THE SEMIS - A Grade v Easts, 22nd/29th March 1969
Armidale Waratahs (The Tahs) | April 07, 2026
Waratahs, unbeaten since early December and with three outright wins in the second half of the season, were clear Minor Premiers and certainly long odds-on to beat Easts in the semi-final. Bill Thompson (#185) was closing in on 600 runs for the season, with Graham Johnson (#207) and Alan Gray (#26) also scoring heavily throughout. Terry Betts (#205) had his best season behind the stumps with 27 dismissals and the excellent slips were sharp snapping up the plentiful edges found by Tom Cooke (#197) 54 wickets, Brian Joice (#218) 40 and Terry Mackenzie (#54) 34.
By all logic, Easts weren’t in the hunt and batting first, they confirmed that, being 9-98 before last man in, Don Foster, took to the long handle and added 35 for the last wicket with Alec Eddie. It was a partnership which proved to be decisive. As it often was, Cooke and Joice were far too good for the Easts batsmen and the slips caught even the remote half chances but it was the Waratahs batting, under pressure, which was incapable of doing the job. Gray, an early used night watchman Peter Rigg (#201) and Johnson, were all gone to Lawrie with just ten on the board but it didn’t stop Thompson attacking. He made 27 of the first 39 before he was done by a Mark McCann wrong-on in what Waratahs thought was the last over but the umpires insisted on one more … in which Betts was caught hooking Lawrie, with the compact Keith Sheffield (#219) bemused at the other end. 5-47 at stumps was a sorry tale for the favourites.
On the second Saturday, K Baldwin (#204) offered little but the always competitive Joice stood tall as Sheffield started to play strokes in an attempt to put pressure back on the dominating Lawrie, by attacking the leg spin of McCann at the other end. The pair added 42 and at 6-102, with only 32 required, the match had swung back in Waratahs favour. Then Lawrie removed Joice and John Roberts (#115) in the one over and Mackenzie left in the Foster’s first over.
Sheffield, watching Cooke play and miss and then edge past third slip for four, had no choice but to attack, hitting Lawrie past square leg for four and then on the last ball of the over, trying to repeat the dose but only managing to sky it back to the bowler. It had been a fine innings from Sheffield, coming in at 3-10 and making half of the runs as the rest crumbled, Waratahs just 20 runs short with seven of them failing to reach double figures.
Lawrie had been superb and played the fourth placed Easts into the Final against Ex Services.
Waratahs v Easts - A Grade Final, 22nd/29th March 1969
