Half a Century since First ODI Century - Alan Turner
Randwick Petersham Cricket Club | June 25, 2025
The 11th June 2025 was a significant anniversary for Australian One-Day International cricket, as it was 50 years to the day that Australia recorded its first century. The occasion was the second match of the 1975 World Cup against Sri Lanka in England at The Oval. The century maker was left-hand opening bat Alan Turner, wearing ODI cap no 30 and the first player from Randwick Cricket Club to play limited overs cricket for Australia.
Australia was sent in to bat, and Turner opened the innings with NSW counterpart, Rick McCosker. The left-right hand combination proved favourable as the pair put on 182 before Turner was caught for a superb 101 from just 113 balls, hitting nine fours and a six along the way. McCosker followed at 187 for 73 and after half-centuries from Greg Chappell (50) and Doug Walters (59), the side completed its 60 overs with a score of 5-328. Sri Lanka ended up with 4-276 from its 60 overs, giving Australia a decisive victory. Alan Turner was named Man of the Match.
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Australia went on to meet West Indies in the Final at Lords, going down by 17 runs, 274 to 8-291 after Clive Lloyd made 102. Turner was second-top scorer for Australia with 40 off 54 balls before being run out by a Viv Richards return.
The West Indies toured Australia the following season and Turner showed his class with scores of 106 and 66 against them for NSW at the SCG. In the First Test which followed, he made the side, scoring 81 and 26. In the Fifth Test at Adelaide, he brought up his debut Test century with a sparkling 136 off 222 balls with 15 boundaries against an imposing attack comprising Michael Holding, Andy Roberts, Keith Boyce, Vanburn Holder and Lance Gibbs. He and the late Ian Redpath put on 148 for the first wicket in the second innings of a match which Australia won by 190 runs. Interestingly, Alan turned out for a Grade match at Coogee Oval the following weekend.
With a young family and a business career set to take off, Alan announced his retirement from first-class cricket in 1977-78 at the relatively young age of 27. He did so with a record of 5,744 runs from 105 first-class matches with seven centuries and 31 fifties. His highest score was 156. For Australia, his 14 Test matches produced 768 runs while his six One-Day Internationals resulted in 247. For NSW he scored 4,171 runs in 76 first-class matches including four centuries and 27 half-centuries. He also rattled up 624 runs in 21 domestic limited overs matches for NSW. A brilliant fielder, he held 80 catches.
Despite hanging up his boots, Alan Turner was far from finished with cricket and continued to make a valued contribution to the administration of the game. He remained Randwick President for 10 years and served lengthy terms as a member of the NSW Cricket Board and the SCG Trust. Awarded life membership of Randwick in 1983, that honour was similarly bestowed by the NSW Cricket Association in 1997 in recognition of his outstanding contribution to the game at club, State and National levels. These days, Alan is Joint Patron of Randwick Petersham Cricket-a position he has held for the past 16 years.
Lyall Gardner OAM
Randwick Petersham Cricket Historian
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