NOTABLE GAINS: Norm Buckley, Bob Howe, Don PaulNOTABLE LOSSES: Brian Richardson & John Ridley
I a season where they would play eratic cricket at times, gaining important victories one week and losing inexplicably the next, the level of contributions from some players improved and significan performances started to stack up. The enigmatic Laurie Cooper started well taking four wickets in the first game against the strong Easts 1 but then disappeared until Christmas. K Godley had 5-17 against the Teachers and Vic Snell 4-15 against Uralla in games won by the bowlers. Don Paul debuted in early November against Uralla and picked up three cheap wickets in a win but it was the following game - a loss against the youthful and brilliant Easts 2 - which provided a talking point when Paul took 7 for the match including 5-9 in the Easts 2 first innings in amatch where both sides crumbled but Waratahs crumbled twice to lose by an innings.
Not much went right in the next two games, an out right loss to University and a first innings loss to Easts. The pick of the Waratahs players were Alan Gray who played his best hand to date with 87 trying to hold off an outright against Uni and a solid 28 opening against Easts 1. Don Paul secured more wickets against Uni (5-44) and S Dasey's only appearance of the season netted 5-23 against Easts 1 but there was a worrying trend for the batting line up to fold, despite the quality of the players in it, which by December included Norm Buckley, one of the best players to strut his stuff on the fields of Armidale.
Then an odd thing happened. The next match was a two week game to be stretched over either side of Christmas against the strong and confident Easts 2 which rippled youth and ability. Laurie Cooper was back for his first game since September and responded with a smashing 56 in the second innings at a time when Easts were getting on top. He also took ten wickets for the match including 6-40 to wrap up the Easts second innings. Buckley responded to the challenge and took three important wickets. With their tails up after the outright win, Uralla were beaten the same way in the next match, although to be fair, they played with only 8 men. A blow-in by the name of S Mackie just missed out on being the first Waratahs century maker, when dismissed for 99. Cooper and Ferris both got thirties and Waratahs won by an innings. Buckley and R Leahy each took five wickets for the match.
The the run into the semis - Easts 1, Easts 2 and Uralla - didn't look promising and the batting crumbled against the Easts sides, although Fred Skillicorn (38) and Bob Howe (44) fought for a while against Easts 2. Paul - absent since December - resumed against the second of the Easts sides and just as he had earlier in the season, he took seven wickets, this time including 6-47 in the first innings. His was the only bright light in a bowling attack which seemed to have no teeth against the aggressive batting of the two Easts teams. Needing a win against Uralla to scrape into the semis, Waratahs did so thanks to Ross Ridley, Laurie Cooper and Don Paul. Ridley (94) who completely left behind indifferent batting form which saw him with only 149 at 11 coming into the match. He smote eights 6's in this crucial game at the Armidale Sportsground. Cooper wasn't far behind him with his four-laden innings of 61 and Paul was irresistible with the ball (5-49).
Finishing third, Waratahs played Easts 1 in their semi-final. It was a stage they had reached twice before and fallen but at least there was no Walter Taylor and Uralla to overcome. They had left them behind the previous week. Waratahs had a strong linup (Cooper, Gray, Skillicorn, Richardson, Ridley, Paul, H Ferris, G Ferris, Leahy, Snell) and the Skipper, Fred Skillicorn, in an audacious piece of captaincy and despite having batted no higher than six throughout the season, promoted himself to No 3. With a good display and his highest score of the season (41), Skillicorn set the tone for a powerful batting display. Ridley continued his great end of season form with 79, including eight 4's and a 6 and Paul added a sound 53. G Ferris and Leahy both scored useful twenties in the tail and Waratahs total 263. By stumps, all four bowlers had a wicket and Easts looked done at 4-27. Easts 1 rallied on the second day, with Strahle making 86 and Rowlings, Sattler and McCann providing sturdy resistance as the tail wagged but it wasn't enough and they were dismissed for 195. Cooper (4-56) and Paul (3-47) were the chief wicket takers. Paul had passed thirty wickets for the season.
So to the final against Easts 2 - two young sides, brimming with talent but Easts 2 the red hot favourites to win the Richardson Trophy.
There were a few pointers that were interesting. Waratahs were the only side to beat Easts 2 during the regular season and that outright in the game extended over the Christmas break. Don Paul had missed that Christmas game, but in the two others encounters had taken 14 wickets at 6.36 but when the game day dawned on the 28th March, he hardly looked a threat on a bone dry Sportsground. The toss was made and teams exchanged when it came to light that Laurie Cooper, although selected, would play no part in the game as his employers - The Armidale Jockey Club - would not allow him time off from work. So whilst the match proceded without him, he looked on from the Racecourse and Waratahs played one short.
Waratahs batted first and apart from only having ten men, they were further blighted by three run outs - Horadam and Ridley being among them. Gray and Milton Milligan were sound at the top of the order and Howe in the tail but had it not have been for Ridley's 59, Waratahs might not have passed the hundred. Roy Smith (3-19) was Easts best. 163 would never be enough and by stumps, Easts were 0-57 and the premiership looked theirs. It's hard to imagine a side has ever felt so comfortable at stumps on day one of a final.
Then two weeks passed while the Armidale Show took the cricket season into April and Rixon and Miller were licking their lips at the prospect of a ten wicket victory ... until Thursday, when the rain started and all through Friday until it stopped overnight. By Saturday afternoon, the ground was dry enough but the wicket was tacky. What unfolded in the next five hours is the stuff of legend and it started when Fred Skillicorn threw the ball to Don Paul.
Miller was first to go, caught by Gray in slip. John Ridley - a former clubmate - followed him, going into the slips at the other end to Ferris off Snell. Only Rixon - whose fluent 30 not out overnight had turned into a battle to survive - could stand with his head high but he was out near the end to Paul. From 0-57, Easts were all out for 95. Ten wickets fell for 38 and Don Paul (6-24) took most of them. Vic Snell and Bob Howe took the other end and there was nowhere to run.
But it wasn't over.
Waratahs came out a second time and Easts with the sniff of the impossible, then carved through their opponents and had the ten available batsmen sent back for only 21 - the lowest 1st Grade (A Grade) total ever made by Waratahs. Rixon sensed the destiny of victory with 4-8.
90 to win or ten wickets. Give the state of the track, it was an impossible goal for Easts. Given Don Paul to bowl at you, it was a no brainer. Easts didn't even make it to halfway. Rixon and last man Lickiss top scored with 9. Waratahs held catches everywhere but mostly close to the wicket, where Gray and Ferris both held two beauties each in slip. Not surprisingly, Paul opened the bowling and apart from Bob Howe clean bowling John Ridley, Billy Matthews and picking up Roy Smith via the hands of Milligan, it was the Don Paul show. His figures of 7-20 were the first seven wickets in an innings performance for Waratahs and his match figures of 13-44 have never been beaten.
On that second day, 102 runs were scored whilst 30 wickets fell. Don Paul took 13-35 during the afternoon. There is a compelling case for this being the greatest match performance by a Waratahs club member. Rixon's additional 21 runs he added to his overnight 30, were twice as many runs as any scored by other batsmen on the day. A premiership won by ten men.
So Waratahs became Premiers for the first time. It would be 19 years before it would happen again in 1st Grade. Ross Ridley (318), the missing man Laurie Cooper (228) and Alan Gray (219) all passed the two hundred run mark. Don Paul (46) and Laurie Cooper (20) took the most wickets, with Paul taking an amazing six Pfeiffers. Ross Ridley had 14 dismissals behind the stumps, including 6 stumpings.
Photo courtesy of Milton Milligan
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