GAINS: Laurie Cooper, Joe Leahy, Beau Richardson, Roos Ridley, John Carr, Alan Thorncraft, Vic Snell & P Morse
In post WWII Armidale, up in the rarefied air of the NSW Northern Tablelands, young men not only played their part in booming babies but a small number of passionate cricketers also gave their vital spark to the creation of the Waratahs Cricket Club.
Sired by the same young men who formed the Armidale City Rugby Club (hence the same patriotic NSW colours and emblems), its mother was the Richardson's Cricket Club and her players were also carry overs. The Richardson's mob had played for many years in the Armidale A and A-Reserve competitions and had their share of representative cricketers play for New England in the Tablelands First XI. The majority of their players were employees of JJ Richardson's Store, standing prominently on the corner of Beardy & Dangar street in the very heart of the Armidale CBD. For a reason unknown - some have suggested internal division on the way the club was being run, others that employees who played cricket were dwindling - in the winter of 1950, The New England Association was informed that Richardsons Cricket Club was no more but a new team would stand in it's place, the Waratahs Cricket Club.
So it was that on the 16th September, 1950, on the first day of the 1950-51 season, the Waratahs Club made its debut in A-Reserve Grade against High School (which in those days meant Armidale HS) at Racecourse 1. In those days, the Racecourse grounds were used every week, often just bare concrete strips but occasionally for the "flash clubs", coir matting would be available to be pegged out over the concrete and held in place with piston valves.
The first Waratahs side was made up from the following twelve: S Blake, Laurie Cooper, John Carr, J Hocking, Joe Leahy, Vic Snell, D Nott, Ross Ridley, Beau Richardson, John Ridley, N Logan & A Kerwin. It's likely that Logan and Kerwin either played just that game or perhaps didn't show up, as there is no mention of them again. Unfortunately, we have no record of their performance, for during that first season, Waratahs must have seldom submitted its books to the Armidale Express. This was never an ongoing problem again until the last few dark years of her history, when absence from the newspaper accounts were death groans signalling ending.
The match for which we have a playing record happened just two weeks later when a similar line up (minus Carr but plus Jeff Witherden) defeated a Railway side at Racecourse 3 which included five Laskers ... either fettlers or grog ran in that family! Railways were all out for 67, with Snell, Cooper, Richardson & Leahy sharing the wickets. In reply, on the second Saturday, Waratahs won handsomely, scoring 123, with John Ridley top the scores with 29 to follow his 3 catches on the first day.
More early wins followed and by November their form and their playing personnel (which included players such as Ross Ridley and Vic Snell who had worn the green cap for New England) saw the NECA promote them to the A-Grade competition - a place the club held for more than nearly forty five years - and their first game would be against Easts at the Sportsground. What an auspicious and portentous way to begin.
Their second game was against Uralla. At that time, Easts and Uralla were the hot sides and they faced both in quick succession. There is no record of the result of the Easts game but against Uralla they pulled off an exciting win in a low scoring game. Uralla made only 62, with former rep players Vic Snell, Alan Thorncraft and Laurie Cooper routing them. Waratahs reply of 91 may not have been much, but it was enough.
The Express noted "the success of Waratahs - a former junior team - against A Grade teams of long standing indicates a heightening of the standards in Armidale which augers well for the future of the game in the district."
Perhaps there is enough in that comment to believe they beat Easts too!
There are very few records of match scores for the remainder of 50-51 but an article reporting the semi-finals of 17/2/51 tells us that Waratahs lost their match to Uralla. Over the years, Uralla would often pip Waratahs in big games. Disappointing but still, to start the season in a lower grade and finish it in an A Grade semi-final was a fair effort for a fledgling club.
Sunday, March 7, 2010
Saturday, March 6, 2010
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.
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.
Friday, March 5, 2010
1952-53: A Grade Premiers
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
Thursday, March 4, 2010
1953-54
NOTABLE DEBUTS: Doug Johnstone
NOTABLE LOSSES: Norm Buckley, Bob Harding & Tony Horodam
Playing like Premiers, the first competition was definitely one that got away. Starting with a 75 run thrashing of Easts, they took this good form out to the university where they failed by just three runs to beat the strong UNE side outright despite rolling them for just 86 on the first Saturday. The next two matches produced compelling outright victories over DLSC and the always difficult Uralla. Against the students, Bob Howe took eleven wickets and scored runs in both innings and in the Uralla match, Walter Taylor was kept under twenty twice as Waratahs racked up 286, including half centuries to Fred Skillicorn, Don Paul and Ross Ridley and Paul took seven wickets in his return.
In first place and even with the powerful Wests to play, it would be reasonable to think that runs on the board would be enough. In this case, more than enough because as the last wicket fell in the shadow of stumps, Waratahs had 408 on the board thanks to some outstanding batting by Skillicorn, Paul, Howe, Hodge and Alan Gray on the flat West Armidale pitch. Skillicorn became the first century maker for Waratahs, scoring 101 in what must have been a large partnership with Don Paul, who made 96. Unfortunately, the pitch was just as flat on the second day and only eight wickets could be won from Wests in a total of 315. Meanwhile, Uralla were busy capitulating to Unviversity by an innings, giving the clever fellas the competition.
This was particularly gauling having flogged them in early October.
The second competition started with three losses and draw, carrying them through to February. Against Easts, 238 should have been enough, thanks to Skillicorn (70), Hodge (59) and Ridley (55). Bob Howe took five wickets but Dick Stewart (64) lead Easts to 260. Straiight after Christmas and batting first on a wet deck, Waratahs collapsed against Uralla for only 79 and were some hope but for an inspired 73 by Walter Taylor, when no one else could make double figure for Uralla, mainly thanks to a classy spell from Skillicorn, who kept making a habit of having an impact with either bat or ball. Against Wests, they were chasing two hundred plus, Skillicorn again staring with six wickets. The chase saw many get runs, just not enough. Their best result in two months came with a draw against, although the rain got the assist in the result, The veteran Dick Stewart scored 112 or Easts 229, Snell taking four. Waratahs were 1-70 at stumps with Ridley (40) and Gray (25) well under way in the chase.
As February changed to March, Uralla, who had earlier cost Waratahs a premiership, retunred the favour and collpased twice for fifty odd and despite only scoring 99, Waratahs won by ten wickets. Cooper (6-27) and Hodge (49) were the stars. Hodge's effort on a drying track on day one was outstanding.
Buoyed by the trouncing of Uralla, Waratahs finished the season with another big total against Wests. This time it was an unknown, Flanagan (71) who led the way, batting at four. Laurie Cooper (49) cut loose in the middle order with a typically aggressive attack. Wests were 2-67 overnight and Wally Miller kept his good start going the next Saturday, scoring 75. Skillicon led the mop up and the season finished with a win by more than a hundred.
Ross Ridley (379) led the run scorers but Fred Skillicorn (370 & 52.86) had the best batting average. Ian Hodge (288) and Alan Gray (258) were the other major batting contributors. Skillicorn (29 & 14.24) won both the bowling honours but Laurie Cooper (27) and Vic Snell (24) were constistent with the ball, as always. Bobe Howe (18) took good wickets with limited appearances. Alan Gray, as usual, led the catchers with 8.
NOTABLE LOSSES: Norm Buckley, Bob Harding & Tony Horodam
Playing like Premiers, the first competition was definitely one that got away. Starting with a 75 run thrashing of Easts, they took this good form out to the university where they failed by just three runs to beat the strong UNE side outright despite rolling them for just 86 on the first Saturday. The next two matches produced compelling outright victories over DLSC and the always difficult Uralla. Against the students, Bob Howe took eleven wickets and scored runs in both innings and in the Uralla match, Walter Taylor was kept under twenty twice as Waratahs racked up 286, including half centuries to Fred Skillicorn, Don Paul and Ross Ridley and Paul took seven wickets in his return.
In first place and even with the powerful Wests to play, it would be reasonable to think that runs on the board would be enough. In this case, more than enough because as the last wicket fell in the shadow of stumps, Waratahs had 408 on the board thanks to some outstanding batting by Skillicorn, Paul, Howe, Hodge and Alan Gray on the flat West Armidale pitch. Skillicorn became the first century maker for Waratahs, scoring 101 in what must have been a large partnership with Don Paul, who made 96. Unfortunately, the pitch was just as flat on the second day and only eight wickets could be won from Wests in a total of 315. Meanwhile, Uralla were busy capitulating to Unviversity by an innings, giving the clever fellas the competition.
This was particularly gauling having flogged them in early October.
The second competition started with three losses and draw, carrying them through to February. Against Easts, 238 should have been enough, thanks to Skillicorn (70), Hodge (59) and Ridley (55). Bob Howe took five wickets but Dick Stewart (64) lead Easts to 260. Straiight after Christmas and batting first on a wet deck, Waratahs collapsed against Uralla for only 79 and were some hope but for an inspired 73 by Walter Taylor, when no one else could make double figure for Uralla, mainly thanks to a classy spell from Skillicorn, who kept making a habit of having an impact with either bat or ball. Against Wests, they were chasing two hundred plus, Skillicorn again staring with six wickets. The chase saw many get runs, just not enough. Their best result in two months came with a draw against, although the rain got the assist in the result, The veteran Dick Stewart scored 112 or Easts 229, Snell taking four. Waratahs were 1-70 at stumps with Ridley (40) and Gray (25) well under way in the chase.
As February changed to March, Uralla, who had earlier cost Waratahs a premiership, retunred the favour and collpased twice for fifty odd and despite only scoring 99, Waratahs won by ten wickets. Cooper (6-27) and Hodge (49) were the stars. Hodge's effort on a drying track on day one was outstanding.
Buoyed by the trouncing of Uralla, Waratahs finished the season with another big total against Wests. This time it was an unknown, Flanagan (71) who led the way, batting at four. Laurie Cooper (49) cut loose in the middle order with a typically aggressive attack. Wests were 2-67 overnight and Wally Miller kept his good start going the next Saturday, scoring 75. Skillicon led the mop up and the season finished with a win by more than a hundred.
Ross Ridley (379) led the run scorers but Fred Skillicorn (370 & 52.86) had the best batting average. Ian Hodge (288) and Alan Gray (258) were the other major batting contributors. Skillicorn (29 & 14.24) won both the bowling honours but Laurie Cooper (27) and Vic Snell (24) were constistent with the ball, as always. Bobe Howe (18) took good wickets with limited appearances. Alan Gray, as usual, led the catchers with 8.
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
1954-55
NOTABLE GAINS: John Richardson
NOTABLE LOSSES: Fred Skillicorn & Bob Howe
Changes to personnel and persistent rain played a big hand in a much weaker showing by Waratahs in the two competitions. Even though Don Paul played more games than in the previous season, Waratahs lost skipper and star allrounder Fred Skillicorn. A brilliant tennis player, he was lost to court room dramas rather than to another cricket opponent. Although Ross Ridley kept well, his batting was a shadow of former seasons. The same could be said of Laurie Cooper who had his
NOTABLE LOSSES: Fred Skillicorn & Bob Howe
Changes to personnel and persistent rain played a big hand in a much weaker showing by Waratahs in the two competitions. Even though Don Paul played more games than in the previous season, Waratahs lost skipper and star allrounder Fred Skillicorn. A brilliant tennis player, he was lost to court room dramas rather than to another cricket opponent. Although Ross Ridley kept well, his batting was a shadow of former seasons. The same could be said of Laurie Cooper who had his
Photo courtesy of Milton Milligan
worst season with the bat. As a result, there were hardly ever enough runs to play with.
Rain affected four of the five games in the opening competition. Wests scored 210 on the first Saturday but a sticky West Armidale Park on day two restricted Waratahs to 60. They gave up another 200 plus score against University and were in trouble in reply when the second day was lost. There were no excuses when TAS used homeground advantage to rout them twice (117 & 81) and knocked up the winning runs with eight wickets to spare. Ross Ridley's second innings 39 was his season best, as a young student called Terry Mackenzie took 5-28. At DLSC, 117 was enough to get first innings points against DLSC's 43 and 5-57 but another rain lost second day probably cost outright points. In the last game against TAS, the first day was again abandoned to rain, so an all day game was played. Despite Vic Snell's 7-28 in TAS's first innings 59 time prevented anything more than a first innings victory.
The second, longer comp started well with a near outright against Wests on the home ground they shared opposite the hospital. Ian Hodge led the way with 48 in a rare outing in a total 234. On the second day, time ran out with 14 required for the outright and eight wickets in hand. This was followed by a rare outright win against Easts as Vic Snell and Beau Richardson shared the wickets in a low scoring event at the Sportsground. It was rain again at Uralla but the home side was well in control after Walter Taylor made 86 and draw points a good result in a lucky escape. Fine weather finally arrived and the match against Wests at West Armidale Park was a high scoring affair with Wests getting a first innings decision. Deep into the second day, a generous declaration by a Wests skipper gambling for points allowed Waratahs, led by Alan Gray and R Gustard, to chase hard but finish heart breakingly four runs from outright points with only four wickets down. February finished with Waratahs leading the comp after a thumping outright win against DLSC in which they passed 250 for the only time of the season. Gustard (52), Paul (46x) and Gray (40) dominated and Paul took 5-47 in DLSC's first innings of 90.
With a premiership beckoning, weather and poor form set in. In another rain affected match at West Armidale Park restricted to one day because of the Armidale Show, Easts were rolled for only 65, Don Paul (5-33) and Milton Milligan (3-5) the stars. In reply, Waratahs could only muster 52, with a future Waratahs hero called Norm Buckley taking 7-25. Easts, along with Uralla, who had thumped DLSC, were back in the title hunt.
The second last game against TAS should have been a certain outright. The school was struggling to fill it's team and after the first day's play, Waratahs were on target after scoring 148 (Milligan 52, Paul 30) and having TAS 8-52 but on the second day, despite having a full strength bowling line up, Waratahs were unable to dismiss a stubborn tail until late in the day and at one stage, first innings points looked in danger. Meanwhile, Easts won outright and Uralla on the first innings.
The last round started with Waratahs (36) leading the chase to the premiership but with Uralla (34) and Easts (34) in hot pursuit. Easts would play TAS and Waratahs would play Uralla. At West Armidale, Uralla's Barnden took 4-23 and Tricket 3-28 as Waratahs collapsed for 78 and with no excuses as the wicket was dry and the weather fine. The Uralla reply was kept to 139, mainly thanks to Vic Snell (4-48) and Don Paul (3-36) and needing runs the second time round, Waratahs was 1-3 and Uralla had passed them on the table. Easts made 174 and had TAS 4-12. With one day left for play, there was still hope.
It poured on the last day of the season and Uralla were the Premiers.
Don Paul finished with all the end of season trophies, scoring 256 runs at 32.00 and taking 38 wickets at 10.37. Runs were in short supply all season and only R Gustard 249 (19.15), Alan Gray 232 (13.65) and Milton Milligan 225 (18.75) also exceeded two hundred runs. Vic Snell with (34 at 11.94) was the other stand out bowler but Laurie Cooper (18 at 13.72), Milton Milligan (18 at 11.78) and Beau Richardson (19 at 18.63) all had their moments. Despite a miserable year with the bat, Ross Ridley took 21 dissmissals behind the wicket.
Rain affected four of the five games in the opening competition. Wests scored 210 on the first Saturday but a sticky West Armidale Park on day two restricted Waratahs to 60. They gave up another 200 plus score against University and were in trouble in reply when the second day was lost. There were no excuses when TAS used homeground advantage to rout them twice (117 & 81) and knocked up the winning runs with eight wickets to spare. Ross Ridley's second innings 39 was his season best, as a young student called Terry Mackenzie took 5-28. At DLSC, 117 was enough to get first innings points against DLSC's 43 and 5-57 but another rain lost second day probably cost outright points. In the last game against TAS, the first day was again abandoned to rain, so an all day game was played. Despite Vic Snell's 7-28 in TAS's first innings 59 time prevented anything more than a first innings victory.
The second, longer comp started well with a near outright against Wests on the home ground they shared opposite the hospital. Ian Hodge led the way with 48 in a rare outing in a total 234. On the second day, time ran out with 14 required for the outright and eight wickets in hand. This was followed by a rare outright win against Easts as Vic Snell and Beau Richardson shared the wickets in a low scoring event at the Sportsground. It was rain again at Uralla but the home side was well in control after Walter Taylor made 86 and draw points a good result in a lucky escape. Fine weather finally arrived and the match against Wests at West Armidale Park was a high scoring affair with Wests getting a first innings decision. Deep into the second day, a generous declaration by a Wests skipper gambling for points allowed Waratahs, led by Alan Gray and R Gustard, to chase hard but finish heart breakingly four runs from outright points with only four wickets down. February finished with Waratahs leading the comp after a thumping outright win against DLSC in which they passed 250 for the only time of the season. Gustard (52), Paul (46x) and Gray (40) dominated and Paul took 5-47 in DLSC's first innings of 90.
With a premiership beckoning, weather and poor form set in. In another rain affected match at West Armidale Park restricted to one day because of the Armidale Show, Easts were rolled for only 65, Don Paul (5-33) and Milton Milligan (3-5) the stars. In reply, Waratahs could only muster 52, with a future Waratahs hero called Norm Buckley taking 7-25. Easts, along with Uralla, who had thumped DLSC, were back in the title hunt.
The second last game against TAS should have been a certain outright. The school was struggling to fill it's team and after the first day's play, Waratahs were on target after scoring 148 (Milligan 52, Paul 30) and having TAS 8-52 but on the second day, despite having a full strength bowling line up, Waratahs were unable to dismiss a stubborn tail until late in the day and at one stage, first innings points looked in danger. Meanwhile, Easts won outright and Uralla on the first innings.
The last round started with Waratahs (36) leading the chase to the premiership but with Uralla (34) and Easts (34) in hot pursuit. Easts would play TAS and Waratahs would play Uralla. At West Armidale, Uralla's Barnden took 4-23 and Tricket 3-28 as Waratahs collapsed for 78 and with no excuses as the wicket was dry and the weather fine. The Uralla reply was kept to 139, mainly thanks to Vic Snell (4-48) and Don Paul (3-36) and needing runs the second time round, Waratahs was 1-3 and Uralla had passed them on the table. Easts made 174 and had TAS 4-12. With one day left for play, there was still hope.
It poured on the last day of the season and Uralla were the Premiers.
Don Paul finished with all the end of season trophies, scoring 256 runs at 32.00 and taking 38 wickets at 10.37. Runs were in short supply all season and only R Gustard 249 (19.15), Alan Gray 232 (13.65) and Milton Milligan 225 (18.75) also exceeded two hundred runs. Vic Snell with (34 at 11.94) was the other stand out bowler but Laurie Cooper (18 at 13.72), Milton Milligan (18 at 11.78) and Beau Richardson (19 at 18.63) all had their moments. Despite a miserable year with the bat, Ross Ridley took 21 dissmissals behind the wicket.
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
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.
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.
Monday, March 1, 2010
1956-57 "First Building Phase" : B Grade semi-finalists
NOTABLE GAINS: John Carr, Gordon Lee, Bruce McClenaghan, Tony Morriss, Bill Nixon, John Russell, Arty See, Eric Smith, Roy Smith, J Walsh & Geoff Whitton
NOTABLE LOSSES: Norm Buckley, Laurie Cooper, P Morse, Milton Milligan & Ray Rose
With the future very much in mind, the 56-57 season opened with two Waratahs teams thanks to the addition of a solid core of eighteen players, most of which played often enough to be called regulars in this new B Grade team - at that stage, the second level of competition offered by the New England Cricket Association. Led by the experienced Hugh Ferris, it unearthed two stars who would make a major contribution to Waratahs in the coming ten years. J Walsh and Tony Morriss proved to be capable of big performances and along with Ferris himself, their broad shoulders carried the team. In A Grade, there were losses and gains. Don Paul, Brian Richardson and Vic Snell played only a few games, with Snell taking no part until the final two games. Laurie Cooper left to play for Wests and Norm Buckley went from a seed into an Acorn. However, on the plus side, brothers Eric and Roy Smith joined Waratahs and were hefty contributors with bat and ball. Ross Ridley and Alan Gray were as consistent as ever and Doug Johnstone probably had his best season with the bat.
A Grade
Apart from a few notable exceptions near the tail end of the season, this was a side that could and did consistently make good team totals. It was a drier summer, which helped but the batting seemed much strong and the list deeper. The season started on a winning note against DLSC, for despite struggling with the ball and dropping seven catches, Waratahs was able to chase down 179, with Doug Johnstone (62) and John Richardson (51) both batting well. Pat Ryan took six wickets as DLSC hung on long enough second time around to prevent an outright loss, despite Ross Ridley's (44no) scorching second innings. We have incomplete scores for the next game against Uralla but Walter Taylor maintained his big hundred habit and the first day ended with a long way to go, even though Eric Smith (6-34) had bowled immaculately under fire. A similar problem for the game against University, although we do know that Ross Ridley made a breezy 89. Churches were beaten outright but Easts overcame us in a tight game with only eleven runs deciding a game where both side score freely to go past 200. Don Paul got 4 wickets in his last game of the season and Doug Johnstone (47) top scored. In the last two games before Christmas, Acorns won easily after Waratahs had a first innings batting collapse and Wests rolled up 198 with Wally Miller scoring 110 but the second day was lost to rain.
Straight after Christmas, Waratahs won confidently against Rugby League, one of the gun sides of the competition. The Brothers Smith, Roy (5-41) and Eric (4-12) rolled RL for only 106 on a perfect batting wicket and Waratahs batsmen just about doubled that thanks to another Johnstone half century and runs froms the Smiths. Batting a second time, Ron Madden (99) was unlucky as he led RL to 208. Waratahs chased hard - almost too hard - but fell nearly thirty short but with eight wickets down and Johnstone again top scoring. The young Uralla blokes, The Rovers, won a low scoring tussle outright after Waratahs led on the first innings. Alan Gray made 46 in a second innings total of only 79 and Roy Smith took eight wickets for the match. Runs were back on the board against the full strength Uralla side when rain took the second week with Waratahs 4-142 after Walter Taylor (116) made yet another century in Uralla's 195. Rugby League were beaten again, after being routed on the first day by Roy Smith's 7-31 and then having Ross Ridley smash seven 6's in his 106, including one to raise his century. On the second day, RL recovered to post 194, with Ron Madden (95) again being the mainstay and missing centuries in consecutive matches against Waratahs. Chasing 81 for the outright, only Alan Gray got going and the team had to be content with first innings points. Outright points were gained in the next match, a thrashing of Acorns. Waratahs declared at 5-220, with Erich Smith, Gray, Ross Duncan and Johnstone scoring well. Acorns had two innings and still didn't get there, with Roy Smith taking nine wickets and Vic Snell claiming 4-12 in his first match of the season.
Waratahs failed to make the semi-finals and played two games whilst the finals rounds were on. Against Easts then lost by eight wickets outright a match in which their second innings 117 was the highest score. Only Gray showed form. Their season concluded with a one day match against Churches in which they lost handsomely on the first innings.
Ross Ridley (434) was the leading run scorer, which included only the second Waratahs century in seven years of competition. Eric Smith (336 at 33.60) had the best batting average by the narrow margin over Ridley. Alan Gray (291) and Doug Johnston (283) also passed the 200 mark. Eric Smith (45 at 10.64), was the leading bowler in his first season and brother Roy Smith (40 at 13.13) wasn't far behind. Only Pat Pyan took more than ten wickets. Amazingly, thirty five players made appearances in A Grade during the season.
B Grade
In a competition that was played as all one day games, there was plenty of opportunity for new blood in a week in, week out format in which each team batted and bowled.
Waratahs made their highest run total of the season (204) in beating Acorns in the first game. Tony Morriss (5-28) starred with new ball and G Whitton, J Walsh, John Dickson and Arty See scored runs. Hugh Ferris made runs and Morriss took wickets in a comfortable win over TAS and Ferris top scored in both innings of a loss to DLSC. Morriss took 6-37 in a losing side against Hillgrove but there was improved batting fortune as Walsh hit an unbeaten half century in a rain marred draw against Easts, supported by D Gratton. It was Ferris (44) and Morriss 6-34 in a close win against Dumaresq. The Teachers College then crushed Waratahs in a match they may have lost outright had it not been for Ferris' second innings steadying. Another loss just before Christmas to Dumaresq was tempered by Walsh's fine all round performance (4-49 & 51x).
The six weeks after the competition resumed in January were Waratahs best of the season, with five wins in six matches. The run started with a nail-biting seven run win over Rugby League, with Tony Morriss (6-30) again the star. Rockvale were the one blip on the radar, when future Waratahs batsman Greg Russell 61x, countered Walsh's season high 80x. Public Service were beaten by only ten runs, Ferris and Walsh among both runs and wicket. Ferris' 6-18 included a hatrick. Easts were beaten comfortably at Race Course 3 with R Turner top scoring in one of only four games he played. Rockvale were knocked over easily, with many contributing and Acorns were rolled for just 25 and were probably the most decisive win of the season. Morriss (6-6) was at his best.
From there it was a topsy turvy with the batting proving too reliant on a few and the same could be said of the bowling. As Morriss went off the boil, sides became much harder to get out. The run home was started with a loss to Easts in which Walsh made 40, a comfortable win against TAS in which Ferris made 69x, a loss to Hillgrove and a win against Public Service. This first season of multiple grade petered out with two more losses (DLSC & Rockvale) and final match tie against University as the final was played between others.
There was no doubt who the absolute star performer was by season's end. J Walsh (532 runs at 28.00and 27 wickets at 12.30) won the batting average and was more than handy with the ball. Hugh Ferris (561 runs at 26.71 and 23 wickets at 7.48) was the leading run scorer and had the best bowling average. Tony Morriss (59 wickets) was the leading bowler and R Marshall (27 wickets) was the other consistent bowler. The truly amazing statistic from the batting of this side is that apart from those named above and R Turner who played only four innings, only Arty See and D Gratton averaged over 10. Eighteen players appeared in B Grade in 1956-57 and twelve of them batted 13 or more times with the great majority of them averaging under seven runs per innings. This also may have been the side who recorded the most ducks in a season, 70 in all, with Max Nixon and John Dickson leading the way with 8 ducks each. Dickson, in fact, added another in an A Grade game to give him 9 for the season!
NOTABLE LOSSES: Norm Buckley, Laurie Cooper, P Morse, Milton Milligan & Ray Rose
With the future very much in mind, the 56-57 season opened with two Waratahs teams thanks to the addition of a solid core of eighteen players, most of which played often enough to be called regulars in this new B Grade team - at that stage, the second level of competition offered by the New England Cricket Association. Led by the experienced Hugh Ferris, it unearthed two stars who would make a major contribution to Waratahs in the coming ten years. J Walsh and Tony Morriss proved to be capable of big performances and along with Ferris himself, their broad shoulders carried the team. In A Grade, there were losses and gains. Don Paul, Brian Richardson and Vic Snell played only a few games, with Snell taking no part until the final two games. Laurie Cooper left to play for Wests and Norm Buckley went from a seed into an Acorn. However, on the plus side, brothers Eric and Roy Smith joined Waratahs and were hefty contributors with bat and ball. Ross Ridley and Alan Gray were as consistent as ever and Doug Johnstone probably had his best season with the bat.
A Grade
Apart from a few notable exceptions near the tail end of the season, this was a side that could and did consistently make good team totals. It was a drier summer, which helped but the batting seemed much strong and the list deeper. The season started on a winning note against DLSC, for despite struggling with the ball and dropping seven catches, Waratahs was able to chase down 179, with Doug Johnstone (62) and John Richardson (51) both batting well. Pat Ryan took six wickets as DLSC hung on long enough second time around to prevent an outright loss, despite Ross Ridley's (44no) scorching second innings. We have incomplete scores for the next game against Uralla but Walter Taylor maintained his big hundred habit and the first day ended with a long way to go, even though Eric Smith (6-34) had bowled immaculately under fire. A similar problem for the game against University, although we do know that Ross Ridley made a breezy 89. Churches were beaten outright but Easts overcame us in a tight game with only eleven runs deciding a game where both side score freely to go past 200. Don Paul got 4 wickets in his last game of the season and Doug Johnstone (47) top scored. In the last two games before Christmas, Acorns won easily after Waratahs had a first innings batting collapse and Wests rolled up 198 with Wally Miller scoring 110 but the second day was lost to rain.
Straight after Christmas, Waratahs won confidently against Rugby League, one of the gun sides of the competition. The Brothers Smith, Roy (5-41) and Eric (4-12) rolled RL for only 106 on a perfect batting wicket and Waratahs batsmen just about doubled that thanks to another Johnstone half century and runs froms the Smiths. Batting a second time, Ron Madden (99) was unlucky as he led RL to 208. Waratahs chased hard - almost too hard - but fell nearly thirty short but with eight wickets down and Johnstone again top scoring. The young Uralla blokes, The Rovers, won a low scoring tussle outright after Waratahs led on the first innings. Alan Gray made 46 in a second innings total of only 79 and Roy Smith took eight wickets for the match. Runs were back on the board against the full strength Uralla side when rain took the second week with Waratahs 4-142 after Walter Taylor (116) made yet another century in Uralla's 195. Rugby League were beaten again, after being routed on the first day by Roy Smith's 7-31 and then having Ross Ridley smash seven 6's in his 106, including one to raise his century. On the second day, RL recovered to post 194, with Ron Madden (95) again being the mainstay and missing centuries in consecutive matches against Waratahs. Chasing 81 for the outright, only Alan Gray got going and the team had to be content with first innings points. Outright points were gained in the next match, a thrashing of Acorns. Waratahs declared at 5-220, with Erich Smith, Gray, Ross Duncan and Johnstone scoring well. Acorns had two innings and still didn't get there, with Roy Smith taking nine wickets and Vic Snell claiming 4-12 in his first match of the season.
Waratahs failed to make the semi-finals and played two games whilst the finals rounds were on. Against Easts then lost by eight wickets outright a match in which their second innings 117 was the highest score. Only Gray showed form. Their season concluded with a one day match against Churches in which they lost handsomely on the first innings.
Ross Ridley (434) was the leading run scorer, which included only the second Waratahs century in seven years of competition. Eric Smith (336 at 33.60) had the best batting average by the narrow margin over Ridley. Alan Gray (291) and Doug Johnston (283) also passed the 200 mark. Eric Smith (45 at 10.64), was the leading bowler in his first season and brother Roy Smith (40 at 13.13) wasn't far behind. Only Pat Pyan took more than ten wickets. Amazingly, thirty five players made appearances in A Grade during the season.
B Grade
In a competition that was played as all one day games, there was plenty of opportunity for new blood in a week in, week out format in which each team batted and bowled.
Waratahs made their highest run total of the season (204) in beating Acorns in the first game. Tony Morriss (5-28) starred with new ball and G Whitton, J Walsh, John Dickson and Arty See scored runs. Hugh Ferris made runs and Morriss took wickets in a comfortable win over TAS and Ferris top scored in both innings of a loss to DLSC. Morriss took 6-37 in a losing side against Hillgrove but there was improved batting fortune as Walsh hit an unbeaten half century in a rain marred draw against Easts, supported by D Gratton. It was Ferris (44) and Morriss 6-34 in a close win against Dumaresq. The Teachers College then crushed Waratahs in a match they may have lost outright had it not been for Ferris' second innings steadying. Another loss just before Christmas to Dumaresq was tempered by Walsh's fine all round performance (4-49 & 51x).
The six weeks after the competition resumed in January were Waratahs best of the season, with five wins in six matches. The run started with a nail-biting seven run win over Rugby League, with Tony Morriss (6-30) again the star. Rockvale were the one blip on the radar, when future Waratahs batsman Greg Russell 61x, countered Walsh's season high 80x. Public Service were beaten by only ten runs, Ferris and Walsh among both runs and wicket. Ferris' 6-18 included a hatrick. Easts were beaten comfortably at Race Course 3 with R Turner top scoring in one of only four games he played. Rockvale were knocked over easily, with many contributing and Acorns were rolled for just 25 and were probably the most decisive win of the season. Morriss (6-6) was at his best.
From there it was a topsy turvy with the batting proving too reliant on a few and the same could be said of the bowling. As Morriss went off the boil, sides became much harder to get out. The run home was started with a loss to Easts in which Walsh made 40, a comfortable win against TAS in which Ferris made 69x, a loss to Hillgrove and a win against Public Service. This first season of multiple grade petered out with two more losses (DLSC & Rockvale) and final match tie against University as the final was played between others.
There was no doubt who the absolute star performer was by season's end. J Walsh (532 runs at 28.00and 27 wickets at 12.30) won the batting average and was more than handy with the ball. Hugh Ferris (561 runs at 26.71 and 23 wickets at 7.48) was the leading run scorer and had the best bowling average. Tony Morriss (59 wickets) was the leading bowler and R Marshall (27 wickets) was the other consistent bowler. The truly amazing statistic from the batting of this side is that apart from those named above and R Turner who played only four innings, only Arty See and D Gratton averaged over 10. Eighteen players appeared in B Grade in 1956-57 and twelve of them batted 13 or more times with the great majority of them averaging under seven runs per innings. This also may have been the side who recorded the most ducks in a season, 70 in all, with Max Nixon and John Dickson leading the way with 8 ducks each. Dickson, in fact, added another in an A Grade game to give him 9 for the season!
Sunday, February 28, 2010
1957-58: B Grade semi-finalists
NOTABLE GAINS: Ted Crotty, J McIntyre, R McIntyre & P Morse
NOTABLE LOSSES: Ian Hodge, Joe Leahy, Don Paul, Roy Smith
An odd season in that A Grade (26) used more players than B Grade (17) but those stats begin to look odder when you learn that only six from the B Grade played in the higher team at any stage and none for more than one appearance. The top side, it seems, sourced its new players from elsewhere, perhaps believing that their lower graders weren't worth the risk. Hard to maintain that argument when J Walsh scored more than six hundred runs at 46 in the B's and took 61wickets at bit more than 7! Five others scored more than two hundred for the season, including the discarded keeper G Whitton, who ended the season with 22 dismissals. Add in the four others with twenty or more wickets and its hard to see why an A Grade side that only one three games from thirteen could have called on performers below, even if only to blood them. None of the leading lights B Grade were among those given a game in A Grade.
As mentioned, the A Grade season was a disappointing one. It started with the loss of quality players and no real gains. Ross Ridley, a foundation member of the club left for Public Service after seven years and took Roy Smith with him. Don Paul, a teacher, finally went with his allegiances and played for the High School. Joe Leahy, whose appearances had been waning, finally left. Of those who stayed, Brian Richardson and Doug Johnstone were sporadic and John Carr returned for the second half of a long season for players used to having two competitions. Eric Smith led the side, especially by performance and heaven knows how much worse the season could have been without Alan Gray's outstanding contribution.
The season was doomed by the end of November, with three losses, a draw they were going to lose and a bye. On the coir matting at DLSC, the college scored freely and quickly with good scores in both innings, despite Eric Smith ten wicket haul, which was followed by him scoring half the first innings runs in an attacking 81, supported well by Gray (43). Mark McCann spun Waratahs out, getting bounce and turn with his leggies. Across town at the other High School, Waratahs lost by nearly 200 after Don Paul turned the tables with a fine century against us. Smith got wickets again and he, Gray and Nev McDonald got enough runs to avoid the outright. Visiting a third high school, TAS made 307, Smith was the only effective bowler and Waratahs were heading for defeat with three cheap wicket falling before stumps. It rain the following Saturday. A bye gave them three weeks off cricket to regroup but the resumption told a similar tale, with Pubic Service edging to first innings points on a damp first day wicket and then things reasonably even on the second day. Smith too wickets, Gray made runs but their were also handy inputs from G Lee, P Morse and Doug Johnstone.
The first win came in unusual circumstance, the first of which was shear brilliance. Chasing Churches 186, Smith and Gray resumed the second day and by tea had established a 3rd wicket record, both of them notching centuries and Waratahs best total for the season. A future Waratahs player, Roger Roan, claimed Smith's wicket just on tea. The bizarre followed, with Church rolled cheaply, batting only seven men, as the four Ridleys had to attend their brother's wedding. Waratahs won outright.
Things continued to look up with a win against the Uralla Rovers - probably their best performance of the season and one that put them on a roll after the outright victory against Churches. A total just shy of two hundred was posted thanks to a strong hand by Morse, well supported by Smith and Gray. Rovers could only make half that, with John Carr bowling with good hostility and collecting five wickets.
Whatever momentum they had rolling ended with a nasty physics lesson handed out by the real Uralla. Waratahs were smashed about the paddock and responded with two sub hundred totals. Another future Waratahs man, Bede Ryan, took nine wickets for the match. Easts then smashed Waratahs. Scoring 169 on day one (Gray 50), the signs were ominous as Easts chased hard at 1-97 but there were no miracles on the second day. John O'Brein and Ray Farrell both got hundreds even though Smith contained them with five wickets and the second innings fell apart at Ned McCann's urging. Wests 217 was too much for our 136, Gray again outstanding with 56 and Smith made 40. Second innings games just gave Gray the chance for more runs but the rest were too timid to chase and possibly lose. A third outright loss in four games followed at the hands of DLSC. John Carr (6-54) had his best spell of the summer restricting DLSC to a four run first innings lead but the batsmen collapsed again for less than a hundred and then Brother Brendan romped his charges home.
A lonely win was found against TAS, a first innings victory by more than a hundred runs, thanks again to Carr's excellent new ball bowling and runs to Lee, Johnstone and Perrau. On the second day, TAS ran amok and for the second time this season totalled more than three hundred against Waratahs. Rugby League kicked us down to the ground one last time with a 126 run defeat after yet another sub 100 total. Errol Browning (8-33), then more interested in taking wickets than giving them, was unplayable.
A disappointing season ended but congratulations are owing so some. Alan Gray (635runs at 35.28 had his best season for Waratahs to date and Skipper Eric Smith (505runs at 33.67 and 50 wickets at 14.68) certainly gave everything he had. G Lee (212 runs) continued to improve and played some important innings but there's not much you can say about the rest. John Carr (28wickets at 18.07) finished well, most of his wickets coming in the last four games. It can't have helped that five wicketkeepers were used and this is representative of a constantly changing A Grade side in 57-58.
B Grade
What ailed A Grade was reversed in B Grade, where a settled nucleus of only thirteen players played almost all of the games. It was in the engine room - the bowling - where this counted most. Only ten bowlers were used all season and of these, only five bowled every week and two more bowled occasionally. It was the strength of the team, as was the batting, where virtually four players scored more than 300 runs for the season. The most consistent part of their season was the first half, where after two losses in the first three games, they strung together nine wins and a draw to get to Christmas, including a win over the eventual Premiers and they were in the superior position the draw against Easts. After Christmas, there were emphatic victories, a loss to Police Boys and then a couple of lazy, over confident losses before they returned to great strength for the semi against Police Boys.
Waratahs brushed aside DLSC in the first game, with R McIntyre - Waratahs 100th player - making 68 and Tony Morriss and R Marshall taking wickets but University chased down a decent total which had contained runs from R McIntyre and Arty See. ATCII again chased down a reasonable total, as for the second consecutive game the Waratahs bowlers had been unable to break through.
The long succesful run to Christmas started with R McIntyre notched his second fifty in four games with Hugh Ferris and the out of form J Walsh supporting. Morriss (6-26) fired through the ATCI batsmen. The first of a season of nightmares for TAS against Waratahs started with a rare outright win for Waratahs, TAS only making 59 and 30. Walsh, Marshall and See all got cheap, cheap wickets and Walsh and Ted Crotty runs. Public Service were beaten by eighty, Morriss and Marshall again taking the wickets and Walsh played a steady hand in unpleasant weather circumstances. Whitton, back from A Grade, was keeping well and scoring handy runs. Dumaresq were lucky not to lose outright, with J McIntyre (49x & 4-14) the star and See (60x) playing a forceful cameo.
The toughest opposition was beaten in a close encounter where Walsh (36 & 4-19) was the difference after C Heath (8-50) had cut through the Waratahs batting. It was all runs in the win against Easts, where the Waratahs team was brimful of swinging bats, the most prominent being See (67x). Back to TAS and more torture for the school boys. They feared little better (47 & 8-47) and no one making double figures against See's match figures of 10-15. To rub it in, See also top scored. Dumaresq were again beaten easily, bowled out for 78 with J McIntyre, Walsh and Ferris sharing the wickets and Walsh, See and even Morriss scored runs to double that score. In a rain shortened match. Easts 71 would not have held out against Waratahs who were halfway there and only three wickets down. It was a familiar pattern against Public Service with a 72 run victory as Walsh scored a fifty and Ferris an overdue 40. Openers Morriss and Marshall shared the wickets.
Police Boys reversed their loss to Waratahs with a hard fought game in which they were the better batting team. C Health (7-32) again dominated the Waratahs batsmen. Ted Crotty (58) top scored and J McIntyre (45) played another attractive innings after Morriss (6-43) had been too good for the Ex Servicemen. Then a lazy loss to Dumaresq when chasing just 78 after D Gratton (8-23) had performed a season best and his own career best. Milson (7-21) speared Waratahs for 49. Worse was to come against Hillgrove two games later where they made only 48 and were forced to bat a second time and struggled to prevent an outright loss at 8-81. Jim Frost did the first innings damage with 7-24. Walsh's 6-43 in the Hillgrove innings was the only highlight.
The Hillgrove match had followed another TAS towelling and more outrigh points. This time TAS made 39 & 43 and lost by an innings and plenty. See bettered them again with match figures of 9-29 and Walsh belted a classy 63.
In the next two games, Waratahs made runs like millionaires. Against Public Service, only five wickets were lost passing two hundred, with Crotty (76x) and Walsh (52) making big runs but the next match surpassed even that. Batting first against DLSC, Walsh (109x) and J McIntyre (67x) posted a partnership on 180 unbeaten, a record for the grade. Both totals were not touched. The last game before the semis was almost completely ruined by rain.
The semi-final was a sqaure up against two even foes. A win each during regular season and both under similar circumstances. Police Boys batted first and thanks to Walsh (6-35) were restricted to a very manageable target, especially given the form of the Waratahs batting line up. It started so well, with Whitton opening and making a solid 35 but apart from Walsh, no one esle could cope. Effectively, when Walsh fell, the rest followed and Heath another five wicket haul to give him 20 wickets in three games against Waratahs. He had stood between Waratahs and a final berth, perhaps even a premiership.
There was no doubting who the star of the show was. Walsh (671runs at 44.73, 61 wickets at 7.52 and 12 catches) did everything to excess and therefore success. Unlike Gray in A Grade, there was a lot to back him up with Arty See (339 runs and 43wickets at 6.23) being the only man to take a trophy of Walsh in 1957-58. Four other batsmen topped two hundred runs - J McIntyre (359), R McIntyre (307), Ted Crotty (283) and G Whitton (249) - meaning the side was rarely short of runs. Apart from Walsh and See, three other bowlers played satring roles - Tony Morriss (53 at 12.53), R Marshall (31at 10.35) and J McIntyre (26 at 11.08) - and special mention must be made of D Gratton (17 at 7.29), whose occasional bowling earned him the best bowling performance of the season.
The freakish streak of success that Arty See had against TAS in three games this season, deserves special mention. His figures (2-2 & 4-4; 5-13 & 5-2; 5-15 & 4-14) gave him a return of 25 wickets at 2.00. Its unlikely that this level of bowling mastery has ever been bettered by one player against the same opposition within a season.
NOTABLE LOSSES: Ian Hodge, Joe Leahy, Don Paul, Roy Smith
An odd season in that A Grade (26) used more players than B Grade (17) but those stats begin to look odder when you learn that only six from the B Grade played in the higher team at any stage and none for more than one appearance. The top side, it seems, sourced its new players from elsewhere, perhaps believing that their lower graders weren't worth the risk. Hard to maintain that argument when J Walsh scored more than six hundred runs at 46 in the B's and took 61wickets at bit more than 7! Five others scored more than two hundred for the season, including the discarded keeper G Whitton, who ended the season with 22 dismissals. Add in the four others with twenty or more wickets and its hard to see why an A Grade side that only one three games from thirteen could have called on performers below, even if only to blood them. None of the leading lights B Grade were among those given a game in A Grade.
As mentioned, the A Grade season was a disappointing one. It started with the loss of quality players and no real gains. Ross Ridley, a foundation member of the club left for Public Service after seven years and took Roy Smith with him. Don Paul, a teacher, finally went with his allegiances and played for the High School. Joe Leahy, whose appearances had been waning, finally left. Of those who stayed, Brian Richardson and Doug Johnstone were sporadic and John Carr returned for the second half of a long season for players used to having two competitions. Eric Smith led the side, especially by performance and heaven knows how much worse the season could have been without Alan Gray's outstanding contribution.
The season was doomed by the end of November, with three losses, a draw they were going to lose and a bye. On the coir matting at DLSC, the college scored freely and quickly with good scores in both innings, despite Eric Smith ten wicket haul, which was followed by him scoring half the first innings runs in an attacking 81, supported well by Gray (43). Mark McCann spun Waratahs out, getting bounce and turn with his leggies. Across town at the other High School, Waratahs lost by nearly 200 after Don Paul turned the tables with a fine century against us. Smith got wickets again and he, Gray and Nev McDonald got enough runs to avoid the outright. Visiting a third high school, TAS made 307, Smith was the only effective bowler and Waratahs were heading for defeat with three cheap wicket falling before stumps. It rain the following Saturday. A bye gave them three weeks off cricket to regroup but the resumption told a similar tale, with Pubic Service edging to first innings points on a damp first day wicket and then things reasonably even on the second day. Smith too wickets, Gray made runs but their were also handy inputs from G Lee, P Morse and Doug Johnstone.
The first win came in unusual circumstance, the first of which was shear brilliance. Chasing Churches 186, Smith and Gray resumed the second day and by tea had established a 3rd wicket record, both of them notching centuries and Waratahs best total for the season. A future Waratahs player, Roger Roan, claimed Smith's wicket just on tea. The bizarre followed, with Church rolled cheaply, batting only seven men, as the four Ridleys had to attend their brother's wedding. Waratahs won outright.
Things continued to look up with a win against the Uralla Rovers - probably their best performance of the season and one that put them on a roll after the outright victory against Churches. A total just shy of two hundred was posted thanks to a strong hand by Morse, well supported by Smith and Gray. Rovers could only make half that, with John Carr bowling with good hostility and collecting five wickets.
Whatever momentum they had rolling ended with a nasty physics lesson handed out by the real Uralla. Waratahs were smashed about the paddock and responded with two sub hundred totals. Another future Waratahs man, Bede Ryan, took nine wickets for the match. Easts then smashed Waratahs. Scoring 169 on day one (Gray 50), the signs were ominous as Easts chased hard at 1-97 but there were no miracles on the second day. John O'Brein and Ray Farrell both got hundreds even though Smith contained them with five wickets and the second innings fell apart at Ned McCann's urging. Wests 217 was too much for our 136, Gray again outstanding with 56 and Smith made 40. Second innings games just gave Gray the chance for more runs but the rest were too timid to chase and possibly lose. A third outright loss in four games followed at the hands of DLSC. John Carr (6-54) had his best spell of the summer restricting DLSC to a four run first innings lead but the batsmen collapsed again for less than a hundred and then Brother Brendan romped his charges home.
A lonely win was found against TAS, a first innings victory by more than a hundred runs, thanks again to Carr's excellent new ball bowling and runs to Lee, Johnstone and Perrau. On the second day, TAS ran amok and for the second time this season totalled more than three hundred against Waratahs. Rugby League kicked us down to the ground one last time with a 126 run defeat after yet another sub 100 total. Errol Browning (8-33), then more interested in taking wickets than giving them, was unplayable.
A disappointing season ended but congratulations are owing so some. Alan Gray (635runs at 35.28 had his best season for Waratahs to date and Skipper Eric Smith (505runs at 33.67 and 50 wickets at 14.68) certainly gave everything he had. G Lee (212 runs) continued to improve and played some important innings but there's not much you can say about the rest. John Carr (28wickets at 18.07) finished well, most of his wickets coming in the last four games. It can't have helped that five wicketkeepers were used and this is representative of a constantly changing A Grade side in 57-58.
B Grade
What ailed A Grade was reversed in B Grade, where a settled nucleus of only thirteen players played almost all of the games. It was in the engine room - the bowling - where this counted most. Only ten bowlers were used all season and of these, only five bowled every week and two more bowled occasionally. It was the strength of the team, as was the batting, where virtually four players scored more than 300 runs for the season. The most consistent part of their season was the first half, where after two losses in the first three games, they strung together nine wins and a draw to get to Christmas, including a win over the eventual Premiers and they were in the superior position the draw against Easts. After Christmas, there were emphatic victories, a loss to Police Boys and then a couple of lazy, over confident losses before they returned to great strength for the semi against Police Boys.
Waratahs brushed aside DLSC in the first game, with R McIntyre - Waratahs 100th player - making 68 and Tony Morriss and R Marshall taking wickets but University chased down a decent total which had contained runs from R McIntyre and Arty See. ATCII again chased down a reasonable total, as for the second consecutive game the Waratahs bowlers had been unable to break through.
The long succesful run to Christmas started with R McIntyre notched his second fifty in four games with Hugh Ferris and the out of form J Walsh supporting. Morriss (6-26) fired through the ATCI batsmen. The first of a season of nightmares for TAS against Waratahs started with a rare outright win for Waratahs, TAS only making 59 and 30. Walsh, Marshall and See all got cheap, cheap wickets and Walsh and Ted Crotty runs. Public Service were beaten by eighty, Morriss and Marshall again taking the wickets and Walsh played a steady hand in unpleasant weather circumstances. Whitton, back from A Grade, was keeping well and scoring handy runs. Dumaresq were lucky not to lose outright, with J McIntyre (49x & 4-14) the star and See (60x) playing a forceful cameo.
The toughest opposition was beaten in a close encounter where Walsh (36 & 4-19) was the difference after C Heath (8-50) had cut through the Waratahs batting. It was all runs in the win against Easts, where the Waratahs team was brimful of swinging bats, the most prominent being See (67x). Back to TAS and more torture for the school boys. They feared little better (47 & 8-47) and no one making double figures against See's match figures of 10-15. To rub it in, See also top scored. Dumaresq were again beaten easily, bowled out for 78 with J McIntyre, Walsh and Ferris sharing the wickets and Walsh, See and even Morriss scored runs to double that score. In a rain shortened match. Easts 71 would not have held out against Waratahs who were halfway there and only three wickets down. It was a familiar pattern against Public Service with a 72 run victory as Walsh scored a fifty and Ferris an overdue 40. Openers Morriss and Marshall shared the wickets.
Police Boys reversed their loss to Waratahs with a hard fought game in which they were the better batting team. C Health (7-32) again dominated the Waratahs batsmen. Ted Crotty (58) top scored and J McIntyre (45) played another attractive innings after Morriss (6-43) had been too good for the Ex Servicemen. Then a lazy loss to Dumaresq when chasing just 78 after D Gratton (8-23) had performed a season best and his own career best. Milson (7-21) speared Waratahs for 49. Worse was to come against Hillgrove two games later where they made only 48 and were forced to bat a second time and struggled to prevent an outright loss at 8-81. Jim Frost did the first innings damage with 7-24. Walsh's 6-43 in the Hillgrove innings was the only highlight.
The Hillgrove match had followed another TAS towelling and more outrigh points. This time TAS made 39 & 43 and lost by an innings and plenty. See bettered them again with match figures of 9-29 and Walsh belted a classy 63.
In the next two games, Waratahs made runs like millionaires. Against Public Service, only five wickets were lost passing two hundred, with Crotty (76x) and Walsh (52) making big runs but the next match surpassed even that. Batting first against DLSC, Walsh (109x) and J McIntyre (67x) posted a partnership on 180 unbeaten, a record for the grade. Both totals were not touched. The last game before the semis was almost completely ruined by rain.
The semi-final was a sqaure up against two even foes. A win each during regular season and both under similar circumstances. Police Boys batted first and thanks to Walsh (6-35) were restricted to a very manageable target, especially given the form of the Waratahs batting line up. It started so well, with Whitton opening and making a solid 35 but apart from Walsh, no one esle could cope. Effectively, when Walsh fell, the rest followed and Heath another five wicket haul to give him 20 wickets in three games against Waratahs. He had stood between Waratahs and a final berth, perhaps even a premiership.
There was no doubting who the star of the show was. Walsh (671runs at 44.73, 61 wickets at 7.52 and 12 catches) did everything to excess and therefore success. Unlike Gray in A Grade, there was a lot to back him up with Arty See (339 runs and 43wickets at 6.23) being the only man to take a trophy of Walsh in 1957-58. Four other batsmen topped two hundred runs - J McIntyre (359), R McIntyre (307), Ted Crotty (283) and G Whitton (249) - meaning the side was rarely short of runs. Apart from Walsh and See, three other bowlers played satring roles - Tony Morriss (53 at 12.53), R Marshall (31at 10.35) and J McIntyre (26 at 11.08) - and special mention must be made of D Gratton (17 at 7.29), whose occasional bowling earned him the best bowling performance of the season.
The freakish streak of success that Arty See had against TAS in three games this season, deserves special mention. His figures (2-2 & 4-4; 5-13 & 5-2; 5-15 & 4-14) gave him a return of 25 wickets at 2.00. Its unlikely that this level of bowling mastery has ever been bettered by one player against the same opposition within a season.
Saturday, February 27, 2010
1958-59: B Grade semi-finalists
NOTABLE GAINS: John Failes, Col Marshall, Don Paul, Nigel Richardson, Ray Rose
NOTABLE LOSSES: nil
The A Grade side, under the leadership of Eric Smith, batted well as a team in this dry summer with the experienced Alan Gray and Hugh Ferris at the top of the order and a host of good support from the likes of Doug Johnstone, keeper batsman Morse, Smith himself and Don Paul when available. It wasn't batting that was the problem. The bowling attack depended on Eric Smith's well flighted spin but the faster men were increasingly toothless tigers. John Carr's left arm quicks were missed after Christmas and among a succession of others, the best were R Perrau who just couldn't breakthrough opposition top orders and Brian Richardson, whose star was waning. Even Vic Snell reappeared in mid January for one game. A bright light in all of this was J Walsh, promoted to the top grade after two seasons butchery in B Grade, where he led the batting and bowling stocks and although he made a slow start with the big boys, by season's end he was standing on both feet and taking on the best.
After a first up narrow win against Wests in which Don Paul played the major hand, three losses, including an outright loss to the Armidale Teachers College, sent fortunes plummeting. The batsmen were facing too many runs. Then, Easts were beaten at West Armidale Park thanks to Alan Gray (71 & 35x) and Eric Smith (7-34) and the imposing Ex Services were easily accounted for, Smith (6-57 & 47) performing with bat and ball. Walsh gave his first quality A Grade input and the batting line up clicked, with six of the batsmen making useful contributions. The first half of the season ended with another down turn as Public Services' Christmas present was a crushing outright defeat based on a huge first innings score where there was no Smith or Paul to face and a string of part timers. Morse (43x) and Johnstone (52x) batted well in either innings but fair efforts were not enough to avoid a nine wicket defeat.
Rain turned the first game in January into a high scoring one day game against Uralla. Chasing over two hundred thanks to an unbeaten Frank Taylor ton, Waratahs held out for a draw with Walsh scoring his first A grade half century and Morse, Brian Richardson and Johnstone batting well. Back at the Sportsground, the batsmen, led by an unbeaten Paul and an in form Walsh ran up a good total against Wests and Smith (6-17) did the rest. At West Armidale Park the following match, the pace of Walsh and the spin of Smith and Paul rolled Uralla Rovers twice under a hundred or a perfect track and Waratahs won by an innings after Paul (95) and Morse (43) led the way to a big total. It was a win that lifted Waratahs to 3rd place with two matches to play.
In the penultimate game, the bowling clicked and even thought Smith (6-65) took most of the wickets, everyone bowled well. Morse continued his excellent work behind the stumps with two stumpings. The only concern was the late wag of the Ex Services tail by Tom Sattler and Rene Mullen, which put another 35 on the total when the innings looked over. At 2-52 overnight, Waratahs was well in the game. The second day was a story told through the wicked grin of 'Shakes' Mullen, who bowled unchanged and took seven wickets, four of them bowled and Smith lbw. Waratahs lost the game by 24 and Ex Services batted on and on a second time round.
Needing to win against Easts to qualify for the semis, the first day was a day out for the Waratahs early batsmen, as Hugh Ferris, Morse and Gray took the total to 1-126 just before tea. As the biscuits were being laid out on plates, Ferris played on and was followed hastily by Johnstone, Smith and Walsh. Perrau and Gordon Lee led the recovery and 214 was posted. Easts finished the day 160 behind with all wickets intact. Day two was Easts turn to dominate and taking first innings points and the last place in the semis from Waratahs with only five wickets down, they batted on until all eleven Waratahs men had bowled in order to get them out.
Alan Gray (372) scored the most runs and Don Paul (285 at 57.00) had the best batting average thanks to more than half his few innings being not out. Other batsmen to score well were Hugh Ferris (355), Eric Smith (303), Doug Johnstone (300) and P Morse (280). Smith (52 at 13.69)was again the outstanding bowler, the next best, J Walsh (19), Don Paul (16) and John Carr (15), being a long way back. Walsh was the season's big improver after starting his A Grade career with 1 against Wests and a pair against Uralla Rovers, his 199 runs and 19 wickets were a good return.
B Grade
The B Grade competition was expanded in 1958-59, in that it became a two day competition. In previous seasons, all the matches had been played as a one day format. The nucleus of the Waratahs B Grade team was a group of players, most of whom had allround skills but some specialists and after only two seasons in competition, the transition to longer cricket, with the demands it places on batting skills, did put this team under pressure. It's saving grace, was it's outstanding fielding and the ferrocious bowling of Tony Morriss, who in only two seasons already had more than 100 wickets.
Fears about the strength of the batting seemed justified after initial losses to DLSC, where to be honest, it was the bowling which got worked over and in a double batting failure (48 & 86) in an outright loss to University. A new player, Graeme Hooper, help three catches at slip against DLSC. Nigel Richardson, dropped after an A Grade debut, was part of fly swatted crushing of TAS in which Tony Morriss took 6-29. Then Dumaresq were beaten outright in an extraordinary match in which their totals of 213 and 134 were chased down twice by Waratahs to get the majors. Richardson showed his colours with the ball. Waratahs collapsed on the first day against ATC I but played itself back into the match through Richardson (4-50 & 31) and G Whitton (34) to only lose on first innings. Waratahs got major points again in a low scoring seesaw against the second college side, Tony Morriss bagging eleven would-be teacher scalps and Ted Crotty scoring freely in low first innings. Like A Grade, Christmas Eve was a big blow with John Frost, parading as Hillgrove, just about single handedly beating them outright. Ron Marshall bowled well in a big total.
Things needed to improve after Christmas but they didn't, with losses to Ex Services and Public Service. Both games had been winable but batsmen got away when defending only moderate targets. There were no stars but useful contributions and John Russell's 3-48 against Ex Services was his first reasonable contribution in a long wicket-taking career for the club. With it all to play for, the next six weeks saw a remarkable change of form with outright wins against Postal Institute and Dumaresq and first innings points against DLSC II taking Waratahs, charging, into the semi finals. Ted Crotty and the returned Arty See were solid with the bat and although J McIntyre, Nigel Richardson and Arty See were consistent with the ball, it was Tony Morriss who tore a hole in the universe on the way to the semis. In those three games, he captured 23 wickets at 6.00, including ten in match against Postal Institute and first innings destruction jobs of 7-32 against Dumaresq and 5-28 against DLSC.
So to the semi-final against the premiership favourites Hillgrove and aware of the hatchet job done on them in late December by Hillgrove, this recharged outfit bowled brilliantly and routed Hillgrove for only 99, their lowest score of the season. Nigel Richardson had for once pipped Morriss for the most wickets! Unfortunately, Waratahs reply was still forty runs short and Hillgrove used the rest of the match for batting practice and Waratahs were frozen out by more Frosts than an Armidale winter.
As suspected, runs were in short supply but Ted Crotty (270) made more than Nigel Richardson (243) or Ron Marshall (239 at 18.38) who had the best batting average. Tony Morriss (61 wickets) exceded his own high bowling standard, including 7 five wicket in an innings and 2 ten wicket matches. Nigel Richardson (35 wickets) was a welcome newcomer and J McIntyre (23 at 10.35) had the best bowling average. In the field, another debutant, Graeme Hooper (12 catches) had safe hands, mostly at slip.
NOTABLE LOSSES: nil
The A Grade side, under the leadership of Eric Smith, batted well as a team in this dry summer with the experienced Alan Gray and Hugh Ferris at the top of the order and a host of good support from the likes of Doug Johnstone, keeper batsman Morse, Smith himself and Don Paul when available. It wasn't batting that was the problem. The bowling attack depended on Eric Smith's well flighted spin but the faster men were increasingly toothless tigers. John Carr's left arm quicks were missed after Christmas and among a succession of others, the best were R Perrau who just couldn't breakthrough opposition top orders and Brian Richardson, whose star was waning. Even Vic Snell reappeared in mid January for one game. A bright light in all of this was J Walsh, promoted to the top grade after two seasons butchery in B Grade, where he led the batting and bowling stocks and although he made a slow start with the big boys, by season's end he was standing on both feet and taking on the best.
After a first up narrow win against Wests in which Don Paul played the major hand, three losses, including an outright loss to the Armidale Teachers College, sent fortunes plummeting. The batsmen were facing too many runs. Then, Easts were beaten at West Armidale Park thanks to Alan Gray (71 & 35x) and Eric Smith (7-34) and the imposing Ex Services were easily accounted for, Smith (6-57 & 47) performing with bat and ball. Walsh gave his first quality A Grade input and the batting line up clicked, with six of the batsmen making useful contributions. The first half of the season ended with another down turn as Public Services' Christmas present was a crushing outright defeat based on a huge first innings score where there was no Smith or Paul to face and a string of part timers. Morse (43x) and Johnstone (52x) batted well in either innings but fair efforts were not enough to avoid a nine wicket defeat.
Rain turned the first game in January into a high scoring one day game against Uralla. Chasing over two hundred thanks to an unbeaten Frank Taylor ton, Waratahs held out for a draw with Walsh scoring his first A grade half century and Morse, Brian Richardson and Johnstone batting well. Back at the Sportsground, the batsmen, led by an unbeaten Paul and an in form Walsh ran up a good total against Wests and Smith (6-17) did the rest. At West Armidale Park the following match, the pace of Walsh and the spin of Smith and Paul rolled Uralla Rovers twice under a hundred or a perfect track and Waratahs won by an innings after Paul (95) and Morse (43) led the way to a big total. It was a win that lifted Waratahs to 3rd place with two matches to play.
In the penultimate game, the bowling clicked and even thought Smith (6-65) took most of the wickets, everyone bowled well. Morse continued his excellent work behind the stumps with two stumpings. The only concern was the late wag of the Ex Services tail by Tom Sattler and Rene Mullen, which put another 35 on the total when the innings looked over. At 2-52 overnight, Waratahs was well in the game. The second day was a story told through the wicked grin of 'Shakes' Mullen, who bowled unchanged and took seven wickets, four of them bowled and Smith lbw. Waratahs lost the game by 24 and Ex Services batted on and on a second time round.
Needing to win against Easts to qualify for the semis, the first day was a day out for the Waratahs early batsmen, as Hugh Ferris, Morse and Gray took the total to 1-126 just before tea. As the biscuits were being laid out on plates, Ferris played on and was followed hastily by Johnstone, Smith and Walsh. Perrau and Gordon Lee led the recovery and 214 was posted. Easts finished the day 160 behind with all wickets intact. Day two was Easts turn to dominate and taking first innings points and the last place in the semis from Waratahs with only five wickets down, they batted on until all eleven Waratahs men had bowled in order to get them out.
Alan Gray (372) scored the most runs and Don Paul (285 at 57.00) had the best batting average thanks to more than half his few innings being not out. Other batsmen to score well were Hugh Ferris (355), Eric Smith (303), Doug Johnstone (300) and P Morse (280). Smith (52 at 13.69)was again the outstanding bowler, the next best, J Walsh (19), Don Paul (16) and John Carr (15), being a long way back. Walsh was the season's big improver after starting his A Grade career with 1 against Wests and a pair against Uralla Rovers, his 199 runs and 19 wickets were a good return.
B Grade
The B Grade competition was expanded in 1958-59, in that it became a two day competition. In previous seasons, all the matches had been played as a one day format. The nucleus of the Waratahs B Grade team was a group of players, most of whom had allround skills but some specialists and after only two seasons in competition, the transition to longer cricket, with the demands it places on batting skills, did put this team under pressure. It's saving grace, was it's outstanding fielding and the ferrocious bowling of Tony Morriss, who in only two seasons already had more than 100 wickets.
Fears about the strength of the batting seemed justified after initial losses to DLSC, where to be honest, it was the bowling which got worked over and in a double batting failure (48 & 86) in an outright loss to University. A new player, Graeme Hooper, help three catches at slip against DLSC. Nigel Richardson, dropped after an A Grade debut, was part of fly swatted crushing of TAS in which Tony Morriss took 6-29. Then Dumaresq were beaten outright in an extraordinary match in which their totals of 213 and 134 were chased down twice by Waratahs to get the majors. Richardson showed his colours with the ball. Waratahs collapsed on the first day against ATC I but played itself back into the match through Richardson (4-50 & 31) and G Whitton (34) to only lose on first innings. Waratahs got major points again in a low scoring seesaw against the second college side, Tony Morriss bagging eleven would-be teacher scalps and Ted Crotty scoring freely in low first innings. Like A Grade, Christmas Eve was a big blow with John Frost, parading as Hillgrove, just about single handedly beating them outright. Ron Marshall bowled well in a big total.
Things needed to improve after Christmas but they didn't, with losses to Ex Services and Public Service. Both games had been winable but batsmen got away when defending only moderate targets. There were no stars but useful contributions and John Russell's 3-48 against Ex Services was his first reasonable contribution in a long wicket-taking career for the club. With it all to play for, the next six weeks saw a remarkable change of form with outright wins against Postal Institute and Dumaresq and first innings points against DLSC II taking Waratahs, charging, into the semi finals. Ted Crotty and the returned Arty See were solid with the bat and although J McIntyre, Nigel Richardson and Arty See were consistent with the ball, it was Tony Morriss who tore a hole in the universe on the way to the semis. In those three games, he captured 23 wickets at 6.00, including ten in match against Postal Institute and first innings destruction jobs of 7-32 against Dumaresq and 5-28 against DLSC.
So to the semi-final against the premiership favourites Hillgrove and aware of the hatchet job done on them in late December by Hillgrove, this recharged outfit bowled brilliantly and routed Hillgrove for only 99, their lowest score of the season. Nigel Richardson had for once pipped Morriss for the most wickets! Unfortunately, Waratahs reply was still forty runs short and Hillgrove used the rest of the match for batting practice and Waratahs were frozen out by more Frosts than an Armidale winter.
As suspected, runs were in short supply but Ted Crotty (270) made more than Nigel Richardson (243) or Ron Marshall (239 at 18.38) who had the best batting average. Tony Morriss (61 wickets) exceded his own high bowling standard, including 7 five wicket in an innings and 2 ten wicket matches. Nigel Richardson (35 wickets) was a welcome newcomer and J McIntyre (23 at 10.35) had the best bowling average. In the field, another debutant, Graeme Hooper (12 catches) had safe hands, mostly at slip.
Friday, February 26, 2010
1959-60: B Grade Premiers; A Grade semi-finalists
NOTABLE GAINS: Bob Brennan, Terry Mackenzie, Keith McIntyre, Brian Roberts, John Roberts, Greg Russell, Allan Smith
NOTABLE LOSSES: John Carr, John Richardson, Vic Snell
The final year in this first period of growing the Waratahs club, apart from some outstanding performances on the field with B Grade becoming Premiers for the first time and in only their fourth year of competition, it was the further expansion of the Club in adding a team to the new A-Reserve Grade comp that really stood out. The bulk of the previous B Grade, moved into A-Reserve and a whole new crop of new players joined the club as the "new" B Grade. All the more remarkable that it was this team which picked up Waratahs second Premiership. In all, the Club debuted 24 players in this season of growth. In A Grade, Terry McKenzie joined from Wests for the first of many prolific wicket taking seasons and Brian Roberts joined from University in December: both good recruiting considering the load on Eric Smith in the previous season. In the lower grades, John Roberts and Keith McIntyre began their careers with the club - two players who became legends. JR was captaining sides to Premierships twenty years later. Bob Brennan and Greg Russell, heavy contributors in the lower grades in the following ten years, also got their start, although Russell in a very minor contribution.
A Grade
To say the side started slowly would be an understatement. By the time December came, a win against University was the only positive result from six games. The first day of the season was lost to rain and as was usual for the time, the second day produced a draw against Churches, mostly owing to the lack of provision for divided time or overs in place then. The first team batted so long they could lose and the second side batted out time. Easts won the second game comfortably, Eric Smith and Terry Mackenzie shaing the wickets and stand in keeper G Whitton top scoring. Ex Services scored heavily in the third game, with Wally Miller making merry but thanks to regular keeper P Morse's solid batting in both innings the damage was restricted to first innings points. Ex Services had attracted all the star players from other clubs and were a dominant force. The games in November were no better. In a wet pitch slog out against Teachers College, Terry Mackenzie bagged ten wickets across two small ATC totals and Don Paul was up to his wicket tricks in the first innings. Unfortunately, Waratahs batsmen faired even worse and were lucky to avoid an outright. A draw against Public Service was the best result in a month of failure.
In between the start and November, University were the sole success. Don Paul and Eric Smith spun them out with great help from keeper Morse who took two catches and three stumpings. Waratahs replied with 215, with a finally in form Alan Gray (61) top scoring and some increasingly rare runs from Smith (36), who form had been poor. It was to be his highest score of the season.
The first game of December marked a change with a close but well fought win against Churches. Into the team from the A-Res team came Nigel Richardson and John Roberts and new recruit Brian Roberts debuted. The first innings were played on a dry deck and Waratahs reasonable total was built on a class half century from Doug Johnstone. Churches were rolled before stumps, with Mackenzie and new boy Roberts sharing the spoils after former Waratahs wicket keeper batsman Ross Ridley almost stole the show. The second day was a game of wet wicket russian roulette and Roger Roan put his team back in the hunt but their collapse at the hands of Mackenzie and Richardson ensured their would be no dramas.
From here, Waratahs remained unbeaten in the rest of the regular season games which included the unsual programming step by the NECA of scheduling matches on Boxing Day 1959. Not surprisingly, sides were weakened my this strange decision. Waratahs played Ex Services in this game and scored a handsome total under the circumstances, thanks in the main to Hugh Ferris (67) and Brian Roberts (47). Smith then restricted Ex Services to a draw. After Christmas, Uralla were beaten outright after Waratahs were behind on the first innings. Eric Smith took 12 wickets, including 8-34 in the Uralla first innings. Gray and Smith held the side together in the 4th innings run chase. On the newly laid Newling Oval turf wicket, Easts were given an innings flogging as Mackenzie took ten wickets in the match and career best 7-27 in the second. Johnstone made another classy fifty, supported by Brian Roberts but it was the batting of Cranbrook student Peter Mesley - home in Armidale on holidays - which made Easts' task so much harder on the second day. After the defeat of Easts, Waratahs were now second on the table.
The next match against Public Service was affected by rain and the Armidale Show and was a meek draw. A third outright in four games was taken against Churches, finishing the job that was started in early December. Waratahs first innings was meager but Churches couldn't handle the combination of Smith's left arm spin and Mackenzies pace. The Waratahs second innings was notable for the superb batting of Walsh, who made half the total in attrocious conditions. Facing a boggy and with Smith and Paul from either end, outright points were inevitable. The last round was a tense draw against Uralla, when Waratahs batted out time in a rescheduled all day game on the last Sunday before the semi-finals.
The semi-final, the first for A Grade for several years, was played against Uralla. It was a war of attrition from the start. Uralla played it like a Test match and took all day to make 9-208. Despite Walter Taylor's slow 40, Waratahs were in good shape removing Frank Taylor, young tyro Bede Ryan and Robert Croft cheaply through a combination of Smith's guile and Roberts power, but Bruce Kellaway was the thorn in their side. Brian Roberts took the last wicket on day two for his first five wicket haul. waratahs began well with Alan Gray and Hugh Ferris looking in very good shape and the opened with a sixty run stand before a mix up saw Gray run out. Kellaway, still bowling after opening the attack, quickly removed Ferris, Morse, Johnstone and Smith and at five down for less than 100, it was all trouble. Brian Roberts and Tony Lemon then rallied adding 52 and the match was swaying back to Waratahs. Patterson, back into the attack to join the tireless Kellaway, removed Roberts. Don Paul, batting at eight, hit four boundaries looking to get on top of Kellaway but died by the same sword. At 5:15, with Lemon looking assured in defence and the target too far away, the decision was made to play for a draw and in doing so, advancing Waratahs to the final. Twenty minutes later, Lemon was deceived when Kellaway delivered a slower ball from behind the bowling crease, causing him to be through his shot too early and to be bowled by the deception. Next man in Gordon Lee suffered what the Armidale Express described as "a mental lapse" as he swung across the line of a Walter Taylor full toss and lost his middle stump for a duck. For the next twenty minutes, John Failes and not out specialist Terry McKenzie took everything Kellaway and Taylor could throw at them. With two minutes left and a place in the final beckoning, Failes drove at Kellaway with too much enthusiasm, lifting the ball slightly for Jim Cooper to snare the catch. Special mention must be made of Bruce Kellaway who bowled 26.6 eight ball overs unchanged ... the equivalent of 35 overs in modern six ball parlance. Thanks also to the Armidale Express for description of play which help in the recreation of this event.
The last, anti-climatic match, was against Easts, playing off for third and fourth. Waratahs won by 15 after Brian Roberts took another five wickets and Alan Gray was aided by Brian Roberts, Ferris and Morse in scoring enough runs for the win.
Alan Gray (315 runs at 15.75) was again the leading run scorer, with Doug Johnstone (267) and Hugh Ferris (235) all having moments but none would be happy with their averages. Brian Roberts was probably the most consistent with the bat once he started in December. Eric Smith (54 wickets) was the leading wicket taker again and Terry Mackenzie (49 at 10.84) topped the bowling averages. Brian Roberts (25 wickets) made a significant contribution. Wicket keeper P Morse had 22 dissmissals, including ten stumpings.
A-Reserve Grade
It was a long hard struggle for this new grade in Waratahs colours, although it's perhaps hard to know why they struggled through this first season. By Christmas, they were without a win and only a desperate draw when rain saved them from complete failure and the losses included three outrights. It was essentially the same team which had played well enough to friightened the eventual Premiers in a semi-final the previous season of what then still the second level of competition and it was a settled side. The other oddity was their regular habit of scoring far better in second innings than first.
After first day rain, the first match was lost to Hillgrove in a one day affair in which G Whitton and D Gratton (in his only game) scored most of the first innings runs and debutant John Roberts most of the second. Nigel Richardson stood out with the ball. University won the next match outright by 4 wickets after a first innings collapse where Richardson was the only player to make double figures. Crotty, Whitton and Roberts made a game of it, but lack of first innings runs was the chief downfall. It was a trend which continued until Christmas: 83 v TAS, 67 v DLSC and the longest standing record in this grade, 32, made on Boxing Day with only eight men against Dumaresq. In the second innings, Arty See smashed 45 unbeaten runs in a total of 87 and in the new year, improved team batting was built on his form.
In early January, Waratahs lost again but with a much improved performance in a 14 run defeat against Public Service. Arty See, fresh from a powerful first innings 73, cracked the first A-Reserve century in the second. The Boundy boys took turns supporting him in either innings and Nigel Richardson (5-38) led a bowling line up which so nearly posted it's first win. Finally, on 23rd January, the players experienced that winning feeling and when they did, it was in great style with an outright victory over the imposing Ex Services team. Tony Morriss, Richardson and See shared the first innings wickets and after See had raised another half century supported by the consistent Ted Crotty, A Boundy bought Ex Services to their knees with a stunning eight wicket bowling performance. The euphoria was short lived, with Easts winning by a wicket in the next game and DLSC by an innings and 89 runs in the next. Laurie McCann (5-13) threatened bowl Waratahs out short of the 32 made against Dumaresq and in the second innings Whitton's unbeaten 39 was the main reason Waratahs got near three figures. John Roberts (3-42) was tidy in the face of an onslaught from Brother Leander. The wooden spoon was avoided by wins in the last games. Against Hillgrove, Ted Crotty showed why he was the season's most consistent batsman and Art See (9) and Tony Morriss (7) twice tore Hillgrove apart. Waratahs third win of the season - all of them outright - came in the last match against Dumaresq, in which Richardson (71 & 21; 2-34 & 4-33) was comfortably the star and Tony Morriss (5-53) finally picked up a five wicket haul in what had been, for him, a modest season.
Arty See (361 runs at 60.17) was the leading run scorer and at the best average but played in only half the games. In a year of many players (28 played in all) and low batting averages, Ted Crotty (276) consistently made starts but failed to go on and Nigel Richardson (262) posted some good scores but his twenty one innings included five ducks. A Boundy (227) averaged better than Crotty or Richardson, but didn't play the last four games of the season after twelve wickets in two matches. Most of the wickets were taken by the openers, Tony Morriss (40 wickets at 13.95) and Nigel Richardson (27). Arty See and the two Boundy boys each had their moments of glory with the ball. Ted Crotty starred in the field with 13 catches.
B Grade
After playing two day cricket in the 58-59 season, the addition of the A-Reserve Grade turned B Grade into a junior comp again and the powers-that-be decided it would be one day cricket again. Nine of the season's twenty four debutants played their first game in B Grade and some - Greg Russell, Bob Brennan, Keith McIntyre and Alan Smith - would go on to become Waratahs legends. Brennan would be the only one to show it from the start. Regardless, by April, Waratahs second Premiership would be in the trophy cupboard.
This Premiership season didn't start well, with the first three games lost against Public Service, St Peters and by a wide margain against DLSC. The first win came against ATC and was followed by three more against the same sides who had beaten then in the first three! Agaianst ATC, Bruce McClenaghan and Keith McIntyre posted a reasonable total and then Bob Brennan and J McIntyre routed the top order whilst allrounder L Blake cleaned up the tail. Public Service were beaten by 3 runs in an innings where Waratahs made four run outs. In was another nail-biting 3 run win against St Peters, both sides swapped low scores, but it was the bowling of Brennan and J McIntyre which won the day. The flogging against DLSC was reversed thanks to a big stand (not recorded) betweeen L Blake and McClenaghan. Blake's 108 was only the second B Grade century in their 4th season. John Russell was the best of the bowlers. ACT, who had started the winning sequence, ended it in a match where none of the batsmen got going. The three games played in December - including Boxing Day - were all wins and two of them featured outstanding bowling performances. Public Service were beaten, Waratahs losing only five wickets chasing 119 and there followed batting collapses against St Peters (70) and Churches (98 in which sundreis top scored) that were made into wins by C Marshall's 8-12 against St Peters and Bob Brennan's 7-22 against Churches.
In the New Year, Public Service edged out Waratahs in another low scoring event in which John Russell and J McIntyre took the most wickets but then St Peters were beaten comfortably thanks again to Marshall and supported by the consistent J McIntyre. With topsy meeting turvey mid week, the next two games were lost to Churches and then Public Service through poor batting, St Peters were beaten by 4 wickets with Marshall (6-29) again dominating them and then after a break for the Armidale Show, St Peters turned the tables and won on 29th February, as C Wellard finally found a way to blunt Marshall's new ball onslaught. It would be the last game Waratahs would lose for the season.
Both the four wins that took this side to its fourth successive semi-final and the two matches of the final series were a success because of the continued form with the ball of Marshall and Brennan and the dramatic change in batting form of J McIntyre. Others contributed but the input of team mates was built on the scafholding provided by these three. Including the loss to St Peters on 20th February, McIntyre had a season tally of 93 runs at 8.45 but in the six matches that followed, he added 264 at 66.00.
Churches were brushed aside with McIntyre, McClenaghan and S Stanley making a large share of a modest total and Marshall and McIntyre bowling unchanged as Churches collapsed. Against TAS it was Marshall and Brennan doing the demolishion work and McIntyre cracking an unbeaten half century with Brennan in support and W Nixon getting some good runs at the end. McIntyre got another fifty against St Peters, again with Brennan in support before turning round and collecting five wickets himself. McIntyre & Brennan piled on the runs again and Churches, short of players, were routed by Marshall. The recovery was complete.
In the semi final, Brennan ran through St Peters and then Waratahs had the rest of the day out, with Blake returning to his century form, McClenaghan scoring quickly and Keith McIntyre playing one of his best hands of the season.
The final, played nearly nearly seven years to the day after the A Grade win over Easts in 52-53, was a hard affair. Public Service batted first and despite no one being happy against Marshall they kept at it. Waratahs bowling attack which also included Brennan, Blake and J McIntyre raised relentless pressure against the Public Service boys and had it not been for a ninth wicket partnership between number four Metherill (26x) and tailender Neely (36) their innings of 136 would have finished in the eighties. Waratahs reply made a poor start when Metherill picked up R McIntyre early. Keith McIntyre and J McInytre took the score past 30 until Baker, from the other end, sent one crashing into Keith's stumps. Brennan joined the fight with McIntyre and the pair were batting confidently against Baker and Wetherill, who had bowled from the start. With the fifty up Brennan sent Baker to Dixon who held a good catch and when Baker got through Blake's defences soon after and Metherill got W Nixon, McIntyre still had a big task ahead at 5-67. McClenaghan joined McIntyre and the pair cautiously built a partnership which closed the gap and got Waratahs within range of a Premiership. Perhaps it was apearing all too easy or to give credit to the bowlers, maybe they just stayed on the job for with thirty needed, for at 105, McClenaghan was Baker 4th victim. It all hung on McIntyre, or so it seemed for soon after, he was out. Of the remaining tail, only one was averaging over five with the bat and they had 16 ducks between them that season and they had 30 odd to find. Never the less, in three small, nervous partnerships, the winning runs were found by Marshall, John Russell, M Nixon and R Russell and that final partnership between the Russell lads, remainined, importantly, unbeaten.
The gun batsman was J McIntyre (357 runs at 23.80) but he was not the leading scorer. Than honour went to the century maker, L Blake (363 runs). Bob Brennan (271) and Bruce McClenaghan (265) did their share of the run scoring work. Whilst C Marshall (61 wickets at 7.79) was the star bowler, the strength of this bowling line up is underlined by four other players taking more than twenty wickets : Bob Brennan (44), L Blake (34), J McIntyre (28) and the emerging spin of John Russell (23).
NOTABLE LOSSES: John Carr, John Richardson, Vic Snell
The final year in this first period of growing the Waratahs club, apart from some outstanding performances on the field with B Grade becoming Premiers for the first time and in only their fourth year of competition, it was the further expansion of the Club in adding a team to the new A-Reserve Grade comp that really stood out. The bulk of the previous B Grade, moved into A-Reserve and a whole new crop of new players joined the club as the "new" B Grade. All the more remarkable that it was this team which picked up Waratahs second Premiership. In all, the Club debuted 24 players in this season of growth. In A Grade, Terry McKenzie joined from Wests for the first of many prolific wicket taking seasons and Brian Roberts joined from University in December: both good recruiting considering the load on Eric Smith in the previous season. In the lower grades, John Roberts and Keith McIntyre began their careers with the club - two players who became legends. JR was captaining sides to Premierships twenty years later. Bob Brennan and Greg Russell, heavy contributors in the lower grades in the following ten years, also got their start, although Russell in a very minor contribution.
A Grade
To say the side started slowly would be an understatement. By the time December came, a win against University was the only positive result from six games. The first day of the season was lost to rain and as was usual for the time, the second day produced a draw against Churches, mostly owing to the lack of provision for divided time or overs in place then. The first team batted so long they could lose and the second side batted out time. Easts won the second game comfortably, Eric Smith and Terry Mackenzie shaing the wickets and stand in keeper G Whitton top scoring. Ex Services scored heavily in the third game, with Wally Miller making merry but thanks to regular keeper P Morse's solid batting in both innings the damage was restricted to first innings points. Ex Services had attracted all the star players from other clubs and were a dominant force. The games in November were no better. In a wet pitch slog out against Teachers College, Terry Mackenzie bagged ten wickets across two small ATC totals and Don Paul was up to his wicket tricks in the first innings. Unfortunately, Waratahs batsmen faired even worse and were lucky to avoid an outright. A draw against Public Service was the best result in a month of failure.
In between the start and November, University were the sole success. Don Paul and Eric Smith spun them out with great help from keeper Morse who took two catches and three stumpings. Waratahs replied with 215, with a finally in form Alan Gray (61) top scoring and some increasingly rare runs from Smith (36), who form had been poor. It was to be his highest score of the season.
The first game of December marked a change with a close but well fought win against Churches. Into the team from the A-Res team came Nigel Richardson and John Roberts and new recruit Brian Roberts debuted. The first innings were played on a dry deck and Waratahs reasonable total was built on a class half century from Doug Johnstone. Churches were rolled before stumps, with Mackenzie and new boy Roberts sharing the spoils after former Waratahs wicket keeper batsman Ross Ridley almost stole the show. The second day was a game of wet wicket russian roulette and Roger Roan put his team back in the hunt but their collapse at the hands of Mackenzie and Richardson ensured their would be no dramas.
From here, Waratahs remained unbeaten in the rest of the regular season games which included the unsual programming step by the NECA of scheduling matches on Boxing Day 1959. Not surprisingly, sides were weakened my this strange decision. Waratahs played Ex Services in this game and scored a handsome total under the circumstances, thanks in the main to Hugh Ferris (67) and Brian Roberts (47). Smith then restricted Ex Services to a draw. After Christmas, Uralla were beaten outright after Waratahs were behind on the first innings. Eric Smith took 12 wickets, including 8-34 in the Uralla first innings. Gray and Smith held the side together in the 4th innings run chase. On the newly laid Newling Oval turf wicket, Easts were given an innings flogging as Mackenzie took ten wickets in the match and career best 7-27 in the second. Johnstone made another classy fifty, supported by Brian Roberts but it was the batting of Cranbrook student Peter Mesley - home in Armidale on holidays - which made Easts' task so much harder on the second day. After the defeat of Easts, Waratahs were now second on the table.
The next match against Public Service was affected by rain and the Armidale Show and was a meek draw. A third outright in four games was taken against Churches, finishing the job that was started in early December. Waratahs first innings was meager but Churches couldn't handle the combination of Smith's left arm spin and Mackenzies pace. The Waratahs second innings was notable for the superb batting of Walsh, who made half the total in attrocious conditions. Facing a boggy and with Smith and Paul from either end, outright points were inevitable. The last round was a tense draw against Uralla, when Waratahs batted out time in a rescheduled all day game on the last Sunday before the semi-finals.
The semi-final, the first for A Grade for several years, was played against Uralla. It was a war of attrition from the start. Uralla played it like a Test match and took all day to make 9-208. Despite Walter Taylor's slow 40, Waratahs were in good shape removing Frank Taylor, young tyro Bede Ryan and Robert Croft cheaply through a combination of Smith's guile and Roberts power, but Bruce Kellaway was the thorn in their side. Brian Roberts took the last wicket on day two for his first five wicket haul. waratahs began well with Alan Gray and Hugh Ferris looking in very good shape and the opened with a sixty run stand before a mix up saw Gray run out. Kellaway, still bowling after opening the attack, quickly removed Ferris, Morse, Johnstone and Smith and at five down for less than 100, it was all trouble. Brian Roberts and Tony Lemon then rallied adding 52 and the match was swaying back to Waratahs. Patterson, back into the attack to join the tireless Kellaway, removed Roberts. Don Paul, batting at eight, hit four boundaries looking to get on top of Kellaway but died by the same sword. At 5:15, with Lemon looking assured in defence and the target too far away, the decision was made to play for a draw and in doing so, advancing Waratahs to the final. Twenty minutes later, Lemon was deceived when Kellaway delivered a slower ball from behind the bowling crease, causing him to be through his shot too early and to be bowled by the deception. Next man in Gordon Lee suffered what the Armidale Express described as "a mental lapse" as he swung across the line of a Walter Taylor full toss and lost his middle stump for a duck. For the next twenty minutes, John Failes and not out specialist Terry McKenzie took everything Kellaway and Taylor could throw at them. With two minutes left and a place in the final beckoning, Failes drove at Kellaway with too much enthusiasm, lifting the ball slightly for Jim Cooper to snare the catch. Special mention must be made of Bruce Kellaway who bowled 26.6 eight ball overs unchanged ... the equivalent of 35 overs in modern six ball parlance. Thanks also to the Armidale Express for description of play which help in the recreation of this event.
The last, anti-climatic match, was against Easts, playing off for third and fourth. Waratahs won by 15 after Brian Roberts took another five wickets and Alan Gray was aided by Brian Roberts, Ferris and Morse in scoring enough runs for the win.
Alan Gray (315 runs at 15.75) was again the leading run scorer, with Doug Johnstone (267) and Hugh Ferris (235) all having moments but none would be happy with their averages. Brian Roberts was probably the most consistent with the bat once he started in December. Eric Smith (54 wickets) was the leading wicket taker again and Terry Mackenzie (49 at 10.84) topped the bowling averages. Brian Roberts (25 wickets) made a significant contribution. Wicket keeper P Morse had 22 dissmissals, including ten stumpings.
A-Reserve Grade
It was a long hard struggle for this new grade in Waratahs colours, although it's perhaps hard to know why they struggled through this first season. By Christmas, they were without a win and only a desperate draw when rain saved them from complete failure and the losses included three outrights. It was essentially the same team which had played well enough to friightened the eventual Premiers in a semi-final the previous season of what then still the second level of competition and it was a settled side. The other oddity was their regular habit of scoring far better in second innings than first.
After first day rain, the first match was lost to Hillgrove in a one day affair in which G Whitton and D Gratton (in his only game) scored most of the first innings runs and debutant John Roberts most of the second. Nigel Richardson stood out with the ball. University won the next match outright by 4 wickets after a first innings collapse where Richardson was the only player to make double figures. Crotty, Whitton and Roberts made a game of it, but lack of first innings runs was the chief downfall. It was a trend which continued until Christmas: 83 v TAS, 67 v DLSC and the longest standing record in this grade, 32, made on Boxing Day with only eight men against Dumaresq. In the second innings, Arty See smashed 45 unbeaten runs in a total of 87 and in the new year, improved team batting was built on his form.
In early January, Waratahs lost again but with a much improved performance in a 14 run defeat against Public Service. Arty See, fresh from a powerful first innings 73, cracked the first A-Reserve century in the second. The Boundy boys took turns supporting him in either innings and Nigel Richardson (5-38) led a bowling line up which so nearly posted it's first win. Finally, on 23rd January, the players experienced that winning feeling and when they did, it was in great style with an outright victory over the imposing Ex Services team. Tony Morriss, Richardson and See shared the first innings wickets and after See had raised another half century supported by the consistent Ted Crotty, A Boundy bought Ex Services to their knees with a stunning eight wicket bowling performance. The euphoria was short lived, with Easts winning by a wicket in the next game and DLSC by an innings and 89 runs in the next. Laurie McCann (5-13) threatened bowl Waratahs out short of the 32 made against Dumaresq and in the second innings Whitton's unbeaten 39 was the main reason Waratahs got near three figures. John Roberts (3-42) was tidy in the face of an onslaught from Brother Leander. The wooden spoon was avoided by wins in the last games. Against Hillgrove, Ted Crotty showed why he was the season's most consistent batsman and Art See (9) and Tony Morriss (7) twice tore Hillgrove apart. Waratahs third win of the season - all of them outright - came in the last match against Dumaresq, in which Richardson (71 & 21; 2-34 & 4-33) was comfortably the star and Tony Morriss (5-53) finally picked up a five wicket haul in what had been, for him, a modest season.
Arty See (361 runs at 60.17) was the leading run scorer and at the best average but played in only half the games. In a year of many players (28 played in all) and low batting averages, Ted Crotty (276) consistently made starts but failed to go on and Nigel Richardson (262) posted some good scores but his twenty one innings included five ducks. A Boundy (227) averaged better than Crotty or Richardson, but didn't play the last four games of the season after twelve wickets in two matches. Most of the wickets were taken by the openers, Tony Morriss (40 wickets at 13.95) and Nigel Richardson (27). Arty See and the two Boundy boys each had their moments of glory with the ball. Ted Crotty starred in the field with 13 catches.
B Grade
After playing two day cricket in the 58-59 season, the addition of the A-Reserve Grade turned B Grade into a junior comp again and the powers-that-be decided it would be one day cricket again. Nine of the season's twenty four debutants played their first game in B Grade and some - Greg Russell, Bob Brennan, Keith McIntyre and Alan Smith - would go on to become Waratahs legends. Brennan would be the only one to show it from the start. Regardless, by April, Waratahs second Premiership would be in the trophy cupboard.
This Premiership season didn't start well, with the first three games lost against Public Service, St Peters and by a wide margain against DLSC. The first win came against ATC and was followed by three more against the same sides who had beaten then in the first three! Agaianst ATC, Bruce McClenaghan and Keith McIntyre posted a reasonable total and then Bob Brennan and J McIntyre routed the top order whilst allrounder L Blake cleaned up the tail. Public Service were beaten by 3 runs in an innings where Waratahs made four run outs. In was another nail-biting 3 run win against St Peters, both sides swapped low scores, but it was the bowling of Brennan and J McIntyre which won the day. The flogging against DLSC was reversed thanks to a big stand (not recorded) betweeen L Blake and McClenaghan. Blake's 108 was only the second B Grade century in their 4th season. John Russell was the best of the bowlers. ACT, who had started the winning sequence, ended it in a match where none of the batsmen got going. The three games played in December - including Boxing Day - were all wins and two of them featured outstanding bowling performances. Public Service were beaten, Waratahs losing only five wickets chasing 119 and there followed batting collapses against St Peters (70) and Churches (98 in which sundreis top scored) that were made into wins by C Marshall's 8-12 against St Peters and Bob Brennan's 7-22 against Churches.
In the New Year, Public Service edged out Waratahs in another low scoring event in which John Russell and J McIntyre took the most wickets but then St Peters were beaten comfortably thanks again to Marshall and supported by the consistent J McIntyre. With topsy meeting turvey mid week, the next two games were lost to Churches and then Public Service through poor batting, St Peters were beaten by 4 wickets with Marshall (6-29) again dominating them and then after a break for the Armidale Show, St Peters turned the tables and won on 29th February, as C Wellard finally found a way to blunt Marshall's new ball onslaught. It would be the last game Waratahs would lose for the season.
Both the four wins that took this side to its fourth successive semi-final and the two matches of the final series were a success because of the continued form with the ball of Marshall and Brennan and the dramatic change in batting form of J McIntyre. Others contributed but the input of team mates was built on the scafholding provided by these three. Including the loss to St Peters on 20th February, McIntyre had a season tally of 93 runs at 8.45 but in the six matches that followed, he added 264 at 66.00.
Churches were brushed aside with McIntyre, McClenaghan and S Stanley making a large share of a modest total and Marshall and McIntyre bowling unchanged as Churches collapsed. Against TAS it was Marshall and Brennan doing the demolishion work and McIntyre cracking an unbeaten half century with Brennan in support and W Nixon getting some good runs at the end. McIntyre got another fifty against St Peters, again with Brennan in support before turning round and collecting five wickets himself. McIntyre & Brennan piled on the runs again and Churches, short of players, were routed by Marshall. The recovery was complete.
In the semi final, Brennan ran through St Peters and then Waratahs had the rest of the day out, with Blake returning to his century form, McClenaghan scoring quickly and Keith McIntyre playing one of his best hands of the season.
The final, played nearly nearly seven years to the day after the A Grade win over Easts in 52-53, was a hard affair. Public Service batted first and despite no one being happy against Marshall they kept at it. Waratahs bowling attack which also included Brennan, Blake and J McIntyre raised relentless pressure against the Public Service boys and had it not been for a ninth wicket partnership between number four Metherill (26x) and tailender Neely (36) their innings of 136 would have finished in the eighties. Waratahs reply made a poor start when Metherill picked up R McIntyre early. Keith McIntyre and J McInytre took the score past 30 until Baker, from the other end, sent one crashing into Keith's stumps. Brennan joined the fight with McIntyre and the pair were batting confidently against Baker and Wetherill, who had bowled from the start. With the fifty up Brennan sent Baker to Dixon who held a good catch and when Baker got through Blake's defences soon after and Metherill got W Nixon, McIntyre still had a big task ahead at 5-67. McClenaghan joined McIntyre and the pair cautiously built a partnership which closed the gap and got Waratahs within range of a Premiership. Perhaps it was apearing all too easy or to give credit to the bowlers, maybe they just stayed on the job for with thirty needed, for at 105, McClenaghan was Baker 4th victim. It all hung on McIntyre, or so it seemed for soon after, he was out. Of the remaining tail, only one was averaging over five with the bat and they had 16 ducks between them that season and they had 30 odd to find. Never the less, in three small, nervous partnerships, the winning runs were found by Marshall, John Russell, M Nixon and R Russell and that final partnership between the Russell lads, remainined, importantly, unbeaten.
The gun batsman was J McIntyre (357 runs at 23.80) but he was not the leading scorer. Than honour went to the century maker, L Blake (363 runs). Bob Brennan (271) and Bruce McClenaghan (265) did their share of the run scoring work. Whilst C Marshall (61 wickets at 7.79) was the star bowler, the strength of this bowling line up is underlined by four other players taking more than twenty wickets : Bob Brennan (44), L Blake (34), J McIntyre (28) and the emerging spin of John Russell (23).
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