Kevin Cantwell - "Crazy"

Randwick Petersham Cricket Club | May 25, 2025

Kevin Cantwell holds a special place in the annals of Australian and NSW baseball. A regular member of the NSW Claxton Shield team between 1956 and 1971, both as player and coach, he was inducted into the Australian Baseball Hall of Fame in 2005. And like many other top baseballers, Kevin was a 1st Grade cricketer, playing his whole career with Petersham-Marrickville and the former Petersham club.

John Kevin Cantwell was born at Paddington on 9 June 1934 and like most schoolboys, played rugby league in the winter and cricket in the summer. But a bad accident where he broke both legs and an arm brought the prediction from doctors that he would never play sport again. Faced with an extended period of recovery, he was often taken to Petersham Oval in a wheelchair on winter Saturdays to view the local baseball matches. It was during this time that he took a real interest in baseball. And defying the medical doomsayers, by the time he was 16, he was playing A Grade for Petersham Leichhardt Baseball Club.

Prior to his heady rise up the baseball ranks, Kevin joined the old Petersham District Cricket Club in the summer of 1949-50, playing 4th Grade as well as the limited age teams. He impressed as the leading bowler in the under 16 years A W Green Shield team with 17 wickets at 12.35 while in 4s, he scored 191 runs with 57 his best knock. Despite his tender years, he also played seven games in the under 21 Poidevin-Gray team where he made a solid 26* in a season total of 69 runs.

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After the merger with Marrickville to form Petersham-Marrickville in 1951-52, he consolidated his position in 4th Grade, where a season later he produced a dream performance—105 with the bat and 6-31 with the ball to demolish North Sydney. Two seasons later he had a second ton, this time in 2nd Grade with a neat 100 against Manly. That same season he made his 1st Grade debut.

It was two seasons later however, before Cantwell made his mark in 1st Grade. Brought in to bolster the attack playing Northern District at Waitara Oval, he opened the bowling and took 5-53 in a score of 220. He bowled four batsmen including Test opening bat Jim Burke for 100. And three matches later, he exceeded that effort by returning figures of 6-50 with five bowled, to have Cumberland out for 113 and give his team a nine wickets win. That turned out to be his best bowling performance in 1st Grade.

Over the following 14 seasons, Kevin Cantwell was a permanent fixture in the Pete’s 1st Grade team. At the same time he was a star in the baseball world and in NSWs win in the 24th interstate Claxton Shield competition of 1963, he was awarded the coveted Helms Award, presented annually to the most outstanding player of the competition.

Early into his baseball career, Cantwell developed a reputation as a hard-nosed catcher who would never take a backward step on-field. With it came the nickname “Crazy”, a tag which would stick with him throughout his life. In an interview in 2015 at Tamworth where he was visiting for the National Women’s Baseball Championships, the 81 year old claimed that he learnt a lesson early in life to never go soft on the opposition. He commented “That message stayed with me. I came to realise that it was almost like you needed two personalities to be a baseball player – one for on the field, one for off the field. I have to admit that some of my on-field antics were theatre – especially if not much exciting was happening in a game. Some of them weren’t.”

A fiercely competitive player, Cantwell’s aggressive approach to the game and opposing teams in baseball carried into his cricket. He was particularly “talkative” whether batting or bowling although when in the field, opposition batsmen were left in no doubt as to how he viewed their batsmanship and their luck in surviving his bowling.

A regular no. 7 in the batting order in his early days, by 1960-61 Cantwell was opening with Max Benjamin. They formed a somewhat “legendary” duo at the top of the order over the seasons which followed. In their third game together, they put on 164 with Kevin making 65 to chase down Mosman’s 254. Two years later, they racked up 159 in just 114 minutes playing Bankstown with “Crazy” scoring 78. But his big moment came in 1968-69, when they put on 223 in 147 minutes for the first wicket against Randwick at Petersham. Kevin was out for a neat 100 while Benjamin made 150. It was just six runs short of the club record.

And while that was his only century in 212 1st Grade matches, Cantwell came close to three figures on a number of occasions. In 1960-61, he opened and carried his bat for 79* in a score of 171 which was enough to defeat Gordon. Two seasons later, he was caught off Terry Lee for 96 playing Manly. He hit 16 half-centuries in a career which produced 3,394 runs and 228 wickets in 1st Grade. Across all grades, his record was even more impressive at 5,111 runs and 278 wickets. With his PG and Green Shield figures he totalled 5,671 and 305. In all games, he made three hundreds and held 92 catches.

At the end of 1973-74, his 24th season with the club, Kevin Cantwell retired as a cricketer. He continued his involvement in baseball however, immediately moving interstate to coach Queensland where he continues to reside.

Lyall Gardner, Randwick Petersham Cricket Historian

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