Western Suburbs District Cricket Club - Team of the Millennium

Western Suburbs District Cricket Club Sydney | July 10, 2024

In early 2006, The Committee of Western Suburbs invited a group of former players and administrators to advise the Cricket Committee of the greatest players to represent the Club in the period from 1895 to 2000. Alan Davidson, Stan Sismey, Tom Brown and Bernie O'Neil sorted through the Club's records and player performances and produced their list of the Club's finest players. 

The Committee then applied the criterion that each player, to be eligible for the "Team of the Millennium". must have been available to play for Western Suburbs for five full seasons. The Committee took into account lavers' performances not only for Western Suburbs, but also at higher levels of the game.  

The team, selected after long deliberation, is: 

 

Warren Bardsley

A left-handed opening batsman, Bardsley played 41 Tests for Australia between 1909 and 1926. At his peak, he was regarded as the finest left- handed batsman in the world. He did not drink, smoke or eat meat, and no cricketer of his time trained and practised with greater diligence. His game was based upon a sound defence, powerful driving and a wide range of on- side strokes. He was immensely successful in England: on the 1909 tour, he made 2180 runs, and in 1912 he tallied 2441. As late as 1926, when he was 44, he scored 193 not out in the Test at Lord's, which was then the highest score in a Lord' Test. When he captained Australia in the next Test, at Leeds, he became the first Western Suburbs plaver to lead Australia in Test cricket. His appetite for runs did not diminsh in Grade cricket; his career began with Glebe, but he played for Wests in 1919-20 and then from 1922-23 to 1932-33, retiring at the age of fifty. Overall, he hit 12,110 First Grade runs, a record for the competition.

 

Bob Simpson

Bob Simpson's cricketing career was extraordinary, from the time he made his debut for New South Wales at the age of sixteen, to his remarkable comeback to Test cricket after a decade in retirement. Simpson broke into the Australian team during the 1957-58 tour to South Africa, when he batted in the middle order, but it took three years, and a stint playing for Western Australia, before he established himself in his rightful position as Australia's opening batsman. From 1960-61, he played with great consistency, and he succeeded Richie Benaud as captain ofAustralia in 1963-64. It was not until his 30th Test match, at Manchester in 1964, that he hit his first Test century - but that monumental innings of 311 was the first of ten hundreds at the highest level of the game. He formed an outstanding partnership with Bill Lawry, and they shared a record opening stand of 382 against the West Indies in 1964-65. Simpson retired at the age of 31 in 1968; but ten years later, he was lured out of retirement to lead the inexperienced Australian team during the first season of World Series Cricket. At 41, he was still a Test-class batsman, and he made 186 two centuries against India. Throughout his career, he was a peerless slip fieldsman, and he was good enough as a leg-spinner to take 71 Test wickets. He joined Wests in 1961-62, played for almost two decades, and set a record (broken only last season) for the most runs in First Grade. After his retirement from playing, he became an exceptional coach, and his sharp cricket brain and uncompromising standards were widely respected.

 

Jim Mackay

Mackay learned his cricket on matting pitches in New England, and earned such a high reputation in country matches that he played his first game for New South Wales, in 1902-03, before playing regular cricket on turf. He joined Burwood the same season. His reputation was made in the remarkable season of 1905-06, when he hit 1041 runs at 104.10 for Burwood, and 902 at 112.75 in six first-class matches. Many critics regarded him as Trumper's equal; he was tall and strong, and played shots all round the wicket, although his signature stroke was a powerful on-drive. At the end of that season, Mackay was suspended from cricket in New South Wales when he agreed to take part in matches for the Melbourne Cricket Club that were not authorised by the Australian Board of Control. As a result, he accepted an offer to work, and play cricket, in South Africa. He was chosen for the 1907 South African tour to England, but his selection was over-ruled on the grounds that it would detract from the "South African character" of the team. A few weeks later he was hit by a speeding motorcycle; the accident ruined his sight, and he was never able to compete in serious cricket again. He was almost a great cricketer; and his good nature and charm endeared him to everyone. 

 

Peter Toohey 

A richly-talented batsman from Blayney, in the central west of New South Wales, Peter Toohey burst into prominence when he scored 1149 First Grade runs for Western Suburbs in 1973-74. His early performances for his State were tentative, but he played with such flair and consistency in 1975-76 and 1976-77 that he seemed assured of a future in international cricket. His promotion to the Test arena was accelerated by the defection of players to World Series Cricket, and he marked his debut against India with brilliant innings of 82 and 57 in Brisbane. His tour of the West Indies in early 1978 was disrupted by a sickening blow to the head in the first Test in Trinidad; but when he returned to the side, he hit 122 and 97 in the final Test. It was somehow typical that he lost his wicket in the second innings looking for quick runs before a declaration; he always played for his team, not himself, and as a result he was always respected by his team-mates. He struggled for runs against England in 1978-79, but smashed an exhilarating 81 not out in Perth, when he hooked and pulled lan Botham for five successive boundaries, and he was one of the few "establishment" players who won a Test place when the World Series players returned.

 

Dirk Wellham

Perhaps no recent plaver has been more closelv identified with Western Suburbs than Dirk Wellham; son of a Wests cricketer, nephew of a Wests 187 cricketer, born in Wests territory, Wellham made his first appearances for Wests as a 12 year old in the Green Shield team. He was an uncommonly mature young player, who had the skill, technique, concentration and mental strength to excel at the game at a very early age. He reached First Grade when he was only 15, and at the age of 20, he became the youngest man ever appointed to captain a Sydney First Grade team. He marked his first-class debut in 1980-81 with 100 against Victoria on a difficult Melbourne pitch; after only six games for New South Wales, he was selected for the 1981 tour to England, where he celebrated his Test debut with an outstanding innings of 103. His method was sound, he possessed a wider range of strokes than he was often given credit for, and his temperament was ideal for big cricket, yet he received fewer opportunities than he deserved. His six Tests were spread over six years, and he was never allowed a chance to settle in the side. This was a poor reward for some outstanding efforts in domestic cricket - in 1982- 83, for example, he scored 1205 first-class runs at 66.94 without earning any recognition. He was a magnificent fieldsman and a shrewd, highly effective captain, who led New South Wales to the Sheffield Shield, and later captained both Tasmania and Queensland.

 

Alan Davidson

Powerful, athletic and immensely talented, Alan Davidson succeeded Keith Miller as the most exciting and effective all-rounder in Australian cricket. A left-hander, he hit the ball with terrific power, swung the ball late at a lively pace, and fielded magnificently, holding apparently impossible catches or firing in flat, accurate throws from the outfield. Between 1957 and 1963, he was the spearhead of the Australian attack, and in that period there was no bowler anywhere in the world who was more dangerous with a new ball in his hand. In 1960-61, he went into the Tied Test in Brisbane with a broken finger, yet still he took 5-135 and 6-87, and scored 44 and 80, becoming the first cricketer ever to take ten wickets and score one hundred runs in the same Test. Davidson joined Western Suburbs in 1951-52, and served the Club magnificently; his team-mates were certain that he competed as fiercely in club cricket as in international games. His averages for Wests - 40 with the bat, and 12 with the ball- tell the story of his dominance of Grade cricket, and two performances illustrate how dynamic he was: in 1956-57, he took 6-4 to dismiss Balmain for 20, and in 1963-64, he hammered 115 against Bankstown in only 54 minutes. He played two seasons for the club after his retirement from first-class cricket, and he gave invaluable service to cricket in New South Wales as a long-serving president of the NSW Cricket Association. 

 

Greg Matthews

No cricketer has achieved a finer all-round record for New South Wales than Greg Matthews; between 1982 and 1998, he played 135 games for the State, scoring 6266 runs at an average of 38, and taking 417 wickets at 28. At times he was accused of underachieving at Test level, but he averaged 41 with the bat for Australia, and the 61 wickets he captured with his off-breaks included some epic performances. In the Tied Test in Madras in 1986, Matthews took 5-103 and 5-146, bowling marathon spells in oppressive heat. And at Colombo in 1992, he bowled Australia to a narrow victory with 3-93 and 4-76. 188 His left-handed batting was often fluent but always gritty, he fielded brilliantly and was an extremely effective player in one-day international cricket. He was sometimes regarded as an eccentric, but he had a colossal enthusiasm for the game and was a fierce competitor with a great ability to lift and encourage his team-mates. He was a key member of the Western Suburbs teams that reached the finals in 1984-85 and 1986-87.

 

Gary Gilmour

One of the great natural talents of his generation, Gary Gilmour was a clean striker of the ball, lively swing bowler and brilliant fieldsman. The fact that he was a left-hander from the Central Coast of New South Wales invited comparisons with Alan Davidson. At his peak, he was a superb cricketer, and his relatively short career was littered with memorable performances: 122 against South Australia on his first-class debut in 1971-72; 52 and 4-75 on his Test debut against New Zealand in 1973-74; a mesmerising spell of 6-14 against England in the 1975 World Cup semi-final; 95 and five wickets against the West Indies at Adelaide in 1975-76; and a brutal century against New Zealand in Christchurch in 1977. Sadly, fitness problems and injuries shortened his career. In Grade cricket for Wests, he was a matchwinner: in each of his first three seasons for the Club, Wests reached the First Grade final, winning two premierships.

 

Greg Dyer

An outstanding wicket-keeper, either standing up to the stumps or standing back to the quick bowlers, Greg Dyer's selection for New South Wales was delayed by the fine work of another excellent keeper from Wests,Steve Rixon. Within seasons of his first appearance for New South Wales, Dyer made his Test debut against England in 1986-87, and he held his place throughout the following season, playing in Australia's successful team in the 1987-88 World Cup final against England in Calcutta. An aggressive batsman (and compulsive hooker), he often contributed handy runs in the lower order, including a lively 60 against New Zealand in Adelaide. His performances for Australia were uniformly impressive, and did not warrant his abrupt dropping at the end of 1987-88; ti was generally thought that he was made a scapegoat for an incident in the Test against New Zealand in Melbourne, in which Andrew Jones was given out caught by Dyer, although television replays revealed that the ball had bounced. Half-way through the following season, he was summarily dropped from the New South Wales team, of which he was then captain, although he unquestionably remained the outstanding wicket- keeper in the State. The dignified and graceful manner in which he dealt with these arbitrary and unjust decisions won him many admirers. Joining Western Suburbs in the Green Shield team at the age of 13, Dyer reached First Grade two years later. He was an inspirational captain of First Grade in 1984-85, leading his team to the final.

 

Wally Wellham

In the history of Australian cricket, no bowler has performed as well as Wally Wellham, nor sustained his performances over such a lengthy period, without 189 receiving greater recognition from representative selectors. He was one of the finest bowlers in Sydney Grade cricket between his first game in 1950 and his last in 1978, but he played only seven times for New South Wales, all in 1959- 60, when he marked his first-class debut by bowling out Queensland with 6- 43. Wellham, a left-hander, could swing the ball late at fast-medium pace; but in the mid-1950s he took to bowling left-arm orthodox spin, drifting the ball in the air and turning it sharply, always with immaculate length and direction. He loved bowling, and often used the new ball for a spell before returning later in the day to bowl spinners. If he had moved to another State, or to England, he may have enjoyed a long and successful first-class career, but his family, and his career as a schoolteacher, took priority. No-one has taken more than his 684 First Grade wickets for Western Suburbs.

 

David Gilbert

A fast-bowling spearhead of the New South Wales team in the mid-1980s, David Gilbert was capable of bowling with genuine pace, and won eight Test caps for Australia. He toured England in 1985, New Zealand in 1985-86 and India in 1986-87, as well as playing county cricket for Gloucestershire in 1991. He took more than one hundred first-class wickets for each of the two States he represented, New South Wales and Tasmania, and although his first-class average with the bat was only 14, he struck 117 for the touringAustralians against Delhi at Baroda in October 1986. He was an important member of the successful Western Suburbs teams of 1984-85 and 1986-87 and is now the Chief Executive of Cricket NSW.

 

Arthur Chipperfield (12th man)

A busy right-handed batsman, capable leg-spinner and brilliant slip fieldsman, Arthur Chipperfield was chosen for the 1934 Australian tour to England after playing only three innings for New South Wales. He justified his selection with a sensational Test debut; going to the crease with Australia deep in trouble, he played a composed, attractive innings before going in to lunch on the second day not out on 99. Almost immediately after the resumption of play, he edged the ball to the wicket-keeper, and so became the first man to score 99 in a Test. He finally reached his first Test hundred in 1935-36, against South Africa, and he continued to make useful contributions to the Test side until 1938. His leg-breaks were often useful, and he took 8-66 for an Australian XI against the touring MCC team in 1936-37. Like Dirk Wellham, he was the son and nephew of Wests cricketers, and he was born deep in Wests territory. His most influential season for the Club was 1928-29, when he was the leading run-scorer (with 671 at 51.61) in Wests's premiership side.