Tom Rance - Penrith Cricket Club
Penrith Cricket Club | February 11, 2026
Tom Rance: the identity behind Rance Oval
Penrith Cricket Club’s third ground, Rance Oval, is named after Tom Rance.
Tom was a well-known and well-respected member of the community, locally referred to as ‘The Mayor of Werrington’.
Tom’s involvement in sport, and its administration, was extensive. His first love was cricket, and he served the Nepean District Cricket Association over a 40-year period as Secretary. He was also involved with the Hawkesbury Cricket Council and the NSW Junior Cricket Union. An active umpire, with his son Les and Arthur Street (Secretary Umpires’ Association), Tom was instrumental in the introduction of a junior Under-16 competition into the Nepean District. There were no layered age groups in those days; if you were a ‘gun’ 12-year-old, you matched it with the older boys.
With NDCA President Darcy Smith, Tom was a strong influence in convincing the NSW Cricket Association that Nepean should be admitted to the Sydney Grade Competition, which occurred in April 1973.
On top of all that, Tom and his wife organised the annual junior presentation at their Park Street home, with Mrs Rance making the cakes, sandwiches, ginger beer and lemonade to her own recipes.
Tom was also a keen rugby league supporter and was the long-time Secretary of the Western Districts Country Rugby League, a group that preceded the Parramatta and Penrith Junior Rugby Leagues.
As a man of vision, Tom won a spot on the Steering Committee formed to facilitate the admission of Parramatta to the NSW Rugby League Competition, a role that took no end of hard work and much of his time. And, in 1947, when the Parramatta team was duly established, Tom thought it only appropriate that he seek a committee spot at their inaugural AGM. He missed out and took the
rejection as a personal snub. He announced to those present, ‘I have put a hex on your house, and you will never win a First Grade Premiership’. Curiously, when they did eventually first triumph in the early 1980s it coincided with Tom announcing he had finally relented and lifted the hex!
Tom Rance passed away in July 1987, aged 85.
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