NOTABLE LOSSES: Col Marshall, Brian Roberts, Allan Smith
This was a strong season for Waratahs but undoubtedly, the key features were the greater depth in the A Grade batting, where D Lang turned the promise he had shown in the previous season into glorious run getting with three wonderful centuries before Christmas. The reserves flourished as young bloods from B Grade moved into their ranks and they must rank as won of the strongest Waratahs teams to miss semi-finals. Meanwhile, a new crop in B Grade, led by the freakish bowling performances of 16 years old Don Foster, rode their cricket all the way to beach, only to topple into the white water at the last gasp. Many records were set and some, in particular those owned by Foster, stayed that way.
The side was a strong one and although 25 players appeared, the basic XI on most weeks was Alan Gray, Tony Croft, D Lang, P Morse, John Failes, D Bucknell, Eric Smith, John Roberts and Terry Mackenzie with some combination of G Whitton, Doug Johnstone, Allan Cash and towards the end of the season, Brian Richardson, making up the last two places. Youngsters from below like Keith McIntyre and the two Rays, Reeves and Rose, also had opportunities. Whilst it was as good a batting line up as any team, only Morse and Lang shone and when they did, far too brightly for any opposition bowlers. Of the others, Failes - surely not a name for a cricketer - consistently made starts but no big scores, as did Bucknell. Smith was just starting to show that his batting star was waning and he was often more comfortable at seven or eight. Roberts had a disappointing season on his former showing and poor Alan Gray couldn't take a trick. Despite leading the catchers, he inexplicably averaged only ten in his worst season in ten years. McKenzie, Smith and Roberts all took thirty wickets but a much high cost than previously and sides were never routed.
Despite all of this there were only four losses, none of them outright and two from the first three games. John Roberts had his best return of the season (6-46) against Public Service at the Sportsground but the batting never got underway chasing 220. The powerful Churches line up were knocked over in the next game, with McKenzie and Smith taking fifteen of the eighteen wickets to fall. The batting was led by a steady hand from John Failes and two good knocks from Reserve graders, Blake and Whitton. Against the Teachers College, Waratahs set a good total thanks to a fabulous century by D Lang in his first knock of the summer and Failes who made starts in both innings. Waratahs bowlers were unable to contain the chalkies and they lost by 6 wickets. From here 'till Christmas the batting form was excellent, as Waratahs set or chased big totals. University's 200 hundred was chased and passed on the way to 300. Lang (102) and Morse (92) adding 167. Waratahs defended 137 against TAS, as the former student Mackenzie took the stick to the young batting order. Walter Taylor and Bede Ryan were responsible for Uralla's massive 341 but by the end of the second day, Waratahs was only 24 short and still three wickets up their sleeve. Morse made up for the miss against University with a fine, controlled hundred and Lang (for once) and Tony Croft, played supporting roles. Just before Christmas, a third Lang century and a six wicket haul by Roberts were the centre pieces to a convincing win over the always threatening University side. Suddenly Waratahs had a player with three hundreds in five A Grade games, where only four hundreds had been scored in the previous ten years!
The New Year didn't go well. First Easts cast them aside with only Croft playing up to the standard and then Waratahs struggled to a draw against Ex Services after the first day had been washed out. Ray Reeves, filling in, batted well but no one else did. Then Uralla happened. It was mid January and apart from missing Eric Smith, Waratahs faced up to Uralla with pretty much full a strength side. It was never the less, a slaughter. Uralla's 2-387 was a two man show. Openers Walter Taylor (202x) and Bede Ryan (137) added more than 300 themselves as Alan Gray took the only bowler's wicket. The much vaunted batting line up buckled at thought of the chase and only John Roberts stubborn return to form with the tail of W Dangar and Mackenzie got the losing margin inside two hundred. The bounce back was immediate back at the Sportsground against Churches. Bucknell, Morse and Lang made runs and Smith (7-33) and the veteran Brian Richardson (3-24 & 3-23) chased Churches to within 4 wickets of an outright. University were beaten for a third time because of superior target chasing and again Ex Services and Waratahs played a pointless, second day draw after rain.
Waratahs were semi-finalists again, for the second time in three years and apart from the slaughter at Uralla and some early season mishaps, they were batting like winners. Their opponent was to be University, who Lang and Morse and a supporting cast had put the sword to three times. University won the toss and batted and set another target. Waratahs just had to go out, on a good deck, in perfect weather and do what they had done all season. Against them was J Duloy, just behind Errol Browning as the leading wicket taker of the season and a former Waratahs player but crucially Lang was missing. Unable to play, he was replaced by young Reeves. It started well. Gray (26) made his best score of the season but the other six in the top seven could make only 16 between them. Duloy got three of them and even though there was no way back from 7-45, Mackenzie, Smith, Roberts and Richardson batted with rare distinction to add more than 100 and get their side within fifty of the University total.
Lang (499 runs at 62.38) was clearly the leading batsman but Morse (381 runs) wasn't that far behind. Apart from Bucknell (209), Mackenzie was the next highest run getter. Smith (31 wickets at 17.71) again lead the bowlers but shared the most wickets with Mackenzie (also 31). Roberts (30) was only just behind them. Brian Richardson (11 at 18.18) at the tail end of the season showed he still had things to contribute. Alan Gray held 11 catches .
A Reserve Grade
In a season when eight players scored more than 200 runs and half of them went beyond the 400 mark, there were no end of runs available to the side. L Blake, Ray Rose, Ray Reeves and Keith McIntyre put some sort of a score on the board most weeks and it had the effect of bring others forward. As usual, the ever reliable Tony Morriss was the heart of the attack and although his returns were not of the mega level of previous seasons they were consistent enough for the the young blokes to build their own performances on. In the end, the side was unlucky not to feature in semis or finals in either the Saturday or the fledgling Sunday comp.
J Boundy, J Walsh and Bob Brennan started the season where they had left the last one, bowling Waratahs to a resounding outright win first up against Ex Services but when the next game was completely washed out the one that followed was a disappointing outright loss to YCW after McIntyre and Rose batted well establishing a first innings lead. With the game to be won, Laurie McCann took it away with his blade. This was followed by a crushing outright win over Public Service where everyone got runs and Boundy, Brennan and Morriss whipped through a feeble opposition. A two run narrow draw against DeLaSalle was the stage for a rare Walsh appearance and as usual, he was good with bat and ball. In December, St Peters were too good in a batsman dominated game and then Hillgrove were crushed on the first innings and Waratahs had a long second innings of batting practice.
After Christmas, Walsh, Reeves and Rose all scored half centuries in a big win over Uralla but the bowlers were having trouble taking sides out quickly and for low enough scores to set up outrights. The next match was again washed out without a ball bowled. Good batting was not enough to hold Public Service off and St Peters repeated their earlier form and won comfortably when the Waratahs batting failed for the first time in the season. With two games completely lost to the weather and points tight, the penultimate game was an encouraging win against YCW and featured a superb Ray Reeves century and great bowling by Boundy. With an outright required to qualify for the semi finals despite batsmen who consistently scored good runs in groups, it was all stops out against Hillgrove. With the 'grove rolled for less than 100 thanks to an astonishing bowling spell from the often underused Blake (6-2), Waratahs declared behind in order to set up an outright result. As far as we know, none of the Waratahs fast bowlers packed up their deck chairs in reaction to this decision. Unfortunately, Hillgrove got away and when their chance came, there was too little time left and wickets tumbled too fast for the tall target of 200 to be reached.
The bulk of this side also played in a fledgling Sunday Competition, with several of the best of the B Grade. The nature of the draw and available results from the Armidale Express meant that Easts were played and beaten four times but the two losses to Public Service and Dumaresq were enough to keep Waratahs out of the final. Ray Rose scored his only Waratahs hundred in one of the games against Easts and the usual suspects (Blake, Reeves & McIntyre) kept providing runs but it was a young all rounder from B Grade who stole the limelight. Out shone by Don Foster in B Grade, young Garry Marshall came to notice against Easts (9-64) and Dumaresq (7-35), the latter narrowly missing on taking Waratahs into a final. His was a star in the ascendancy that would take him from B Grade to New England 2nd XI the following season..
Ray Reeves (494) topped the run scorers, but Ray Rose (479), Keith McIntyre (466) and L Blake (437) were all outstanding. On the second tier Bob Brennan (321), A Chisholm (274) and J Boundy (234) all played hands that decided matches but it was the part timer, J Walsh (206 at 41.20) who had the best average. Tony Morriss (36) took the most wickets but it was the youngster Garry Marshall (25 at 8.88) who's average was easily the best. Ray Reeves (22 wickets) deserved his all rounder status and his game in the A Grade semi final when Lang was unavailable. Blake, Boundy and Rose all held 10 catches.
B Grade
The B Grade side, still stuck with one day cricket, played a lot. In all, twenty eight games made up the schedule, including semi and final and with only 15 wins and 2 ties its clear that it wasn't a side without blemish. What it did have was consistency, with a reasonably settled batting line up built on Bruce McClenaghan and S Stanley at the top of the order and R McIntyre as the rock in the middle order. Eleven of their players played in eighteen or more games. This was even more evident among the bowlers where, although Don Foster took such an enormous load of wickets, Garry Marshall, Bruce McClenaghan and R Russell all their own reasonable share of anything Foster missed. Hardly anyone else bowled.
With so many games, its only the highlights we can cover. It was a slow start with a tie (ATC) in which McClenaghan starred with the ball and a loss (Hillgrove), but then a flogging of TAS (Foster 9-6 for the match) and then a flogging of Easts (Foster ten for the match and Marshall eight) and good batting against Tadcoop had their season racing. Dumaresq won a low scoring game in which McClenaghan was the hero with bat and ball but Public Service were beaten by good batting led by Bill Nixon and by mid November, Churches were winning when Waratahs couldn't chase 120. Five consecutive wins where any batting total could be defended by Foster and Marshall were climaxed by Foster's 7-37 against his old club, Easts. One more low total against Tadcoop, and the bowlers, even though Foster took six, could not manufacture a win.
After Christmas, Waratahs got to February with six straight wins, giving them 11 victories from the last 12 games. The bowlers were still magnificent but the batsmen started to do their work more effectively too and despite a narrow escape against Churches in a game where both sides were out in their 70's, this side was looking like premiers. During this period of six games, Don Foster took 38 wickets and to say he was the difference is to have an excellent grasp of understatement. In the first game of the New Year, on 6th January, he took 10-22 ... the best figures achieved in the fifty year history of Waratahs. He even scored a couple of fifties just to prove he was no one-trick pony. The run to the semis was problematic. Three were lost (Tadcoop, Public Service, Hillgrove) and one tied (Churches) and only New England Rovers beaten. Sides who had troubled them so slightly, suddenly were too much for them.
The semi final against Dumaresq was a stern test, not for the least reason that having played one day games all season, the finals series was now to be two day games. Dumaresq batted first and piled on the runs in perfect conditions, putting up the highest total (193) that had been posted against Waratahs all season and setting question marks about their ability to chase. They never seriously started. Finishing higher on the table than Dumaresq, they just occupied the crease with Graeme Hooper batting his side into a final with the surprising support of B Barrett, after four wickets had fallen for less than 80 .
The final would be against a Churches side which they couldn't be more even with, after one tie and a win each. R Russell and Foster took four wickets each in rolling Churches for a very moderate and very gettable 102 but the batting couldn't follow suit. R McIntyre (14), batting at three, dropped anchor and was still not out at the end but only Foster (11) and Graeme Hooper (29) looked capable of seeing it through and within sight of victory, the last five collapsed.
In a remarkable season Bruce McClenaghan (615 runs, 37 wickets and 16 catches) was an outstanding contributor but he was far from the only one. R McIntyre (437 runs), Graham Hooper (378 at 37.80) and wicket keeper/batsman S Stanley (332 runs and 12 cat & 2 stumpings) were all major contributors. K Dawson (285 runs) had his moments. Garry Marshall (48) and R Russell (26) gave outstanding support with the ball for Don Foster (121 wickets at 7.33). Foster's figures include twelve five wicket or more hauls, including the history making 10-22 against Public Service, 7-20 against Hillgrove and 7-37 against Easts. As if this was not enough, Foster also scored 358 runs for the season. A truly amazing season.
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