Pencil, the sharpest one of the gang

Paul Ryan | January 27, 2023

Okay, who’s prepared to put their hand up and admit, as a kid, grabbing the old green cricket scorebook with the images of the 1960-61 tied test between Australia and West Indies on the front cover and score the cricket while watching the game on TV?

My hand’s not sheepishly rising, it’s up, front and centre.

Growing up, it was cricket, always cricket. If I wasn’t playing, I’d be in the backyard pretending to be a Chappell, Walters, Lillee or Marsh and if the cricket was on TV, I’d be watching with pens, pencils, and scorebook in hand.

Seems crazy now, “Hey Paul, you do realise the score is on the TV”... yeah, yeah I know.........

I remember going to watch dad play in Armidale in Northern NSW and his teams had the good fortune of having two scorers over the years who I always liked to watch ply their trade, Elspeth Howie and Mark McCann.

Elspeth scoring was impeccable and she made a significant contribution to cricket in New England and Northern Tablelands in the 60's, 70's as a secretary, cricket manager, umpire, and scorer and to this day has a trophy in Armidale in her name. 

A black pen was the tool of choice however it was a red pen for 4’s and a blue for 6’s.

Elspeth Howie

Mark was a leg-spinning pipe smoking No 11 batsman. If Mark's team was batting, there was never a question of who’s scoring. As with Elspeth, Mark's scoring was impeccable and at the end of the day you always knew if Mark and his batting partner had added a few runs for the last wicket, the score book had gone rogue.

By the time I was making my way through the grades, Elspeth had passed on and Mark had moved town. 

The question of “who’s scoring” was almost as immediate as the skipper saying “we’ll bat”. I was more interested in scoring runs in the middle and really didn’t care who scored, or so I thought.

Our team St Peters were playing Easts at Lambert Park on Saturday afternoon and even though I thought I was in the 80’s teammates from the boundary fence started applauding a hundred. My math’s was never great but I knew something was amiss. After 10 or so more runs it was tea time and as we sat under the tree, it became clear the scorers had stuffed up. I was 99.

Yep, you guessed it, 2nd ball after tea, I was caught behind off the bowling of Richard Rowlings.... unfortunately no cigar , but my appreciation for those who love to score rose appropriately.

I moved to Sydney shortly thereafter to play with Western Suburbs and was soon introduced to Wests First Grade and Poidevin Gray (under 21) scorer, Mal Gorham.

I was a bit surprised as most scorers I’d meet before were, well.... respectfully quite a bit older than Mal – he was only 29.

In one of my first PG's games I went up to the scorers' box to check out how the scorers did things in the big smoke. If Elspeth and Mark were impeccable Mal who was affectionately known as “Pencil” took it to another level. There were no green score books, Pencil had invented his own scorecard, template, and processes and you just knew he was playing at a different level..

Pencil had been scoring for Wests Firsts since he was 13. It was customary at Western Suburbs to be awarded your First Grade cap after you’d played 3 first grade games for the club. Pencil, was more than a scorer, and quite rightly wore his first grade cap No. 447 with a great deal of pride.

On many occasions as the captain indicated we were batting, I’d pack up my keeping gloves and head up to the scorer’s box and sit with Pencil. I'd watch him prepare for the day ahead. It was a work of art, everything in order and 447 sitting on top..

In what I remember to be my 2nd or 3rd game in Firsts, we’d been in the field for an hour or so, when I experienced a “what the f…..” moment as I noticed Pencil walking around the ground with no pen or paper - he was strolling, free as a bird.

For those who don’t know Pratten Park, the scorer’s box is about mid-wicket and some 15 metres from the boundary. It’d be a good 6 – 7-minute walk... about two overs.

I made a gesture to first slip..... “he never misses a thing” was the reply.. He was that good.

Mal was a senior manager with ANZ Bank and was as proud as punch to score many Australian international games and domestic first-class games for NSW

On moving from Wests to St George I met another great man behind the score book, Phil Stelzer a former Math’s teacher. Phil was the first scorer in my experience to embrace technology and used a laptop to score. Phil is also one of life’s great gentleman and was a tremendous ally, supporter, friend and always an integral part of the team.

I have a fond memory of my last game as captain of St George when we played Wests in the last game of the season and were playing for the Chris O’Neil memorial trophy.

We lost the game and the trophy for the season belonged to Western Suburbs. For the 5 or 6 years we’d been playing for the Chris O’Neill trophy the winning captain made a speech and losing captain listened with disappointment. This time I thought it might be a appropriate to say a few words.

As Western Suburbs skipper said a few words I glanced across the room of players, officials, and supporters and spotted Pencil. It was a tough moment as Pencil had Motor Neurone Disease and had just scored his last game for his beloved Magpies. I wanted to acknowledge his presence, his contribution and say thank you, he'd been scoring for 30 odd years..

Sadly within 12 months Pencil lost his battle. 

Mal is a life member of Western Suburbs. The clubs player of the year award in his honour and NSW Cricket Association also has the Mal Gorham Scorer of the Year Award.

What is it with scorers, Bank Managers, Math’s Teachers, Pipe Smokers and of course Elspeth, they’re all special and we should all thank them at the end of each day's play. Pencil was the King.