My best grade team - Jason Swift 1989 to 2004

Jason Swift | January 17, 2024

My best grade team – Jason Swift 1989 to 2004

I made by first grade debut for Hawkesbury Cricket Club during the 1989-90 season and played with the club for 8 seasons before I moved to Canberra and played for Queanbeyan Cricket Club for 4 seasons. I moved back to Sydney for the 2001-02 and played for Eastern Suburbs Cricket Club until I moved to the U.K after the 2003-04 season.

I was very lucky to play with a lot of good players and selecting my best grade team wasn’t easy but it brought back a lot of great memories.

Here’s my team.

1. James Marshall (Eastern Suburbs Cricket Club)

Played Test cricket for New Zealand. Well organised, paced his innings beautifully. Top quality opener.

2. Greg Mail (Hawkesbury Cricket Club)

I played with Maily in his early days at the Hawk’s. It was evident then that he was driven to progress in the game. Wore the bowlers down all day and laid the foundations for the team.

3. Mark Patterson (Eastern Suburbs Cricket Club) - Captain

Highly skilled and always looked to move the game forward. One of the best pairs of hands in there slips I’ve seen.

4. Jeff Cook (Eastern Suburbs Cricket Club)

JW was a very gifted timer of the ball, bowled first change and rolled out some cagey offies.

5. Mark Higgs (Hawkesbury Cricket Club)

My old roommate, Ray very gifted player, easy on the eye, liked to keep the innings moving at good pace. Ray was also a gifted left arm orthodox and wrist spinner.

6. Brad Haddin (Eastern Suburbs Cricket Club) – wicket keeper

BJ’s career speaks for itself, one of Australia’s best ever keepers, he showcased outstanding athleticism. Batting wise, proactive, read the game well & recognised when to move the game forward. Clean striker of the ball.

7. Kyle Thompson (Eastern Suburbs Cricket Club)

I played with Thommo at the back end of his career, but as a two-time O’Reilly medal winner, KT had to get a gig. He was competitive, always at the batter and was good with the bat in hand.

8. Anthony Stuart (Eastern Suburbs Cricket Club)

Stuey is one of those players that you’d love to have in the trenches alongside of you. Quality bowler who got stuck in and lead from the front. Good skills, he could nibble a snooker ball on an ice rink. A very useful batter to come in down the order and scored some vital runs, usually at a good rate.

9. Anthony Kershler (Hawkesbury Cricket Club)

I’ve never seen anyone deceive batters through flight more than Kersh did, the way that he varied his pace had you always felt in the game. Again, another very useful batter and scored some valuable runs down the order.

10. Adrian Tucker (Eastern Suburbs Cricket Club)

A very clever bowler, great accuracy for a wrist spinner, always kept pressure on, had the ability to hold and took game changing wickets when the game was on the line.

11. Lee Hansen (Queanbeyan CC)

Left arm quick, Lethal was as his nickname says, wasn’t shy to visit upstairs, also had the in-swinger that caused a lot of problems.

12.  Paul Byrom (Eastern Suburbs Cricket Club), Kirk Powell (Eastern Suburbs Cricket Club), Paul Sullivan (Hawkesbury Cricket Club).

Tough to pick just one of these three, different characters, but all great blokes and were all a big handful with the new ball.