Chris Singh. Two hat-tricks….in the same match!
Randwick Petersham Cricket Club | July 14, 2025
At the conclusion of the 2015-16 season, Chris Singh announced that after 22 years of Sydney Grade Cricket he had decided to hang up his boots. As a player who had an outstanding career in the lower grades, he was cheered for his achievements but sorely missed in the seasons which followed.
Chris Sumit Singh was born in Suva, Fiji on 16 March 1977. After completing his schooling at Parramatta High, the 18-year-old joined Randwick Cricket Club and played a full season in the club’s 1995-96 5th Grade team, scoring 219 runs with a best score of 37. He also took 7 wickets with 4-37 his best.
While Chris hit a fine half-century against Parramatta in 5s the following season, he was showing more talent with the ball. A season later in 1997-98 and after an excellent 5-42 performance against Bankstown, Chris found himself entrusted with the new ball by the late and astute skipper, Greg Doyle, in the 4th Grade Grand Final against St George at Hurstville. And Chris did not let Greg down. In an amazing opening spell on Saints’ hallowed ground, Singh produced an outstanding spell of swing bowling to rip the heart out of his opponents, taking 4-5 off five overs. He finished with 4-17 in Saints’ total of 89. Randwick went on to score 300 plus and take the title.
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Taking 27 wickets in 1998-99, including a 5-41 performance in 3rd Grade and a 5-50 effort in his only appearance in 4s, Chris won the club’s Most Improved Lower Grade Player Award. However, a year later he was lost to Randwick after joining the Fairfield club where he played for two seasons.
In 2002-03 it was the welcome face of Chris Singh re-appearing with the club under the new Randwick Petersham banner. And he showed he had lost none of his guile with 5-53 against Mosman and 5-55 v Easts in 3rd Grade. But it was two summers later where Chris wrote himself, not only into the record books of Randwick Petersham, but also those of the Sydney Cricket Association.
Playing Sydney University at Uni. 2, Chris’ 4th Grade team was knocked over for 191. That proved to be more than enough as Singh had his deadly in-swinger “on song” to demolish the students for 47 with a 7-24 performance, including a hat-trick of lbw, bowled and bowled! After the first two wickets, Chris remembered that Shane Warne once said that when bowling a hat-trick ball, bowl the ball you know best. Next ball was what he knew best. A massive in-swinger which hit middle stump half-way up.
Forced to follow-on, Chris showed he was not one to rest on his laurels by doing the same thing again! Another hat-trick—bowled, lbw, bowled! Figures of 6-38 gave him an amazing 13-61 for the match and a hat-trick in each innings! And an outright win for his team. Chris’ figures of 7-24 and his bowling average of 9.06, were new 4th Grade records and remain as such.
Club selectors didn’t muck around and he played the next match in 3s, taking 7-61 (4-33 and 3-28) against Campbelltown. Next game, Chris was in 2nd Grade where he went on to be the spearhead of the attack in the Grand Final against Balmain at Bankstown Oval. With the new ball, he quickly reduced the Tigers to 3-11 from which they never recovered, enabling Randwick Petersham to record its first 2nd Grade premiership. And it was Chris Singh who again took out the Most Improved Lower Grade Player Award.
In the following three seasons, Chris was an important member of two more premiership winning teams in 4th Grade. In 2005-06 against Fairfield at Coogee he starred with the bat in a late order partnership of 40 before combining with Matt Wallis to take seven wickets between them and win the premiership by 35 runs.
Two seasons later, Chris Singh experienced one of his finest summers. He scored 237 when promoted to opener in 4th Grade while he took a career-best 38 wickets for the season. Three times he took five wickets in an innings although he reserved his best performance for the Grand Final against Penrith at Coogee Oval. In that game he took 4-53 off 13 overs and then hit 35 opening the batting to bring home yet another premiership and be voted Player of the Match!
Over the following eight seasons, Chris played principally in 4th Grade where he was the backbone of both the batting and the bowling. He scored his first century with 107 against Easts in 2008-09 and followed up five years later with 118 against Gordon. In 2012-13, he topped the batting with 367 and did the same the next year with 306. He continued to be a consistent wicket-taker and over the four seasons from 2007-08, took five wickets in an innings six times. He particularly liked the Sydney Uni. batsmen following his double hat-trick as two of those “five baggers” were against the students. In 2013-14, he passed the 300 wickets mark, only the third player behind Nigil Singh and Rodney Stafford to achieve the feat at that time.
In 197 matches for Randwick Petersham, Chris Singh scored 2,595 runs of which 2,056 were in 4th Grade. In bowling, he took 314 wickets off 1,920.1 overs with 215 coming in 4th Grade. There were also two centuries and 42 catches. Combining these figures with his Randwick performances his totals are 3,171 runs (2,131 in 4s) and 397 wickets (250 in 4s). He held 59 catches and played in 267 matches.
Chris Singh never played 1st Grade yet remains one of Randwick Petersham’s great cricketing champions.
Lyall Gardner OAM
Randwick Petersham Historian
Randwick Petersham 2nd Grade Premiers 2004-05
Back: Peter Alevizos (12th), Nigil Singh, Rodney Stafford, David Mitchell, Richard McCord (Scorer), James Byrne, Peter Bayley, Melvyn Singh, John Connell (Manager)
Front: Matthew Taylor, Neil Cohen, Paul Toole, Greg Hartshorne (Captain), Richard Phillips, Chris Singh, Michael Watson
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