
New Zealand are Over-60s World Cricket champions after the just-completed World Cup in Canada.
The final against England was washed out, meaning the two teams shared the title, but New Zealand were the only unbeaten team among the 14 nations at the tournament.
And leading them was Nelson-based Mason Robinson, who has been named tournament MVP after scoring 370 runs at an average of more than 84.
That included an unbeaten century against the United States, three fifties, and a string of highly consistent performances throughout the tournament.
He also took five catches and effected four stumpings as the side's wicketkeeper, and he joined Piney to reflect on the team's success.
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Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Weekend Sport Podcast with Jason Pine
from Newstalk ZB. The 60s World Cricket Champions after the
just completed World Cup in Canada. The final against England
was washed out, meaning the two teams shared the title.
But New Zealand were the only unbeaten team among the
14 nations at the tournament. And leading the way was
(00:28):
Nelson-based Mason Robinson. who's been named tournament MVP. He scored
370 runs at an average of more than 84. It
included an unbeaten century against the United States, 350s, and
a string of highly consistent performances throughout the tournament. He also,
if that wasn't enough, took five catches and affected four
(00:50):
stumpings as the side's wicketkeeper. Mason Robinson is with us. Mason, congratulations, mate,
to you and the team. You're officially... a World Cup winner.
How do you reflect back on the tournament and New
Zealand's achievements at the World Cup?
Speaker 2 (01:07):
Thanks, Piney. Gee, when you phrase it like that, it
sounds an impressive individual performance, but there's no doubt about it.
It was definitely an all-round improving team performance throughout the tournament.
Speaker 1 (01:23):
What were your expectations, your hopes going in? I mean,
did you target winning the thing?
Speaker 2 (01:29):
Oh, very much so. We were lucky enough. We went
to Brisbane about three weeks prior just to get a yardstick,
see how we were going against the Aussies. Unfortunately, I
was 59. So I played against the Queensland and the
buggers wouldn't let me play against Aussie. And as you
get older, you'd think there's more of a stickler for
(01:50):
the rules and the Aussies did that, but the English
certainly didn't. But yeah, So I was unable to play
those three pre-tournament games, but we were very close. And
our captain, Craig Gibb from Canterbury, he came away knowing that, shit,
Willard Bush, you add me into that mix, we were thereabouts.
(02:11):
And they were the previous cup holders. So we knew
we were in with a good chance.
Speaker 1 (02:17):
So you get there, though, and it's never the same,
isn't it? You think you're going to be okay, but
you get there and you start to win matches. At
what point did you start thinking, hang on, we are
actually good enough to win this thing?
Speaker 2 (02:29):
Yeah, we increased our momentum right throughout the tournament. I
guess the turning point for us, West Indies actually beat
the USA, and I know a few of the USA
guys there. All expat, Indian and Sri Lankan, Pakistanis. And
(02:50):
so they were a good team. But the West Indies
took them up. And we knew Gibby as our captain.
He just said, Mason, this is a must-win game. Otherwise,
it could let the West Indies sneak up. And that
was game three. So game three, we played all our
right bow and we kept attacking. and had a good
(03:10):
win against the West Indies, which put us sort of
top of the table and really curtailed theirs and the
USA's chances. It put us in a really good position
in terms of the pool.
Speaker 1 (03:26):
What was the standard of cricket like? What is the
standard of cricket like in this age group? Are there
some pretty serious cricketers turning out in this comp?
Speaker 2 (03:34):
Yeah, absolutely. It far exceeded my expectations. So I've just
come out of the over 50s, the pathway for the
over 60s.
Speaker 1 (03:45):
You're part of the youth policy of the over 60s,
are you?
Speaker 2 (03:48):
That's exactly right, yes. And I was sort of hesitant
because I just love that competitive nature to the game.
There's no doubt about it. Each of the countries are
playing still at that competitive level. physical level. I know
when you look at it on TV, it does look slow,
but when you're actually out there, it's... So we've got
(04:12):
Dean Askew. He's ex-first-class cricketer, still at 60. I do
stand up to him, but I know I'm at the...
I am pushing it. So he's still getting them through
at a good clip. And there was another bowler from
the West Indies again. He's a beautiful, big, tall, lanky
fella coming in. Then it drops back to sort of
the more just the seamers, the English and the Aussies.
(04:35):
They back their seamers and they're just accurate with good pace.
So it's sort of like first-change senior cricketers here in
Nelson or probably second grade in the bigger cities, the
first-change bowlers. But as you get older, the emphasis comes
(04:56):
on the accuracy and the spin bowling.
Speaker 1 (04:59):
Your tournament, Mason, 59, 48 not out, 62, 102 not out,
42 and 57. It's an incredible tournament. What do you
put your consistency down to?
Speaker 2 (05:11):
Well, I've got a good little team around me. And
in terms of, there's a couple of things I put
it down to. Robbie Frew was our over-50s captain, very
good coach of cricket, thinking brain, and He very much
has cleared my mind to singles and boundaries. So if
(05:31):
it's in my zone, I can have a go. If
it's not in my zone, don't just keep the good
ones out. You've got to manipulate the field. And we
were lucky enough in the 50s, before we went to
the Sri Lankan World Cup last year, had 40 minutes
with Daryl Mitchell on the phone in a conference call
with the whole team. It was the best. It really
(05:52):
hit home in terms of simple game plans, and with
the over 60s, the tournament, I really wanted to beat England,
never beaten them, never beaten Pakistan, and I had pretty
much a fierce determination that they were two scalps that
I wanted, but in that team environment, Craig Gibb again,
(06:13):
he set us on a direction, everyone was on board,
the top six batters, we weren't We were really trying
to eliminate dot balls, and that was like a game
we were playing within ourselves, and it certainly was the
right strategy in the over 60s. So if I could
lead that way, I think that was the key. I
think I ran 161 singles out of those 370 runs.
(06:39):
So there was a lot of sneaking bases, so to speak,
in Canadian Blue Jay terms.
Speaker 1 (06:44):
Indeed. How special was your century against the United States?
Speaker 2 (06:48):
Yeah, that's, yeah. Local Jim Morrison from Nelson, he reminded
me straight away that was my first international century. It
meant a lot because to me, they were a bit
of the dark horses and it just secured a good
target that I knew that we were going to be
able to defend that. Shit, it was good, all right.
Speaker 1 (07:10):
I bet. How do you actually prepare physically for a
tournament like this? Because look, Mason, at any age, six
matches of international... cricket, and it would have been seven
if you'd been able to play the final. I mean,
that's a pretty significant workload at any age. So how
did you prepare for the tournament?
Speaker 2 (07:26):
Yeah, well, this is the difference. I think, as you say,
each of the age groups is special, but this one,
Craig Gibbs sent this team in a direction about a
year ago. So sort of training plans, getting the top
three inches physically or mentally prepared and physical programs. We
(07:47):
were lucky enough, or we thought about it. We took
Matt Everest, who's an excellent physio therapist in his own right,
but in terms of conditioning. So after each game, we
were back in the pool. We were all doing the
right things at the right times. Nutrition was a key
part to it. And it was... So leading into it,
(08:10):
just preparing, getting your body right was really important. Probably running,
just running. remembering and training to run fast is the key.
Because as I said, the difference, I think, between our
team and the other teams was that ability to run
quickly in the field and between the wickets. And that was, yeah,
(08:31):
put a lot down for Matt Everest and Gibby's, the
captain's foresight and training programs.
Speaker 1 (08:40):
You had to share the trophy with England because, as
I say, the final was washed out. Was there a
degree of frustration that you didn't actually get to play
the final?
Speaker 2 (08:48):
Oh, I think very much so. We've come away, I think,
with a real positive attitude in terms of we know
we beat them in round robin. And if the rules
had been, perhaps, if the final was rained out, you
share it. We feel that if you happen to have
come from the same pool and had a win against
(09:08):
that particular team, That could give you that stepping stone
to say, well, you've got the trophy. We just knew
deep down we were playing well if we just executed
everything as we trained and we backed ourselves 100%.
Speaker 1 (09:30):
There was a bit of controversy, wasn't there, in a
poor game between England and India. One of the English
batters refused to leave the field. He was given out, said, no,
I'm not going. What did you and the team make
of that?
Speaker 2 (09:39):
Yeah, we more joked about it. Really, you can only
control what you can control, so stayed out of that
sort of discussion. At the end of the day, my
personal view is the umpires have the power. Whatever the
decision is, right or wrong, you've got to buy by it.
And actually, at the start of the tournament, the opening ceremony,
(10:00):
it was reminded, etiquette and ethical behaviour. If you're given out...
you just walk. So this guy didn't, and that's just
so bad. Perhaps when I was wicket-keeping and they were
batting during the English match, there was a few things
said as the appeal went up. Just quietly, just having
(10:21):
a bit of a chat. LAUGHTER But it was, yeah,
we tried to keep out of that generally. But, boy,
we knew that it hit the papers in the UK,
it hit the New Zealand Herald, so it was pretty
sort of big news. It sort of brought our efforts
into a little bit of, watered them down a little bit,
(10:42):
which was disappointing. But, no, hopefully between the English doing
that and the Aussies, Wicketkeeper did a little bit of... theatrics, which,
you know, again, just why do you do it after
so many years? It really did call into question some
of the English behaviour. So, crazy.
Speaker 1 (11:04):
Yeah. Well, I mean, that's the thing. You play cricket
long enough, or even if you don't play that long,
it goes both ways, doesn't it? I mean, we've all
nicked one and not been given out, or been given
out when we haven't nicked it, or whatever it might be.
These things tend to even themselves out over time. So,
as you say, I think if you just, you know,
if the overriding rule is whatever the umpire says, right
or wrongly, that's it. I think that's probably the best
(11:25):
rule to go by. Just to finish, Mason, when you
look back at this tournament in a few years' time,
what are you going to remember the most? Will it
be the cricket, the unbeaten run, your runs, the trophy,
the people you shared it with?
Speaker 2 (11:37):
The last point in particular, the people that I shared
this particular, when we departed or got together after the
final whistle had blown and we knew what we'd achieved,
As a group, we stood pretty strong together and look back,
although it's all history now, and we were part of it.
(11:58):
The bonds that were forged, it's something that will linger
for sure. The personal milestones for me have really hit
home yet because it was just one of those times
where I was in the zone and everything changed. went
really well, the strategies that we'd implemented. I just think
(12:23):
the camaraderie and this team, the thoughtfulness that went in
around our strategies, how we were going to get there,
just worked to treat them. We did everything really well.
And we know we did really well because... We wanted
to do exactly what we planned out and the results came.
It was just great.
Speaker 1 (12:43):
Yeah, well, congratulations to you and the team on your
personal contribution, Mason, to this and the team bringing home
the over 60s World Cricket Trophy. You actually got to
bring the trophy home, didn't you? It wasn't one of
those where they split it in half. Or do you
get it for six months and then they get it
for six months?
Speaker 2 (13:00):
Yeah, we got it. We tossed the coin and Gibby said, Mason,
I'm having some bad luck. You better toss the coin.
So I tossed it. We won that one, so we
got the first year. There'll be another World Cup, hopefully
in the UK. But my wife, Kendall, she's on the wicketkeeper.
She's the cupkeeper. And so she was responsible for making
sure it got to New Zealand. And we'll share it
(13:20):
around the country and sit it upon different sponsors' laps.
It's the first World Cup that any Masters or age
group team has won. And so 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s.
It's the first one from a New Zealand team. And
I think we got the recipe right as a team,
which in terms of prepping early, and I think that's
(13:43):
really the key. You can't just get a team together
at the last minute with the aim of winning a
World Cup. You've got to get right in there and
make sure it's well planned, a lot of training, and
the results will come.
Speaker 1 (13:55):
History makers. Congratulations again, Mason. Congratulations again, mate. Thanks for
the chat this afternoon.
Speaker 2 (14:00):
Great stuff, Tony. Thank you.
Speaker 1 (14:01):
No, thank you, mate. Mason Robinson there, tournament MVP and
New Zealand's leading run scorer as the over-60s won the
World Cup, just completed in Canada.
You're listening to the Weekend Sport Podcast with Jason Pine
from Newstalk ZB. The 60s World Cricket Champions after the
just completed World Cup in Canada. The final against England
was washed out, meaning the two teams shared the title.
But New Zealand were the only unbeaten team among the
14 nations at the tournament. And leading the way was
(00:28):
Nelson-based Mason Robinson. who's been named tournament MVP. He scored
370 runs at an average of more than 84. It
included an unbeaten century against the United States, 350s, and
a string of highly consistent performances throughout the tournament. He also,
if that wasn't enough, took five catches and affected four
(00:50):
stumpings as the side's wicketkeeper. Mason Robinson is with us. Mason, congratulations, mate,
to you and the team. You're officially... a World Cup winner.
How do you reflect back on the tournament and New
Zealand's achievements at the World Cup?
Speaker 2 (01:07):
Thanks, Piney. Gee, when you phrase it like that, it
sounds an impressive individual performance, but there's no doubt about it.
It was definitely an all-round improving team performance throughout the tournament.
Speaker 1 (01:23):
What were your expectations, your hopes going in? I mean,
did you target winning the thing?
Speaker 2 (01:29):
Oh, very much so. We were lucky enough. We went
to Brisbane about three weeks prior just to get a yardstick,
see how we were going against the Aussies. Unfortunately, I
was 59. So I played against the Queensland and the
buggers wouldn't let me play against Aussie. And as you
get older, you'd think there's more of a stickler for
(01:50):
the rules and the Aussies did that, but the English
certainly didn't. But yeah, So I was unable to play
those three pre-tournament games, but we were very close. And
our captain, Craig Gibb from Canterbury, he came away knowing that, shit,
Willard Bush, you add me into that mix, we were thereabouts.
(02:11):
And they were the previous cup holders. So we knew
we were in with a good chance.
Speaker 1 (02:17):
So you get there, though, and it's never the same,
isn't it? You think you're going to be okay, but
you get there and you start to win matches. At
what point did you start thinking, hang on, we are
actually good enough to win this thing?
Speaker 2 (02:29):
Yeah, we increased our momentum right throughout the tournament. I
guess the turning point for us, West Indies actually beat
the USA, and I know a few of the USA
guys there. All expat, Indian and Sri Lankan, Pakistanis. And
(02:50):
so they were a good team. But the West Indies
took them up. And we knew Gibby as our captain.
He just said, Mason, this is a must-win game. Otherwise,
it could let the West Indies sneak up. And that
was game three. So game three, we played all our
right bow and we kept attacking. and had a good
(03:10):
win against the West Indies, which put us sort of
top of the table and really curtailed theirs and the
USA's chances. It put us in a really good position
in terms of the pool.
Speaker 1 (03:26):
What was the standard of cricket like? What is the
standard of cricket like in this age group? Are there
some pretty serious cricketers turning out in this comp?
Speaker 2 (03:34):
Yeah, absolutely. It far exceeded my expectations. So I've just
come out of the over 50s, the pathway for the
over 60s.
Speaker 1 (03:45):
You're part of the youth policy of the over 60s,
are you?
Speaker 2 (03:48):
That's exactly right, yes. And I was sort of hesitant
because I just love that competitive nature to the game.
There's no doubt about it. Each of the countries are
playing still at that competitive level. physical level. I know
when you look at it on TV, it does look slow,
but when you're actually out there, it's... So we've got
(04:12):
Dean Askew. He's ex-first-class cricketer, still at 60. I do
stand up to him, but I know I'm at the...
I am pushing it. So he's still getting them through
at a good clip. And there was another bowler from
the West Indies again. He's a beautiful, big, tall, lanky
fella coming in. Then it drops back to sort of
the more just the seamers, the English and the Aussies.
(04:35):
They back their seamers and they're just accurate with good pace.
So it's sort of like first-change senior cricketers here in
Nelson or probably second grade in the bigger cities, the
first-change bowlers. But as you get older, the emphasis comes
(04:56):
on the accuracy and the spin bowling.
Speaker 1 (04:59):
Your tournament, Mason, 59, 48 not out, 62, 102 not out,
42 and 57. It's an incredible tournament. What do you
put your consistency down to?
Speaker 2 (05:11):
Well, I've got a good little team around me. And
in terms of, there's a couple of things I put
it down to. Robbie Frew was our over-50s captain, very
good coach of cricket, thinking brain, and He very much
has cleared my mind to singles and boundaries. So if
(05:31):
it's in my zone, I can have a go. If
it's not in my zone, don't just keep the good
ones out. You've got to manipulate the field. And we
were lucky enough in the 50s, before we went to
the Sri Lankan World Cup last year, had 40 minutes
with Daryl Mitchell on the phone in a conference call
with the whole team. It was the best. It really
(05:52):
hit home in terms of simple game plans, and with
the over 60s, the tournament, I really wanted to beat England,
never beaten them, never beaten Pakistan, and I had pretty
much a fierce determination that they were two scalps that
I wanted, but in that team environment, Craig Gibb again,
(06:13):
he set us on a direction, everyone was on board,
the top six batters, we weren't We were really trying
to eliminate dot balls, and that was like a game
we were playing within ourselves, and it certainly was the
right strategy in the over 60s. So if I could
lead that way, I think that was the key. I
think I ran 161 singles out of those 370 runs.
(06:39):
So there was a lot of sneaking bases, so to speak,
in Canadian Blue Jay terms.
Speaker 1 (06:44):
Indeed. How special was your century against the United States?
Speaker 2 (06:48):
Yeah, that's, yeah. Local Jim Morrison from Nelson, he reminded
me straight away that was my first international century. It
meant a lot because to me, they were a bit
of the dark horses and it just secured a good
target that I knew that we were going to be
able to defend that. Shit, it was good, all right.
Speaker 1 (07:10):
I bet. How do you actually prepare physically for a
tournament like this? Because look, Mason, at any age, six
matches of international... cricket, and it would have been seven
if you'd been able to play the final. I mean,
that's a pretty significant workload at any age. So how
did you prepare for the tournament?
Speaker 2 (07:26):
Yeah, well, this is the difference. I think, as you say,
each of the age groups is special, but this one,
Craig Gibbs sent this team in a direction about a
year ago. So sort of training plans, getting the top
three inches physically or mentally prepared and physical programs. We
(07:47):
were lucky enough, or we thought about it. We took
Matt Everest, who's an excellent physio therapist in his own right,
but in terms of conditioning. So after each game, we
were back in the pool. We were all doing the
right things at the right times. Nutrition was a key
part to it. And it was... So leading into it,
(08:10):
just preparing, getting your body right was really important. Probably running,
just running. remembering and training to run fast is the key.
Because as I said, the difference, I think, between our
team and the other teams was that ability to run
quickly in the field and between the wickets. And that was, yeah,
(08:31):
put a lot down for Matt Everest and Gibby's, the
captain's foresight and training programs.
Speaker 1 (08:40):
You had to share the trophy with England because, as
I say, the final was washed out. Was there a
degree of frustration that you didn't actually get to play
the final?
Speaker 2 (08:48):
Oh, I think very much so. We've come away, I think,
with a real positive attitude in terms of we know
we beat them in round robin. And if the rules
had been, perhaps, if the final was rained out, you
share it. We feel that if you happen to have
come from the same pool and had a win against
(09:08):
that particular team, That could give you that stepping stone
to say, well, you've got the trophy. We just knew
deep down we were playing well if we just executed
everything as we trained and we backed ourselves 100%.
Speaker 1 (09:30):
There was a bit of controversy, wasn't there, in a
poor game between England and India. One of the English
batters refused to leave the field. He was given out, said, no,
I'm not going. What did you and the team make
of that?
Speaker 2 (09:39):
Yeah, we more joked about it. Really, you can only
control what you can control, so stayed out of that
sort of discussion. At the end of the day, my
personal view is the umpires have the power. Whatever the
decision is, right or wrong, you've got to buy by it.
And actually, at the start of the tournament, the opening ceremony,
(10:00):
it was reminded, etiquette and ethical behaviour. If you're given out...
you just walk. So this guy didn't, and that's just
so bad. Perhaps when I was wicket-keeping and they were
batting during the English match, there was a few things
said as the appeal went up. Just quietly, just having
(10:21):
a bit of a chat. LAUGHTER But it was, yeah,
we tried to keep out of that generally. But, boy,
we knew that it hit the papers in the UK,
it hit the New Zealand Herald, so it was pretty
sort of big news. It sort of brought our efforts
into a little bit of, watered them down a little bit,
(10:42):
which was disappointing. But, no, hopefully between the English doing
that and the Aussies, Wicketkeeper did a little bit of... theatrics, which,
you know, again, just why do you do it after
so many years? It really did call into question some
of the English behaviour. So, crazy.
Speaker 1 (11:04):
Yeah. Well, I mean, that's the thing. You play cricket
long enough, or even if you don't play that long,
it goes both ways, doesn't it? I mean, we've all
nicked one and not been given out, or been given
out when we haven't nicked it, or whatever it might be.
These things tend to even themselves out over time. So,
as you say, I think if you just, you know,
if the overriding rule is whatever the umpire says, right
or wrongly, that's it. I think that's probably the best
(11:25):
rule to go by. Just to finish, Mason, when you
look back at this tournament in a few years' time,
what are you going to remember the most? Will it
be the cricket, the unbeaten run, your runs, the trophy,
the people you shared it with?
Speaker 2 (11:37):
The last point in particular, the people that I shared
this particular, when we departed or got together after the
final whistle had blown and we knew what we'd achieved,
As a group, we stood pretty strong together and look back,
although it's all history now, and we were part of it.
(11:58):
The bonds that were forged, it's something that will linger
for sure. The personal milestones for me have really hit
home yet because it was just one of those times
where I was in the zone and everything changed. went
really well, the strategies that we'd implemented. I just think
(12:23):
the camaraderie and this team, the thoughtfulness that went in
around our strategies, how we were going to get there,
just worked to treat them. We did everything really well.
And we know we did really well because... We wanted
to do exactly what we planned out and the results came.
It was just great.
Speaker 1 (12:43):
Yeah, well, congratulations to you and the team on your
personal contribution, Mason, to this and the team bringing home
the over 60s World Cricket Trophy. You actually got to
bring the trophy home, didn't you? It wasn't one of
those where they split it in half. Or do you
get it for six months and then they get it
for six months?
Speaker 2 (13:00):
Yeah, we got it. We tossed the coin and Gibby said, Mason,
I'm having some bad luck. You better toss the coin.
So I tossed it. We won that one, so we
got the first year. There'll be another World Cup, hopefully
in the UK. But my wife, Kendall, she's on the wicketkeeper.
She's the cupkeeper. And so she was responsible for making
sure it got to New Zealand. And we'll share it
(13:20):
around the country and sit it upon different sponsors' laps.
It's the first World Cup that any Masters or age
group team has won. And so 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s.
It's the first one from a New Zealand team. And
I think we got the recipe right as a team,
which in terms of prepping early, and I think that's
(13:43):
really the key. You can't just get a team together
at the last minute with the aim of winning a
World Cup. You've got to get right in there and
make sure it's well planned, a lot of training, and
the results will come.
Speaker 1 (13:55):
History makers. Congratulations again, Mason. Congratulations again, mate. Thanks for
the chat this afternoon.
Speaker 2 (14:00):
Great stuff, Tony. Thank you.
Speaker 1 (14:01):
No, thank you, mate. Mason Robinson there, tournament MVP and
New Zealand's leading run scorer as the over-60s won the
World Cup, just completed in Canada.
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