CRICKET: Living with Marie isn't a problem | Hawkes Bay News | Local News in Hawkes Bay

Blair Donald Marie Furlong - say what, Marie?

Excuse his French but Furlong is still in the dark about the origins of that part of his name.

Nevertheless he suspects it has some French connection in his lineage which also includes some Maori.

"When I was a young guy I only used to have the initials BD Furlong. I didn't dare put an 'M' in because someone was going to ask, 'What the hell is the 'M' for?'," says the Dannevirke-born stalwart, who turned 65 yesterday.

"It took people a long time to find out what it was but now it doesn't matter because it's what you're part of," says a jovial Furlong, who made his Hawke's Bay Magpies debut as an 18-year-old, one year after he left Dannevirke High School.

"My wife's actually doing our family tree at the moment, mostly from my father's family. On the other side, I've got Maori as well."

His sons, John and Campbell, have carried that family tradition of adopting the name Marie and so did their three sons.

For Furlong, family and cricket have been inseparable.

"It was a two-man band, really, because she [wife Kathie] used to do all my catering for all my games for hospitality, including internationals, but not the players," he explains, adding that the tasks became so big the couple couldn't keep up with the demands.

"I used to hide down the embankment when it came to lunchtime because I generally invited more people than I told her were actually coming. But the same thing still happens now, actually.

"Her support's been fantastic. Not only Kathie but also my sons, John and Campbell [former CD representative], who were the keen net putter-uppers and placed the covers on at Nelson Park years ago when they were little kids.

"My daughter, Hannah [Giddens], got carted around at Christmas time and New Year because we used to play during the holidays. She used to sit in the back seat with boxes of clothing falling on top of her.

"She was going to marry almost every cricketer that ever came to play for us. But she didn't end up marrying a cricketer," he says with a grin.

Soon after leaving high school, Furlong worked for Caltex. Later he spread his wings to Wellington for six months but the windy city didn't make an impression on him so he headed off to the Bay of Plenty, where his mother lived, for a year.

He moved to Napier in 1967 to work for Rothmans, where he stayed for 17 years. He worked at two other places then opened an indoor cricket centre before assuming his mantle of responsibility for Hawke's Bay Cricket and Central Districts Cricket with aplomb.