Adair Durie; A great bowler and a special character

Gordon District Cricket Club | June 03, 2025

Gordon’s long term bowling stalwart Adair Durie finally succumbed to a persistent knee injury and retired at the end of the 2013/14 season.

The Gordon club received the news in an emotive email from Adair that thanked all those involved in his career and promised to stay in touch and hopefully remain involved in the club in the future.

Many players when they retire can look back on their career and pick out a performance or two that really stand out. I doubt there are many, however, who can say they bowled 35 overs unchanged (except for the tea break) and took 8 for 56 in a premiership final. That performance has already gone down in the annals of Gordon cricket as a “never to be repeated again” event.

It is testimony to the magnificent bowler and club man Adair was when you consider that he felt a searing pain in his knee during his first over in his last match at Asquith Oval against Northern Districts and while he knew that it would be his last session in the field, he continued bowling anyway. With only 129 runs on the board to defend, Adair knew the team would need him and he continued to stride through his bowling action to eventually take 4 for 29 off 11 very painful overs. He wasn’t able to get the middle order out after breaking through the top order who didn’t know how to defend against his prodigious swing on a good batting wicket. At the end of the innings, he knew it would be his last.

Adair started with Gordon in the 2000-2001 season when he played in the Third grade premiership team and finished the season with 47 wickets @ 14.32. This included figures of 4-48, 6-34 and 4-100 in the finals series. There is no doubt that finals bring out the best in Adair. This is when the club realised how well Adair had mastered the art of outswing bowling.

The only thing that has stopped Adair playing in every match available to him over his career was a knee injury first sustained in 1997 that was poorly treated through to 2007 when a more effective repair was done.

He followed this first full season with Gordon with three seasons where he missed several games and indeed was unable to play the full 2003-04 season. He was still able to pick up 40 or so wickets in that time and was always dangerous. He was also promoted to seconds and then firsts and performed very creditably.

In the 2006/07 season, Adair again performed well to take 40 wickets @ 17.75 and help take third grade to the grand final where they were defeated by Sutherland. In the following years up until the 2013/14 season Adair has played a combination of mainly second and third grade and a number of first grade one day games and contributed significantly to the Second grade team in the 2010-11 season. Unfortunately they went so close to winning the premiership after leading North Sydney on the first innings in the final and eventually going down late on the final day.

This was easily his best individual season with 52 wickets at 17.92.

Injury again interrupted his following season but in his penultimate season, Adair was back to his best with 46 wickets @16.09 which included his amazing effort in the final as earlier described.

There are only a handful of bowlers who could consistently bowl an outswinger to a right handed batsman like Adair did. His knowledge of how to keep a cricket ball (legally) in the condition he wanted it to allow for him to ply his craft to the best of his ability was amazing. He would reprimand any player who didn’t treat the ball properly at all times and to be able to keep the ball swinging after 35 overs in a final on a good wicket is an indication of his renowned skills.

Adair was also a very good club man. He was always willing to work with the younger players in the team and I am sure those who played with Adair would agree that his support of our batsman while watching from the sideline was always engaging. When you arrived at the ground and Gordon were batting you always quickly knew that Adair was playing in that match.

The club is very appreciative of the service given by Adair during his 10 seasons with Gordon and everyone enjoyed his commitment to the team and the club and he is part of a select group that has earned a right to be considered one of its most respected members.

To conclude this story here are the comments about Adair from the captains he played under during his career at Gordon:

The comments made by all of the captains were as follows:

·      Watching every ball of your 8/56 off 35 overs

·      Not grasping the "creams" concept (or refusing to) and wearing your favourite whites for 10 seasons

·      Being the loudest supporter of your own team mates ever including loudest clapper.

·      Wine/Wine/Wine and wine (and champagne)

·      Drinking blue Powerade from a wine glass

·      Your generosity – willingness to share bowling (and batting!) tips, wine, experience, opinions

·      Being Adair Durie

In no specific order, the four captains made the following comments of their recollections of air playing cricket under their guidance:

Matt Kelly

·      It was a pleasure to play with you, both in your infancy as a grade cricketer at Sydney Uni and then as the complete swing bowler down ol' Chatswood way.

·      Your success is something I envy. The number of times that you have featured in grand finals is neither luck nor coincidence. You were the best bowler I ever had the benefit of captaining, which included Matt Nicholson.

·      It strikes me that a generation of grade batsmen were spared from embarrassment because of the poor handling of your initial injury.

·      The few seasons that we spent together in third grade are amongst the finest memories of the game that I have. That is in no small part down to your ability, your unique view of the world and your cellar.

·      You were the catalyst for our team that won the minor premiership and got so close to lifting the cup.

·      The worst and most obvious cheat in 500 I have ever played with.

Ben Garratt

·      Sitting in a post-match Umpires/Captains meeting and being told “he’s a bit silly”

·      Your happy knack of knocking over 9, 10 and jack – a Captain’s dream

·      The shortest of mid-ons

·      45 x 2nd grade wickets @ 18 in 2010/11 … leader of the pack - Durie, Campbell, Sweeney, Sadler, Garratt.

·      Forgetting your cricket boots at Cook Park but remembering the wine

·      Bringing an unassembled exercise bike to the 2012/13 Final (and my later heartbreak on hearing that you would be returning it!)

·      Village Green, Sat 20th November 2010: the only time you ever said to me “win the toss and bat” (in hindsight your 1* on day 1 proved the difference in our incredible 340 vs 339 last ball victory)

·      Our often broken 8-over spell rule

·      The worst, but most hilarious, sledger

·      5/13 off 11.5 on a sticky Bankstown Oval … unplayable

·      Riding shotgun while you drive to games - what an education

Ed Howitt

·      Your contribution to our cricket club both on and off the field as been invaluable. As a captain, you were a dream. Bowling long spells and bowling great areas. I wrote in my 3rd grade report last season that you really brought our team together with your energy, performance and wine. You were instrumental off the paddock for our team coming together and winning the comp. Whenever I had the privilege of playing with you, you were always the leader of our attack.

·      Having to constantly move you at fine leg.

·      Your batting at Punchbowl which was instrumental in getting me to 100.

·      Batting with you against Fairfield in 1st grade and you getting run out backing up too far. I think that day you were striking the ball so well, I was trying to get you on strike. (Please keep that secret to yourself)

·      Shining a cricket ball and asking for certain players to field and not to field at mid-off.

·      Forcing 10 blokes to run between overs after your over to make sure we did not fall behind (and looking to fine leg to see you still not in position).

·      Managing to get 4 different players pick you up in one season (and having to get these guys to pick up wine on the way to the ground).

·      Naming your only son GORDON

·      Terrible LBW appeals

·      Amazingly good fielder and safe pair of hands

·      Guzzling red wine from the cup after last season's grand final victory

·      Providing wine education to my mother and 2 sisters

·      A superb mat of natural hair, seemingly always conditioned, with a wonderful centre part

Ian Higgins

·      Seeing the Hands-On Systems car scooting back from Cook Oval along the M5 after the aforementioned forgetting of boots and remembering wine

·      Having never batted with you. 

·      Being the only captain you haven't taken to a grand final.

·      The "200 metre" six against Mosman at Rawson. 

·      The only time I've ever seen you angry at an LBW decision at UNSW (the 340 vs 339) when you turned into Donkey Kong and slapped the pitch two handed like the great ape. 

·      Lebanese Sambuca at Killara after a match. Atko still hasn't recovered.

·      Starting every story pre the year 2000. (Including answering a question like "how are you?")

·      Asking me what number I was up to every week. 

·      Your silly, boisterous laugh

·      Appealing, then telling the umpire why it wasn't out

·      Drinking cab sav on an exercise bike

·      Using Beau Saddler's bat

·      Never bowling a bouncer in your life

 

Congratulations on a great career Adair.

Paul Stephenson

BeaconPoint Club Clips - How parents can teach their kids to embrace anxiety in a positive manner