THE FINALS - B Grade v Public Service, 9th April 1960
Armidale Waratahs (The Tahs) | April 14, 2026
In the closest Final any Waratahs side has contested, B Grade snuck home by one wicket. Waratahs side, with its many quality allrounders had rolled Public Service earlier in the afternoon, with Col Marshall (#102) taking 5-42 including four of the first five wickets to fall which had Public Service 5-24. In fact, it was a ninth wicket partnership of 48 that gave them any sort of total at all, with Wetherill batting from 4 to end with red ink. Marshall’s pfeiffer gave him 60 for the season.
Waratahs reply, riding on the back of skipper and first drop John McIntyre (#99), looked steady enough at 1-31 and 2-59 but despite McIntyre’s stoic batting, wickets kept falling at the other end as Waratahs inched over the 100 and closed in on the win. McIntyre’s dismissal and the quick loss of Max Nixon (#88) left Waratahs at 9-124 but they may as well have been a hundred short as the Russell boys - John (#89) and Dick (#32) - were among the worst of Waratahs batsmen, with a cumulative total of 79 runs from 21 innings in the season!
Dick’s first delivery from Wetherill shaved the off stump and went four 4 byes. He was dropped the second ball to end the over. John swung lustily at the first ball of the next over and sent one just over the keeper’s head for four. He was caught next ball at mid off … off a no ball … and snicked the next through slips for 1. Three required, with Dick on strike and playing and missing at the next two and surviving an lbw shout on the third. He somehow survived the over, leaving John to face Weatherill again, an over during which he was dropped twice.
The game ended with Dick somehow making strong contact off Baker’s first and ultimately last ball, skying it to backward square leg where it went through the fieldsman’s hands and dribbled across the boundary for the victory.
(Story retold by Bob Brennan (#127) and Laurie Blake (#126) at the Waratahs Reunion Dinner in 2010, at which Laurie’s Premiership blazer was displayed).
Waratahs v Public Service - B Grade Final, 9th April 1960
