1963-64

NOTABLE GAINS: Roger Roan
NOTABLE LOSSES: Laurie Blake, Don Foster, D Lang, Geoff McDonald, Tony Morriss, P Morse, John Roberts

A puzzling year and certainly a disappointing one, in how it started as well as how it finished. The past seven seasons had Waratahs teams playing in semi-finals somewhere across the grades but not this year. When March arrived, Waratahs players packed their kit bags and found a place for them until September.

Certainly player numbers were reduced, with B Grade twice having to forfeit games and as defending premiers that was not a good look but it was two key issues, even seen from this distance, that stand out. At the end of the previous season, Waratahs had on its books three of the best and most promising junior players in Armidale. Don Foster had just finished his second season, experiencing A Grade in the second half of the season and performing steadily with the ball. Geoff McDonald and Geoff Marshall had taken everything before them in B Grade, had experienced A Grade and had both played 2nd XI district cricket. With these three drafted into the A Grade side along experienced heads such as Eric Smith, Terry Mackenzie and Alan Gray, Waratahs would have a formidable side.

What happened? Don Foster went back to Easts, led their A Grade attack and had great success, going on to become one of the best cricketers Armidale has produced. How did we loose him? Geoff McDonald played for UNE, the Arimdale First XI and Northern NSW Colts, opening the bowling for all three. Why did they leave and what did we do to try and retain them? We don't know the story but their loss to A Grade, at a time when good new blood was desperately needed and after time had been spent on their development, was a heavy blow. On top of that, D Lang who had shone so brightly with the blade with five A Grade hundreds in three seasons, left Armidale.

The second matter one needs to question is selection. You have seen how Geoff Marshall finished the previous season. Would you also wonder why he started the season in the Reserves and stayed there for four matches - until late November? The A Grade side he couldn't get selected in won only one those four games ... and that by forfeit! University, Ex Services and Churches all ran up big scores against them, with the bowlers only totalling 20 wickets in the three games played and twice, Waratahs just struggled past three figures. Painted against this, during those same four games, Marshall was in Reserves taking 21 wickets at 9 after scoring 89 on the opening day and then smashing 176 against High School. That innings on the same day Merv Philp was taking sixfa and cuting our top order down with only members of tail making double figures. Marshall was finally picked and then, after batting at seven and eight and bowling when the ball was old and sides well underway, he was dropped. He came back late in season after another hundred and 6-47.

His wasn't the only strange decision. Ray Reeves started in the A's, got a pair and was dropped. Bob Brennan, was promoted at the same time as Marshall and batted as well as anyone in A Grade - only Alan Cox had a better average - and his bowling was consistent, especially when he was given the new ball. Against Uralla, his unbeaten 105 and Nigel Richardson's hatrick, were the only reasons Waratahs won ... their only win after Christmas. Brennan was dropped one game later.

The sum total was no teams in the semis. It was a bitter pill to swallow, especially among an A Grade team which was wanting more success than it was delivering.

A Grade

In the first game against University, only Alan Gray looked comfortable in either innings. On the second day, after Allan Dudley had carved a century, Waratahs played two short, batted badly and lost by an innings. After picking up maximum points for a TAS forfeit, Ex Services fed on the mangled pieces University had left, with Allen See and Rene Mullen both making hundreds. Watson at least got some wickets. Waratahs reply was spirited and Nigel Richardson played probably his best A grade knock. Keith McIntyre, bought into the side to keep, was also effective but they were chasing too many. At the start of November, Churches made it three maulings in a row when they took they pound of flesh. Brian Roberts bowled a long productive spell but when future Waratahian Merv Philp took six and only the tail got to double figures, it was an embarrasing start to the season. Brennan and Marshall came in against the weaker University II for a one day game and didn't have much to do as the old firm of Smith and Mackenzie took the wickets and Alan Cox made an unbeaten fifty chasing the small total for first innings points. Easts were then beaten comfortably as Waratahs ran up 330 plus, with good scores from six of the order, led by Cox (85) and Gray (54). Allan Cash batted well in one of his rare appearances and Marshall finally had a decent bowl and picked up four. The last game before Christmas was lost to Public Service after Smith and Mackenzie both bowled very long spells to set up a catchable score but only Richardson, Brennan and Ian Stewart looked likely with the bat.

The record in the New Year just got worse, with four losses in five games and that surprisingly against Uralla. University won a close first innings contest after Roberts and Watson bowled well but only Porter, batting at eleven made runs over 20. Batting a second time after a quick University declaration, Waratahs were 7-19 and only one wicket from losing outright. The University chaps could be excused for thinking Waratahs only ever batted nine second time round! The win against Uralla had several bright points, not the least of them being Bob Brennan's century and Nigel Richardson's hatrick. For two hard working cricketers, these were suitable rewards. Against Ex Services, Waratahs made a reasonable total thanks to to Cox and Stewart who seeemd to be finding his way after a slow start in A grade. It wasn't near enough as Wally Miller piled on quick runs. Another big score from Churches led by Preen's century and even though five batsmen made starts, it wasn't near enough either. In the last match, our bowlers couldn't defend 200 against TAS.

It was a lean season. Only three batsmen topped two hundred runs: Alan Gray (280), Nigel Richardson (276) and Alan Cox (246 at 41.00), who had the best average. Bob Brennan (164 at 32.80) was the best of the rest but he finished the season in Reserves. Brian Roberts (18 wickets) took the most wickets but it had been a long time since no A Grade bowler passed 20 wickets in a season. The bowling was underdone all season and a look at the averages shows it - only Roberts (18.78) was below twenty, Terry Mackenzie (24.50) well above his best and Eric Smith (30.60), Brian Richardson (51.50) and Alan Cox (87.50). I fact it was the younger blokes like Watson, Brennan, Marshall and Nigel Richardson who bowled reasonably and should have seen more of the ball. Keith McIntyre (8 catches) was the leading catcher.

A-Reserve Grade

Not a hard season to sum up: after two games, Waratahs led the competition and Keith McIntyre was taken up to A Grade; after four games Waratahs was second in the competition Geoff Marshall was taken up to A Grade; after five games, Brennan went to A Grade and they didn't win another game.

Waratah hit the boards running in the first game against YCW posting a good score on the back of big half centuries by Marshall and McIntyre and then rolling YCW cheaply for 180 run lead. YCW had the best of the second day. Against University, R McIntyre was the only reason Waratahs staggered to three figures and then Marshall and Watson were the reason university didn't. Doug Johnstone made a return to playing and his second innings runs earned him an A Grade sport for the rest of the season. In the third game against TAS, Waratahs squandered a 40 run lead thanks to runs from Brennan, Ray Reeves (back from A Grade) and John Russell and wickets from Marshall and Reeves. Falling short of their ability a second time and with the veteran Hugh Ferris scoring half the total, TAS scored freely in the fourth innings and took outright points despite Reeves and Marshall being on the job again. The match against High School provided something special, after High School had been dismissed for just over three figures. Marshall, not content with four wickets then spent the remainder of the afternoon getting to 93 not out. On the second day he made hay and went on to the record A-Res/2nd Grade score of 176. No one noticed the High School's second innings and Marshall went to A Grade.

Apart from drawing the next game, a one dayer against Public Service, when D Bucknell resumed playing with a hundred, Brennan and Ian Stewart made fifties and then the game ran out of time. From then on it was a constant battle to be competitive as players like Marshall, Brennan, Bucknell, Stewart and Watson bounced between the top two grades and those filling in from B Grade did their best but often left the junior team short-handed. Regardless, it was all losses.

Hillgrove scored too many, with Greg Russell from B Grade the best of the bowlers and the batting load was shared between A Chisholm, John Russell, Gordon Lee and Ferris. Uralla was the same story with an outright narrowly avoided mostly thanks to Watson who top scored in both innings and was promoted after Christmas. Dawson was the other impressive batsman.

After Christmas, St Peters scored a packet thanks to a club mate from the early days, John Ridley. Ray Reeves took an expensive five wickets and then batted well to avoid the outright as Barnden took eleven wickets. Marshall was back against YCW and took four wickets as a Laurie McCann hundred set up their win. Chisholm again batted well in a losing side. Marshall was back to his best against Public Service and after a first innings batting failure his 6-47 restricted the damage and then a blazing unbeaten 108 set up the chance for an outright win. The last game of the season we have details for was a narrow four run first innings loss to Hillgrove, in which Brennan returned just one game after an A Grade century to top score and lead the bowling attack.

Details are incomplete owing to the reporting style in the Express but we do know that Geoff Marshall scored at least 373 runs and Bob Brennan 206. Marshall took 31 wickets and Ray Reeves 14.

B Grade

Despite so many of their outstanding personnel gravitating upward - as you would hope they would - this side was still evry competitive this year. Players like R Russell, B Barrett and Allan Smith who had been youngseters and bit players previously, made the step up this season when given greater responsibility. The addition of J Woodward from Public Service in the last game before Christmas, added greatly to their cause. The real surprise is that they didn't make the semi-finals, losing only three games but then two of those were forfeit where no points were score. Still, they did have eight wins, three of those outright. Worse records than that have won premierships.

The season opened with a nine wicket outright win against Churches, who were undone when routed on the first day by R Russell (8-29) and then S Stanley's fine batting at the top of the order. Russell added more scalps in the second innings to have twelve for the match. The second match was forfeited to Uralla. Russell, Barrett and a familiar face, J McIntyre, rolled Public Service twice and Stanley and Bill Nixon got Waratahs within 9 runs of another outright win. Despite trailing on the first innings, Hillgrove were beaten outright as Barrett (10) and Russell (7) took the bulk of the wickets. In a one day because of rain, Waratahs narrowly beat TAS, with John Russell making a rare appearance down in B Grade making a half century and then taking six wickets. A name worth noting in the TAS line up was one David Tilbury. In a game that see sawed in early December, Waratahs just got the better of Dumaresq II with a one wicket outright win in a game where the losing sides 115 was the best score of the match. Stanley top scored in both innings and B Charlton took a bag of Dumaresq wickets in each innings to finish with eleven. The last game before Christmas was lost to Vampires on the first with a batting collapse but then the side owned most of what happened after that. New man Woodward took 7-18 in his first game and then scored good runs with Smith and Stanley to set target on the second day, to no avail.

After the break, the campaign started and ended badly. The first game was forfeited to YCW but then Easts were beaten easily. Stanley scored his first century and Greg Russell was out unluckily on 82. Woodward was in the wickets again. The match against City Council ended in a drawn when the pitch was "unavailable" on the second day with the Council in a strong position. Allan Smith blasted 87 and Chapman 73 in a big score against Uralla, with Greg Russell in the wickets with Woodward. The last game was Waratahs only "on field" loss, when Dumaresq I bested them by only 8 runs and Allan Smith was against top scorer but in both innings. Woodward and Nixon were his helpers and Barrett returned to earlier form with five wickets.

S Stanley (339) was the leading run getter, which included 121 against Easts. Allan Smith (215 runs) ran into form the longer the season went. R Russell (23 wickets) took his wickets early or but wasn't seen after November. B Barrett (21) and J Woodward (20) were the main bowlers in the second half of the season.