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2 years ago
Dennis Hourn
Dennis Hourn
Sydney, Australia
38 Likes
2 Followers

It's 1975 and Tony Greig, Waverley's captain, conspires with the players from the opposing team, Randwick, to play a trick on a fieldsman in the gloom of a Rothman’s Knock Out limited over match at Waverley Oval.
Tony bowls, the Randwick batsman Billy Knowles hooks and Tony screams to the visually challenged fieldsman who is fielding in the dark at deep fine leg, “Hournie Catch it, Catch it”. Hournie of course runs around in circles looking for the ball but it can’t be seen. At least by Hournie.
After an agonising twenty or so seconds and a fruitless search for the ball Hournie looks up and sees Greigy sitting on the pitch laughing his head off holding the ball up in the air.
The crowd and opposing team are also laughing because Greigy had cooked up a
scheme to bowl a “dummy” and for the batsman to play a ‘dummy’ hook shot. Everyone was in on the act except Hournie.
Tony dined out on that at many Waverley functions for years after.

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2 years ago
Daniel Horsley
Daniel Horsley
Property Developer
Middle Dural, Sydney, Australia
16 Likes
4 Followers

Western Suburbs First Grade in Sydney and we’re playing Manly at Manly Oval in the mid-90s, Wests captain Mike Swan was batting with Geoff Spotswood and we’re doing quite well but if you know Spotty, he’s a fierce competitor but struggles with running due to a long and glorious rugby league career.
Manly were down a player through injury and we offered a fielder to step in. I was sent on and positioned a fine leg. Swanny was on strike, he clips a ball to backward square. As they’ve set off for two runs, I’ve swept around to pick up and through not realising that Swanny was coming back for a third. Spotty was even more surprised and had already made camp at the non-striker’s end. I send the ball into the keeper with the usual enthusiasm, not checking to see if the guys were safely home.
As a result, the ball sailed nicely over the top of the bails for the Manly keeper to make an easy run out, with Mike halfway down the wicket…. I nearly ate his bat as he made his way past me to the pavilion. Still hasn’t forgiven me.

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2 years ago
Jim Robson
Jim Robson
Sydney, Australia
13 Likes
4 Followers

I was not good enough to be a first class player but in November 1979 I was fortunate to be chosen as captain of the Australian Universities team to play the England Test team at Adelaide Oval. It was a serious 4 day match as England were due to play Australia in the First Test a week later.

We were very weak “on paper” and I got a call from the Australian Cricket Board that the toss with Mike Brearley should be a “pretend “ toss and that England had to bat first no matter what. I assume they thought we would be dismissed for a very low score if I decided to bat first.

As captain I had a “secret weapon” in leg spinner Geoff Kirkwood. I knew him v well as he came from my club, University of NSW. He was a colourful personality. Kirky was outstanding at drinking, smoking and playing the piano. Whilst he had trouble holding down a first grade spot due to our NSW squad spinners Mark Ray, Paddy Grattan-Smith and Steve Campbell I knew he had the X factor. Yes he had a great top spinner and England were known to be very poor against leggies in that era.

Being aware of these factors I brought Kirkwood onto bowl very early. Our opening bowler Peter Clough had set it up by bowling quickly at Boycott and Brearley and I was confident when Kirky came on. My big decision as captain was to get him to bowl without anyone in the deep on the leg side.

Sure enough with no one in the deep batsmen such as Botham, Gooch and Randall attempted to slog him when he bowled too short. But they could not pick his top spinner….it skidded onto them too quickly and they just mishit his short ones to midwicket or square leg

Kirky finished with 5 wickets off 16 overs and we dismissed England for 179. In response Dirk Wellham batted superbly for us and we took a first innings lead. This was deservedly Kirky’s match and he was the lead story on the back page of every Australian newspaper. Brearley and I batted poorly in this match but I felt I “out captained” him due to my successful tactics with Kirky.

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2 years ago
Mark Patterson
Mark Patterson
Sydney, Australia
14 Likes
3 Followers

When captaining a cricket team, it is always very important to watch and take notice of the batters grip and the plane in which the bat comes down when they look to play either a defensive or attacking shot.
I remember watching a grade final at Coogee Oval and No 8 and 9 were batting and they needed 50 dd to win.
After watching the batsman hit every ball square and slashing a few behind point the captain and bowler decided to all the fielders on the off side much squarer and also put in a fly slip about 10m in from the boundary.
2 balls later ball was pitched up outside the off stump and the batter played a big slash and got a thick outside edge straight to into the hands of fly slip.
The fielding team went on to defend the score and win the premiership.
The message I took from watching what happened was always be thinking and backing yourself as captain

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2 years ago
Paul Ryan
Paul Ryan
Founder
Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
503 Likes
513 Followers

I remember a one-day game at Hurstville Oval.
St George was batting first and one of our openers was a very attacking batter. In the early stage of his career, he liked to hit more boundaries than singles especially in a 50 over game.
The opposing captain set a 7/2 field in the first over including 2 slips, third man, point, deep cover, short cover and mid-off.
On the leg side was a mid-on and fine leg with plenty of open and inviting space.
The bowler played his role perfectly with the first ball being outside off stump through to the keeper. The second ball was well pitched up on off stump and our opener eyes lit up as he played across the line to the open space and was out LBW.
A clearly well thought out plan and terrific risk v reward captaincy.

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2 years ago
Paul Ryan
Paul Ryan
Founder
Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
503 Likes
513 Followers

As a batter runs are your currency and it’s great to see Ryan Hackney follow up his maiden first class century for NSW by scoring big runs for his club Parramatta in NSW Premier Cricket.

In the month of March, Ryan has scored.

• 50 and 51 not for Parramatta v Mosman
• 73 for Parramatta v Sutherland
• 99 and 15 for NSW 2nd XI v ACT
• 78 and 102 for NSW v South Australia
• 51 for Parramatta in their quarter final against St George
• 130 for Parramatta in their semi-final against Randwick Petersham
• 193 not for Parramatta in the Grand Final against Sydney University.

On the back of this form, and his ability to occupy the crease and bat long into an innings, one can only assume Ryan will get the opportunity to start next season opening the batting for NSW.

Well played Ryan Hackney.

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