David Allan - First Grade debut and living the dream at 73 years
Northbridge Cricket Club | September 05, 2023
Our 1st grade side entered the final round of the 2020-21 season in last place (6th). Needing a collection of various miracles from mother cricket, as well as mother nature, we thought that we’d focus on the last round as something to enjoy following a weather and covid interrupted summer. We needed maximum points from an outright victory, a significant turnaround on quotient and various other things to fall our way. The most optimistic of optimists at Percy’s (North Sydney Hotel, our wonderful sponsor) all agreed it was unlikely.
On this basis, we made the decision able to fulfill our club patron’s dream. At 73 years old and a life member of the club, our 7th grade wicket keeper David Allan made his 1st grade debut. His cricketing dream was to play in the top turf side and mix it with the ‘big boys’. We wanted to not only acknowledge his years or unwavering support, service and countless hours of fundraising, but we also wanted to prove to him that we thought he was good enough to be there and would absolutely not let us down.
A chef by trade, David woke up at 415am the morning of the match to prepare sandwiches and a divine coconut and jam slice for his new team mates. This firmly puts him in the frame for round 1 next year! He did show some signs of nerves, however, admitting to having chosen his underwear, polishing his pads, cleaning his wicket-keeping gloves and making his sandwich choice fillings on the Friday night, as well as arriving well in advance of play.
All this in mind, we won the toss and elected to bat. As DA was playing only on day 1, as captain I had decided we’d likely declare early to give him some overs behind the stumps with the gloves on. As we slumped to 5/9, this declaration seemed unlikely. A small crowd has gathered of a few old clubmen, some wives, mothers and grandmothers as well as the odd father at a loose end on a Saturday at Castle Cove Oval. It became apparent that we’d need some runs from DA, a stoic number 11 in the 7ths.
The side managed to scramble our way to 141 – not a heap, but something to bowl at. DA hit his maiden 1st grade run (video attached), to cheers all around the ground, all recorded by selfless local umpire Steve Sharah (another former Northbridge player and teammate of DA).
West Pymble gave David a round of applause on dismissal – sensing something was up, but not knowing the details – in a great gesture of sportsmanship. They even posed for photos with him. A standing ovation from team-mates on the way off for his contribution in a valuable partnership. A quick chat at stumps with their captain confirmed to him that it was in fact DA’s debut in the top grade – they assumed it was a local veteran who had played for a long time possibly having a final game late in the season.
David also had 19 overs behind the stumps, and may I say from my vantage point at first slip he kept incredibly well. One of our opening bowlers bowled seriously quick, another was swinging it around corners, and our canny off-spinner bowled some handy overs before stumps. All of which DA kept gracefully to, never looking out of place. West Pymble were 2/38 after 19 overs at stumps – evenly poised, but probably advantage them.
Yours truly, as a cricket tragic, rallied the boys during the week to cover the wicket so we could get on Day 2 with some weather around – you never know, if we win outright, we could still make it etc. We covered, and turned up on the Saturday to a fine pitch that would allow for play.
West Pymble batted well early on, working their way to 5/82 and in the box seat. One of our bowlers, Sam McKibbin (‘Mary’ to his mates), proceeded to bowl one of the worst first overs you will ever see. I quickly decided, on a hunch, to change his ends, despite some choice words from him. He would come from the ‘basketball court’ end.
Mary proceeded to take a hat-trick, second, third and fourth ball of his second over. The hat trick ball one of the best you’ll see – clipping the top of off stump. A young Glenn McGrath would be proud. We proceeded to bowl the opposition out for 86 – first innings points banked – while DA followed along via text message from work out of Sydney.
We decided we would have a crack at some quick runs, and made our way to 5/72 before we declared so to have a crack at outright points. We knew we were pretty much gone, but a quick declaration at tea time left West Pymble to chase 128 from 38 overs on an improving wicket. We needed all the possible luck.
Early on, a huge appeal was turned down by the umpires that knocked the wind out of our sails as our opponents diligently worked away at the total. Yours truly was worried about being the captain who handed the opposition an outright win on a platter.
We were always slightly behind the game in the 4th innings, but testament to a great team of character and quality people, we just kept getting wickets along the way to keep us in the frame. They’d got to 4/95 and were looking comfortable.
Re-enter Mary, and our spearhead fast bowler Nic Savage (currently building a nice little career covering sport for news.com.au). They mopped up the tail for us to record an amazing victory, bowling out West Pymble for 101, with Nic claiming 5 wickets.
All that put together, a long night at Percy’s ensued for a great win, including more text messages from DA and a generous offer from him to shout the bar, that we politely declined! As we did some (very dodgy) maths through the night, it became apparent that we would not make the finals, but had avoided the dreaded spoon. After one too many pints, yours truly suggested that you never know – they have QR codes this year, and if a team doesn’t check in the could lose points. Lets wait and see. A good few laughs were had, particularly around the suggestion of QR codes, as we kicked on into the evening. Note both our umpires had also come to have a drink, such is the manner of which our competition is played and the esteem they are held in.
Quotient comes through after midnight, it is confirmed we miss out on the finals. Mother cricket couldn’t quite get us there, but hey, our club patron made his 1st grade debut in an outright win, and to a man we were thrilled for him.
Come Monday morning, I get a text from the association President – well done on making finals. Checking the date to ensure I didn’t fall for an April Fools prank, I followed up for more information.
“One of the teams didn’t enter their QR codes, so they lost the mandatory 2 points. You’re playing finals, well done”.
Is there anything more 2021 than making the finals via a QR code mishap? Is there precedent for this anywhere in the sporting world?!
Unfortunately we couldn’t beat that weekends Sydney weather, but this exercise proved to us as a group that if you do the right thing by good people, the world has a weird way of making sure you finish in the right place.
Mother cricket was definitely on our side. Or the dear friend of ours we lost in the pre-season to cancer, Greg Carmock. In true umpire’s style, we think he might have played a hand too in getting us over the line.
Local sport is alive and well.
