150 years ofcricket atWarrandyteWARRANDYTEw115500NNOOTTOOUUTTG Bruce KlineG Jason Graf G Jenny ChapmanTWO books have been pub-lished in the past to mark thehistoric significanceof theWarrandyte Cricket Club to thelocal community.The first, The Warrandyte Story,was published by the WarrandyteCricket Club and was researchedby Louis Cranfield and writtenandillustrated by HarryHudson. It was published in 1955to coincide with the club'scentenary.The second, Cricket by theRiverside, was an expandedver-sion of the original chapter deal-ing with cricket in Warrandyte inThe Warrandyte Story and waswritten by Louis Cranfield. It waspublished to coincide with theclub's 125th anniversary celebra-tions.Much of the information for theearly chapters in this book, detail-ing the beginnings of cricket inWarrandyte, has been obtainedfrom those two original books.The Warrandyte Cricket Clubacknowledges the work of LouisCranfield and Harry Hudson inproviding the historical back-ground.The club would also like tothank Jean Chapman, Geoff Day,Jim Harris, Stan Craker, PeterAdams, Olive Adams, JohnChapman, Steve Pascoe, BrianChapman, Jenni Chapman, SteveGoddard, John Sharman, StephenPeake and Tony Sturesteps fortheir help in providing materialand statistics for this book.Thanks also to the WarrandyteHistorical Society for the provi-sion of historical photographs.G Cover picture: Long-serving opening bowler,Gerald Walshe, with a back-ground of the Warrandyte crick-et team from 1911.Acknowledgmentsw2BATTING ORDERWarrandyte cricket ground. (date unknown) Picture courtesy Warrandyte Historical Society.Introduction 1Cricket on the goldfields2The tyranny of distance3The rollercoaster ride4The changing fortunes5Premierships and new faces6In the heat of the battle7Facing the new millenium8Juniors make their mark9Womens cricket at Warrandyte10Life Members11Player records12Premiership list & association dates34610131519222428303336Compiled and edited by Robert WhitePUBLISHING DETAILSISBN 0-646-43929-4150 Not Out: 150 Years of Cricket at WarrandyteFirst published September 2004Publisher: Warrandyte Cricket Club, PO Box 340, Warrandyte 3113Designed by Top of the Hill Press, 78 Deep Creek Drive, DoncasterEast 3109 Tel: (03) 9846 5188Printed by Hart Printing, 48 Chapel St, Fitzroy 3065ONE hundred and fifty years ... its hard to imagine that a smallsportingclub in a small hamlet on the banks of the Yarra River could have a historythat goes back that far.While it is impossible to confirm that a cricket club actually existed in 1855,there can be no doubting that land had been set aside in Warrandyte at that timeas a cricket ground. And records indicate that cricket was first played on thatground as early as 1855.Over the past 150 years, cricket in Warrandyte has had its ups and downs.There were times when clubs from Melbourne would venture out on a day-longtrip to take on the men from Warrandyte, and others where a team turned up toplay only to discover that the local team had headed off to the goldfields when anew find was uncovered.There were also times when other clubs refused to play at Warrandytebecause it was too far away. And what of the dreadful Black Friday bushfires in1939 that nearly wiped out the town of Warrandyte and destroyed the cricketclubs pavilion and all its equipment and records. There are stories of teamsbeing driven to matches in the back of trucks that were used to take fruit fromlocal orchards to market. Others tell of matches beingsuspended so playerscould wave to the Queen as she passed by on a train. And the day an old identityhad to remove a snake from the cricket ground before he could field a ball nearthe Andersons Creek. There have been splits within the club and a few namechanges along the way. The cricket club is also a story of families who have passed the traditionsdown through generations and of those who have passed through briefly, butwho, in turn, have made an indelible mark.Not all who have represented Warrandyte have been champion players. Aclub is made up of more than that. It is nurtured by a wide variety of people withdifferent talents, attitudes and commitment.This book has been published by the Warrandyte Cricket Club tocelebrate150 years of cricket in the town. It does not claim to be a definitive history of theWarrandyte Cricket Club or cricket in Warrandyte in general. Instead, it is achronicle of memories and facts, names and events that have gone into makingcricket such an important part of the community of Warrandyte.- Robert WhitePresident, Warrandyte Cricket Club 2004/05w3A long and productive inningsON market days, Horrie Smithwould load up his old truck withboxes of fruit and head intoMelbourne. The motor wouldgroan under its valuable cargo as Horrienegotiated the hills near his Warrandyteorchard.But on Saturdays during the cricket sea-son, that same truck would carry an equal-ly valuable cargo ... cricketers.Horrie Smith's orchard truck was wellknown to cricket clubs from Doncaster toEast Burwood. They knew that when itturned into the car park of their ground,the Warrandyte Cricket Club had come toplay.This was Warrandyte cricket soon afterthe Second World War. It was the only waythat many could get to play cricket.Junior and senior players would sit onempty fruit boxes or on the tray floor andlean back against the wooden sides. Thecricket gear bag, loaded with well wornpads and bats, would bounce aroundwhen the truck hit the endless number ofpotholes on the roads that led to the after-noon's action.Horrie was a player himself. A short,solid man, he was the club's wicketkeeperfor as long as anyone from his era canremember. He was always in the driver'sseat.Horrie's was one of many trucks offeredby orchardists for transport before andafter the Second World War and while itmay sound like it was a primitive way toplay cricket, it was a lot better than a cen-tury before when the game was firstplayed in a tiny hamlet that was thenknown as Andersons Creek.Playing conditions of those times areclearly described in the book TheWarrandyte Story. It was published by theWarrandyte Cricket Club in 1955 to markthe centenary of the club. It wasresearched by Louis Cranfield and wirt-ten and illustrated by Harry Hudson.In the chapter relating to the cricketclub, the book states that the whiteclothes of today's cricketers wereunknown in those early years.Flowing beards, of course, were theorder of the day. Travel by horseback,buggy or coach was as rough as the crick-et pitches on which the game was playedand cricketers invariably belonged to theupper crust with a certain degree ofleisure in which to take part in gentleman-ly sports. In short, cricket was no gamefor theworking man. Under these condi-tions it is ofsingular importance to thestory that cricket was a democratic socialgame in Warrandyte from the beginning.There were few matches between dif-ferent clubs, except on special occasions.Teams were made up locally of marriedversus single; whiskers versus clean-shaven"and so on. In this way anyonewho wanted to play cricket was includedin a team at some time. There were noclass barriers when Warrandyte playedcricket.The first cricket match is generallyregarded to have been played early in1855. There are no records of the day orwhat took place and it is very likely that itwas part of a social event where a teammade up of local gold miners and farmingsettlers took on a visiting team.According to a survey map dated 1856,a cricket ground is marked on the site ofthe current recreation reserve indicatingthat the game was played in Warrandytebefore that time.Nine years later in 1865, the site of thecricket ground was officially set aside bythe then State Lands Department as aRecreation Ground.It was to prove a decisive move as itmay well have been that the land couldhave been claimed under a gold miningpermit. Miners are believed to have attemptedto stake a claim in the previous year butopposition from townspeople forced thegovernment's hand.While cricket matches were played onan irregular basis from 1855, the first1Cricket on the goldfieldsw4recorded game was played on1January 1864 between Andersons Creekand a team from Caledonia, which is nowknown as St Andrews, near Panton Hill.The results were published in an issueof Bells Life in Victoria and showed thatAndersons Creek scored an outright win,making 114 while Caledonia scored 26 and36.It was extraordinary that the match wasplayed, as a week before a major flood hitthe township washing away the firstbridge across the Yarra River. Not onlywas the recreation ground awash but it isnot known how the opposition team wasable to cross the river to play.On the same day in Melbourne, aVictorian team played a visiting team fromEngland which attracted a crowd of 15,000to the Melbourne Cricket Ground.William Collins was captain of theAndersons Creek team, which also includ-ed players from all walks of life in thetown such as prominent miner, JamesMasterton, the Squires brothers who oper-ated the grocery store. The Stiggants fami-ly, pioneer orchardists from Pound Roadwere also represented.The captain of the Caledonia team wasEwen Cameron who was a Member ofParliament for the district for 40 years andafter whom the Cameron Trophy wasnamed for matches between local clubs. w5The Warrandyte cricket team in 1911. Picture courtesy Warrandyte Historical Society.WARRANDYTE'S remotenesswas always going to be adrawback in the developmentof cricket in the township. Itwas, after all, a goldmining town and itwas a long way from anywhere, especiallywhen the only form of transport was ahorse and cart.This remoteness was the obviousrea-son why cricket was not an organisedsport with set fixtures in the early years ofthe Warrandyte club. It had more to dowith social events and the club hosting avariety of teams and groups.The problem existed as late as 1908when Warrandyte applied to enter the BoxHill Reporter Cricket Association. Theother clubs were drawn from theDoncaster, Blackburn, Box Hill andBurwood areas and they refused to admitthe new club because it was too far away.They only relented when Warrandyteagreed in its first year 1909/10 to play allof its matches away from home.From the time the recreation groundwas first gazetted in 1864, more time wasspent by the Trust that oversaw the oper-ation of the reserve in setting future plansfor the site which, apart from a cricketground, also included a lawn bowlinggreen and a croquet lawn.Many of the problems in fielding teams,especially during the 1880s, were due toproblems with gold mining and the dig-gers. The Booroondara Standard reportedin 1882 that theyear 1881/82 was the firsttime inwhich cricket was not played atWarrandyte.Apart from their mining problems, theminers and the town also had to deal witha typhoid fever outbreak.By the late 1880s, the club, which wasstill known as Andersons Creek, was play-ing matches against teams from Eltham,Lilydale, Templestowe, Christmas Hills,Panton Hill, Ringwood and Croydon.One match in 1892 against Croydon wasabandoned before a ball was bowledbecause of an unexpected gold find. Whenthe Croydon team arrived to play, thecricketers had other things on their mindand despite later apologies from theWarrandyte players, the game was neverreplayed.On St Patrick's Day in 1887 a team of 15from Andersons Creek took on 15 fromthe West End Brewery in a picnic cricketmatch which is said to have attractedalmost the entire town. The scores fromthe match show mixed results as it isunderstood the scoreboard attendantsspent more time sampling the visitor'sproducts than worrying about the runs.It took until 1905 before AndersonsCreek started to play in an organised asso-ciation known as the Cameron Trophywhich took in teams from north of theYarra River such as Kangaroo Ground, StAndrews, Christmas Hills and Yarra Glen.The decision proved to be successful asthe club enticed a number of quality play-ers such as Fred Topping and J. and R.Speers to rejoin the club. By 1906/07 the club, under its newname of Warrandyte, had won theCameron Trophy and its first-ever seniorpremiership. These early years of the1900s saw the pioneer names of Speers,Colman, Houghton, McCulloch, March andTill become closelyassociated withWarrandyte cricket. John Till, in particular,and then his son, Les, were to become twoof the club's most celebrated players.It was after the First World War thatcricket came alive in the town. In his bookCricket By the Riverside, Louis Cranfielddescribes the 1920-1930s era as "Cricket atits Best" in Warrandyte.The first highlight was the B Grade pre-miership in 1920/21 when Warrandytedefeated Blackburn in the final. The teamwas L. Till, J. Colman, R. Sloan, R.McCulloch, L. McCulloch, W. McCulloch,W. Moore, J. Schubert,W, Colman, J.White and A. Aumann.Following their premiership win,Warrandyte again made the finals the fol-lowing season, defeating Blackburn in the2The tyranny of distancew6semi final with J. Colman scoring 83 notout and J. Schubert 42. But in the finalagainst East Doncaster, Warrandyte col-lapsed to be all out for 24 and ended upbeing beaten outright by more than 100runs.The following season saw the clubunable to win the premiership despitedominating the competition, losing the1922/23 title again to East Doncaster.East Doncaster was a rival orchardingteam with family members playing againstone another in matches againstWarrandyte. In 1925/26 cricket had gained increasedpopularity in Warrandyte and the club wasable to field a second eleven for the firsttime. It marked the introduction oforcharding families such as Frank andGeorge Adams, the Aumanns and Smiths.The season also saw the rise of JackMoore, an outstanding bowler and later tobecome an important administrator forthe Warrandyte Cricket Club.In the semi final against Box Hill ANA,Moore took a then association record9/46 to help dismiss the opposition for112. Warrandyte replied with 87 and thenJack Colman took 6/28 as Box Hill ANAmade 134. Left 160 to win, Warrandytefailed by 12 runs. The following season Warrandyte ledthe table at the start of the finals anddefeated Doncaster Heights by an inningsin the first semi final with J. Schubert scor-ing 108. Moore was again outstanding withthe ball taking 4-47 and 6-46. Warrandytelost the final to Blackburn but Mooresbrilliance was evident when he won theassociation averages with 64 wickets at9.28.The clubs success saw the senior teampromoted from B to A Grade in 1926-27but it found the competition strong and by1928/29 the team was back in B Grade andthe seconds had been abandoned.In 1930/31 a seconds team was re-intro-duced but difficulties between Warrandyteand the Box Hill Reporter Association overthe clubs geographical location, saw thesenior team playing in the BHRDCA andthe seconds in the Ringwood DistrictCricket Association.By the following season, both teamswere part of the RDCA and in 1933/34 theclub won the C Grade premiership.In1936/37 under the captaincy of JackMoore, Warrandyte 53 and 122defeatedHeathmont 50 and 50 in the B Grade finalto win its way into A Grade. It appeared tobe the start of a golden period forThe WarrandytecricketteampicturedattheMitchamcricketgroundin1920. Backrowfromleft, T. White(umpire), F. Adams,N. Smith, T. Wooley, H. Smith, W. McAuley, F. Topping(scorer). Frontrowfromleft, J.J. Moore, J. McAuley, G. White, J. Schubert, E.Hemsworth, E. Aumann and W. McCulloch.w7w8Warrandyte as in their first year in the topgrade they defeated Kilsyth in the semifinal but lost the final to North Ringwood.The 1938/39 season began with greathope but was literally destroyed on 13January 1939 when the Black Friday bush-fires swept through Warrandyte destroyingmore than 160 houses and the Warrandytepavilion.The Ringwood Mail reported that theWarrandyte Cricket Ground, 1933From 1936 to 1950 I drove touristbuses and missed out on myfavourite sport but came back tocricket with Warrandyte in 1954.The first two years I was honouredwith the captaincy. Allan Chapman andI opened the batting for the next 10years. We had a good bunch of boysplaying, and we had a lot of fun.I remember a couple of humorous incidents, one at Blackburn. They werealways stiff opposition, but on this occasion I was batting and their keeper,Silver Flood, kept chatting as the bowler was running up.After a while I said: Silver, if you dont shut your mouth Ill put the thickend of this bat in it!When they batted I was keeping and also chatted and had the bat putunder my chin. Checkmate.Another occasion against Vermont, against whom I usually scored well,Alby Pannam, their captain, said to me as I took block: Well get you cheaptoday. I said: Maybe, but Im after a hundred, Alby.As the sun was getting lower, Alby moved near the wicket. As the bowlercame in Albys shadow on the pitch moved around. I stepped back and askedthe umpire to shift that player. If looks could have killed, I would not havescored that hundred. But he rushed over and shook hands with me when Iscored the century.I was fortunate enough to play in the match celebrating the centenary ofcricket in Warrandyte against aVictoria XI. The Vics were very lucky to win.-JIM HARRISWDYTEVISITORS14 1EXTRASWarrandyte Cricket Club did not have abat or a stump to its name. Along with theclubrooms and the equipment, the club'srecords were also lost and the names andthe deeds of most of Warrandyte's pioneerplayers were destroyed.Many local clubs, the RDCA and theVictorian Cricket Association and sport-ing goods manufacturers donated equip-ment and the club was able tofinish theseason. The setback saw the club fieldteams in B and C Grade in 1939/40 andWarrandyte took out both premierships.The B Grade side defeated NorthBayswater in the final while C Gradedefeated Ringwood outright.The B Grade final brought toprominence the skills of Jack McAuleywho scored 55 and 24. He was to becomea fine all rounder and was later awardedLife Membership.Les Till, who played in the 1920/21 BGrade BHRDCA premiership, was again amember of the B Grade premiership.With the Second World War at itsheight, Warrandyte withdrew teams in1942 until the war ended.94w9My first wicket for Warrandyte was against Wantirna atthe old Wantirna ground when they gave me a bowl inthe second innings of the match. I was about 16 years old.The first four I ever hit was against Ferntree Gully on theground behind Safeway in Ferntree Gully. I was shaking like aleaf, tried to block the ball and got a fine edge and it went tofine leg for four. It was my first four in cricket. I canremember running up the wicket with the pads flapping,nearly tripping me up.I remember my Dad playing for Warrandyte before thebushfires, in the mid-thirties, probably 1934-35. We nearly always travelled to cricket in HorrieSmiths truck (Horrie was an orchardist). How he got enough petrol I dont know. He would havehad a ration, but it wasnt much. We all used to climb in the back and off wed go. We were in theRDCA then and travelled as far as Ferntree Gully.John Bradbury came to Warrandyte. He was a terrific cricketer. I remember I was at practiceone night and they kept bowling the ball down the leg side and I was trying to hit the ball butcouldnt and he said to me Stan, what are you trying to do?I said, Hit the bloody thing and he said: No, you just glance it and showed me how to legglance and you get a run every time. I was trying to belt it and you miss more often than not andeventually my leg glance was one of my best shots.John was an Englishman who had migrated here and was a brilliant bat. We were playingBlackburn one day and the opening bowler dropped a short one outside his off stump and hesquare cut him for six. The next ball he dropped another one short ouside the off stump anothersix. And the third one went for six.He quit after that. He just could not bowl. He said: Anyone who can do that to me can win.I remember John Smith playing his first game, He was about 12-years-old and Warrandytewanted four runs to win and they wanted one wicket and there were about four balls to go. Thebowler dropped one short outside his off stump and he also square cut one for four which wonthe game for us.Bill McCulloch, an old identity (once the postman) used to bowl what he called donkey dropsand many, many times he threw the ball so high the batsman couldnt reach them and they droppedon top of the wicket.One Saturday we went to North Croydon and when we arrived at the ground the bloke wasploughing it up and we still played cricket. It didnt matter how hard you hit the ball when it hit theground it stopped. One time it went under a sod of soil and couldnt be found. The next week wewent it had all been harrowed and flattened out and was much easier for the opposition batting.- STAN CRAKERWDYTEVISITORS29 4 19EXTRASTHE years immediately followingthe Second World War were aroller coaster for the WarrandyteCricket Club. Like many sportingclubs, Warrandyte found it difficult torecruit the necessary numbers to put ateam in the field but in 1945/46 a B Gradeteam played in the Ringwood DistrictCricket Association.The team had unexpected success, win-ning its way through to the final, only tolose to East Ringwood. Warrandyte couldonly score 49 and 45 while their oppo-nents scored 68 and 136. In 1947/48Warrandyte became an out-standing team in the RDCA and theinvolvement of the Chapman family in theclub's success was evident in the BGrade finals series with Arthur Chapmanmaking an unbeaten 156 and his son, Allanscoring 38 in the semi final againstBayswater. The team took out the premier-ship by defeating YCW.The Chapmans had started withWarrandyte before the Second World Warand Allan was to play for more than 35years. Records of his early years are notavailable but his feats as both a batsmanand bowler during the 1950s and 1960sand even into the 1970s rank him as one ofthe club's most outstanding players.Despite the success in 1947/48, therollercoaster ran off the rails thefollowing season when a dispute over thecaptaincy resulted in the club not fieldinga side at all.From 1950/51 to 1953/54, the clubplayed as the West Warrandyte CricketClub in the Box Hill Reporter Association.The reason for the change is not clearalthough the recollections of older playersindicate the Warrandyte Cricket Club mayhave had problems with paying accountsat the time and a name change was neces-sary toestablish a clean sheet.By 1954/55 the club was again known asWarrandyte Cricket Club and hadimproved enough to play in the finalsseries. It is not known in what grade theclub was placed (possibly B Grade) butit lost the final to Templestowe and thefollowing season was beaten by DoncasterFootballers in the semi final.The club had been boosted by thearrival of former Lancashire League(England) player John Bradbury and thedevelopment of local talent which nowincluded Les Adams and Bill Morrison.The 1950s and 1960s were difficultdecades for Warrandyte, with only oneteam fielded in most seasons. After thewar, people were establishing careers andyoung families, and the localpopulationwas still relatively small.Orchardists wereactive cricketers despite the cricket sea-son corresponding with summer fruitw103The rollercoaster rideIwould have been 12 or 13 and wentand played East Burwood in D Gradeon the little ground at East Burwood.We went in Jimmy Harriss truck and itcould have been one of the Chapmanswho drove us there.We also used to go with KeithShields in his old Dodge. It was theoriginal milk truck for Warrandyte. Weused to have to jump out going up hills and run along beside it and get backon again at the top. We were in Box Hill Reporter and we went out TindalsRoad or Andersons Creek Road and it was all uphill so we ran most of theway to the cricket.But it was a good time we had in the D Grade, which was our seconds.During the D Grade days Dave Simons, who had the draper shop, whichis now McDougalls Real Estate, was a first eleven type cricketer (openingbat) and he sacrificed his senior career to help us in D Grade and he wasalso treasurer of the club.He averaged over 50 each year in the D Grade. From memory heaveraged 90 in one season. He was a really good cricketer but he camedown there to help us because we didnt have anyone there who really knewthe rules or anything else.Dave had been a victim of polio and had one lame leg. He was treasurerfor quite a few years, even after he stopped playing cricket. I couldnt tell youexactly, but he was treasurer for about 10 years.. Hes one man that put a lotinto the Warrandyte Cricket Club.- GEOFF DAYWDYTEVISITORS49 4 14EXTRASpicking and watering.From the early 1900s to late 1960s,orchardists and farmers often made up tohalf of the teams (for example, see 1920team photograph page 7). In the 1950s itwas common to arrive at a game with nineor 10 men, and play short, or fill with boyswho could field well, but neither bat norbowl against seniors. Junior cricket and itsgraduates did not appear until towardsthe end of the decade.Nevertheless, cricket was enjoyable forthe stalwarts, even without finals appear-ances. Suburban teams such as Blackburn,Nunawading and Mitcham came from alarger population, and were very strong.Les Adams was either president or sec-retary, plus delegate to BHRDAmeetingsfor more than 15 years. Club committeemeetings with variable turnout of 3-10members were held at Less home in WestWarrandyte. Annual meetings were alsosmall, with few nominations for positions.Les Adams son, Peter recalls: Onmatch days the same two or three peoplewould set up matting, stumps, sweeppitches, and meet the umpire who wasoften a local and well known to players.Allan Pump of East Doncaster officiatedregularly. He was very kindly but also veryofficial. Allan had a curious and decisiveway of refusing appeals, by shaking hishead with great seriousness.If he hadturned down a couple of close ones, youcould be fairly certain hed put the fingerup next time!Recruitment was restricted to wellknown cricketing families, invitations towork mates and families, and by thegrapevine..Jean Chapman admits she had an inter-est in cricket before she met her husband-to-be, Allan, widely regarded asWarrandytes best-ever player.Before I met Allan I was interested incricket and had been to matches at theMCG. I even saw Bradman but neverthought I would be involved with a clubfor over 50 years, in one way oranoth-er, she said.Jean later became a committee memberand the first manager of the clubs originalUnder 12 team.She recalled the day Warrandyte playedat Blackburn in 1954, the year in which theQueen visited Australia.The match was suspended when it wasabout time for the train with the Queenand Prince Philip aboard to pass theground. We all trundled over to the fence alongthe railway line and watched. The Dukewaved furiously when he saw the crick-eters all lined up. Then the match contin-ued.The season also saw thecelebration ofthe club's Centenary with a match againsta team organised by the Victorian CricketAssociation. The VCA team dismissedWarrandyte for a disappointing 88 andmade 7/102 in reply.The club also organised a CentenaryDinner and John Moore, a great bowlerand club administrator, was awardedWarrandyte's first-ever Life Membership.For the next 10 years, cricket inWarrandyte was in upheaval. Clubstal-wart and Life Member, Geoff Day, recallshow an initial shortage of playersforcedthe club to field only one team.He said that at the time there wasnowhere for young blokes to play andMorrie Bennett believed another teamshould be formed. Politics came into it and Morrie didstart a team but because it wasnt part ofthe Warrandyte club, it was called NorthWarrandyte, Geoff recalled.The North Warrandyte team played onthe Warrandyte No. 2 oval and the play-ers practiced on the old asphalttenniscourts near the Yarra River bridge.The main Warrandyte ground wasavailable every second game but NorthWarrandyte werent allowed to use it,Geoff said. Some good came out of thesplit as it gave more people the chance toplay. Allan Chapman andothers camealong to help out and taught us youngblokes how to play.w11There werent many facilities aroundthis time, just a change room at afew grounds. There were no tea roomsat Warrandyte or at any other club. Itook afternoon tea to all the matches Les expected it. Two or three thermosflasks of boiled water and a strong teaessence (Effie Adams taught me tomake a very strong pot of tea, strain itand put it into a sauce bottle, to be diluted with hot water).After lunch on Saturday I would bake drop scones or a tea cake, so theywere still warm when it came to afternoon tea. I carried them in picnicbaskets, along with coffee, milk, sugar and cups.Mrs Horace Smith always sent down a lovely tin of iced pattie cakes, butother contributions were rare. Very few spectators came to the ground.Afternoon tea was served on the ground or on a seat outside the changerooms. I only brought enough for our own team. No other ladies were ableto help with the tea.After the match everyone went home in the transport available, as noteveryone had their own. We didnt have a car until 1956. I remember walk-ing down to the ground from our home in West Warrandyte, with youngchildren and a laden pram. In the 1950s there was usually only one team anda very small committee, which met for years at our house. Les wassecretary for a long period. I would cook drop scones or teacake for supper.- OLIVE ADAMSWDYTEVISITORS64 1EXTRAS91w12The matting that was placed on the concrete pitch had to berepaired each year and the gap in the middle, between themats, got wider, so you had to bowl a good length.Allan Chapman used to show us where to bowl. Nobodybowled short like they do today because you had the danger ofclipping the leather binding on the end of the mat or hitting theconcrete and it was a no-ball. If you bowled short enough toland it on the first mat the ball went so high it was called a wideanyway. When you got new mats, for 12 months or so it wasbeaut because there was no gap. But as they got older the gap would widen because you often hadto cut bits off when they were repaired.The gap could be as wide as six or eight feet. They used bitsof string to join the mats in the centre as they got further apart. The only place you could get matsmended or buy them was from Pentridge Prison, so every cricket club was waiting for their mats tocome back. That was part of the cricket culture in those days, carrying the mats in and carrying themout again. The worse the cricketer you were, the more likely you had to carry the mats.There were lots of characters. Butch Prior the ex-Hawthorn full-forward, played for a while. Hewas a massive man and could hit a cricket ball.On the subject of hitting cricket balls, I never saw him but I believe that Jim Schubert used to hitthe ball over the main road. Ive seen it once in my life by Geoff McGivern from Croydon who wasan ex-league footballer, full-back with Melbourne. He hit one out over the pine trees out on to themain road. Another fellow who hit it a long way was a bloke called Norm Wagner.A fellow called Les Stoneham was a quick and as good as any bowler as Ive seen. (MargaretMcIntosh, daughter of the late secretary of the BHRDCA, recalled stories of Les Stoneham takingout his false teeth and leaving them at the base of the stumps before he started each over. He wouldretrieve them at the end of the over). Terry Leheney was really good for a little fellow. He had a JeffThomson slinging action and he could bat and catch.Another bit of scallywag business was Horrie Smith and his brother, Norm, having a blue at EastDoncaster. They used to play in their felt hats, just normal felt hats that they used when they workedin the orchard. They had a blue over the scorebook or something and traded fisticuffs. That wasNorm and Horrie. There was no love lost there. I was only a youngster and I can remember lookingfor somewhere to hide.- GEOFF DAYWDYTEVISITORS79 4 16EXTRASgood character and good fun.We didnt have a clubroom or any-thing so if we wanted to have a drink, as itwas six oclock closing, most Saturdaynights we finished up at Mums, on thelawn.Jack McAuley won the bowling tro-phy with his little twiggers at about 50years of age. He was another clubman whonever gets much recognition. Hed alwaysturn up and help out if you were short ofplayers or wanted any work done.By 1966/67 the club hadreverted backto the Warrandyte Cricket Club. But crick-et was still having trouble finding its feetin the town and as the 1970s neared, theclub was again at the crossroads.Geoff said it was Morrie Bennett whostarted the cricket clubs BusinessDirectory which is still published today.Geoff said that Ray Bellinger was anearly captain of the team and some of thetowns better players ended upjoiningthe newly formed club.After some time, Mr Pike, the localpoliceman got me aside and said: This issilly. Warrandyte needs a seconds sidebecause we are now having trouble gettingenough blokes to play in the firsts. So Iwent to the annual meeting, much toMorrie Bennetts disgust, and we talkedabout amalgamating and of course thatcreated problems with money and equip-ment. We called ourselves WarrandyteFootballers Cricket Club so we all got backtogether again, Geoff said.The club played as WarrandyteFootballers from 1960/61 to 1965/66.Geoff recalls those years with greatfondness.They were a great bunch of blokes. Youhad Les Adams, Gordon Page, RayBellinger, Terry Leheney, Allan Chapman,Jack McAuley. I think it may have evenbeen Peter Adams first year, and thenthere was Horrie Smith and EddieNylander who was a wild sort of a bowlerand bash artist batsman, but a bloodyA WarrandyteFootballersCricketClubcapusedbetween1960/61and1965/66. NotetheemblemwhichisaWmountedonafootballmotif.w13One game when Allan Chapmanwas playing in the seconds andI was captain and we wanted four runsto pass their score, Allan went in andhe said: What do you want me to do,Stan? and I said Get the four runs weneed and then you can go for it. Hehit 36 off one over.Theres another story about theChapman boys. Arthur was opening the bowling and his brother Bizz wasrolling a cigarette in slips. Arthur said: Come on! and Bizz said: Its allright.The batsman snicked the ball and Allan swears that Bizz still licked thecigarette paper and caught the ball.Bizz Chapman also had a theory that when you opened the battingand the fast bowler came in, the first ball you hit him back over his headfor six. He said that put them off for the rest of the game and he quiteoften did it.Jack Moore was another good cricketer who played for Warrandyte. Hewas a very fast bowler and was the local grocer. I remember talking to thethen secretary of the Box Hill Reporter Association who told me he stillhad the bruises where Jack hit him on the leg once.Les Till and his father, Jack, were great players and I remember one daywhen George White went to field the ball out near the creek and pickedup a snake and threw it across the ground. He told us later that the snakewas lying next to the ball in the grass and he threw the snake out first sothat he could throw the ball in.As everyone knows, I have four sons and they have all taken hat-tricks aswell as myself. Is that a record?- STAN CRAKER4The changing fortunesnear the main road. Mats were carriedacross the ground and the concrete pitchwould have to be cleared of leaves andfallen branches.The run-up for the bowlers was roughand the mottled shade created by the treecover made batting at practice an art initself.It was little wonder that the cricket clubcould not entice people to play.It was at this time that John Chapmanand Peter Adams were making theirmark. Both were sons of established sen-ior players and they were continuing astrong trend of family association with theclub. From the very early years, passingthe baton, or in the cricket clubs case,passing the bat through the generationshad been one of its great strengths.John was an opening batsman and wick-etkeeper while Peter was an orthodoxleft arm slow bowler and middle orderbatsman. Both played in senior competi-tion as young teenagers and more than 40years after they both made their first sen-ior appearances with the club, they stillremain activemembers in WarrandytesVeterans teams.Alan Woolcock, a left-arm orthodox spinbowler and a handy middle order bats-man, had also joined the club and wasappointed captain. He was later to win sixFirst XI bowling awards. As the first years of the 1970sunfolded,the club began to build a solid foundation.Steve Peake, who had played juniorcricket at the club, and was now open-ing the bowling in the senior side,intro-duced a school friend, Robert White, toWarrandyte. A player with Melbourne dis-trict club cricket experience, he laterbecame captain and president of the club.He was also to become one of the clubsmostprolific run scorers.By 1973 moves were under way toinstall a turf wicket at the WarrandyteReserve. It was an ambitious bid by theclub which was forced to vacate theAS the 1970s dawned, it wouldhave been a brave person whowould have predicted thesuc-cess the club would have beforethe decade was over.At one stage the club struggled to fieldone team but by 1979 it had six seniorteams and a womens team plus juniorteams ranging from Under 12 to Under 16.The club had also appointed its first cap-tain-coach and had left the Box HillReporter District Cricket Association andreturned to the Ringwood District CricketAssociation.Excavation work by the local councilduring the 1960s had greatly improved thestandard of the Warrandyte oval but prac-tice facilities remained primitive with asingle wire net set among the gum treesWDYTEVISITORS89 4 14EXTRASw14the peninsula.Stan Davis and Bruce Kline started play-ing in Warrandytes Second XI. For Bruce,cricket was now played forpleasure as hewatched over his sons playing in the jun-iors in the morning.But it was clearly evident that their tal-ents were better served in the First XI andin 1979/80 Stan was appointed captainwhile Bruce stood behind the stumps.It was to prove a stellar year forWarrandyte. The seniors scored a clubrecord 8/525 against Glen Park with BruceKline scoring 101, Steve Pascoe 71 andGeoff Taylor and Fred Jungwirth wereunbeaten on 95 and 90 respectively.The senior also won the A Grade pre-miership and the Second XI and Third XItook out the titles in their grades. Therewere also premierships for the clubs twoUnder 12 teams.The A Grade team played Ainslie Parkwho were dismissed for 124 with FredJungwirth taking 4/39. Warrandyte repliedwith 248 with John Chapman making 66and Max Summers and Stan Davis sharinga last wicket stand of 83. Max scored 56and Stan unbeaten on 23. It was to prove adecisive partnership as Ainslie Park belted9 dec. 211 in its second innings, leavingWarrandyte to score 88 runs for outrightvictory. It was achieved without the lossof a wicket.In 10 years Warrandyte had become theCinderella club. Struggling for players andan identity as the decade opened, it nowwent into the 1980s in Chandler Shield andwould have to mix it with some of thepower clubs of the eastern suburbs.ground in 1974/75 to allow time for theMerri Creek soil to be put in place. Seniorand seconds matches were moved toDomeney Reserve at Park Orchards. The move did not upset theimprovingstandard of play as three of Warrandytesfour senior teams, including A Grade,made the top four, only to be beaten in thefirst week of the finals.In the end, the move to Park Orchardswas in vain as there was a shortage ofMerri Creek soil and the turf wicket wasnot installed. At the following yearsannual meeting the club voted to retain itshard wicket and turf cricket was aban-doned.It was also at this time that the clubbegan to question its place in the BHRD-CA. It appeared to have closer ties withthe RDCA both historically andgeographi-cally. Warrandyte put its case to the RDCAin 1975/76 and wasadmitted to the AGrade competition.Two seasons later the club appointedits first-ever captain-coach, recruiting out-standing allrounder, Steve Pascoe, fromNorwood. At the time it was a recruitingcoup as Steve was highly regarded in theRDCA having won the associations presti-gious allrounder award. The appointmentwas to have long-term advantages forWarrandyte as Steve and his wife, Ann,moved house to Warrandyte and haveremained with the club ever since.Both have shared executive positionsand are Life Members. Steve is a formerpresident of Warrandyte and is nowPresident of the RDCA. Ann retired as sen-ior scorer in 2002/03 after 25 consecutiveyears although she was coaxed out ofretirement for the senior finals in 2003/04.Steve brought to Warrandyte a new pro-fessionalism both on and off the field andwithin two years of his arrival, six seniormens teams were fielded along with thewomens team that debuted in 1974/75.The late 1970s also saw the introductionof players such as Bruce Kline who hadmany years of District cricket experienceat Melbourne and Fitzroy and two leg spinbowlers, Stan Davis and Bob McDonald.Stan had been a star player with Balwynin Sub-District ranks while Bob was a leg-end of the game on the MorningtonPeninsula.Bob was of stocky build and carried agammy leg and looked anything but acricketer. A teacher, he was appointed toKangaroo Ground Primary School and wasselected in the Warrandyte senior teamvirtually sight unseen.There were a few worried faces when heturned up on match day but it took only afew overs of his wily leg-spin to under-stand why Bob had such a reputation onAlan Woolcock ... formercaptainandlongtimeplayer and treasurer.Darryl Valentine ... a loyalclub member who died inacaraccident. The WCCChampionAwardforplayersotherthanFirstXI is named in his honour.Richard Bowen ... consis-tentlefthandopeningbatsman and close to thewicketfieldsman. Playedintwoseniorpremier-ship teams.w155Premierships and new facesGRAEME Lloyd quickly tore his bat-ting gloves from his hands,tucked his bat under his arm andwalked briskly back to theWarrandyte pavilion.Hey Graeme, that wasnt out,shoutedthe umpire who had turned down anenthusiastic caught behind decision fromCroydon United opening bowler, RobinKing, one of the fastest bowlers in thecompetition.Close enough for me, Graeme shoutedback over his shoulder as the pace of hiswalk quickened just in case he had to goback and take strike again.Graeme never rated himself as a bats-man. In fact, other clubs in the RDCAChandler Shield competition didnt ratehim very highly either. But as a bowler hehad no peer.He joined Warrandyte as the clubentered a new era, taking on the powerfulclubs that had made the Chandler Shieldone of the most competitive and reveredcricket grades in metropolitan Melbourne.It was a tough step up from theAGrade premiership in 1979/80 but to thesurprise of most people, Warrandyte fin-ished an unlucky fifth in its first ChandlerShield season.In the following season, Graeme Lloydwas unstoppable, taking 66 wicketsincluding a remarkable 9/26 againstMontrose. He eventually took out the BillDean Medal as the bestplayer in theChandler Shield for 198/-82. He was thefirst bowler to achieve the feat and for hisefforts he ironically received a new bat.Warrandyte clung onto fourth positionand then defeated Croydon United andWantirna South to win its first-everChandler Shield.Captain, Stan Davis, had crafted togeth-er a hard-working team which may havebeen individually inferior to other teamsbut worked as a committed unit.It was in fact Stan, who with the sup-port of John McCartin, put on a 70-runlast wicket partnership that turned out tobe the match-winningsession of a GrandFinal that lasted into the darkening hoursJohnMcCartin... keyplayerin1981/82 Chandler Shield Grand Final.GraemeLloyd... outstandingmedium-pacebowlerandwinnerofthe1981/82BillDeanMedal for the best player in Chandler Shield.w16of the third day.Warrandyte batted first and crawled to9/120 before Davis and McCartin, whofin-ished 44 not out, cametogether to add70 runs. Only Steve Pascoe with 42 andMarty McCarthy with 22 offered any resist-ance.An outstanding spell of leg spinbowl-ing by Davis who took 5-33 saw WantirnaSouth collapse to be all out for 128 mid-way through the third day. The remainderof the day appeared to be a formality untilWarrandytecollapsed to be all out for 96leaving their opponents to make 159 in 25overs. Some big hitting from the SouthWantirna openers threatened to bring offan astounding win. Fielding was almost impossible as darkclouds closed in on the ground and infield-ers were forced to scream out the direc-tion of the ball to outfielders unable topick up its flight.Davis refused to appeal against the lightpreferring to play the game out to a finishwith Warrandyte prevailing.The scores in the historic win were:Warrandyte 190 (J. McCartin 44 n.o., S.Pascoe 42, M. McCarthy 22) and 96 defeat-ed South Wantirna 128 (S. Davis 5-33, G.Lloyd 2-55) and 8-131 (S. Pascoe 5-63).Stan was transferred in his employmentto Sydney the following year and his lead-ership on and off the field was sadlymissed.After finishing mid-field the followingseason, Steve Peakes recruiting prowesswas further strengthened when he encour-aged John Salter to join the club. The pairwere footballing friends and John hadplayed District cricket with Hawthorn-EastMelbourne.He took over the reins as captain-coachand in his first season made 690 runs.Graeme Lloyd took a staggering 71 wicketsand with the recruitment of opening bat-ting pair, Graham Jacobs and WayneAmiguet and the emerging juniors inGerald Walshe, Colin Dorning and DarrenPeters, Warrandyte took all before them towin a second Chandler Shield in three sea-sons.Warrandyte batted first scoring 9/304with Robert White making 84 and JohnSalter 72. It was a competive total but atthe end of the second day, East Ringwoodwas 1/99 and the match was evenlypoised.A concentrated spell of off-spin bowlingby White who took 5/60 off 30 overs, sup-ported by Graeme Lloyd who took threewickets and Steve Pascoe with two wick-ets saw East Ringwood dismissed for 244.A premiership was on the cards the fol-lowing season as John Salter continued tosavage bowling attacks for a First XIWarrandytes first Chandler Shield premiership team in 1981-82. Standing fromleft, JohnMcCartin, BrettKline, JohnChapman, BruceKline, RichardBowen,FredJungwirth, StephenPeake, MarkDavis, GraemeLloyd. Seated: RobertWhite, AnnPascoe(scorer), StevePascoe, GeoffDay(president), StanDavis(captain), Dianne Gathercole (secretary), Marty McCarthy.Ian Broome ... started as a junior withWarrandyte and and later returned asa player and coach.Russell Dorning ... started as a juniorandlaterbecamealeadingseniorplayer and President.Thepresentationofthe1981-82RDCAA Gradepennant. Fromleft, StevePascoe, clubcaptain, StanDavis, clubpresident, GeoffDayandKenDunhamfrom the RDCA.Doublesuccess... in1983-84, WarrandytehaditssecondChandlerShieldpremiership. Standing from left: Darren Peters, Colin Dorning, Wayne Amiguet,GrahamJacobs, FredJungwirth, BruceKline, GraemeLloyd. Seated: JohnChapman, Steve Pascoe, John Salter (captain), Robert White, Ann Pascoe (scor-er), Marty McCarthy.record 955 runs. Graeme Lloyd againproved unplayable but Warrandyte lostthe first semi final despite making morethan 300 runs.During the early 1980s, Warrandyteembarked on an overseas tour. StevePascoe recalls: We toured the NewHebrides for the South Pacific CricketFestival in the two weeks preceding inde-pendence for the island nation, now calledVanuatu.No other overseas teams attended dueto some local unrest, but the EnglishCommandos were there to quell any prob-lems and they hurriedly put a team togeth-er. Warrandyte endeared themselves tothe locals by beating the commandos andsuccumbing to the two local teams. Wewere treated like royalty.The mid-1980s also saw the club experi-ment with a new form of synthetic pitch.Known as Scapa, it was installed by con-tractors keen to see the project used morewidely. It had been used successfully inEngland and the Australian distributorswanted to see how it would operate underlocal conditions.The pitch was essentially a syntheticcarpet envelope filled with brick dust. Itwas supposed to play like a turf cricketpitch. But it needed far more maintenance,including watering and rolling, than theclub could accommodate. Eventually,much to the delight of all players in theassociation, it was removed after two sea-sons.While this was going on, the clubslower grades were benefiting not onlyfrom the senior teams success but alsofrom the efforts of a growing band of par-CameronDay... oneofthemanyyoungplayerstoemerageduringthelate 1980s.w17ents who were now involved with the jun-ior section.Bruce Kline and then Joe Peters took onthe co-ordinating role and recruited otherparents who then went on to play cricketin the afternoon.Reputations were also being built asGraham Lawrence, Jim Gathercole, DonTurner, Chris Fernando and Harvey Harristhrashed attacks in the lower grades. In1982-83, Don scored an unbeaten 192 inthe Fourth XI, the highest score by aWarrandyte player. In 1987-88, ChrisFernando almost broke the record in theFifth XI with 185.Steve Pascoe recalled that HarveyHarris hard hitting against all types ofbowling was based on the premise ofcounting to three then swinging from thebackside. When asked how he approached battingagainst slow bowlers Harvey replied: Icount to four then swing from the back-side.As for the bowlers, Alan Vitiritti, BobLeGuier, Geoff Taylor, Wayne Moore,Bernie Blair and Alan King were alwaysamong the wickets and a young ChrisSnaidero was also making his mark.Bob LeGuier reported after one matchthat an elderly opponent named Geraldwas referred to as the silly old buggerearly in the match but, after taking threewickets in three balls was renamed Gerri -at -trick.Such was Bobs sense ofhumour that he often had club mates institches.Joe Scicluna would never be describedas a batsman or a bowler but there werefew who could match him when it came tofielding close to the wicket. Ivan Vojlay was another important char-acter in the lower grades, captaining a pre-miership side and having the ability toboth encourage and lead sides that hadextreme mixtures of talent and age.The mid to late 1980s became the era ofthe young guns, all of whom had comethrough the junior ranks. By 1986-87, IanBroome, an outstanding junior player atWarrandyte who went on to play Districtcricket at Collingwood and county cricketin England had returned and won both thebatting and bowling awards while DarrenPeters, Chris Snaidero and David Sloanhad all won batting or bowling awards. The Dorning brothers, Russell andColin, were also starting to establish them-selves. Russell, who was later to becomePresident of the club, retired prematurelyafter an outstanding run as a wicketkeep-er, taking almost 200dismissals and mak-ing 1337 runs while Colin has scoredJohn Salter ... outstandingbatsmanwhoscoredaWCCseniorteamrecordof955runsandcaptained the clubs sec-ond Chandler Shield pre-miership in 1983/84.Club captain Stan Davis and the doyen of wicket keepers,Bruce Kline were the catalysts that produced an era thatcan be described as the halcyon days of the club.Stan brought with him an amazing spin bowling ability andan astute and innovative cricket sense. Bruce stood up tothe stumps to bowlers of all types and placed amazingpressure on opposing batsmen with the skill of his gloves andsome distracting comments. His only concession to thedangers ofkeeping up to the fast bowlers was to leave hisfalse teeth wrapped in his handkerchief in the pavilion.A mischievous character, Bruce often had umpires in a quandary when he would walk to theother end after five balls in an over or for asking for the height of the stumps to be remeasuredwhen a ball narrowly missed taking the bails. To the embarrassment of one umpire, Bruce wasproven correct in a match at Wonga Park when it was discovered after much prompting from thekeeper, that the stumps needed to be raised 3cm.Records show that during the 1980s, five senior and six under age premierships were won, 14individual RDCA Grade averages attained and, perhaps the clubs premier opening bowle at thetimer, Graeme Lloyd took out the Bill Dean Medal as Fairest and Best in Chandler Shield. Graemeremains the only specialist bowler to win this award.Around the same time we welcomed John Salter for a short stint as captain coach of the club.John was relatively young to take on this role but his District cricket ambitions had waned and hewas ripe to take on the challenge. Fortunate to be surrounded by experienced teammates, Johnsability to build an innings and churn out runs soon returned, preparing him for a successful returnto District Cricket the following year.Facilities were not the greatest and we were crammed into old and run down change room asour only means of after game social activities. Imagine the joy when George Sturesteps advised thathe was able to arrange a donation of carpet for the rooms. No matter that it turned out to beelectric blue shag pile, our rooms were carpeted!Graeme Jacobs was renowned for an allowance of$3 for after match conviviality. Every week$3 (enough for, perhaps four cans in those days) was secreted in his black sock, worn with blackshoes that replaced cricket boots after the game. Tony Graf was moved to manufacture a $3 noteand present it to Jakes in an effort to save wear and tear on his socks.- STEVE PASCOEw18more than 2660 runs.Michael and Cameron Day, sons of for-mer player and president, Geoff Day, wereamong a younger brigade starting to dis-play their talents.Tony Sturesteps was starting toblos-som into one of the clubs best-ever allrounders. A powerful hitter, he alsoopened the bowling, taking full advantageof his broad shoulders and strongphysique. He was to later captain-coachthe senior team and win an RDCA all-rounder title.Gerald Walshe was given the responsi-bility of captaincy of the First XI whileonly 20 and had an outstanding season. Asthe decade closed, Walshe was only juststarting what would become an outstand-ing bowling career. BobLeGuier... afieryopening bowler who wasaregularwickettakerinthe lower grades.WDYTEVISITORS1 19 4 14EXTRASGerald Walshe... captainoftheseniorXIwhenaged 20.HarveyHarris...swashbucklingbats-man in lower grades.BarryJohnson... longservingplayerandjunior manager.GrahamLawrence... aprolificrunscorerinthelower grades.w19TonySturesteps... afor-merjuniorwhobecamecoachoftheclubandwhowontheprestigiousRDCA all rounder award.GregTregear... captaincoachattheturnofthedecade.John Sharman ... captain oftheteamthatwaspre-miers for a day.6In the heat of the battlethe batters. Moose bowled a gem of anover and Hoggy got the wicket with thesecond or third ball of the next we hadwon the first innings.What followed was the most intensehuddle and crush of players I had everexperienced the excitement and energywas unforgettable and something everymember of that team will remember for-ever.However, what happened next is nowfolklore and legend.We were bowled outfor 136 and they had about 20 overs toget the runs to achieve an improbableoutright win.A young left handed opener began theinnings by backing away from Hoggy andslashing/edging him to third man.Several times he hit the fence at thirdman on the full.At one stage I am surewe had two slips a gully and two or threemen at fly slip. However he got themaway to a flyer and the game was backon.We were all exhausted but somehowwe clawed our way back into it beforeShaun Arbuckle, a fantastic competitorand wicket keeper for Ainslie Parkarrived at the crease. He had been ournemesis over the years but Hoggy washaving none of that.He promptly toldthe young man to put a helmet on. Thebatsman made a smart reply and refusedthe invitation. It was late on the third dayby now and getting dark and we thoughtthe batsman was being a bit cute whenhe called for his jumper and took whatseemed like forever to face the nextdelivery.It was a very dangerous game he wasplaying as Hoggy was by now furious.The next ball stuck him just above thetemple and knocked him out cold. It wasquite scary as from the slips you couldhear the crack against the skull.It tookthe ambulance about 40 minutes toarrive and we only bowled another overbefore the umpires called it off for badlight.THERE was a hush around theground as the ambulance arrivedand paramedics treated the bats-man prone on the pitch at theEast Ringwood Cricket Ground. He had notmoved since collapsing after being hit inthe head by a ball from Rodney Hogg.It was the 1993/94 Chandler ShieldGrand Final and the stakes were high asWarrandyte took on Ainslie Park. Hogg, the Australian Test openingbowler, had been recruited by Warrandyteand the Grand Final saw a re-match of theprevious years semi final which AinsliePark had won.The batsman was admitted tohospi-tal and later recovered but he did not batagain in the match.There was tension from the very firstball of the game which was destined to gofor four days.Warrandyte captain-coach, JohnSharman, recalls one of the RDCAs mostdramatic finals matches.We won the toss and batted and made174.The crowd that attended this gamewas unbelievable.It was as thougheveryone in the competition knew it wasgoing to be an epic between two quiteeven sides.I am sure part of the attrac-tion was the fact that where else do yougo to see a living legend going flat outin a big game like this.We knew if we could get on top ofAinslie Parks very good bowling attackwe would win and I guess our 174 wascompetitive. We also knew we wouldhave to play well and we did.At the end of the second day AinsliePark was 9/171. We had two run outs, weall dropped catches but Hoggy had sixfor not many and had bowled his gutsout.But this was a grand final.We all turned up the following weekand what followed was quite unbeliev-able. Tony Sturesteps was to bowl thefirst over and we all knew, as did every-one at the ground, and there were thou-sands there, that if Moose (TonySturesteps) could get through the firstover, the pressure would be too much forw20training and match day that had not beenseen at Warrandyte before. For some, itwas a culture change that was difficult tocope with but Sharman was determinedthat the club would be successful.In his first year at the helm in1990/91, Warrandyte made the finals onlyto lose in the first semi-final to CroydonUnited. While the seniors fell marginallyshort of a premiership, the Second Elevenwon a flag in a hard fought final againsttraditional rivals Ainslie Park. The ThirdEleven made the finals, while the remain-ing three senior sides were all competi-tive. Long-serving left arm bowler, AlanVitiritti took out the RDCA Chandler Shield3 bowling award.The following season Sharman was out-standing as a player winning the RDCA allrounder award and the Chandler Shieldbatting trophy with an average of 82.2.While the First XI failed to capture theChandler Shield premiership, there wereplenty of flags to fly in the lower grades. The Chandler 4 team under the leader-ship of Andy King won three premiershipsin a row, starting in 1993/94. It was a tightknit team with just the right mixture ofmaturity and the exhuberance of youth.Following John Sharmans retirement ascaptain, former junior player, TonySturesteps, was handed the seniorlead-ership reins. It was a fitting appoint-ment and again showed the importance ofthe clubs strong junior program.The First XI struggled to recapture theform of the early part of the decade, duemainly to the absence of someoutstand-ing players who had either retired ormoved on.Tony recalled that each season seemedto be a fight to avoid relegation.They were tough times and each yearWe had to come back for a fourth day.That night was our presentation night.We were premiers for that day.The fol-lowing day we had our chances butAinslie Park managed to eke out the runsthey needed for an improbable outrightvictory.In all it was the best game ofcricket Ihave ever played or heard of.Indeed astestimony I have been told that RodneyHogg was recently asked during one ofhis professional speeches what were thethree most memorable matches of hislife.His response was his first Test atLords, one of his remarkable performanc-es against the West Indies in the WestIndies and this grand final he played ina suburban competition for Warrandyte.The match was to prove a watershedfor Warrandyte. Many senior players wereso disappointed at the result that theyretired or left the club and the scars haveremained with many since that extraordi-nary Grand Final.But while the seniors were notsuc-cessful, the year produced a number ofhighlights. Steve Pascoe won the RDCAChandler Shield Reserves batting trophywith an average of 92.4 and the bowlingtrophy with an average of 10.4. RobLeGuier won the Chandler Grade 5 bowl-ing award with an average of 11.5. JohnSharman and Andrew Hood were includedin the RDCA senior representative team;Ben Brisbane was named in the RDCAUnder 21 team and opening batsman,Andrew Hood was selected as member ofthe inaugural RDCA "All-Stars Team".Sharman had joined Warrandyte on theinvitation of Greg Tregear who had takenover the captain-coaching role as the1980s rolled into the 1990s. Sharman brought a professionalism toDaveMooney... wicket-keepingallrounderwhoset WCC highest First XIscorerecordwith184againstCroydonNorthin 1996/97.Who could forget the initial training sessions when wehad a mass of people turn up and much to their horror,we did some reasonably intensive fielding and more to thepoint, running.We would run laps of the ground before having a hit; wewould do fielding before batting or bowling; we would get thebowling machine out every session; we would do laps for poorthrows during fielding training; we would do laps for droppedcatches; we would run together as a group at the end of thesessions, then we would drink some beer in the rooms.I can remember most of the guys at Warrandyte telling me that a purple haze used to comeover the ground and take possession of peoples faculties.During the early sessions I would marvel as Cammy Day and Tony Sturesteps who, amongothers, jumped the fence and hid as we did laps of the ground as a group.Who could forget Chris Snaidero complaining about the running as he had already worked allday and presumably it was eating into his drinking time.Nonetheless I had decided if we were not the best batting or bowling side in the competition(and I had already been told that we would not be) we would be the best fielding and catching siderunning around.- JOHN SHARMANWDYTEVISITORS1 29 4 19EXTRASChrisSnaidero... took10/56againstNorwoodinthefinalroundofseason1995/96. HiseffortsavedtheFirstXIfrom relegation.MartyMcCarthy... pre-miershipplayeratFirstXI and Veterans level. Hewasalsotreasurerforfive years.w21Warrandyte Veteransfirstpremiership, defeatingNorwoodinthe1998/99Division 2 Grand Final. From left:Allan King, Steve Pascoe, RDCA umpire, MartyMcCarthy, Ian Woolf,Alan Cornell, Robert White, Chris England, John Chapman,Bruce Taylor, David Stickels, Brian Cleaves, Graham Lawrence, Barry Johnson.Warrandyte had been one of four clubs tofirst enter teams in the RDCAs veteranscompetition in 1988 and many of the play-ers from the premiership years of theearly 1980s returned to play the modifiedform of the game.By the early 2000s, the club was fieldingan Over 40s and and Over 50s team andformer juniors such as Peter Adams, JohnChapman, Stephen Peake, Max Summers,Ian Broome, Brian Chapman and formerwomens team captain, Jenni Chapmanwere part of the veterans resurgence.The highlight came in 1998/99 whenWarrandyte won the Over 40s SecondDivision premiership against Norwoodafter losing the Grand Final the previousyear.For many players it was the highlightof their careers as they had never playedin a premiership team before.we seemed to have to beat Norwoodtowards the end of the season to stay inChandler Shield, he said.In one of the critical games againstNorwood, Chris Snaidero snared the magic10 wickets in an innings in the final roundof 1995/96.I remember that after Chris had takenthe first four or five wickets, GeraldWalshe dropped a caught and bowledchance and we were all depressedbecause we really needed the wicket. ButChris took anotherwicket quickly andended up with all 10.Tony said the following year ChrisSnaidero played another dominant role ina relegation match against Norwood whenhe took five wickets off 40 unchangedovers.I was discussing the match with theumpires and they told me of theirthoughts on the votes for the Bill DeanMedal. I told them I thought Bones (ChrisSnaidero) deserved a vote but they saidthey hadnt even considered him.One umpire said that it wasnt all thatbig an effort because a bowler should beexpected to take five wickets if he bowledhalf the days overs. I couldnt believe it asBones had virtually won the game for us.Apart from Chris Snaideros 10-wickethaul, the 1990s also provided a battinghighlight.Wicketkeeper-batsman, Dave Mooney,set a new First XI record with 184 againstCroydon North in 1996/97 after being sentin as a night watchman the week before.It was a wonderful innings. I think wewere chasing 300 or more and Dave got usthrough for a big win, Tony Sturestepssaid.Throughout the 1990s one section ofthe club continued to grow and prosper.w22ed that you had to field four senior teamsto remain in the top grade and we justcouldnt do that, White said.I was alsoconcerned that the RDCA would step inand make the decision for us and Ithought it wasbetter that we did thingson our own terms.I remember standing with a group ofsenior players in a rain-swept car park fol-lowing Sunday morning pre-season prac-tice and delivering the news. I wasnt prepared to make a final deci-sion there and then and suggested wemeet again in two weeks time and see ifanyone had been able to recruit new play-ers.It was probably more depressing whenwe met again. It wasnt raining but thewind was cold and the mood was evencolder. There were some angry people. Wedidnt deserve to be relegated on our per-formance theprevious season but theplayers finally understood that rules wererules and we couldnt increase our num-bers. Then I attended a meeting of club pres-idents soon after the new season startedand found that many wereconcernedthat they werent going to be able to fieldfour sides. We had been honest from thestart and now other clubs were admittingthey also had problems. Even worse was to come as the RDCAchanged the rules to require a team toonly field two senior teams to retain aChandler Shield position.The move to the lower grade meant achange of emphasis which Whiteadmitswas for the long term betterment of theclub.Greater emphasis has been placed onour junior program and we havepromot-ed ourselves as a community club, hesaid. The aim has been to bring allsec-tions of the club juniors, seniors,veter-ans together as one organisation. Wewant to be successful and the best way toachieve this is to have people wanting toplay for Warrandyte and wanting to bepart of the club.The three seasons in Wilkins ShieldThe turn of the century and thestart of the new milleniumbrought with it concerns aboutthe future of the club. There weresuggestions that lack of numbers couldforce the club to look for a merger part-ner or at worst, foldcompletely. Thereappeared to be a lack of interest and play-ers were difficult to recruit.It was a bleak outlook but in the end, itproved to be the clubs salvation, withrenewed interest from some of the clubsolder players who were enjoying newfound enthusiasm for cricket in theVeterans XI.Former presidents, John Chapman,Robert White and Brian Cleaves all tookon committee positions and under thepresidency of Nick Fazzolari, the clubrecruited the RDCAs champion player,Russell Jenzen as captain coach for the2000/01 season. Efforts were made to rejuvenateinter-est in Warrandyte cricket and a majorfunction was held where the clubannounced its Top 12 players from theprevious 50 years, Allan Chapman wasnamed captain of a team that includedJohn Sharman as vice captain, GrahamJacobs, John Chapman, Graeme Lloyd,Fred Jungwirth, Bruce Kline, Robert White,Alan Woolcock, Gerald Walshe, StevePascoe and Greg Tregear. The team wasselected by the clubs Life Members whohad to vote for players under a strict setof guidelines.While the seniors just failed to win afinals berth in 2000/01, the problem withplayer numbers remained and manyFourth XI games were forfeited.Robert White took over as president thefollowing year and was forced to recom-mend the club volunteer to relegate itselffrom Chandler Shield to the SecondDivision of the RDCA. Jenzen had decidedto move on and it was still difficult torecruit new players.It was a sad time. No-one wanted todrop down a division. We were one of onlythree clubs that had never been relegatedfrom Chandler Shield but RDCA rules stat-7Facing the new milleniumw23(Second Division) has seen greater playernumbers with the reinstatement of afourth senior team, made up of fathers andsons.The senior team finished in the finals inthe first season, narrowly escapedrelega-tion to Third Division in the second sea-son and in 2003/04 made a fairytale run atthe finals and were eventually beaten inthe Grand Final.But just as importantly, the Third XI,which in the previous two years had strug-gled to win a game, made the finals, as didthe Fourth XI.The First XIs run for the premiershipwas extraordinary. With one game to play,the team was in fifth position on percent-age and had to play South Croydon whowere a game and percentage ahead in sec-ond place. Fourth placedSt Andrewsplayed top placed North Croydon soWarrandytes hopes appeared to rest withit winning and North Croydon winning.Warrandyte dismissed South Croydonfor 123 and during the week, senior play-ers wrestled with facts and figures todetermine what Warrandyte needed toscore to improve its percentage enough toleapfrog St Andrews should they defeatNorth Croydon. It was eventualy decidedthat two wickets down for 220 or morewould be enough ... an improbable task.St Andrews did win, but with AdamWhite scoring an unbeaten century andTyson Brent not out on 82 after batting for100 overs, Warrandyte scored the neces-sary runs for the loss of only two wicketsand eventually finished third. SouthCroydon tumbled out of the four.Warrandytesteamforthe WilkinsShieldGrandFinal2003/04. Standingfromleft: Robert White, TysonBrent, DavidMooney (captain), Ian Broome (club coach), Gerald Walshe, Campbell Holland, Daniel Wellesley (emergency). Front fromleft: Jason Graf, Matthew Chapman, Adam Beardall, Matthew Sazenis, Adam White, Andrew Jarvis (12th man) Of the start-ing XI, only veteran, Robert White and captain, Dave Mooney had not played juniors at Warrandyte.Adam White ... joint win-neroftheStevePascoeMedalforthefairestandbestplayerinWilkinsShield2003/04. HewasthefirstplayertowinsuchanawardsinceGraemeLloydwontheBillDeanMedalinChandlerShieldin1981/82.A convincing win over St Andrews inthe First Semi Final followed by a nail-bit-ing Preliminary Final win over NorthRingwood left Warrandyte to face themight of North Croydon who eventuallyran out comfortable winners.Nine of the eleven players representingWarrandyte in the Wilkins Shield GrandFinal had played junior cricket for theclub. Robert White said the season hadgal-vanised the club into a strong group and ithad reinforced the value of its junior sec-tion. Now for the future.Warrandyte Cricket Club has a proudtradition and a long history but we havelearned in recent years that we cannot sitback and expect that tradition will be theanswer to all our problems, Robert Whitesaid.It is a humbling thought to walk outand play cricket on the Warrandyteground, just like people have done for 150years. Todays players andmembers havea responsibility to create their own tradi-tion and their own sense of history. It isimportant that we, thecurrent genera-tion, respect what has gone before and laya foundation for those who will one daycelebrate 200 years of cricket inWarrandyte, he said.w248Juniors make their markAssociation (BHRDCA) had started anUnder 16 competition, its first junior ven-ture, and Les was responsible for the idea,formation and management ofWarrandytes first junior team in 1957.Peter Adams, who went on to playsen-ior cricket with the club, recalled thatWarrandyte had only one senior team inthis era and was struggling for viability atboth administrative and player level.Our first junior team had limitedsuc-cess in the first few seasons, with justenough wins to keep our players andretain some enthusiasm.Team scores of more than 80 runs wereexceptions with players lacking techniqueand power.There were a few hat tricks inthe bowling, and fielding was difficult onpoor surfaces and in long grass.Les andother senior players acted as managers,set up matting and stumps and umpiredthe matches before going off to their sen-ior game in the afternoon, he said.There is no doubt the advent ofjuniors provided new senior players andIT is an accepted part of Saturdaymorning life in spring and summer inWarrandyte to see youngsters dressedin white and wearing bright red caps,playing cricket on the two ovals at therecreation reserve. One would think it hadbeen going on for a hundred years.But not so. Junior cricket at Warrandytebegan in 1957. Before that time, boys asyoung as 12 would make up the numberswhen senior teams were short. There wasno chance for them to play among theirown age group.All that changed when Les Adams, asenior player and secretary of the clubrecognised the need to encourage and pro-mote junior cricket in the town. Les, who was teaching at a technicalschool, was involved in boys sport andconsidered that a youth policy could beuseful in developing more teams.It wasnot entirely coincidental that his sonPeter, at 12, was at minimum age and sizeto play in a cricket team.Box Hill Reporter District CricketWarrandytes first-ever junior team was entered in the Box Hill Reporter District Cricket Associations Under 16section in 1957. Back row from left: Bill Betton (president), Graham Pike, Bill Taberner, Graham West, Ken Sargeant,RobertStewart, Les Adams(manager). Frontrow: HenriqueHarding, Peter Adams, GlenMartin(captain), BoydEwing, Laurie Warr.w25saved the club from disbanding.From those formative years in the late1950s, the importance of junior cricket inWarrandyte has continued to grow andstrengthen.Throughout the 1960s the club fieldedan Under 16 team (in one season therewas only an Under 14 team) which had itsfair share ofsuccess including a pre-miership in 1966-67. Steve Peake was a member of that pre-miership team. He went on to play seniorcricket with the club. He later captainedthe Second XI and was a member of FirstXI premiership teams.We were a pretty strong team in thatpremiership year, he said. I missed theprevious year because we only had anUnder 14 team but we had a very success-ful year beating Wattle Park in the GrandFinal. Mark Davis and Michael Hanrahanwere pretty handy batsmen.It was a daunting prospect for severalof the young Warrandyte juniors, whounder the rules (soon to change) wereto compete against young men allowedto play after turning 16 during theseason.Somewere intimidating bowlers onbouncing matting wickets. Only thecaptain, Glen Martin, at 15 years, hadmade sufficient progress towards man-hood to counter such opposition.We were prepared with coaching in defence rather than attack whenbatting (no helmets) but the small squad, barely sufficient for a team, hadlittle other preparation. The equipment was primitive with cheap Indianimportations of green spiked gloves and flimsy pads from a well knownsports shop.And there was more. We were required to balance a large, cumbersome,strapless protector on the groin between miniscule thighs, a feat impossibleeven for the troupe of Cirque du Soleil. There were stories of a pink plasticversion, and its ease of splitting, with parts caught between if struck by athunderbolt from the big boys at Blackburn Cricket Club.Several of these giants grinned at me over the desk at Blackburn HighSchool with salacious intent, when they knew I would be their opponent inthe first match.It was hard to get to sleep after training on Thursday, and on the Fridaynight. Jim Heitsch drove us in the truck to suburbs which previously werejust names on a map. I keep a sequence of bats and other personalequipment from this time in a display case, all of which are engraved orlabelled by Les (Peters father and team manager) in his neat handwriting.The BHRDCA annual presentation nights in the 1950s had all the finesseof an old mans bucks night. I recall being invited to receive an Under 16bowling trophy. Before the night, my parents held a concerned discussionabout whether I should be allowed to attend.I was 14, with another year to play, and even the association executivewas edgy about the presence ofjuniors, as the traditional entertainer forthe evening was a comedian selected for his repertoire of adult themes andlewd humour.They thought the juniors might laugh at the wrong times and would notgrasp the fullproceedings. They were absolutely right.- PETER ADAMSWDYTEVISITORS139 4 17EXTRASMost of the junior players also playedin the afternoon and wed go off to thecricket in the back of Horrie Smithsorchard truck. Les managed the premiership team andhe continued to be involved with the helpof people such as Stan Craker whose sonswere among the juniorplayers. By theearly 1970s an Under 14 team had beenadded. The youngersection widened thepool of youngsters able to play the gameand provided a much better flow-on toUnder 16 level.Ian Broome, later to become junior andthen senior coach of the club, was one ofthe early Under 14 players.The 1970s proved to be a decisivedecade for the junior section of the club asit continued to expand. In 1972, an Under12 team was introduced and JeanChapman remembers how it started.In 1972, after a committee meeting atour house, I asked the men to form anunder 12 team because my son, Brian andJeff Woolcock, the son of another seniorplayer, wanted to play and by this timethere were Under 14s and Under 16s, butno younger grades.The men said Were too busy, whydont you do it? So I did. I gave Brian asheet of paper to take to school atWarrandyte to get the interested kidsphone numbers so that I could call theirparents and ask them about it. When hefound out about it, their teacher, PeterMoran, became interested and offered tohelp. It would have been a lot harder forme to do it on my own but Peter was won-derful with the boys and they respected usboth.The involvement of Jean Chapman andPeter Moran encouraged more parents totake part in the running and coaching ofjunior teams. By the late 1970s with theinvolvement of Peter Baker and ShirleyMcCartin amongothers, and the early1980s under the co-ordination of JoePeters and Bruce Kline, the juniors flour-ished. And as more parents becameinvolved in the running of the juniorteams, so they decided to play the gamethemselves in the afternoon. It proved tobe anexciting and valuable mix,strengthening the club as a whole.Saturday morning became a social eventand morning tea almost over- shadowedthe cricket as the Kline, Graf, Barr,Sturesteps, Sloan, Day and McCartin fami-lies, among many others, vied for the titleof providing the best spread. It was also the time when the club intro-w26Under 14 team in 1979-80. Back row from left, Graham Milton,Gerald Walshe, Denis Bainbridge, Peter Hawkins, Nick Watkins.Centre: PeterSharpe, RussellDorning, JamieVoce, BrianScicluna, NigelMorris, ChrisSnaidero. Front. DavidWatts,RobbieRollings, JamieDay. Managers: BarryJohnson, JoeScicluna.Itold the boys that I didnt want them to clapor cheer when a boy from the opposingteam dropped a catch or misfielded.I always said You wouldnt like them to doit to you, so I dont think you should do it tothem.I never knew how much of what I said sunkin, until there was a new boy in the team andwe were sitting in the grandstand atWarrandyte one day.I was scoring and Douglas Hilton and theother boy were sitting behind me, when a boyfrom the other team dropped a catch and uppiped Douglas: Dont clap, Mrs Chappiedoesnt like us to and he explained why.With the juniors I always carried a bigtote bag with every conceivable thing thatanyone could need in an emergency at acricket match. The boys used to say, whateverthey wanted, Mrs Chappie would have it in herbag.- JEAN CHAPMANWDYTEVISITORS1 49 4 17EXTRASUnder12premiers1980-81. Backrowfromleft, PeterBaker(coach), BobbyMcHugh, GregCreber, AndrewSnaidero, Andrew Thomas, ShirleyMcCartin(manager). Middlerow, Steve Whitechurch, JasonKline, WaynePeters, GlenMcCartin, CameronDay, MarkEgglestone. Frontrow, JoshRevell, BrendanBaker, Tom Zarbo.WarrandytesUnder16teamfollowingthe1978-79semifinalagainstKnox.Back row from left, Tim Laurence, Paul McGrath, Darren van der Lippe, BrianChapman, Jean Chapman, Stephen West, Murray Coles. Front row: John Forster,Eric Neider, Dale McCartin,Tony McDougall, Stephen Watts and Douglas Hilton.duced the McCartin Family Club Person ofthe Year Award. It recognised the efforts ofthe McCartin family who represented thevalue of family participation in theWarrandyte Cricket Club and which hadbeen part of its strength over so manyyears.Shirley McCartin was a junior team scor-er and manager and her sons came upthrough the junior ranks to senior compe-tition. John McCartin was laterawardedLife Membership.By the late 1980s, the number ofjuniorteams almost became overwhelming. Extravenues had to be found and the cricketpitch in theplayground at AndersonsCreek Primary School and the oval at theWarrandyte High School were added to alist that included the two grounds at theWarrandyte recreation reserve andStintons Reserve in Park Orchards.While the number of teams fielded dur-ing the 1990s ebbed and flowed dependingon player availability, the strength andimportance of the junior section neverwaned.Former player and club president, GeoffTaylor, took a leading role through thisperiod and Greg Thomas established animpressive record of coaching and manag-ing teams from Under 12 to Under 16.w27Under 12 Grade 3 in 1986-87. Back row from left, Ray Bellinger, Chris Bedford,Matt Chapman, Luke Bennett,Tristan White, Mark Luttick,Tristan Martin,AdrianUtt, DaleFarmer. Frontrow: JakeGladman, MikeHowell, GeoffHose, BenSaaksjarvi, Adam White.The2003/04 WarrandyteUnder13premiershipteam. Backrowfromleft, StJohn Cranna, Adam Clements, Max Lewis, Chris Barry, Ken Miller (coach/man-ager), ChrisCarver, JakeSheriff, PatrickBeggs. Frontrow: SeanMason, DanielBarry, Darcy Jones, Joshua Miller.It was obvious from the first day that boxershorts and junior cricket did not mix. It wasat the Andersons Creek Primary School andthe Under 12 third side was playing its firstgame and most of the boys were 10 years oryounger.One of the first rules the boys had tounderstand was the need for protective gear,especially a box.Getting them to wear one wasnt theproblem getting it to stay attached whenwearing boxer shorts under their crickettrousers was. It was quite a sight to see ayoungster trying to take a quick singlecarrying a bat that was probably too big forhim, wearing pads that were up to his waistand trying to catch a wayward box that hadslipped around his knees.The decree was sent home that the boyswere to wear two pair of underpants whenthey played so they could fit the box betweenthe two. It took a while for Mums to under-stand the significance of the rule as many hadnever had any association with cricket. Butonce they understood the possible dangerswe had no problems.Monica Luttick was our star attraction. Herson, Mark, was a keen young player, and eachmorning during the break, Monica wouldarrive with her cup cakes. Not that there wasanything unusual about that but Monica lovedicing (and plenty of it) and she loved colour.One week it would be bright lime green, thenext week vibrant purple and the next amixture of about five different colours. Thekids loved it. And so did the Dads.- ROBERT WHITEParent intentions were always well meant,but it was amusing when an up and comingUnder 14 right handed batsmen returnedafter the Christmas break and somethingseemed wrong.His team manager asked why he wasstanding on the wrong side of the bat. Thereply came that Mum had bought him a pair ofbatting gloves for Christmas and not knowingthe difference, picked up a pair of left handedgloves. I didnt want to hurt her feelings theboy said. A quick swap was arranged.- BRUCE KLINEWDYTEVISITORS1 59 4 10EXTRASIn recent years Lee Dehmel has takenover the co-ordinators role and like hispredecessors has encouraged parentalinvolvement. He, like those before him,has been able to link junior and seniorlevels and the introduction of a father-and-son team in 2003/04 has again strength-ened the club overall.The club now fields teams from Under10 to Under 16 and also runs a successfulMilo Have-a-Go skills development ses-sion on Sunday mornings for childrenaged between five and nine years.w28The 1975-76 Warrandyte womens premiership team. Back row from left: Sandra Burton, Debbie Lamb,MariaMcGhee, MargWorld, RobynDalli, TeresaPrince. Frontrowfromleft: SandraJeffs, JennyChapman, Suzanne Chapman (captain), Jenni McLaws, Judith Davis9Womens cricket at Warrandytetook on a Carlton Ladies team and won by29 runs to 19.The following year Carlton came backto Warrandyte for a return match andagain won but in a much closer result. Itwas then the turn of the WarrandyteLadies who had organised a match againstColdstream Ladies who proved too strongmaking 82 runs to Warrandytes 19.Regular competition womens cricketcame to Warrandyte in 1975/76. It was theChapman family, stalwarts of theWarrandyte Cricket Club over manygen-erations, who played a leading role in theestablishment of the team.Chapman sisters Suzanne (Martin)andJenny had been playing with the Mitchamclub and were cleared to play atWarrandyte. Their father, Allan, widelyregarded as one of Warrandytesgreatestcricketers, took on a coaching role untilTHE No. 2 oval at Warrandyte is rel-atively small. But with its quaintoutlook of gum trees lining oneboundary which runs adjacent toAndersons Creek, it provides an ideal set-ting for cricket.And it was here that Warrandyte CricketClubs Womens team was based for 18years between 1975/76 and 1993.In those 18 years, the team reached thefinals nine times and competed in theGrand Final four times winning premier-ships in 1975/76 and 1991/92. This wasnt the first time that womenplayed cricket in Warrandyte. The firstmatch is reported to have been played onAustralia Day in 1906.The Carlton Cricket Club came to playWarrandyte on that day and outclassedthe local mens team. Immediately follow-ing that match, a Warrandyte Ladies teamw29his death in 1981. In their first season, theteam won every game including an out-right win in the Grand final.The initial squad included future stal-warts Maria McGhee, Teresa Prince,Sandra Jeffs and Jenni Chapman (neeMcLaws).Following the death of Allan Chapmanthe team was coached by Maria McGheeand then Peter Adams until the end of1983/84.Brian Chapman started as coach in1984/5 and remained in the position untilthe team folded in 1993.The team was supported by scorer BenJones (14 seasons) and regular spectatorsincluding Ian Hook, Jean Chapman andAlma Gray.Maria McGhee, Jenny Chapman andJenni McLaws were all to become LifeMembers of the Warrandyte Cricket Club.Although home games were played onthe No. 2 oval, away games were often farafield with matches being played atGeelong and Frankston. Warrandyte played on matting untilthemid 1980s when a synthetic pitch was laid.Occasionally games were played againstdistrict teams such as Melbourne,Collingwood and Hawthorn where awaygames were played on turf pitches.Within five years of the inception of theteam the Mens senior X1 won theRingwood District Cricket Association AGrade premiership of 1979/80 therebygaining admission to Chandler Shield. Thismeant that the club was in the top level ofthe RDCA and in A grade of VictorianWomens Cricket Association.For many seasons the club had five orsix mens teams who together with theWomens X1 created a great atmosphereand the club was very successful on thefield and socially.The1991-92premiershipteam. Backrowfromleft: SharonMooney, LibMcGhee, Kay Thomas, MariaMcGhee, KarenMooney, Brian Chapman (coach), Colleen Farrelly, Ben Jones (scorer), Angela Tunbridge, Jenni McLaws (captain).Frontrowfromleft: NadineRichings, SharynEgeberg(v/captain), KathMcGhee, JennyChapman, Cathy Wangeman.Absent: Amanda Utt.w30LIFE MEMBERSJOHN (Jack)MOOREJohn was the clubs firstLife Member. The awardwas made for his out-standing ability as aplayer, administratorand supporter of localcricket. Most clubrecords have been lostover the years, but whatis known shows that asa fast bowler, he wonthe clubs senior bowl-ing award 10 times andin 1925-26 he took 64wickets at an averageof 9.3.LESADAMSAn all-round cricketerand long servingadministrator, Les hadthe vision of formingthe clubs junior sectionin 1957. A committeemember and formerpresident he was widelyrecognised as an out-standing leg spin bowlerand capable middle-order batsman. Recordsare not available before1952, but he took 288wickets after that timeand made 2669 runs.HORRIE SMITHHorrie Smith lived inWarrandyte all of hislife, growing up on anorchard. He was atough competitor andplayed all of his cricketas a wicketkeeper. Hewas still playing whenhe died aged 64. Muchof Horries cricket wasplayed before 1952 andrecords for that timeare unavailable. After1952 he played 126games and made 1660runs.JOHNCHAPMANStarted as a junior in1959 and developedinto one of the clubsbest opening batsmanand wicketkeepers. Johnhas been president,secretary, treasurer andcaptain of the club aswell as a junior teammanager. He scored4440 runs as a seniorplayer and has played inthree First XI premier-ship teams.JACKMcAULEYJack completed a rarehat-trick for