Steve Small - Penrith Cricket Club
Penrith Cricket Club | January 15, 2026
Steve Small, known as 'Jack' came to Penrith as an established First Grader in season 1978/79 from the strong and successful Bankstown Club. He had everything the then struggling Nepean Club needed – attitude, talent to burn, a strong training ethic, and a hearty social instinct that had an immediate impact on the rest of First Grade and soon the Club as a whole.
Jack was a left-hand batsman whose technique for an opener was more Arnold Schwarzenegger than Mark Taylor. But he also had the eye of a hawk and the confidence to back his judgement, which generally tended towards 'this bloke can’t bowl'. He was a smart gully fielder and, despite an old football injury restricting rotation in his left shoulder, he fancied himself as a swing bowler … but complained that his captain would only let him loose at centre wicket practices!
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When Jack arrived, good things happened – Nepean became Penrith, Penrith Firsts won the Club’s first Premiership (1978/79), and Jack was chosen to play for New South Wales. This made him the first player from the Club to play first class cricket. Jack would have played in the Club's second premiership winning team of 1982/83, but in that season, he followed the lead of his good friend and team-mate Peter Clough and moved to Tasmania to further his Sheffield Shield career, which hadn’t progressed since his initial selection.
In the intervening period, the great World Series cricket split was resolved. This tightened the selection process, and Jack found himself pitted against the likes of Rick McCosker. If he had a weakness that narrowed the eyes of selectors, it might have been his failure to turn half-centuries into centuries. For example, in 1978/79, he had scores of 74 v Gordon, 62 v Randwick, 62 v University of NSW, 51 v Cumberland, and 57* v Cumberland. In 1979/80, he scored 141 v Balmain, 100 v North Sydney, 92 v Northern District, 73 v St George, 56* v Mosman, and 50* v University of NSW. In 1980/81, it was 85 v Sydney, 53 v Mosman, and 51 v Gordon. And 1981/82 saw scores of 122 v Randwick, 116 v Petersham, 110 v Bankstown, 72 v Wests, and 68* v Sutherland.
In his four seasons with Penrith, from 1978/79 to 1981/82, Steve Small scored 2387 runs @ 39.78. His average of nearly 600 runs a season was a noteworthy performance in those days.
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