Dave Evans was a true Gordon Legend - Part 2
Gordon District Cricket Club | July 07, 2025
[This article continues the story about Dave Evans from Part 1]
Dave was honourably discharged from his duties on 17 May 1945 and returned to Sydney. After the war, Dave and Marjorie first lived at Cremorne and then moved in 1955 to their home in Werona Road, Lane Cove. They bought the land and had the house built after doing the clearing and some of the foundation work themselves. Dave and his sons Steve and Geoff enjoyed having a big yard to play in and Greg, who was born after they moved, joined in as soon as he was able. Dave used to sing to the children in their young days and two songs in particular are remembered: ‘Over the Rainbow’ and ‘Coming in on a Wing and a Prayer.’ The house was the family home for forty nine years and, as related by Steve. was the scene of many wonderful times, events, and celebrations.
After the war, Dave commenced working for Sears, a heating and ventilation and contract engineering company. He was inventive and responsible for many firsts as the industry developed. He became good friends with Bob Sears and together they entered two Round Australia Redex Trials in the early 1950s. According to Steve, these events attracted huge interest at the time and many men were jealous of those able to compete. They consisted of a long-distance rally on both public and private roads circumnavigating Australia. Automobile manufacturers enthused over the event as it provided a particularly severe test event for their products, proving their cars were able to stand up to whatever conditions remote Australia could provide.
One contestant who became well known following the first of these trials was ‘Gelignite’ Jack Murray. According to Steve, Dave enjoyed those events immensely and talked about them often.
Dave recommenced his cricket career immediately after the war, playing in the top three grades for seven seasons from 1945 to 1952. Included were some matches in the First Grade premiership team of 1945-46 and a whole season in the 1947-48 Third Grade premiership team. In the 1950s, when work commitments meant Dave had to travel a lot, often overseas, he played when available in the Colts team until 1962. Dave scored 1,982 runs for Gordon at an average of 19.62 including two centuries, both in Third Grade with one at Beauchamp. According to Marjorie, Charles Harris, his lifetime friend and longest serving official, was at the ground the day of his century and was the most nervous of all the spectators. They had a close bond.
Dave would often relay to his family that his most vivid memories of his playing days after the war were first, seeing the innings of 201 not out in 164 minutes by Ginty Lush at University Oval when Gordon scored 8–554 in an afternoon of just 4 hours. His second memory was ‘the day when I got young Richie Benaud, playing his first season in First Grade, out plumb LBW and then, after a pause, he added the only trouble was that the umpire said, ‘not out.’ Although Dave was a part-time bowler, he took 47 wickets for the club at an average of 14.
Dave’s son Greg also had an excellent career with Gordon playing for 13 seasons from 1967 to 1990, scoring 3,779 runs at 25. Dave and Marjorie were both at Drummoyne Oval when Greg scored a century in the 1984-85 season.
Dave became the First Grade scorer for Gordon when his son Greg was playing in the late 1970s which in some ways was the start of a new career for him. One day, at a match against Randwick, their scorer, Dave Sherwood, who was also the scorer at the Sydney Cricket Ground for NSW and Australian teams, asked Dave if he would score with him for a minor representative match being played during the next week.
Dave never dreamt what it would lead to. Not long afterwards, he received a letter asking him to score for NSW and then Australian matches at the Sydney Cricket Ground. He became the scorer for the opposition teams playing NSW and Australia and he enjoyed this very much, going into their dressing rooms and meeting many great players. On the occasion of important milestones such as Viv Richards’ 100th century and Allan Border’s 10,000th run, Dave gave them a vellum-covered copy of the scoresheets with which they were delighted. He did the same for Fanny de Villiers who took 6-43 in South Africa’s historical and dramatic win by 5 runs in its first match at the Sydney Cricket Ground after apartheid finished.
Dave came to know umpires well, the visiting ones as well as the Australian. It is not generally realised that there is a close relationship between umpires and the scorers at the SCG matches as they need to confer regularly about scores and various events. Dave liked to talk of three teams being involved in matches at the SCG, the third being the umpires and scorer’s team. Dave became the Chairman of the Scorers Association and then played a key role in the change from the previous NSW Cricket Umpires Association to the NSW Cricket Umpires and Scorers Association. He readily declared that ‘Australian umpires are the best in the world’ and nominated NSW umpires Darrell Hair, Simon Taufel and Dick French as being top-class.
Dave said the best performances during his time scoring for Gordon were the Club’s record partnership of 323 by Mark O’Neill and Phil Emery, the bowling of Richard Stobo during the season of Gordon’s premiership win in 1989-90, and the two premiership victories during the Club’s golden era of the early 1990s.
Dave served on the Gordon General Committee for thirty-two seasons, sixteen seasons after the War from 1946 to 1962, and then another sixteen years from 1980 to 1996. Dave was always a great ambassador of the Gordon Club and very few have been office-bearers for longer. In 1991, he received the honour of Life Membership of the Club, celebrating a wonderful career of over sixty years as a player, committee member and scorer for the Club, and as an official scorer for first-class matches at the SCG. Dave died on 19 June 2004 aged eighty-four.
Dave Evans was an upright man in stature and in character, always genial and pleasant to be around. He was a true legend of the Gordon District Cricket Club. Marjorie continued an interest in the club, attending Annual General Meetings on a regular basis until her death in 2021 at the age of 100. The Evans family will be forever known as a Gordon family.
Paul Stephenson
BeaconPoint Club Clips - Why Spin Wins with Mark Higgs: The Key Role of Spin Bowling in Team Success
