Tales from Western Suburbs A.W. Green Shield
Western Suburbs District Cricket Club Sydney | September 11, 2024
The following article is an extract from our 2006 publication “Cricket in Black and White: 110 Not Out: The history of the Western Suburbs District Cricket Club”.
The AW Green Shield is named for a President of Western Suburbs, "Abbie" Green. Apart from cricket, Green's abiding interest was Barnado's Homes, the orphanage charity, so a cricket competition for boys under the age of 16 is an apt memorial to him. Originally, the competition had been played for a trophy known as the "Cush Herford Shield", but after Green's death, the trophy was named for him.
The Green Shield competition has always been both an obligation and an opportunity. It is part of the way in which a Grade club fulfils its obligation to develop junior cricket in the district it represents - but it is also a precious opportunity to attract gifted young players as recruits. Since 1935, most of Wests' outstanding homegrown players have emerged through the Green Shield team.
Wests won the Shield in 1936-37, in only its second season. The preliminary games were packed into a single week in January 1937, and Western Suburbs opened its campaign with a conclusive victory over a strong St George team whose star all-rounder was the left-handed future Test captain, Arthur Morris. Wests collapsed for 85 against Paddington-Waverley, but outplayed Mosman and earned a place in the final by crushing Randwick. Ian Hill, an opening bowler, took eleven cheap wickets as Randwick crumbled for 42 and 58. Hill was the spearhead of his team's attack, often bowling in tandem with his captain, Jack Treanor. A gifted leg-spinner, Treanor bowled with immense promise, but never progressed into senior cricket with Wests - although he went on to represent New South Wales, he was then playing Grade cricket with Central Cumberland. Treanor was unavailable for the final, against Marrickville at the SCG, and so the side was led by batsman Darryl Washington. Marrickville was crushed: Washington, Hill and Vic Cropper all batted well to lift Wests to 266, and Marrickville subsided for 109 in reply. Washington was not the only member of the team who went on to enjoy a successful career in Wests' Grade ranks: Reg Peisley (a nephew of the Test batsman Tommy Andrews), a lively batsman, excellent fieldsman and capable slow bowler, and Ron Topham (a neat batsman and wicket-keeper) soon made an impact in senior cricket.
Almost forty years passed before Wests regained the Shield. The 1973-74 team included two future Test cricketers - Dirk Wellham from Ashfield Boys' High School and Greg Dyer from Homebush Boys' High - and three future First Graders in Greg Bowden, Mark Spicer and Ken Shelston. Wellham, the captain, was outstanding, scoring a record 461 runs and taking 21 wickets with his leg- breaks. He dominated the final; chasing Mosman's modest total of 144,Wests amassed 386, with Wellham building a remarkably mature innings of 178. Wellham's aggregate and highest score, and the innings total from the final, all stand as club records. Curiously, the club's lowest innings score in Green Shield, 20 against Paddington in 1945-46, was also enough to win the game on the first innings, as Paddington, batting first on a spiteful pitch, had declared at six for 18.
Pictured above: Ken Shelston
"It's funny what sticks in the mind," Dirk Wellham recalls. "In Mosman's innings in that final, their top-scorer batted with a runner, and he should have been run out when his runner was in the crease, but he wandered out of it - my brother was sitting on the hill and had plenty to say about iti - and the batsman made fifty or sixty. We'd sent them in, and we had to chase, and Mosman had John Skilbeck, who later played for New South Wales, and another big, strong bowler who bowled inswing. They'd bowled Mosman into the final, so it wasn't an easy chase, and it was very satisfying to make some runs and help to win the game.”
The 1973-74 premiership team had strength in depth to back up Wellham's efforts. Dyer, Spicer and Shelston all weighed in with useful runs, and Shelston formed a potent spin combination with Wellham. Col Gentles and Brod Livett used the new ball capably. It was a well- balanced side with a strong spirit and no apparent weaknesses.
Experimentally, the age limit for the competition was raised by one year in 1975-76, which allowed Wellham, Dyer and Spicer another season in the competition. All three batted consistently, with both Dyer and Wellham scoring centuries. Matt Troy, a future First Grade opener, made a good impression in his first appearance for the club, and the attack was led by fast- medium bowlers Geoff Liddle and Dale Wellham (a left-armer like his father Wally).
No-one was surprised when the team reached the final of the competition, but then its problems started. Wellham, Spicer and Dyer all missed the game, as they were representing NSW Schoolboys in the Kookaburra Shield in Perth (where Wellham was named the leading player in the competition). Two other regular players were sidelined by injury. The side that took the field for the final against Central Cumberland was hastily patched-up and badly under- strength. But rain washed out most of the first day and all of the next two, so that no result was achieved and the finalists were declared joint premiers.
The premiership sides of 1973-74 and 1975-76 were wisely managed by Brother Brian Berg, who coached teams first at St Patrick's, Strathfield and later at St Leo's, Wahroonga. Brother Berg helped to establish strong links between St Patrick's and Western Suburbs, and the school provided the club with a regular flow of talented cricketers, especially in the 1970s and 1980s. Players like Peter Toohey and Matt Troy were also steered towards Wests by Brian Berg.
Chemist Warehouse Ashfield is a proud sponsor of Western Suburbs District Cricket Club
Dirk Wellham (who played little school cricket at Ashfield High) spent five seasons in the Green Shield side, after his tentative introduction, in 1971-72, at the age of 12. He remains the only batsman to have scored more than 1000 runs for Wests in the competition, and he also snared 47 wickets. He was an uncommonly mature cricketer, as well as an exceptionally gifted one. Greg Dyer recalls that:
“He always had something which, as a young player, defined him, and probably took him to where he got... and that was the ability to really concentrate, a steely determination. He was a stronger player at a younger age than anyone I'd ever witnessed before. He was a very, very determined player at a very young age - probably not as technically gifted, or as artistic, a player as many you'll see, but he has a real steely determination and could concentrate better than anybody else.”
It was easy enough to predict a bright future for Wellham, and for Greg Dyer, too. When they won their second Green Shield, they had already begun to make a mark in First Grade. But Green Shield cricket is not an infallible guide to a player's prospects. Mark Spicer, for example, was considered almost as good a prospect as Wellham and Dyer, but after a handful of moderate performances in First Grade, he chose against pursuing the game seriously.
Spicer was not the only Green Shield player who never quite turned into the star he had promised to be. Often, especially in recent times, good young players have been lost to other sports. A splendidly talented Wests team reached the Green Shield final in 1979-80, losing only to a strong Balmain side. Greg Douglas, Brad McNamara and Chris O'Neil went on to enjoy successful careers with the club - but three of their most talented team-mates scarcely played the game again. Brothers Scott and Brett Gale became professional Rugby League players, while opening bowler Danny Naylor concentrated on Rugby Union, representing Sydney as a No8.
Pictured above: The 1965-66 AW Green Shield Divisional Co-Premiers Team
And then there are players who excel in their youth but somehow lose whatever it was that gave them an edge over their peers. No- one illustrates this problem as acutely as Grant LeHuray. In his three years with the Wests Green Shield team, from 1947 to 1950, LeHuray was simply outstanding, winning selection in the Combined Green Shield 1st XI each year. Slightly built, he was a well- organised, technically correct left- handed batsman who also bowled leg spinners. In 1948-49, his 22 wickets cost only six runs each, and he destroyed Randwick almost single-handedly with 8-14 and 3-7. In 1949-50, he hit 109 not out against Waverley and 104 against Paddington. He was rushed into First Grade in 1950-51, and took 7- 58 against Petersham to confirm his promise; but then his career stalled. He simply never developed into the dominant First Grade player he was expected to become. It wasn't that he gave up, either; he enjoyed a long, quietly accomplished career in Grade cricket with Wests, St George and Sutherland, but he became a very good Second Grade player who was sometimes handy in Firsts.
In part, LeHuray's story is about the fragility of leg-spinning talent. LeHuray attended Trinity Grammar School, as did Ken Shelston and Paul Neville. Shelston was a key bowler in the 1973-74 premiership team, capturing 18 cheap wickets; but in a Grade career that spanned 16 seasons, his spinners accounted for only nine victims. Neville bowled so well in the 1985- 86 team that he won the Stan McCabe trophy as the leading wicket-taker in the entire competition; but, like Shelston, his tidy, thoughtful bowling was given only limited opportunity in Grade cricket and although both men played First Grade, they did so as specialist batsmen.
And then there are the ones who get away. Wests' first Green Shield premiership captain, Jack Treanor, became a State cricketer, but never played senior cricket for Western Suburbs. In the two seasons from 1985 to 1987, Wests' Green Shield team included seven cricketers who went on to play First Grade, but for clubs other than Wests. Among them was a left-handed wicket- keeper from Lismore, named Gilchrist. His father, Stan, who had long experience as a First Grade leg-spinner, wrote to the club suggesting that 14 year-old Adam be given an opportunity in Green Shield. Adam's brother, Dean, was already with the club, but the Green Shield coach wrote back asking whether Adam was able to come to Sydney for a trial - largely because it could be considered unfair to local cricketers if a country boy were chosen sight unseen. Stan Gilchrist replied that although Adam couldn't get to Sydney, it was very much in the club's interests to give him a game. And he was right; although illness prevented him from playing in all the matches that season, Adam's class was obvious, and the club lost an opportunity to enjoy his talents when both Gilchrist brothers decided to play for Gordon.
