1951-52: Minor Premiers - semi-finalists

GAINS: Alan Gray, Hugh Ferris, Bob Harding & Fred Skillicorn
LOSSES: John Carr, Alan Thorncraft & P Morse

It was a quite dry summer with only three days lost to rain and those in January. As usual, their were two competitions held to accommodate the participation of the educational institutions - a policy which was still in place into the late 1970's. Perhaps the success in reaching the semis in their first season spurred them on, for all but two Saturdays had scores appearing in the following Monday's paper: a tradition all cricketers who have served time in Armidale know well.

It was clear that with drier pitches, Waratahs would have to improve their batting which had too often been brittle in the previous season, relying on the bowlers to get them out of trouble. There were several knew names debuting in the first game against University 2. G Ferris would play many games for the club but without doubt, one of the greatest Waratahs cricketers and certainly its longest servant played a leading hand right from the start. Alan Gray, batting at five, scored the first 30 of more than eight thousand runs for the club in a first up win.

A string of losses only broken by a win over Rockvale, saw Waratahs well out of the first competition, but a new player, Fred Skillicorn was making an impression as an all rounder. After a quiet debut against Uralla in November, he had a strong game against Easts 2, with a pair of 20's and seven wickets, including 5-53 in the second innings. In the next game against Rockvale he smashed a powerful 45 and was again in the wickets. Also starting with the club at the same time was Tony Horadam, later Prof Horodam of the Maths Dept at UNE. He bought some stability to the batting order. Laurie Cooper's sporadic appearances were maintained when he scored a rapid 26 and took 6-92 against Rockvale.

After Christmas, things improved. The season's first rain intervention was followed by wins against both Easts sides - a rare quinella. The victory over Easts 1 was that side's first loss of the season and a boost which lifted Waratahs to the Minor Premiership. Alas, it was Uralla again who proved too much for them in the semis, despite solid contributions from Harding (43) and Gray (30) and a second innings of 27 unbeaten from Horadam. The batting machine that was Uralla scored too freely.

Still, after just one and a half seasons, Waratahs had been semi-finalists twice and now Minor Premiers. Alan Gray (204) narrowly topped the batting from John Ridley (198) and R Harding (179) although Tony Horadam (27.6) and Fred Skillicorn (24.0) might have easily won the averages with more games. Vic Snell (21 at 18.7), Laurie Cooper (16 at 13.9) and Fred Skillicorn (11 at 15.0) were the pick of the bowlers, although A Leahy also had his moments. Ross Ridley (5) held the most catches.