| Questions and Answers

3 years ago

Mark Preddey

Bowral, New South Wales, Australia

3 Likes
0 Followers

It is difficult to nominate my ‘best captain’ because I played with so many really great leaders and I feel each brought something different to the table. Most importantly I always felt they had my best interests at heart and wanted their little ‘leggie’ and the team to do well.

So here are a few of my favourite captains and a brief memory of playing with them that has stayed with me.

Andrew Hilditch would take some time chatting and planning fields with me before the game and was always encouraging. At one point during the season ‘Ditch’ knew he had to drop me for the next round, but rather than wait to call me during the week, he took the time to sit me down and speak to me after the game to explain his reasons for doing so. I can remember his reasons were well thought out and constructive, giving me specific things to work on which I really appreciated.

https://www.cricconnect.com/profile/864/mark-preddey/blog/1971/mark-preddey-my-best-captain

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3 years ago

St George Cricket Club

Sydney, Australia

56 Likes
54 Followers

Part 3 - The history of St George District Cricket Club 1941-42 to 1950-51

The St George District Cricket Club boasts a proud history which has now extended beyond a century.

When the club entered the first-grade competition in 1921-22, few could have predicted the success and prestige that would accompany it in the ensuing century. As the club celebrates its centenary of first grade across the 2020-21 and 2021-22 seasons there is an opportunity to celebrate many of the outstanding performances and moments that have occurred.

With this in view, it was decided to compile a list of 100 moments in 100 years.

Here's Part 3

https://www.cricconnect.com/profile/275/st-george-cricket-club/blog/1969/part-3-the-history-of-st-george-district-cricket-club-1941-42-to-1950-51

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3 years ago

Rodney Davison

Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Australia

4 Likes
0 Followers

There’s potential in Spencer Johnson and Lance Morris for sure.

If Mitch Marsh is not going to bowl much, be possibly needs to be given more responsibility to bat higher at No. 4 with Green slotted back into No. 6 as the all-rounder.

I reckon we’ve missed a trick with not rotating the bowlers at all recently. (Boland, Neser, Jhye Richardson and Jason Behrendorff, etc. will all be past their best when the next opportunity knocks.

Also, we could have been smarter in re-selecting Bancroft and/or Renshaw earlier, particularly in England where Warner generally struggled against Stuart Broad.

There may come a time when the current Australian players have played on too long and retire at the same time. I think we’re close to possibly becoming Dad’s Army and losing an Ashes series at home to England in 2025/26, simply because they will be younger and at their peak and/or we have a new generation of players in the team that are inexperienced.

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3 years ago

Michelle Lang

Business Owner

KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa

25 Likes
0 Followers

Don't Coast Along

Help us to make dreams come true throughout South Africa and the African continent.

By sponsoring our Howzattt Guides - A Beginner's Guide to the Game of Cricket, you are empowering those who never thought they had the chance to play, the means to do so, and become a star in the process!

*Image courtesy Pinterest - Not On The High Street.

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3 years ago

Geoff Williams

Sydney, Australia

27 Likes
1 Followers

In the early 70s I was playing for Central Cumberland District Cricket Club (CCDCC) against Balmain at the SCG. Balmain and NSW opening batsmen, Tony Steele, was in superb form and I have never heard a batsman sledge a fielding side the way Tony did that day. He would say things like " easy", "that is crap", "don't bowl that shit to me" etc. as he hit another boundary. He didn't shut up.

Our opening bowler, Bill Lothian, moved me to fine leg right on the boundary near the Brewongle Stand. Tony Steele saw this field change and practised playing a hook shot to which I cheekily responded by pretending to take a catch. Tony saw this a just gave a mocking laugh. Two balls later, Billy bowled a short ball which Tony hooked. I did not have to move, the catch was hit straight to me (it would have been a six these days). I really enjoyed mimicing Tony's mocking laugh as he trudged off the field.

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3 years ago

Dennis Hourn

Sydney, Australia

38 Likes
2 Followers

It's 1975 and Tony Grieg, Waverley's captain, conspires with the players from the opposing team, Randwick, to play a trick on a fieldsman in the gloom of a Rothman’s Knock Out limited over match at Waverley Oval.

Tony bowls, the Randwick batsman Billy Knowles hooks and Tony screams to the visually challenged fieldsman who is fielding in the dark at deep fine leg, “Hournie Catch it, Catch it”. Hournie of course runs around in circles looking for the ball but it can’t be seen. At least by Hournie.

After an agonising twenty or so seconds and a fruitless search for the ball Hournie looks up and sees Greigy sitting on the pitch laughing his head off holding the ball up in the air.

The crowd and opposing team are also laughing because Greigy had cooked up a
scheme to bowl a “dummy” and for the batsman to play a ‘dummy’ hook shot. Everyone was in on the act except Hournie.

Tony dined out on that at many Waverley functions for years after.

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3 years ago

Bruce Francis

Brisbane, Queensland, Australia

3 Likes
1 Followers

Tony Greig’s first game for Waverley in season 1975-76: Waverley 33 and 86. St George 1-36 and 0-24.

Second game; tame draw

Third game versus Gordon, was one of the best games I have played in.

Greig won the toss and chose to bowl

Gordon were 8 for 18 and then fast bowler Barry Thompson hit four sixes. Gordon all out for 52. Greig 7 for 38.

The team insisted Greig bat at number six so he could bat on a dry wicket the following week.

End of first over Greig not out nought having faced one ball. Waverley four wickets for one run. Len Richardson (NSW & QLD opener) 0; Ron Crippen (NSW opener & number 3) 0; Greg Besomo 0; Bruce Francis 0. Barry Thompson four wickets for one run.

Stumps Waverley chasing 52 were 8 for 48 with Dennis Hourn and Dick Rowland the not out batsmen with David Hourn to follow.

Following week: Waverley dismissed for 60.

Gordon second innings 125. David Hourn 7 for 54.

Waverley 6 for 121 won outright. Greig 63 and Mick Beningfield 23 not out.

Waverley 10 points and running second in competition

Every over felt like I imagine the last over of a twenty/20 match would feel.

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3 years ago

Paul Ryan

Founder

Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

503 Likes
513 Followers

Bob Simpson, who was a major force in the success of Australian cricket in the late 1980s and 1990s, used to say to a young group of players at Western Suburbs many years ago that a second-grade batter is only eight consecutive hundred away from playing Test cricket for Australia.

Simpson created hope by sharing two consecutive hundreds in 2nd grade, which should warrant a promotion to first grade. 3 consecutive first grade hundreds would bring you into calculations for NSW, and if you followed it up with 3 consecutive hundreds in first class cricket, you could be selected to make your debut for Australia in Test cricket.

It’s never been done, but gee, I’d love the theory to be tested. You never know how any player will perform until they are given an opportunity.

Can NSW Selectors ignore the form of Gordon District Cricket Club first grade captain Tym Crawford?

Tym has scored over 6,000 first grade runs and is only 30 years of age and look at his six innings for Gordon in NSW Premier Cricket.

• 101 off 116 balls in Round 7 vs. UTS North Sydney
• 205 off 140 balls in Round 8 vs. Penrith.
• 119 off 92 balls in Round 9 vs. Northern District.
• 48 off 42 balls in Round 10 vs. Sydney
• 164 off 121 balls in Round 11 vs. Sydney University
• 94 off 113 balls in Round 12 vs. Mosman

He’s in form and has created the currency of performances we’ve been assured are most worthy.

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3 years ago

Les Eastaway

Taree, New South Wales, Australia

1 Likes
0 Followers

A Catch and a Handshake

It is well documented in Manning cricket and the St George District Cricket Club about the career of Jon Jobson.

His ability as a junior in the Manning caught the eye of judges further afield. A talent scout from Saints sounded out Jon and his family about his cricketing future in the early 1970s.

However, we shall step back in time a decade or so.

The NSW Sheffield Shield team was heading north to play Queensland in a Shield encounter. A stopover game in Taree was planned against a Manning/Mid Coast XII. It was October, 1962.

Among a galaxy of state stars, the team included Brian Booth and Warren Saunders, St George clubmen. To add further appeal to the match, the Shield side included Johnny Martin, a local Manning champion.

One member of the Manning side was Andy Jobson, Jon’s dad.

Warren and Brian peppered the local attack to the tune of 89 and 97 respectively, Brian Booth eventually falling to a catch by none other than Andy Jobson.

This interlude in play may have fallen innocently on young Jon, in the crowd at less than seven years of age.
The catch was Part 1 of the intervening connection of fate.

The talent scout from St George to meet and discuss Jon’s future with his family happened to be Brian Booth several years later.

The family handshake to join Saints became Part 2 of an engrossing and fateful turn of events.

Jon’s time during a fine career took effect under the guidance of both Warren and Brian, years earlier as opponents of Dad Andy.

Jon’s roles in his new club included that of a fine batsman, 1st Grade Premiership Captain, Club President, CEO, and Life Member and St George CC Hall of Fame.

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3 years ago

The Golden Age of Cricket Podcast

London, United Kingdom

13 Likes
0 Followers

Bill Murdoch – Part 2 – Richard Cassman and Ric Sissons

In Part 2 of this episode on Australian cricket legend Billy Murdoch, Tom and Murdoch's biographers, Richard Cashman and Ric Sissons, discuss his captaincy tactics, his friendship with WG Grace, his legacy and delayed inclusion in the Australian Cricket Hall of Fame.

Richard Cashman is a sports historian based at the University of Technology Sydney. He is the author of 12 cricket books as well as his memoirs, Cackyhander: Writing on Cricket, Sports History and the Olympic Games. He has won the Australian Cricket Society Literary Award on three occasions: for his book on Australian cricket crowds, and his biographies of Fred Spofforth & Billy Murdoch, the latter co-written with my other guest.

Ric Sissons grew up in England, playing and watching cricket in Derbyshire. He is the author of eleven cricket books including The Players, which won the English Cricket Society’s Silver Jubilee Literary Award in 1988. His most recent books are: The Glory & The Dream: The 1903-04 MCC Tour of Australia and the so-called Golden Age; J T Tyldesley in Australia; And – with Peter Schofield – When the Kangaroo met the Eagle. The 1913 Australian tour of Canada and the United States.

https://open.spotify.com/episode/0Oa8n5QYaMKyCVTdo5mdzu

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3 years ago

Tim Ebbeck

Company Director

Central Coast, NSW, Australia

43 Likes
11 Followers

I was still at school when I first met the great Neil Marks.

There was some discussion between my school principal at St Leo's College, the truly inspirational Brother Brian Berg, and Neil about whether I should be playing grade cricket or continuing to focus on school cricket. As much as I felt I let down Brother Berg, I decided to focus on grade cricket with the Club. I had always wanted to represent Northern District Cricket Club based at what was then known as Waitara Park, later known as Mark Taylor Oval.

What an education. I was blessed to have Brian Berg as a school principal and cricket mentor. He was the most brilliant school principal, an Australian Schoolboys selector and manager, rolled a terrific wicket at the school #1 oval himself, took the First X1 away for country trips and had us stay in a local pub and engage with the locals rather than be billeted out, and a wonderful advocate for the Western Suburbs District Cricket Club and the legendary Wally Welham which was challenging! Imagine that sort of leadership from a Christian Brother! But that was the wonderful Brian Berg. Education was about like experiences.

And then to have the privilege of spending so much time with Neil was just more priceless life experience

https://www.cricconnect.com/profile/113/tim-ebbeck/blog/1963/neil-marks-rip-old-mate-and-thank-you

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3 years ago

Fairfield Liverpool Cricket Club

Sydney, Australia

3 Likes
7 Followers

Fairfield Liverpool Cricket Club Poidevin Gray Premiers 1997-98

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3 years ago

Tom Jones

Cricket Coach

Warrington, England, United Kingdom

8 Likes
3 Followers

Episode 47 of Tom Jones talks junior cricket coaching with Aisha Hussain

Aisha is a PE Teacher in a secondary school brought up in a Moslem S Asian family with supportive parents enabling her to follow her interest in sport. She speaks so passionately about the importance that sport has for everyone whatever your background and race. Inspirational individual.

https://open.spotify.com/episode/4EZU6U24Q4RsxUzY6c6Qq0

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3 years ago

John Rogers

Melbourne, Australia

23 Likes
7 Followers

Neil Marks’s “hole-in the-heart” issues back in 1959, was big news in Australia.

That the new "young Bradman" from the previous season - after 7 innings for NSW he was averaging 98 - would be flying to the famed Mayo Clinic in America for an operation, drew a widespread, collective, outpouring of concern - including from me as a kid growing up in the (then) country town of Gosford.

So too did the news that the operation was a success, but that first class cricket for Neil, let alone playing for Australia, was out of the question.

The year before, In early December 1958 in Brisbane, a new-look Australian team was facing off against Ashes' holder England - and. cricket was dominating the air-waves. Australia had a new young captain in Richie Benaud and Australia’s newest sporting superstar Norm O’Neill was making his test debut.

https://www.cricconnect.com/profile/531/john-rogers/blog/1962/rip-neil-marks-unbowlable

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3 years ago

Cricket NSW

71 Likes
102 Followers

The NSW cricket community is in mourning following the passing yesterday, of former Blues player and NSW Cricket Association Life Member, Neil Marks OAM, aged 85.

Marks made a significant contribution to cricket as a player and administrator, awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia for services to cricket in 2019. He was made a life member of Cricket NSW in 2000.

Neil is the son of the late Alec Marks and, elder brother of Lynn Marks, both of whom played First Class cricket for NSW.

On the field, Marks (NSW cap #510) was a brilliant left-handed batter who made 568 runs from 10 First Class matches during a career cut short by ill health. He averaged 47.33 with bat in hand with a highest score of 180 not out, made on First Class debut

https://www.cricconnect.com/profile/154/cricket-nsw/blog/1961/vale-neil-marks-oam-1938-2024

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3 years ago

Roger Hughes

Claremont, Tasmania, Australia

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0 Followers

Chris Broadby at Glenorchy Cricket Club in Tasmania Premier Cricket was the best captain I played with along with Peter Mancell at Burnie. Both were really good but in different ways.

Chris had a quiet way of leading but always allowed for individuality from his players. His cricket brain was as good as I have seen and always gave the impression he was in control. The leadership qualities that I appreciated most was his calm strength and his game awareness. There were many examples over the years where he was inspirational, but most were based around saving the team in the lower order with the bat and the hard over bowling that invariably produced a needed wicket.
Although both went about the game very differently both Chris and Peter shared similar captaincy characteristics.

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3 years ago

James Knight

Founder

Canberra, ACT, Australia

17 Likes
8 Followers

The plastic green bowl sits on a ledge just inside the entrance to my mother’s home. Once, many years ago---indeed way back to my childhood---it was used for mixing salad, but nowadays, it holds nothing but golf balls that are in various stages of decay. They are dusty and scuffed, one is split, and another has evolved into a pimpled egg. Certainly not one of them is in good enough condition to grace a tee. However, it’s probable that is where they all spent their finer days before they surrendered to the same fate: plonked in a paddock to pass the seasons with the galvanised burr, prickly pears, and thistles.

My mum (who is closing in on Bradman's average) lives on a piece of dirt on the outskirts of the Australian country town, Gunnedah, in north west New South Wales. Its name comes from the local Indigenous Kamilaroi people. Translated, it is the ‘place of white stones’, a coincidence for an area in which Titlelists, Srixons, and Top Flites can be randomly found well away from the golf course.

https://www.cricconnect.com/profile/311/james-knight/blog/1958/having-a-ball

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3 years ago

Tamworth Veterans Cricket

Tamworth, New South Wales, Australia

1 Likes
0 Followers

At 71 years of age Grahame Davies from Tamworth in New South uttered 5 words to a Doctor in Sydney, “there goes my cricket career.”

The Doctor, replied “No you’ll be able to play.”

“Bullshit“ said Grahame.

The surgeon put Grahame onto a social worker who in turn introduced him to the President of the Amputee Society. The President was double amputee, a runner, who still ran.

The words from the Doctor and then meeting the President gave Grahame hope and a degree of confidence to create his own Mt Everest.

https://www.cricconnect.com/profile/936/tamworth-veterans-cricket/blog/927/grahame-davies-climbing-my-mt-everest

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3 years ago

Manly Warringah District Cricket Club

Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

33 Likes
22 Followers

Cameron Lawes is this week’s Manly Rentals Waratah in History. A white line fever fast bowler, Cameron was a big part of our club in the late 90’s and early 2000’s until his move up to greener pastures in Newcastle.

The man affectionately known as “Lawson” (Cameron Lawson, pad up) bowled quick and batted strong, and if not for injury could have played a lot higher level cricket.

Cameron had a great passion for our club, and was one of the leaders who helped set the club on its way around the turn of the century.

Take a read through Cameron’s time at the club.

https://www.cricconnect.com/profile/338/manly-warringah-district-cricket-club/blog/1957/waratahs-in-history-cameron-lawes

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3 years ago

St George Cricket Club

Sydney, Australia

56 Likes
54 Followers

St George District Cricket Club Green Shield Premiers 1972-73

Back Row - E Johnson (Hon.Sec.), D.Jones, B.Fitch, G.Wilkin, D.Yates, J.Perferment, C.Luff, B.Booth (President)

Front Row - C.Kirkwood, B.Gordon, G.Tosi, M.Bennett (Captain), M.Sinclair, W.Jarman, B.Corbett, P.Cripps

Inset R.Hudswell (Manager)

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Fairfield Liverpool Cricket Club Poidevin Gray Premiers 1997-98

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