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3 years ago
Adrian Tucker
Adrian Tucker
Business Development Manager
Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
5 Likes
0 Followers



My best Grade team - Adrian Tucker 1986-2006

My First Grade career lasted over 20 years and covered three clubs – Balmain, Adelaide and Eastern Suburbs (formerly Waverley).

Here's my best grade team of players I played with, in batting order:

1. David Warner (Easts) - Batted mostly at 6 in my time playing with him, but I get to choose the order so he opens

2. Brad Haddin ( Easts) - It’s quite a luxury having a keeper that can bat anywhere in the order, especially given the all-rounders I have in the team. By the way he also keeps.

https://www.cricconnect.com/profile/528/adrian-tucker/blog/1042/my-best-grade-team-adrian-tucker-1986-2006
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3 years ago
Bob Wilson
Bob Wilson
Forster, New South Wales, Australia
3 Likes
0 Followers



In 1980 Waverley District Cricket Club now Eastern Suburbs held their Presentation Night on a Friday before they flew to Cootamundra early on the Saturday morning.

The team led by Tony Greig all assembled at the Flight Facilities Reception Area before boarding the plane.

We were called onto our flight and walked onto the tarmac only to see our plane with an image of Norman Gunston on the tail. Well this was going to be interesting.

It was a different type of flight as most people stood around on the plane drinking a few beers and nothing much changed when we landed. We did sit down as soon as we landed for safety reasons!!

There was one hostess who was also the mechanic and baggage person.

As the game was on the Sunday we had an option of going shooting, golf or to the pub in the afternoon. We also attended the Cootamundra Presentation night on Saturday night so it had been a big couple of nights.

On Sunday we played for the O’Farrell Cup with Waverley making 166, the top scorers being Mick Suttor 38, Peter Carlisle 30 and Dick Rowland 31 not out while the locals were dismissed for 93, the wicket-takers being Tony Greig 3-16 and David Hourn 3-38.

Several after match refreshments were again consumed before we headed to the airport to board our flight back home on the Norman Gunston airplane.

The plane was delayed as several players were late leaving the bar but we finally made it back to Sydney.

Not many went to work on the Monday. Other players on that memorable trip were Dennis Hourn, Lenny Richardson, Dave Gibson, Rod Foord and Andrew Crawford to name a few.

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3 years ago
Kevin Pike
Kevin Pike
Port Macquarie, NSW, Australia
6 Likes
4 Followers



Memoirs and Journey of a Cricket Tragic - Kevin Pike "The early days"

One of Dad’s great friends was John O’ Brien, who was also like my father, a dedicated family man, and both raising large families in Armidale. John was a lovely, big bear of a man. He was a well- known grazier in the area, and owned Tilbuster Station and played with Easts Cricket Club in Armidale.

“ Kevin “,he said ,”You can bowl that red leather ball at me as fast as you like and I will hit that moving ball every time, but try as I might ,do you think I can hit that little white golf ball on the ground standing still!”

https://www.cricconnect.com/profile/443/kevin-pike/blog/1028/memoirs-and-journey-of-a-cricket-tragic-kevin-pike-quotthe-early-daysquot
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3 years ago
Randwick Petersham Cricket Club
Randwick Petersham Cricket Club
Sydney, Australia
40 Likes
43 Followers



Trevor Jay made his first grade debut for Randwick Cricket Club in 1969 as an 18 year old left arm orthodox spinner.

In a remarkable career spanning 24 years in first grade Trevor took 707 wickets at an impressive average of 20.58 and to this day is 14th on the list of all-time leading wicket takers in Sydney Grade Cricket, now NSW Premier Cricket.

Trevor’s impact in Sydney Grade Cricket is highlighted not just through his individual performances but also his influence on Randwick’s successful 4 first grade premierships in 7 years from 1976 to 1984.

Trevor was awarded Life Membership of Randwick Cricket Club in 1989 and Sydney Cricket Association in 2002.

Let’s find out more about Trevor’s terrific journey in the game

https://www.cricconnect.com/profile/258/randwick-petersham-cricket-club/blog/136/trevor-jay-wanted-the-ball
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3 years ago
Lennox Mugumira
Lennox Mugumira
Cricket Coach
Bugembe, Eastern Region,, Uganda
3 Likes
0 Followers



In August 2020, Tim and I would go out onto the cricket pitch and work on our cricket skills in preparation for the upcoming games.

As we were hitting balls a number of kids joined in to help return the balls and were so eager to know more about what we were doing.

Tim and I started to learn more about cricket at the age of 14 or 15 and these kids were much younger. We reflected on how much time it took us to develop our talents that bring us so much joy and how we can’t go a day without talking about cricket.

We started to provide coaching sessions 3 days a week and apply the coaching tips we received from mini cricket.

This was in Nakanyonyi, Jinja, Uganda. We had to improvise by using bricks as stumps and sticks to especially teach how to grip the bat.

https://www.cricconnect.com/profile/899/lennox-mugumira/blog/964/cricket2nurture-in-uganda-needs-your-help
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3 years ago
Western Suburbs District Cricket Club Sydney
Western Suburbs District Cricket Club Sydney
Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
69 Likes
93 Followers



An outstanding wicket-keeper, either standing up to the stumps or standing back to the quick bowlers, Greg Dyer’s selection for New South Wales was delayed by the fine work of another excellent keeper from Wests, Steve Rixon.

Within seasons of his first appearance for New South Wales, Dyer made his Test debut against England in 1986-87, and he held his place throughout the following season, playing in Australia’s successful team in the 1987-88 World Cup Final against England in Calcutta.

An aggressive batsman (and compulsive hooker), he often contributed handy runs in the lower order, including a lively 60 against New Zealand in Adelaide.

His performances for Australia were uniformly impressive, and did not warrant his abruptly dropping at the end of 1987-88; it was generally thought that he was made a scapegoat for an incident in the Test against New Zealand in Melbourne, in which Andrew Jones was given out caught by Dyer, although Television replays revealed that the ball had bounced.

Half-way through the following season, he was summarily dropped from the New South Wales team, of which he was then captain, although he unquestionably remained the outstanding wicket-keeper in the state.

The dignified and graceful manner in which he dealt with these arbitrary and unjust decisions won him many admirers.

Joining Western Suburbs in the Green Shield team at the age of 13, Dyer reached First Grade two years later. He was an inspirational captain of First Grade in 1984-85 leading his team to the final.

Greg Dyer is the current President of the Australian Cricketers Association.

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3 years ago
James Knight
James Knight
Founder
Canberra, ACT, Australia
17 Likes
8 Followers



Recently, I asked my son: ‘Who are your favourite cricketers?’

Two names stood out in his batch of answers: Pakistan’s Imam-ul-Haq and England’s Jack Leach.

‘Because they both wear glasses,’ said my bespectacled 11-year-old.

His statement struck me hard. It wasn’t so much an acknowledgement of the players he watched, but an acknowledgement of his own identity and sense of belonging. My son was like Imam and Jack. Or more tellingly, Imam and Jack were like him. Perhaps old-fashioned perception would shove all three of them into a class of nerds, but times change, and nowadays, perception walks

https://www.cricconnect.com/profile/311/james-knight/blog/321/todd-murphy-you-make-my-heart-sing
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3 years ago
Max Bonnell
Max Bonnell
Lawyer
Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
10 Likes
0 Followers



Scaling the Pyramid

Anyway, so, we batted. It was a 60-over game, which was probably why I was in it (“Keeps it tight. Too slow to get people out, though.”). We made 226. Brad McNamara, only seventeen himself, somehow born with a flawless technique, stroked an elegant 60. Greg Douglas, the hardest hitter of a cricket ball in all of Sydney, hit a fifty too, landing several meaty blows against left arm spinner Freddy Freedman. I went in last, though not for long. Mark Waugh ambled in to bowl with the laziest run-up imaginable, but then suddenly the ball was fizzing past me, the pace coming from God-knows-where. I lunged forward to my first ball, and missed. An unimpressed voice came from gully: “f***ing second grader!” Nothing to lose, so I turned and answered, “Steve, it’s worse than that, I’m a second grader who can’t bat!” He did not smile. Mark’s third ball flicked the very outside of my pad and disappeared to fine leg. I was half way through running the leg-bye when the umpire gave me out.

https://www.cricconnect.com/profile/436/max-bonnell/blog/1037/scaling-the-pyramid
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3 years ago
Peter Newlinds
Peter Newlinds
Hobart, Tasmania, Australia
3 Likes
0 Followers



Life inside the scoreboard

‘John Dyson’s catch.’

Those three words, mentioned to anyone who was a cricket fan in the 1980s, will bring back immediate memories.

It was 5 January 1982, the fourth day of the second test between Australia and the West Indies. Deep into the West Indies’ second innings, Bruce Yardley was bowling from the Randwick end to number nine batsman Sylvester Clarke. Swinging across the line, the muscle-bound Barbadian connected with the ball very cleanly, sending it high and long towards the deep mid-wicket boundary. Time froze as everyone – the players, the crowd and the television audience – waited and watched as the ball traced its arc.

Standing about thirty metres in from the fence, Australian opener John Dyson found himself tracking the flight of the ball more closely than anybody, hoping for a catch rather than a six

https://www.cricconnect.com/profile/802/peter-newlinds/blog/1032/life-inside-the-scoreboard
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3 years ago
Simon Taufel
Simon Taufel
Business Coach
Central Coast, NSW, Australia
37 Likes
13 Followers



My Ashes – India v Pakistan

“Aren’t you disappointed you never umpired an Ashes Test?” It’s a question I’m asked often. My answer is “no” and “yes”. “Yes” because for most of my international career Australia were one of the best sides in the world and I wanted to test my skills against the best. “No” because there is another iconic series in world cricket that’s right up there for intensity and pressure, India v Pakistan.

It’s a series that has a similar passion of rivalry and a focus on the outcome by the fans that goes beyond the scoreboard..

I’ve lost count of how many India Pakistan matches I have umpired. It wasn’t long after joining the ICC Elite Panel that I was appointed to my first India Pakistan series in Pakistan. It was early 2004 and I was with my good mate and umpiring legend, the late David Shepherd.

https://www.cricconnect.com/profile/92/simon-taufel/blog/751/my-ashes-ndash-india-v-pakistan
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3 years ago
Kevin Pike
Kevin Pike
Port Macquarie, NSW, Australia
6 Likes
4 Followers



When it comes to inter-state sporting rivalry, nothing whets the appetite of sporting enthusiasts more than NSW against Queensland!

In 2002 Kevin Pike recalls being at the Gabba Test (Hayden’s Test) and running into an old school mate, Geoff Gallagher, who played with the Queensland Cricketers Club. Queensland Cricketers Club, I knew, played their season as a Veterans Touring side and soon after with Geoff’s introduction I met the famous Lew Cooper, manager of QCC. Lew was a gentleman of cricket and a great raconteur and after several telephone calls between us we set up the annual clashes between Armidale Golden Oldies and QCC with the first match played at Federation Park, Tenterfield on 9th March 2002.

https://www.cricconnect.com/profile/443/kevin-pike/blog/1027/cooper-finlay-veterans-cricket-ndash-state-of-origin
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