Liam Gillies – The Mentor - Parramatta District Cricket Club

Parramatta District Cricket Club | August 18, 2025

Liam Gillies is one of the unsung heroes of the Parramatta District Cricket Club, he loves his cricket, loves his club and loves the vital role he plays in strengthening the club through his captaining and mentoring of the many youngsters filtering into it through Fifth grade.

Over the past five years Parramatta has morphed into one of the most successful clubs in the NSW Premier Cricket competition, it is winning competitions, and the splendid work accomplished by Nick Bertus, Luke Dempsey and Paul Giumelli in the Parramatta Cricket Academy and A.W. Green Shield operations has yielded a multitude talented young players who have further bolstered the club’s ranks.

Liam Gillies is often the club leader that many of these ‘kids’ first encounter when they take their first steps into Premier Cricket via fifth grade and he has done a top-class job in guiding and mentoring these tyros in the nuances of senior cricket.

At just 22 years-of-age he accepted the job of Fifth grade captain in 2020/21and despite often leading a team half full of current A.W. Green Shield players or recent graduates of that team Liam has steered his side to a strong measure of success in the five seasons he has been at the helm:

·      2024/25 – Premiers

·      2023/24 – Grand Finalists

·      2022/23 – Qualifying Finalist

·      2020/21 – Qualifying Finalists – eliminated by washout.

Liam now is a tough seasoned cricketer, a doughty competitor and a skilful allrounder – clever left-arm orthodox spinner and forceful middle-order batsman – who leads from the front and is very well respected by his teammates.

But like many players he had to reinvent his game after a serious elbow injury curtailed highly promising start to Premier Cricket as a left-arm swing bowler. In 2013/14, the last of his three seasons in A.W. Green Shield, the Kings Langley junior headed the entire competition’s wicket-takers with 18 wickets @ 10.94. This performance led to his selection in the Combined A.W. Green Shield representative team and the NSW Under 17 State squad.

2013/14 also saw him debut in Fourth grade where his accuracy and dipping inswinger proved a handful for opposing batsmen and yielded 31 wickets @ 13.74 (B.B. – 5/32 v. Sydney).  By 2014/15 Liam was advancing his career, impressing club officials with his potential as a swing bowler – performing solidly in Third grade (17 wickets @ 24.47 [B.B. – 4/10], debuted in Second grade and snared 5/8 v. North Sydney in a Poidevin-Gray Shield match, all his signs ‘pointed upwards.’

However, early in the 2015/16 a severe elbow injury necessitating an operation curtailed his cricket for remainer of the season. In 2016/17 Liam played a handful of games 4th and 5th grade as batsman and thereon, apart from 2018/19 where his revamped bowling claimed 25 wickets @ 8.80 (B.B. – 5/8, 5/33), he mainly confined his participation to Fifth grade.

In Fifth grade Liam has developed into very competent allrounder, his bowling especially is worthy of playing in higher grades, but the Parramatta club has benefited greatly by his dedication to mentoring the fifth-graders. His Fifth grade stats illustrate his value – 1,456 runs @ 18.43 (H.S. – 75) and 153 wickets @ 12.75 (B.B. – 6/17, 5/18, 5/19, 5/62) and at 27 years-of-age he has plenty of runs and wickets awaiting him in future seasons.

The highlights of Liam’s career to date have been – captaining the 2024/25 Fifth grade team to win the Premiership and personally winning the Club’s prestigious Cricketer of the Year Award in 2023/24 (363 runs @ 21.35 & 41 wickets @ 12.49)

By Tom Wood – Parramatta District Cricket Club – Historian

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