About Me
Stuart Maurice
Sydney, Australia
A "would be if I could be' at a number of sports. I have great theory but poor practise. I have an odd sense of humour (some would say 'sick') and always think the glass is half empty. I played cricket and rugby league as a kid (that's all you could play in those days) before going on to referee rugby league for 29 years at various levels but never getting to the pinnacle due to my non understanding of playing the game of politics. Despite this I made many friends in the player and referee ranks who I can still call friends today. I moved onto coaching netball when my daughters came along and had success there winning a number of grand finals and coaching the St George U13 rep team to 2nd in the state champs. These days I still coach junior teams and work in administration of Netball with St George and my club team St Ursulas in the winter. I act as canteen manager at Hurstville oval in the summer for St George Cricket as well as co hosting Sunday Sports wrap on 90.1FM every Sunday morning with Hamish Solomons. I love my sport!
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question
Q: In 1974 I was 16 and the ball was then thrown to me to bowl my little medium pace out swingers. If they smashed the daylights out of Fatguts and Yatesy, what the hell was going to happen to me? The Souths boy also must have thought the same as he danced down the wicket to my first ball and smashed it back over my head. To my relief, Fatguts had anticipated this and had posted himself on the boundary where he took the catch. 1/0.
Next batter was a bloke called Deveraux. He had caned us many times in the past and I knew he'd be after me again. I ran in and bowled a good length ball that hit a stud mark and ran along the ground hitting middle stump. 2/0
As I waited for the next man, I remembered what Dennis Lillee had said when asked what sort of ball he'd ball for a hattrick. "Straight and fast" was his reply. I stood at the top of my mark and ran in like I was racing Usain Bolt. My arms and legs were flailing all over the place as I released the ball like a thunderbolt. It was a thigh high full toss. The batter's eyes lit up and he summoned an almighty swing, missed the ball completely and it hit middle stump 3/4 of the way up on the full. Hattrick!!!!! 3/0
Being 1974, we still had 8 ball overs so there was more destruction for Souths to come. I managed another 2 wickets to finish my over 5/0.
The next over went for 3 runs (all off the edge) and Scull managed to get in on the act and take a couple of wickets leaving me to clean up the tail with the first ball of my 3rd over giving me 6/3 from 2.1 overs.
They went from 0/60 to all out for 68. Time to show these guys how to bat.
We were dismissed for 32 out of which I made 14. I still to this day can't work out how we lost that game.
Next batter was a bloke called Deveraux. He had caned us many times in the past and I knew he'd be after me again. I ran in and bowled a good length ball that hit a stud mark and ran along the ground hitting middle stump. 2/0
As I waited for the next man, I remembered what Dennis Lillee had said when asked what sort of ball he'd ball for a hattrick. "Straight and fast" was his reply. I stood at the top of my mark and ran in like I was racing Usain Bolt. My arms and legs were flailing all over the place as I released the ball like a thunderbolt. It was a thigh high full toss. The batter's eyes lit up and he summoned an almighty swing, missed the ball completely and it hit middle stump 3/4 of the way up on the full. Hattrick!!!!! 3/0
Being 1974, we still had 8 ball overs so there was more destruction for Souths to come. I managed another 2 wickets to finish my over 5/0.
The next over went for 3 runs (all off the edge) and Scull managed to get in on the act and take a couple of wickets leaving me to clean up the tail with the first ball of my 3rd over giving me 6/3 from 2.1 overs.
They went from 0/60 to all out for 68. Time to show these guys how to bat.
We were dismissed for 32 out of which I made 14. I still to this day can't work out how we lost that game.
blog post
Looking through my old memorabilia today I came across a prized trophy from 1974. By the end of that day I had thoughts I could be joining Lillee and Thommo scattering pom's stumps at the SCG in th ...
answered
Q: What is the most surreal moment you've experienced in cricket?
A: Sitting in the stand at Newlands watching the big screen and trying to work out what Bancroft was doing.
