Sam Stone – Player and Official
Parramatta District Cricket Club | March 02, 2026
The Parramatta District Cricket Club was well served both on and off the field by A.S. ‘Sam’ Stone, he was one of the bona fide, gold-minted volunteers that have kept NSW Premier Cricket Clubs operating since the Premiership’s inception in 1893/94.
He was an extremely able and efficient administrator with the Parramatta [Central Cumberland Club] District Cricket Club, making his mark as club Secretary over an extended period, including stewarding the club’s operational activities through the chaotic years of World War II.
In total he occupied the key management role of Secretary for sixteen years, commencing in 1930/31 to 1933/34, punctuating his tenure in this position in 1934/35 to take-on the President’s chair, and then resuming as Secretary in 1935/36 for an unbroken run to 1947/48 – the strong organising skills he needed in his occupation as State Secretary of the of the Printing Employees Union held the Club in good stead during this troubled period of history.
Highly interested in cricket’s overall welfare, Sam served as a Cumberland delegate to the NSWCA for twenty years, - he sat on the Association’s Grades Committee for several years and was also Chairman of that body, manager of several NSW Sheffield Shield teams and was made a Life Member of both NSWCA and Central Cumberland (Parramatta). To boot, he was a regular Parramatta Club selector and lower grade captain.
The 1971/72 CCDCC Annual Report summed Sam up nicely:
“Sam Stone possessed the flair of always being completely in tune with all people, from life’s battlers to business tycoons or Cabinet Ministers. He was a natural psychologist with a rich fund of humour and anecdote, who could wield a facile pen and in the mid 1920’s was one of the first of the now accepted but in those days carefully secreted army of ‘ghost’ writers for prominent sportsmen.”
As a Cumberland cricketer he enjoyed a highly productive, if somewhat unconventional, playing career. He made a cameo appearance with the club in the 1918/19 season scoring a century again Glebe in 2nd grade. But Sam didn’t formally enter the grade ranks until 1930/31 at the advanced age of 42 years and continued through to 1939/40.
His belated start in grade cricket was due to his employment on shift work in the Printing Industry which precluded him from playing regularly on Saturday afternoons. In his prime cricketing years, he was restricted to participating in the Moore Park Association and mid-week Referee Cup competitions, where he built a reputation as one of the best-ever concrete wicket batsmen to play in those competitions by dint of his prolific scoring feats. A change in occupation – he became the State Secretary of the Printing Industry Employees Union – freed him from shift work and enabled him to at last fully ‘try his hand’ in NSW Premier Cricket, where he enjoyed a ten-year career establishing batting records in the lower grades that still stand unchallenged in 2025/26.
Sturdily built Sam played most of his cricket as a right-handed opening batsman, he was also a handy off-spin bowler, and a capable wicket-keeper. His great record with the club is remarkable when it is considered that some of his most plentiful batting seasons were achieved when he was in his early fifties. He made his 1st grade debut at 43 years-of-age in the 1931/32 and played his only 4 matches in the top grade that season. Parramatta District Cricket Club First Grade Player Number – 220.
In total he compiled 5,086 runs in all grades for the club including 10 centuries and captured 156 wickets. In 2nd grade he produced a sound all-round output of 1,636 runs @ 23.04 (H.S. 103) and claimed 62 wickets @ 23.44 and captained the team between 1931/32 and 1934/35.
However, his ‘star shown brightest’ in the 4th grade and the Municipal and Shires teams where his prolific scoring feats established batting records that have stood the test of time and remain intact in 2025/26:
- 4th Grade – he captained the team and produced two golden seasons:
- 1938/39: 795 runs @ 66.25 [both club records] - including 175 v. Marrickville [club record], 120 v. Petersham.
- 1939/40: 526 runs @ 40.46 – including 109* v. University and 102 v. Mosman. His total 4th grade aggregates were 1,321 runs @ 52.84 and 43 wickets @ 12.98.
- Shires:
- captain in 1936/37 and 1937/38.
- In total aggregated 1,659 runs @ 53.51 and took 44 wickets @ 23.18 – including two double centuries 210 v. Mosman in 1930/31 and 227 [club record] v. Randwick in 1936/37 –
- The standout season was 1936/37 when he amassed 635 runs @ 63.50 (club records) and made three tons 115 v. Burwood, 227 v. Randwick, 157 v. Ryde.
When you combine these outstanding minor grades batting deeds with his sixteen years as Club Secretary and twenty years as a NSWCA delegate it is easy to see why Sam Stone will always remain a pillar of the Parramatta club. Sam passed away in October 1971 aged 82 years. He had
His sons Arthur and Jim (a record-breaking Parramatta 2nd grade wicket-taker) and son-in-law Owen Smith (1st grade player) were also very successful players with the club.
By Tom Wood – Parramatta District Cricket Club Historian
