1952-53 - The Epic Final
Armidale Waratahs (The Tahs) | April 11, 2025
April 11th 1953, a definitive moment in Waratahs history, when the first premiership was won. Against all odds, including form, weather, experience, A grade beat the second of two Easts teams in an epic Final, with two weeks between the first and second days.
After an indifferent first half of the season, Waratahs only had two wins by Christmas, with the closest they got to either of the two Easts teams in the A grade being a draw in the washed out first round and two outright losses. Two successive outright victories over the festive season bought them back into contention for the semi finals. In the first, against Easts-II, allrounder Cooper not only made his season top score of 61 in Waratahs second innings, but rolled the Daffies with 6-40 in their second innings to go with his 4 scalps in the first. Uralla were the second victims, Waratahs making a rare venture beyond 200 and winning by an innings. S Mackie became the first Waratahs player to make 99. The good work was undone with losses to both of the East sides and by the time of the last round, Waratahs had to beat Uralla to qualify 4th and a spot in the semis. Waratahs batted first, making 204, with Ross Ridley (94) and Laurie Cooper (61) adding more than half of the total in their 3rd wicket century stand. On the second day, Uralla were cruising at 4-161 until Cooper threw out Kelly Barnden from deep cover and Don Paul trapped Walter Taylor lbw. Paul (5-49) scythed through the tail but it was another piece of Cooper magic that ended Uralla's reply just two runs short. Running for a third run on an overthrow, ex-Waratahs man Ted Crotty was found short when Cooper hit the middle peg at the bowlers end on the full from deep backward point.
Their semi-final was against Minor Premiers, Easts-I and Waratahs, batting first made 263, their best score of the season. Ross Ridley (79) was again in sparkling form, clearing the boundary five times and was well supported by Don Paul and skipper Fred Skillicorn. Easts-I were never in the hunt, despite 79 from Strahle, with Laurie Cooper and Paul bowling long spells and sharing the spoils. Meanwhile, Easts-II comfortably accounted for Uralla.
The Final at the Armidale Sportsground, started on the 28th March but wouldn't be completed until two weeks later on the 11th April, with the Armidale Show happening on the intervening weekend. The first day was a disaster, starting even before the toss when star allrounder Laurie Cooper had to withdraw an hour before the game after being called into work at the adjacent Armidale Racecourse. Cooper called in at the Sportsground but finding only a young lad their, he asked the boy to pass a note to his skipper Fred Skillicorn. The lad, not knowing Skillcorn, didn't find him until he was walking off after the toss. With teams declared, Waratahs would therefore have to play the Final one short and of all the players to be without, Cooper was a huge blow, with more than two hundred runs at 29 and 20 wickets at 17 and especially his brilliant fielding.
Batting first, Waratahs made a moderate 163, bolstered yet again by the in form Ross Ridley (59) in the middle order but his run out was one of three which hampered the chance of a bigger total. By stumps, Easts strong batting line-up were 0-59 and cruising, greatly assisted by four easy chances going down and worse still, Ridley badly breaking a finger behind the stumps.
In the two weeks until the second day, the Showground was used for ring and horse riding events, with the wicket square unprotected. Rain started on the Tuesday before the second day and continued until Friday night, finally clearing during Saturday morning. Worse still, Ridley's finger was too badly damaged for him to play.
The uncovered Sportsground wicket was a drying gluepot bathed in sunshine by the time play started, with the confident young Easts batsmen unworried about the task of knocking up the hundred or so for victory. What ensued was one of the most remarkable days of Finals cricket ever played in Armidale. Skillicorn was a shrewd captain and he started with the near medium paced off breaks of Don Paul (6-24, pictured) who wreaked havoc, Easts losing losing 10-36 and Waratahs leading by 68. Batting a second time, Waratahs faired even worse, rolled for just 21, their lowest ever A grade score. Easts, requiring 90 for the outright and the Premiership, didn't even make it halfway on a wicket that was by now, completely unplayable. Paul, now bowling with fingers along the seam, was now bowling slow medium pace cutters, made the ball jump and skid, hold up and shoot through, all from the same spots and took another seven second innings wickets giving him 13-44 for the afternoon. His only complaint was having to clean mud off the ball with each delivery.
Thirty wickets fell for just 100 runs on the second day and Waratahs had their first Premiership but it would be 19 years and way too many batting failures until their second A grade title.
This recount was possible partially from the scores and story published by the Armidale Express but mostly thanks to Milton Milligan, who played in the game and generously passed on all the colour of events.
Waratahs v East-II (Final) - A grade, 28th March & 11th April 1953
