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last year
Cricket NSW
Cricket NSW
71 Likes
102 Followers



Steve Rixon, Brian Taber and Mark Taylor share their favourite moments with NSW Blues

Steve Rixon – Wicket Keeper

Steve Rixon made his first class debut for NSW in the 1974/75 season and went on to play 94 Shield games for NSW and took 259 dismissals, 218 catches and 41 stumping’s. Steve scored 6 centuries for NSW.

Rixon played 13 Tests for Australia


Brian Taber – Wicket Keeper

Brian Taber made his first class debut for NSW in the 1964/65 season and played 64 Shield games for NSW taking 211 dismissals, 179 catches and 32 stumping’s. Brian scored 1 century for NSW.

Taber played 16 Tests for Australia


Mark Taylor – Opening Batsman

Mark Taylor made his first class debut for NSW in the 1985/86 season and played 85 Shield games scoring 6,090 runs at an average of 42.29 including 15 centuries.

Taylor played 104 Tests for Australia and is renowned as one of Australia’s greatest ever captains.

https://www.cricconnect.com/profile/154/cricket-nsw/blog/630/steve-rixon-brian-taber-and-mark-taylor-share-their-favourite-moments-with-nsw-blues
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last year
Penrith Cricket Club
Penrith Cricket Club
Sydney, Australia
18 Likes
20 Followers



Officially, he was Ralph James Clough MLA, but it was a rarity to find anyone who preferred Ralph to the more knockabout ‘Mick’. It was a throwback to his father, Michael Roland Gordon Clough—‘little Mick’. Mick Clough was a cricket lover from a cricket-loving family. His next greatest love was the Australian Labor Party. Those with ‘an eye for a cricketer’ thought him an enormous talent, a seriously dangerous right-hand batsman, but his early cricket career was limited because he lacked the discipline to make the most of his talent. “I preferred to go in search of good times,” he confessed to his sons Peter and David, when advising them on the best way forward in the game. A commonly-told family story recounts an offer from a Perth Grade Club “to come and play with our Second Grade team”. Mick rejected it to play Park cricket with the team from the Telegraphist’s Office—because they had a keg after every game.

https://www.cricconnect.com/profile/330/penrith-cricket-club/blog/1863/mick-clough
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last year
Randwick Petersham Cricket Club
Randwick Petersham Cricket Club
Sydney, Australia
40 Likes
43 Followers



Paul Fitzgerald has a particular record which any sport-minded person would expect will never be surpassed. He won a cricket premiership, was named man-of-the-match in the Grand Final, celebrated with his premiership team-mates and got married. All in the same weekend!! His wife Suzanne was a very understanding bride.

The occasion was the 1990-91 3rd Grade Grand Final between Randwick and Penrith at Raby Oval, Campbelltown played over both days of the March weekend. With opponent Penrith finishing higher up the points table, Randwick needed to win the match to take the premiership. But disaster struck when the first day’s play was washed out.

https://www.cricconnect.com/profile/258/randwick-petersham-cricket-club/blog/1862/paul-fitzgerald
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last year
Joe Maiorana
Joe Maiorana
Sydney, Australia
40 Likes
2 Followers



Born November 11, 1942 in Blairmont, East Bank, Berbice, Guyana (then British Guiana), Roy Fredericks was a former West Indies opening batsman who played between 1968 and 1977.

Standing at just five feet six inches, Fredericks was considered one of the most destructive left-handed batsmen of his time. He often annihilated the best pace bowlers of his generation. He was named Wisden Cricketer of the Year in 1974.

This Guyanese accumulated 4,334 runs in 59 Tests at an average of 42.49 with 8 hundreds and 26 fifties. Fredericks played only 12 ODIs in which he averaged 25.91. On his birth anniversary, Bhaskar Narayan takes a look at 15 lesser known facts of this cricketer who passed away 15 years ago.

1. Born in British Guiana

Roy Fredericks was born in 1942 in what was then British Guiana, South America. The country was a British colony at that time until it became a sovereign nation on May 26, 1966. Roy made his Test debut two-and-a-half years later against Australia on December 26, 1968.

https://www.cricconnect.com/profile/325/joe-maiorana/blog/277/roy-fredericks-15-little-known-facts-to-know-about-the-former-west-indies-opening-batter
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last year
Peter Clifford
Peter Clifford
Insurance Manager
Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
104 Likes
32 Followers



In the 1980s New South Wales used to stay at the Hilton Hotel in Melbourne during Sheffield Shield games against Victoria.

The Hilton Hotel is only walking distance to the MCG and being from Sydney we just needed to navigate the tram tracks that we weren’t obviously used to.

It was only my second game so I decided to walk back with Steve Rixon and another player so I could get to know them better.

This particular afternoon we were all knackered as we chased leather all days in the field

We walked across the tram tracks and halfway across Rixon yelled out “watch out (other players name) get off the tracks as you will be electrocuted “.

The other player responded “Don’t worry Stumper I’ve got rubber soled shoes on “.

Unfortunately he wasn’t joking and we pissed ourselves laughing!

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last year
Shane Lee
Shane Lee
Founder
Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
39 Likes
10 Followers



"Roll on with your head held high" - The first line to the Living End song 'Roll on' and a moment in Simon Cook's life he’d rather forget.

Simon Hewitt Cook the former Victorian and NSW fast bowler, made his Test debut against New Zealand in 1997 taking an amazing seven wickets for the match as Glenn McGrath’s replacement. What followed next is beyond belief!

Simon known to his mates as ‘Cooky' is a product of the Mornington Peninsula - Crib Point to be exact. And is probably the most laid back person ever to slowly walk the face of this earth. He is so laconic that it is often hard to know if he is asleep or awake sometimes.

https://www.cricconnect.com/profile/538/shane-lee/blog/889/cooky-you-just-electrocuted-me
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last year
Brad Murphy
Brad Murphy
Cricket Coach
Brisbane, Australia
20 Likes
5 Followers



Damien Mackenzie was a fast bowler originally from Easts - Redlands who played for Australia in Under 19s alongside his great mate Nathan Hauritz. He played 5 First Class and 10 one day games for the Queensland Bulls. A very sharp right arm quick and powerful striker of the ball with a First Grade century to his name, his career was dogged by injury – significantly major knee and elbow surgeries curtailing his playing career, hence we never saw the best of him at the next level however across his 5 matches for Queensland he had the very creditable average of 23 with the ball.

He debuted for the Tigers whilst still in year 12 at Iona College and was also a decent rugby union footballer. In my first season as captain-coach of Redlands in 1998/99 we had the great fortune to have Macca along with a host of other fantastic young cricketers in Shane Watson, Matt Petrie, Danny Payne, Ryan Poole and Wes Aspeling so it augured well for the club into the future. Add to those young blokes Jimmy Maher, Matt Hayward, Paul Hutchison, Paul Stenhouse, Craig Stone and Steve Hood it is little wonder we grabbed the “One Day” title that season.

https://www.cricconnect.com/profile/173/brad-murphy/blog/848/damien-mackenzie-bowl-fast-hit-long
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last year
Joe Maiorana
Joe Maiorana
Sydney, Australia
40 Likes
2 Followers



Born in Gujarat, India, Hanif Mohammad - the original Little Master- was a batsman with yogic powers of concentration.
Hanif authored the longest ever Test innings in the history of Test cricket - a marathon 970-minute 337 for Pakistan against West Indies at Bridgetown, wherein he compiled century stands with four different players including his brother, Wazir. The hot steak continued as he made 499 for Karachi versus Bahawalpur before being ironically run-out whilst attempting the 500th run, the very next year in 1959. The record stood tall as the highest first-class individual score until Brain Lara eclipsed it in 1994. He also held the unique distinction of making a ton against all his Test opponents in 'away' conditions, which highlighted his adaptive abilities.
Interestingly, Hanif was ambidextrous with the ball and also served as an occasional keeper. Following his retirement, he ran the Pakistan International Airlines colts scheme before taking up the position of Pakistan's batting consultant in 2002.
Many other members of Hanif's family were also cricketers: his brothers Mushtaq, Sadiq and Wazir all played Tests for Pakistan, as did his son Shoaib. Another brother Raees was once twelfth man for Pakistan, and four nephews had first-class careers. His mother Ameer Bee was a national badminton champion in pre-independence British India.
He was diagnosed with lung cancer in 2013. He had been undergoing treatment for lung cancer in Karachi's Aga Khan Hospital. He passed away on 11th August 2016 at age 81.
In 2018, a Google Doodle was created to celebrate his 84th Birthday.
Hanif's triple-century against the West Indies team in 1957/58 made him a legend in the cricketing world. He was one of the original inductees into the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame.
Pride of Performance Award in 1959 by the Government of Pakistan
Hanif Mohammad was born on this day 21 December in 1934

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last year
Max Bonnell
Max Bonnell
Lawyer
Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
10 Likes
0 Followers



Australian cricket used to built as a pyramid. It was widest at its base, where we all started, playing at school, or in the juniors in a local park. A few hundred stepped past that on to the next tier, joining a Grade club. From there, at least in theory, you could scale to the very top of the pyramid – the Australian team – if you were good enough.

Today, the pyramid is looked on as a clumsy, inefficient and amateurish method of talent selection. Bright young kids are handed State contracts after bossing around a bunch of seventeen year-olds in age-group tournaments. People are picked on the basis of what they can become, rather than on what they’ve done. And maybe that’s better. Except that the pyramid worked. If you were good enough, you reached the top, having earned every promotion along the way. And if you weren’t – well, the pyramid delivered that message, too

https://www.cricconnect.com/profile/436/max-bonnell/blog/1037/scaling-the-pyramid
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last year
Matt Ellis
Matt Ellis
Cricket Coach
Dubbo, NSW, Australia
59 Likes
7 Followers



The mood was bubbling with excitement as my family gathered together for a birthday celebration. Family members exchanged stories with an assortment of food and drinks to add to the merriment.

My mood on the other hand was somewhat tense as the Australians had their backs to the wall in the Boxing Day Test Match. I had just turned nine and I had a love of cricket that was deep in my veins, so while the family were outside enjoying the festivities, I found my way inside to witness one of my fondest Boxing Day Test Match memories.

It was 1987 and Michael Roy Whitney was in the middle of the MCG facing the music trying to defy Sir Richard Hadlee from taking the final wicket and win the Test Match for New Zealand. The larger than life fast bowler was not known for heroics with the willow joined Craig McDermott at the crease with the task of seeing out the remaining overs. To add to the challenge, he would be facing the man who would be awarded player of the series and who finished his distinguished career with 431 Test wickets.

https://www.cricconnect.com/profile/182/matt-ellis/blog/1146/23-minutes-that-had-me-hooked-on-cricket-for-life
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