The Keepers - part two
Ian Elks | June 05, 2023
Multi part interview with three of the finest Queensland and University of Queensland Wicket Keepers Lew Cooper, Wade Seccombe and Chris Hartley
Part Two
What was your nickname? Any other good nicknames come to mind?
Lew – Ludwig — I couldn’t get over it. Lou Merzwa was in the team, and his name was Ludwig and they called him Lou. My name was Lew and they called me Ludwig! Not as good a nickname as David Sincock, who used to be known as ‘Evil Dick’!
Ian Quick, a Victorian left-hand finger spinner, was known as ‘Cure-em’, after the indigestion pill ‘Cure-em Quick’. There was a South Australian player, Jeff Hammond, who was known as ‘Prawnhead’ (Shit for Brains)!!!
Wade – Chuck — under 17 trip away, got up to no good and was pegging berries off the bridge — got caught, we got into a bit of strife for that one. Got back to Uni, and of course, Dog Courtice suggested I was Chuck Berry, and it just stuck. Other good nicknames — Pasito Kid (Graden Atthow) was fitting, and another Courticism.
Chris – Harts, Hannibal (sometimes bite off more than I can chew), Hooters, Hammer — a couple of teenagers in a quiet SCG ground had had a few and spent the afternoon getting behind the Qld keeper and calling him Hammer Hartley — it comes out occasionally. Ryan Broad’s nickname of Dagger was good, given his old man, Wayne Broad, was known as Sword.
Wade – One of the clever ones was always Chips — Sam’s Boy (Sam Trimble’s son).
Biggest influence on you as a cricketer?
Lew – Donny Tallon — he was my schoolboy hero. I saw him keeping to a medium pacer one day at the Gabba, and I saw him stump Keith Ziebell down the legside — he was a great stumper. Also WEP — he was a big influence and a very loyal supporter.
Wade – Parents — old man, uncles — good country players.
Chris – Parents, although neither of them had a cricket background. It was more their attitude towards sport and how they instilled that into me. Trying your best — they let me go about in my own way, but were very supportive along through the whole journey, without being too much.
Best keeper you’ve seen or best keeper ever
Lew – Tallon for both. Great stumper — he broke two world records during the 1938–39 Sheffield Shield season. He didn’t go to England with the 1938 Australian team. They took two blokes called Charlie Walker and Ben Barnett. In one match that season, Tallon equalled the world record of 12 dismissals, which was held by EA Pooley from the 1880s, and then in another match in the same season, he took 7 dismissals in an innings, which was a world record at the time. Wally Grout beat that — I was 12th man for that Shield match at the Gabba against Western Australia, and he did it in the second innings when he took 8 catches. He was a great catcher Wally. But I think Tallon was a better keeper than Grout because of Tallon’s stumping ability. Bradman rated Tallon as the best keeper he’d ever seen.
Wade – Heals was the best keeper I have seen and probably the best ever. The other I really liked was Jack Russell. I remember playing against him in my first game for Queensland. It was at Roy Henzell Oval at Caloundra against England A, and he kept very well. I also remember that game because, in one of the rain breaks, I got a phone call from you (pointing at Lew). I don’t know if you remember this, but the first thing you said to me was, ‘From one Uni keeper to another Uni keeper, congratulations on playing for Queensland and well done.’ I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned that to you since, but thank-you, it stuck Lew, and I appreciated it.
Lew – I had another bit of influence on your career.
Ian – Did you meet Wade’s mother?
Lew – I was watching the cricket one day, and NSW was playing someone, and Brad Haddin had missed at least two stumpings and I was so annoyed. Then on another day, I watched him do the same. He was just bloody terrible. This day, he missed four stumpings!
I got on the phone to John Buchanan, who was the Australian Cricket Coach at the time — I knew him pretty well as he’s an old TSS boy and I used to coach him at Uni. I said to him, ‘John I want to talk to you about something in private. Where are you?’ He said, ‘I’m on the team bus but go ahead.’ I said, ‘No’, but he said, ‘Just talk and I’ll say “yes” or “no”.’ I said to John, ‘I was watching the cricket this afternoon on TV, and that Haddin, he just can’t keep. He can’t keep over the stumps, he’s hopeless.’ Anyway he said, ‘Yes, yes, yes, thanks Ludwig.’
Next week they picked the Australian team to go to India/Sri Lanka, and Haddin didn’t make it — a bloke called Wade Seccombe was picked.
Wade – Good man, thank-you very much. Not only did that give me three games in Sri Lanka, but it gave you (Chris) three games for Qld at the end of that season, including a final where you fielded for three days.
Chris – That’s true.
Wade – We were in Sri Lanka and Qld makes the Shield final. Gilly says, ‘Are you going to ask to go home to play in the final?’ I said, ‘Mate, I don’t want to sound rude or anything, but I’ve played 100 games for Qld, this is my second for Australia. I’ll hang around here thanks very much, just in case you fall over or I hit one too hard at you at training.’
Lew – Ian Healy’s keeping improved as he went on. I thought he struggled a bit early.
Wade – I assessed him really well the older I got. When I was younger, there was a bit of glory eyes looking at these senior players, but the older you get, you watch it pretty closely.
Ian – What I think is pretty special is that we have you three guys here, we’re talking about Tallon, Grout and Healy — the one thing in common, all Queenslanders!
Chris – I think the best keeper that I ever saw, and the best keeper of all time, was Heals. I think technically he did everything that you want wicketkeepers to do. He made few mistakes, and he was equally skilled back as he was over the stumps. His keeping to Warne was such an example of wicketkeeping as an art. I think he was the best ever.
It would have to go between Heals and Chuck. For different reasons — you talk about that halo effect of looking up to the player, and Heals was my first cricket hero as a youngster I suppose.
I appreciated Chuck’s keeping because I saw it up so close when I was starting off. I appreciated the skill that was there as I witnessed it day in, day out at Qld training. The difference is, and I don’t think there’s any right or wrong way, but Heals was all about the technique. It was always there and always very polished. With Chuck I learnt — and it was huge learning thing for me because Heals was the person I tried to model myself on — Chuck had the technique, but he also had this naturalness about it. It looked very free, and that was something I tried to learn off him because I knew that I was very mechanical in my movement. The reason why I rate you highly was because the technique was there, but also this naturalness in the way you caught the ball. There was something just so … I enjoyed it almost as an art form, the beauty of the movements. And he was equally effective over the stumps and back.
Ian – How do you teach a young keeper that naturalness and freedom of movement, it’s a difficult thing to replicate?
Chris – Chuck can say for himself, but as far as I was concerned I was, and am, a cricket nuffy. I will ask lots of questions and learn about the game as much as I can. So when I was first in the squad, I annoyed him with all my questions. I know that my enthusiasm to improve, which was probably mirrored in trying to perfect the movements, was probably why I was a bit mechanical.
It was Chuck that said to me that those fundamentals are important, but there has to be an element of freedom. For me, this led to a better mindset and attitude when it came to training and keeping in matches. It comes from hours of training and learning to loosen up during that process.
Wade – Heals and Harts are very similar personalities, very structured in the way they go about doing things. Heals could explain to anyone how you take the ball down the leg side to a spinner, and I was just — you catch the thing! It wasn’t until I got older and started coaching that I had to come up with the right answers to tell someone how to do it. I think you are a little bit like that — structured in the way you trained. I would turn up not knowing what I was going to work on, but would work it as we went. At times it might have been frustrating for you because you had a structure in your head, but at times it might have been good for you.
Chris – My keeping improved immensely when I opened myself up to ‘coming back from this end of the spectrum’ and loosening up a bit.
Wade – The best way to keep is when you don’t think about how you’re doing it. My best keeping days were at St Lucia No. 1 because I had Lovey, Binge, Waldo, Gardy (under the lid, wherever we could hide him) to talk to, and I was relaxed, and this led to my best performances.
