THE FINALS - 1st Grade v The Armidale School, 23rd/24th March 1991
Armidale Waratahs (The Tahs) | April 03, 2026
THE FINALS - 1st Grade v The Armidale School, 23rd & 24th March 1991
A blistering hot Waratahs batting line up went into this Final against TAS. The defending Premiers, they had failed to make 200 in an innings only twice in 11 games, had chased down big totals four times and lost only one game. They were odds on against a talented TAS collection of youngbloods and two very experienced, very cagey old heads - former Tahs man Graham Johnson (#207) and future Tahs man Brian Barnden (#802).
Back in early November, as Waratahs lost only five wickets chasing down the 257 of TAS, Graham Johnson, in his 26th season with Waratahs and co-opted back into 1st grade by his friend Garry Clark (#285), had swung the game Waratahs way on the first day with 4-45 after TAS seemed to be heading for more than three hundred. After being one of leggie James Dent’s three victims as Stu MacFarlan (#606) made an effortless hundred, Barnden made him an offer he had been waiting for from TAS for a long time - the chance to mould the talent into a competitive team as their captain.
By the time the Final came, Waratahs had dominated the competition with their batting. Clark, Daniel Ryan (#514) and father Bede Ryan (#503) had made hundreds and MacFarlan multiples. If they were short anywhere, it was in bowlers capable of scything through an opposition - probably the reason why the batting had to be so good in a dry season of flat tracks around Armidale.
Johnson won the toss and their first three, Lachlan Fulloon, John Barnes and James Dent, got them to 1-106, with two grinding fifty partnerships, for that was the mantra from the skipper. Bat the overs, no matter what, bat the overs. Fulloon was run out and Shamus Robertson (#629) removed the other two to catches behind the wicket. From there, it was a long grind as TAS did as they were told, batting for 81 overs and finally being out for a score which surely Waratahs could chase. Daniel Ryan and Robertson had bowled long spells tying them down, with 15 maidens in their collaborative 48 overs. Three more late run outs improved Waratahs afternoon but Sunday dawned with the bookies listing Waratahs as the shortest priced favourites in many a cricket season, halfway through a Final.
There is a long Waratahs tradition of shonky deckchair batting in Finals and by the time the 32nd over was finished, that tradition had again been fulfilled. At 7-38, with Daniel Ryan injured and MacFarlan gone, Waratahs were a shot duck. Nick Aggs tore them into pieces, removing Steve Hadfield (#524) in the first over, MacFarlan in his fifth and Bede Ryan and Clark soon after. Barnden took out the opener, James Campbell (#382) and then Chris Johnstone removed both Paul Melville (#556) and Robertson for ducks. Troy Maguire (#628) managed to push the score to three figures with Greg Lough (#627) and the incapacitated Daniel Ryan finally coming in at ten.
Waratahs lost by 95 and TAS won their first top grade Premiership in more than 30 seasons. It was a triumph for Guiley Johnson - as if he needed any more - and the bait dangled by Barnden four months earlier.
Waratahs v TAS - 1st Grade Final, 23rd & 24th March 1991
Postscript: wind forward twenty five seasons and renovations are taking place at the Tattersalls Hotel in Armidale, when in a storeroom about to be demolished, they find an old trophy, the Antill Cup, the reward for winning the ADCA 1st grade Premiership. It had been declared lost when the ADCA President had gone looking for it to present at the end of the 1991-92 season. Tatts was Waratahs old watering hole in 1991 and somehow, it had ended up there, probably left behind by the winning skipper while having a drink with his old team mate, the losing skipper. Waratahs lost but got to hold onto the trophy for 25 years without knowing it!
