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Who remembers the Gabba Cricket Camps when they were run by Lew Cooper at the Queensland Cricketers Club?
Sheldon Stackpoole
Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
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Who remembers the Gabba Cricket Camps when they were run by Lew Cooper at the Queensland Cricketers Club?
I thought I would touch on one of my most enjoyable childhood memories.
During the 90s, the time when the Queensland Bulls were firing, many young junior cricketers were lucky enough to attend these camps. I am fairly sure every member of the Bulls first Sheffield Shield side either coached at the camp or was a guest coach for the day.
Boys from all over Queensland and even Northern New South Wales would come together for a week and receive expert coaching. We played on specially made hessian mats out on the Gabba.
During the lunch breaks a 3-a-side competition was held and this was an opportunity for a junior, intermediate and senior player to compete for the prize of a Gabba bat.
At night, as boarders we would eat at the Cricketers Club, play squash, indoor cricket and indoor soccer and then sleep under the Sir Leslie Wilson stand. And what about the greyhound track - who can forget that. It was a great childhood. Many of my club teammates would attend. It was fun to be around other young cricketers who were all so enthusiastic. Wouldn’t it be great if there was a school like this – where you study select academic subjects of your choosing and cricket intertwined into the syllabus. I always loved my school holidays going off to the camps – I remember one year going to four cricket camps in a row during January.
Some of the coaches included: Alan Free, Brad Murphy, Peter Drinnen, Brendan Creevey, Michael Kasprowicz, Bob McGhee, Jimmy Maher, Alan Skuse, Scott Muller, Jeff Pfaff, Wade Secombe, Bob Joyce, Paul Pink, Matthew Mott, Joe Dawes and Richie Robinson.
Wouldn't it be fantastic to see a return to the 90s when life was a bit more care-free and less clinical and there was a return to the Gabba Cricket Camps. Did you attend a camp? Do you remember your coach?
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