1955-56

NOTABLE GAINS: Norm Buckley, P Morse & Ray Rose
NOTABLE LOSSES: nil
The return to batting form of Ross Ridley and the addition of Norm Buckley were certainly the two big player talking points of this season. With Vic Snell being in outstanding form with the new ball and Beau Richardson having possibly his career best season, these three backed by the consistent Milton Milligan with his spinners meant that the Waratahs bowling attack was potent. Unfortunatley, despite a few strong showings from Ridley and Alan Gray and improved form from Doug Johnstone as the season tailed away, the side consistently lost match through a lack of runs. Rain offered them an even share of results. The powerful end to the 2nd comp belied what had come before and the frustration of knowing they had thrashed the Premiers outright and had the best of the runners up before rain took the second day away.

The first comp exposed both the frailty of the batting and its inconsistency. The game was lost when Waratahs collapsed for only 45 on day one and despite cutting University down to only 83, thanks to new recruit Norm Buckley (6-28), a second day recovery was not enough. The second game started with Waratahs highest total of the year, 288 against DLSC. Ridley continued his return to form with a spanking 88 and John Richardson made a rare trip to the crease profitable with 36. DLSC responded with 66 and a more spirited 188 second time around but the headlines belong to Buckley with 6-23 and 7-46, who bowled the side to outright points and the second best match figures for Waratahs until that time. Two weeks of rain wrecked most of the third game against High School but not before Waratahs 60 received a reply of only 47 - the Buckley warpath continuing with 6-23 and Snell (3-18) in support. Just about at their worst, Waratahs were out cheaply twice against ATC and surrendered outright points. As seemed to happen regularly, the last game of the comp was against Uralla but it petered out to a draw with the side in trouble, until autumn rains came early.

Between comps, Waratahs challenged Rugby League to a game in the Andrew Shield. The Shield was held on a challenge basis and any club could challenge the holder. Alan Gray and Doug Johnstone started well for the challengers but K Godley's 7-45 soon had the rest on a familiar slippery slope. The Leagies replied with more than enough with Snell's 6-64 the highlight.

Starting with three losses during which the best they could muster was 110 and then two rain effected draws effectively removed Waratahs as a competitive threat in the second comp. Finishing with two outright wins was not enough, even though the eventual Premiers, Uralla was one of those victories.

In the first game, Churches (142) held a relatively small advantage over Waratahs (110) after first innings, despite Beau Richardson's 5-33. In the second innings, Churches got away and Waratahs was left to bat out time. In another low scoring slog out at West Armidale Park, Wests took first innings points and then batted long enough to stop and any fourth innings heroics. Norm Buckley's (10-55) match figures gave him his second ten wicket match haul of the season. Waratahs collapsed on a perfect batting pitch at the Sportsground against Easts, even though even though Ridley, P Morse and Richardson made starts. Easts then raced to 186 by stumps, throwing caution to the win in search of an outright result but rain took out the second day. The next two games also only had the first day played - against Rugby League, Waratahs found some batting form through Ridley (65) and Gray (58) and had the footie players in some trouble before stumps; but it was the reverse against Uralla who scored a massive 298, with Walter Taylor posting a magestic 140. At 0-12, it was unlikely Waratahs would have won.

By dint of some unusual programming, Waratahs played Uralla in the very next game. Winning the toss and clearly confident after the previous game, Uralla, the competition leaders, shattered for 43 in the face of a hostile ten over spell from Vic Snell. His career best figures of 10-3-11-7 were supported by Ross Ridley (3-6), out from behind the wickets. Waratahs declared overnight at 8-87 encouraging Uralla to stay in the game, which they did with 172 but they were limited by long spells from Snell and Buckley. Snell (10-38) finished the match with ten wickets. Batting last, Ridley attacked for 59 and Skipper Doug Johnstone played his best hand of the season with 36 and outright points were secured. In the last game, Churches (Brian Richardson 5-21, Vic Snell 4-6) fell in a bigger heap than Waratahs after first innings were exchanged. Strong batting by Alan Gray (78) and Norm Buckley (41) put the game beyond Churches and Milligan cleaned up.

Ross Ridley (397 at 24.81) was back leading the run scorers, followed by Alan Gray (355 at 18.68) but apart from Doug Johnstone (208 at 13.00), who scored half of his runs in his last four innings, the rest ended with low teen or worse batting averages. The team missed the contributions and influence of Don Paul, who only played a handful of games. It was a different story with the bowlers, who kept the team in most games. Norm Buckley (51 at 9.73) and Vic Snell (44 at 11.00) were outstanding and Brian Richardson (21 at 15.14) continued to play a vital supporting role.

This season marked the end of a six year period in which Waratahs had established their bona fides with some strong performances, including that extraordinary Premiership decider in 1952-53. In this first five years were some records that would never be bettered (the highest team total, 408 against Wests and the lowest, 21 against Easts II; Don Paul's 13-44 final winning performance against Easts II; Ross Ridley's 21 wicket keeping dissmals), but as the period ended, with some stars such as Fred Skillicorn leaving and others like Laurie Cooper and Don Paul waning in their contributions, it became obvious that the club would need to regenerate and follow the lead already shown for years by Easts and Wests: they needed to start building the club rather than the team. Many of them, such as Alan Gray and Ross Ridley, were young, but players already involved with the administration of the game like New England Cricket Association Secretary and skipper Doug Johnstone could see the need for more teams to be playing under the Waratahs banner in the lower grades, so that Waratahs might grow a future. Perhaps there they might unearth the batting talent that was so needed to bolster what had become a weak batting line up., recruiting started to field a B Grade team in 1956-57 and the start of the Waratahs Family.