November 27, 2025 • 10 mins
Jack Hilton looks at his journey from the UK to Gore, and why he hasn't left!
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:09):
Welcome back to the Master. I'm hakanui gee. It's like
state HOLLI wan in the studio this afternoon. A couple
of MP's and now a guy's involved with Selfland cricket.
His name is Jack Hilton. He's involved in boy Koey
Cooey cricket down here in the self and competition, but
as well he is involved with Selfland cricket. But he
came from England, of all places, and he came here
(00:30):
a few years ago and he hasn't left. He's going
to tell us about his journey about arriving in good
Good afternoon Jack, good to catch.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
Up, afternoon, Andy, great to be here.
Speaker 1 (00:39):
How the hell did you end up in golf?
Speaker 2 (00:42):
I am it's probably quite a well told story for
a few people now. But well it would have been
eight years ago, I think now. I was back home
in the UK and scrolling through a couple of jobs website.
There was a cricket jobs wanning. Usually you scroll through
him and you're like, oh, that'd be a great job,
but you need professional playing experience or whatever. And then
(01:05):
the came to Southland or south and popped up and
I was like, oh wow, I'm pretty pretty much doing
this for my club already, why don't I give it
a crack. I won't get to New Zealand otherwise a
good chance to explore the world. And yeah, got the job,
came over only ever thought it was going to be
one summer, and then loved it and just kept coming
(01:27):
back and here we are.
Speaker 1 (01:28):
So was it what you expected? I suppose coming over here.
Speaker 2 (01:33):
To some extent, I think in the UK club cricket's
a bit stronger, so that was probably a big transition,
was I guess In my job you deal a lot
more with the schools and cricket in that regard. So
once I, once I got used to that, yeah it was.
It's a different kind of lifestyle and culture over here,
(01:54):
way more relaxed, and I think that probably suits me
a lot more as well.
Speaker 1 (01:59):
Yeah, so we're a bit in the UK.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
You're from actually from Edinburgh, Scotland. So family is from Manchester,
kind of north of England, but we moved up to
Scotland when I was about five years old, I believe,
and we've been there ever since. So yeah.
Speaker 1 (02:14):
I played an Essex for Chignall Smealy Oh wow, of Chelmsford.
There's a few years ago. Now for a lot of Keoyes.
You go over there and you played the cricket the
Saturday and the Sunday and it's pretty full on, just
a club laeve the Lord either And was it by
Koey Keoey obviously that you've seen the advertisement four for
coming over here or how did you align with them?
Speaker 2 (02:33):
Well, it was the Cooy's one hundred and twenty fifth
jubilee that season and Southern Cricket wanted to do a
bit of a project out here in eastern Southland and
they needed a place for me to stay for the summer.
And I believe the Coui were the first ones to
come forward and say we had an old farmhouse and
so long as he plays for us for the season,
you'll get rent for free. So didn't really have much
(02:57):
of a choice. But then we went on to win
the comp that first season. I was like, well, I
can't go anywhere else now. It doesn't get much better
than this, and here we are.
Speaker 1 (03:05):
And the thing about why Kooey kewey, it's in the
middle of nowhere yet here's two teams And we talked
about this before. It's not about people being in the area,
but people wanting to travel to go the other.
Speaker 2 (03:15):
Play the appeal of it. Yeah, I mean like these days,
majority of our club, as you say, don't live in
or around the Quey, a lot of as a goal
base now and potentially a little bit further afield than that.
And yeah, I think it's just I know, particularly in
the A team which I've played the majority of my
games for, it's just we're all mates that have now
(03:36):
played together for seven, eight nine years, some of them
even longer than that. And yeah, even this weekend's team
it's almost like a golden oldies team a little bit.
But there's a heck of a lot of excitement about
tomorrow because we're playing with a bunch just playing with
a bunch of mates really and hopefully a good level
of cricket too, at.
Speaker 1 (03:54):
Least for you. Honest, the fire is still burning after
losing the final by one lenk of the pitch last year.
Speaker 2 (03:59):
Oh yeah, let's move on quickly. I'm still not over it.
Speaker 1 (04:03):
But there was mind you you think about that, it
was u yaland Crickets Lord's twenty nineteen or Killies twenty
nineteen Lord's moment as well as true true, But anyway, look,
so you're working for Southland Cricket. What does it involved
as such?
Speaker 2 (04:15):
So yeah, I'm the development officer for south and Cricket,
so these days that covers the whole the Southland. I
said to somebody recently, I've kind of lost track of
days and dates at the moment and I almost planned
my week by which location I've got to be in.
So like on Mondays we're in Tian Now we've got
Tuesday cricket right here in Gore for the little ones,
(04:36):
Wednesday down in the cargo, Thursdays in verta Commas, a
day off, so working from home in the office, and
then Friday's back for the older kids in Eastern South
and down at Hamilton Park. So yeah, full on week.
But it's just just trying to grow the game as
much as we can, I guess, constantly reacting to different
challenges that comes with community sport. Like it's the challenges
(04:58):
we facing cricket will be the same for rugby, football, hockey, netball.
Speaker 1 (05:03):
It's a different here now. There's so many options out there.
When I grow up and I've seen this many a time, Yeah, cricket,
rugby and tinis and in winter you hear the hips
rugby and basketball if you hit the facilities.
Speaker 2 (05:14):
Yeah, yeah, there's there's a lot more. It's not just sports,
it's just activities as well. And yeah, like I guess,
our philosophy with cricket is we try and make it exciting.
Like we're under no illusions. It can be Cricket can
be the worst sport in the world and one of
the most boring, and like I view a lot of
my role is how do we change that perception, not
(05:35):
just with kids and players, but with coaches and parents,
And yeah, hopefully hopefully we can create a bit of
a buzz around the sport. And like, it's my favorite sport.
I love it and hopefully I can I guess pass
that passion on as well.
Speaker 1 (05:49):
So how do you change a perception of cricket for
a lot of parents whose kids wants to play? It's boring.
You're sitting there and they just say, what are you doing?
You might as well go and watch a grass grow?
Common thing right here.
Speaker 2 (06:01):
Yeah, it's not. It's not an exact science. And I
mean this is my ninth summer here now, so I've
still not got it right on every level. But we
do a lot of in school visits with classes and
play cricket with them and hopefully fizz up the kids
that way, and they go home wanting to tell Mom
and Dad, I want to play cricket Jack or whoever
(06:22):
was in school today. It's hopefully they say it's really cool.
I want to give it a crack. And then we've
also got to make sure we don't rest in our
laurels when they come down to Hamilton Park here or
Queen's parking in the cargo ready to play. We've got
to make sure that the games they get to play
in the competition they're involved in is just as exciting
as a visit from us in their school as well.
(06:45):
So it's a I was about to say a constant battle,
but yeah, just constantly each week. We're looking to always
improve and change things up, hopefully.
Speaker 1 (06:52):
Because I can imagine your job job being the most
rewarding but as well the most frustrating too.
Speaker 2 (06:58):
Yeah, I think you've you've probably ailed it there. It's
always it's really cool when the kids get underway after
school each day of the week wherever we are, and
you can just kind of all the pictures are playing
and you can just kind of take a minute to
kind of step back and just watch it. The music's
blaring and all the rest of it, and even the
(07:18):
little ones like you five and six year olds right
up to your year sixes and year sevens and eight.
So you can look around and it looks like cricket
that you see on TV and you think, oh, we're
onto something here, but then there's always an email or
a text or a phone call that's not far away,
and something's maybe not gone quite to plan. But like
I view what I do, I feel very privileged to
(07:39):
do it. Not many people can say they get to
work and earn a living out of a sport or
something they love.
Speaker 1 (07:44):
So, yeah, is it buying from the schools with what
you're doing.
Speaker 2 (07:48):
Yeah, definitely it's Again it's tough, I know, like the
school curriculum. The school day is very jam packed and busy,
and we're really appreciative of schools to give us their
time and let us have their classes for half an
hour or whatever it is. And then the enthusiasm that
a number of schools show towards helping us grow the game,
(08:11):
it doesn't go unnoticed and for us it's just massive,
And you talk about it being rewarding to get that
to be able to build up those kind of working
relationships with schools. I guess the other thing living in
a smallest town like Gore, in a community, you just
I say, if you go to the supermarket the wrong
time of day so to speak, so sort of just
(08:32):
after school, it takes twice or three times as long
because you run into people that you know, and kids
are waving at you down the street because they've just
had a cricket session from you that day or stuff
like that. So yeah, I think everyone's pretty supportive, but
it's just with so much going on, we don't always
(08:53):
get the numbers we'd like. But yeah, what a great
job to have though.
Speaker 1 (08:59):
Just finally, basbell Yale or Nae, maybe it's not an answer.
Speaker 2 (09:05):
Yeah, I know after last week's performance, he'd probably say nay.
But at least it's created a bit of excitement around
that team and around the Ashes series over and nausey
at the moment, So long may it continue and hopefully
makes for a good summer of cricket as well.
Speaker 1 (09:23):
Hey good on you, Jack, Thanks very much for your
time this afternoon coming in studio and you've got a
lot going on this afternoon. But that was really great
for the kitch up and up the killie tomorrow.
Speaker 2 (09:32):
Suppose that, Yeah, thanks for having me. Cheers Andy, Hello,
laugh out loud with ag proud because life on the
land can be a laughing matter. Brought to us by
sheer Well Data working to.
Speaker 1 (09:46):
Help the livestock farmer. Bira was sitting at the bar,
steering at the drake when a big biker walked up
greb mcglass and swallowed it in a big goal. He goes, well,
what you're gonna do about it, you runt, and I
just started crying. I see, this has been the worst
my life. I was late to a meeting and the
boss fired me. When I got to the parking lot,
the car was gone, stolen. I don't even insurance, left
a wallet and the cabatock came. Then found my wife
(10:09):
of another man to top it off. The dog but me,
so I came here to get the carriageter ended and
I bought a drink. I dropped poison in it. I
sat here watching it dissolved, and you'd walked in and
drink the whole bloody thing. But anyway, enough about me,
how's your day going? And that's us over and done.
With for the week. Here on the Muster, the best
of five a m. Tomorrow morning, The Muster podcasts going
(10:30):
up on Oyheart Radio very shortly. I'mandy Muher. This has
been the Muster on Hock and now he thinks to
Peters and Elix enjoy the weekend, See you Monday.
Speaker 2 (10:38):
Trying to figure
Welcome back to the Master. I'm hakanui gee. It's like
state HOLLI wan in the studio this afternoon. A couple
of MP's and now a guy's involved with Selfland cricket.
His name is Jack Hilton. He's involved in boy Koey
Cooey cricket down here in the self and competition, but
as well he is involved with Selfland cricket. But he
came from England, of all places, and he came here
(00:30):
a few years ago and he hasn't left. He's going
to tell us about his journey about arriving in good
Good afternoon Jack, good to catch.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
Up, afternoon, Andy, great to be here.
Speaker 1 (00:39):
How the hell did you end up in golf?
Speaker 2 (00:42):
I am it's probably quite a well told story for
a few people now. But well it would have been
eight years ago, I think now. I was back home
in the UK and scrolling through a couple of jobs website.
There was a cricket jobs wanning. Usually you scroll through
him and you're like, oh, that'd be a great job,
but you need professional playing experience or whatever. And then
(01:05):
the came to Southland or south and popped up and
I was like, oh wow, I'm pretty pretty much doing
this for my club already, why don't I give it
a crack. I won't get to New Zealand otherwise a
good chance to explore the world. And yeah, got the job,
came over only ever thought it was going to be
one summer, and then loved it and just kept coming
(01:27):
back and here we are.
Speaker 1 (01:28):
So was it what you expected? I suppose coming over here.
Speaker 2 (01:33):
To some extent, I think in the UK club cricket's
a bit stronger, so that was probably a big transition,
was I guess In my job you deal a lot
more with the schools and cricket in that regard. So
once I, once I got used to that, yeah it was.
It's a different kind of lifestyle and culture over here,
(01:54):
way more relaxed, and I think that probably suits me
a lot more as well.
Speaker 1 (01:59):
Yeah, so we're a bit in the UK.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
You're from actually from Edinburgh, Scotland. So family is from Manchester,
kind of north of England, but we moved up to
Scotland when I was about five years old, I believe,
and we've been there ever since. So yeah.
Speaker 1 (02:14):
I played an Essex for Chignall Smealy Oh wow, of Chelmsford.
There's a few years ago. Now for a lot of Keoyes.
You go over there and you played the cricket the
Saturday and the Sunday and it's pretty full on, just
a club laeve the Lord either And was it by
Koey Keoey obviously that you've seen the advertisement four for
coming over here or how did you align with them?
Speaker 2 (02:33):
Well, it was the Cooy's one hundred and twenty fifth
jubilee that season and Southern Cricket wanted to do a
bit of a project out here in eastern Southland and
they needed a place for me to stay for the summer.
And I believe the Coui were the first ones to
come forward and say we had an old farmhouse and
so long as he plays for us for the season,
you'll get rent for free. So didn't really have much
(02:57):
of a choice. But then we went on to win
the comp that first season. I was like, well, I
can't go anywhere else now. It doesn't get much better
than this, and here we are.
Speaker 1 (03:05):
And the thing about why Kooey kewey, it's in the
middle of nowhere yet here's two teams And we talked
about this before. It's not about people being in the area,
but people wanting to travel to go the other.
Speaker 2 (03:15):
Play the appeal of it. Yeah, I mean like these days,
majority of our club, as you say, don't live in
or around the Quey, a lot of as a goal
base now and potentially a little bit further afield than that.
And yeah, I think it's just I know, particularly in
the A team which I've played the majority of my
games for, it's just we're all mates that have now
(03:36):
played together for seven, eight nine years, some of them
even longer than that. And yeah, even this weekend's team
it's almost like a golden oldies team a little bit.
But there's a heck of a lot of excitement about
tomorrow because we're playing with a bunch just playing with
a bunch of mates really and hopefully a good level
of cricket too, at.
Speaker 1 (03:54):
Least for you. Honest, the fire is still burning after
losing the final by one lenk of the pitch last year.
Speaker 2 (03:59):
Oh yeah, let's move on quickly. I'm still not over it.
Speaker 1 (04:03):
But there was mind you you think about that, it
was u yaland Crickets Lord's twenty nineteen or Killies twenty
nineteen Lord's moment as well as true true, But anyway, look,
so you're working for Southland Cricket. What does it involved
as such?
Speaker 2 (04:15):
So yeah, I'm the development officer for south and Cricket,
so these days that covers the whole the Southland. I
said to somebody recently, I've kind of lost track of
days and dates at the moment and I almost planned
my week by which location I've got to be in.
So like on Mondays we're in Tian Now we've got
Tuesday cricket right here in Gore for the little ones,
(04:36):
Wednesday down in the cargo, Thursdays in verta Commas, a
day off, so working from home in the office, and
then Friday's back for the older kids in Eastern South
and down at Hamilton Park. So yeah, full on week.
But it's just just trying to grow the game as
much as we can, I guess, constantly reacting to different
challenges that comes with community sport. Like it's the challenges
(04:58):
we facing cricket will be the same for rugby, football, hockey, netball.
Speaker 1 (05:03):
It's a different here now. There's so many options out there.
When I grow up and I've seen this many a time, Yeah, cricket,
rugby and tinis and in winter you hear the hips
rugby and basketball if you hit the facilities.
Speaker 2 (05:14):
Yeah, yeah, there's there's a lot more. It's not just sports,
it's just activities as well. And yeah, like I guess,
our philosophy with cricket is we try and make it exciting.
Like we're under no illusions. It can be Cricket can
be the worst sport in the world and one of
the most boring, and like I view a lot of
my role is how do we change that perception, not
(05:35):
just with kids and players, but with coaches and parents,
And yeah, hopefully hopefully we can create a bit of
a buzz around the sport. And like, it's my favorite sport.
I love it and hopefully I can I guess pass
that passion on as well.
Speaker 1 (05:49):
So how do you change a perception of cricket for
a lot of parents whose kids wants to play? It's boring.
You're sitting there and they just say, what are you doing?
You might as well go and watch a grass grow?
Common thing right here.
Speaker 2 (06:01):
Yeah, it's not. It's not an exact science. And I
mean this is my ninth summer here now, so I've
still not got it right on every level. But we
do a lot of in school visits with classes and
play cricket with them and hopefully fizz up the kids
that way, and they go home wanting to tell Mom
and Dad, I want to play cricket Jack or whoever
(06:22):
was in school today. It's hopefully they say it's really cool.
I want to give it a crack. And then we've
also got to make sure we don't rest in our
laurels when they come down to Hamilton Park here or
Queen's parking in the cargo ready to play. We've got
to make sure that the games they get to play
in the competition they're involved in is just as exciting
as a visit from us in their school as well.
(06:45):
So it's a I was about to say a constant battle,
but yeah, just constantly each week. We're looking to always
improve and change things up, hopefully.
Speaker 1 (06:52):
Because I can imagine your job job being the most
rewarding but as well the most frustrating too.
Speaker 2 (06:58):
Yeah, I think you've you've probably ailed it there. It's
always it's really cool when the kids get underway after
school each day of the week wherever we are, and
you can just kind of all the pictures are playing
and you can just kind of take a minute to
kind of step back and just watch it. The music's
blaring and all the rest of it, and even the
(07:18):
little ones like you five and six year olds right
up to your year sixes and year sevens and eight.
So you can look around and it looks like cricket
that you see on TV and you think, oh, we're
onto something here, but then there's always an email or
a text or a phone call that's not far away,
and something's maybe not gone quite to plan. But like
I view what I do, I feel very privileged to
(07:39):
do it. Not many people can say they get to
work and earn a living out of a sport or
something they love.
Speaker 1 (07:44):
So, yeah, is it buying from the schools with what
you're doing.
Speaker 2 (07:48):
Yeah, definitely it's Again it's tough, I know, like the
school curriculum. The school day is very jam packed and busy,
and we're really appreciative of schools to give us their
time and let us have their classes for half an
hour or whatever it is. And then the enthusiasm that
a number of schools show towards helping us grow the game,
(08:11):
it doesn't go unnoticed and for us it's just massive,
And you talk about it being rewarding to get that
to be able to build up those kind of working
relationships with schools. I guess the other thing living in
a smallest town like Gore, in a community, you just
I say, if you go to the supermarket the wrong
time of day so to speak, so sort of just
(08:32):
after school, it takes twice or three times as long
because you run into people that you know, and kids
are waving at you down the street because they've just
had a cricket session from you that day or stuff
like that. So yeah, I think everyone's pretty supportive, but
it's just with so much going on, we don't always
(08:53):
get the numbers we'd like. But yeah, what a great
job to have though.
Speaker 1 (08:59):
Just finally, basbell Yale or Nae, maybe it's not an answer.
Speaker 2 (09:05):
Yeah, I know after last week's performance, he'd probably say nay.
But at least it's created a bit of excitement around
that team and around the Ashes series over and nausey
at the moment, So long may it continue and hopefully
makes for a good summer of cricket as well.
Speaker 1 (09:23):
Hey good on you, Jack, Thanks very much for your
time this afternoon coming in studio and you've got a
lot going on this afternoon. But that was really great
for the kitch up and up the killie tomorrow.
Speaker 2 (09:32):
Suppose that, Yeah, thanks for having me. Cheers Andy, Hello,
laugh out loud with ag proud because life on the
land can be a laughing matter. Brought to us by
sheer Well Data working to.
Speaker 1 (09:46):
Help the livestock farmer. Bira was sitting at the bar,
steering at the drake when a big biker walked up
greb mcglass and swallowed it in a big goal. He goes, well,
what you're gonna do about it, you runt, and I
just started crying. I see, this has been the worst
my life. I was late to a meeting and the
boss fired me. When I got to the parking lot,
the car was gone, stolen. I don't even insurance, left
a wallet and the cabatock came. Then found my wife
(10:09):
of another man to top it off. The dog but me,
so I came here to get the carriageter ended and
I bought a drink. I dropped poison in it. I
sat here watching it dissolved, and you'd walked in and
drink the whole bloody thing. But anyway, enough about me,
how's your day going? And that's us over and done.
With for the week. Here on the Muster, the best
of five a m. Tomorrow morning, The Muster podcasts going
(10:30):
up on Oyheart Radio very shortly. I'mandy Muher. This has
been the Muster on Hock and now he thinks to
Peters and Elix enjoy the weekend, See you Monday.
Speaker 2 (10:38):
Trying to figure
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