Bill O'Reilly in Sydney 1st Grade Cricket

St George Cricket Club | September 23, 2025

With the Annual O'Reilly Oration event held last Friday in the Booth Saunders Pavilion at Hurstville Oval we thought we would take the opportunity to celebrate the life and times of one of The Saints greatest representatives. Over the next week we'll feature a number articles outlining his amazing accomplishments on and off the field.

Thanks to the genius "statskeeping" of Adam Morehouse here are some amazing stats to consider as we head into a new season of NSW Premier Cricket.

Bill O’Reilly played first grade cricket in Sydney from 1926/27 until 1948/49. Below is a snapshot of his 1st Grade career in statistics:

·        He played in every season from 1926/27 to 1948/49 except for 1928/29 and 1929/30 when he was teaching in country New South Wales.

·        He played 165 matches. 39 matches for North Sydney between 1926/27 and 1933/34 and 126 matches for St George between 1934/35 and 1948/49.

·        He made 1771 runs in 145 innings at an average of 13.73.

·        He made a half century on three occasions.

·        His highest score was 73 against Manly in 1931/32 at North Sydney No.1 Oval.

·        His other half centuries were 62 against Gordon in 1936/37 at Chatswood Oval and 69 against Western Suburbs in 1947/48 at Hurstville Oval.

·        He made 18 ducks.

·        He batted at every batting position from opener to number 11. He batted the most at position 9 with 43 innings at that position.

·        He took 963 first grade wickets at an average of 9.40

·        He took 5 wickets in an innings on 104 occasions, the most against was Manly with 13 occasions, followed by Glebe with 12 and Marrickville with 9.

·        He took 10 wickets in a match on 27 occasions, including 15 wickets in a match on one occasion and 14 wickets in a match on 14 occasions.

·        His best bowling in an innings was 9-27 against Paddington in 1938/39 at Hurstville Oval. He also took 9-47 against Randwick in 1944/45 at Hurstville Oval.

·        He also took 8 wickets in an innings on 13 occasions.

·        His breakdown of wickets are 386 bowled, 362 caught or caught behind, 35 stumped, 132 leg before wicket and 39 caught and bowled.

·        He took the most wickets against Manly with 112 wickets at 7.17. He took at least 50 wickets against every grade club he played against except for Gordon (42), North Sydney (21) and Sydney University (47).

·        He took 338 wickets at Hurstville Oval at an average of 8.87. He also took 107 wickets at North Sydney No.1 Oval at 12.03.

·        39 of his 104 five wickets in an innings came at Hurstville Oval as well as 9 of his 10 wicket hauls.

BeaconPoint Wellbeing Clips - The Issue Parents May Underestimate