Davo: A Western Suburbs District Cricket Club Story

Western Suburbs District Cricket Club Sydney | November 22, 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”.

At some time between the Australian tour to England in 1956, and the 1957-58 tour to South Africa, Alan Davidson completed his transition from a promising young talent to a dominant, world- class all-rounder. While his phenomenal athleticism and co-ordination were never in doubt, Davidson's early Test appearances, in a struggling team, had been tentative - his first nine Tests yielded only 16 wickets. On his return from England, Davidson sat down to discuss his cricket with Richie Benaud:

“We asked ourselves, "why aren't we as good as these other blokes?" Lock and Laker, if you put a dinner plate down on the pitch they could hit it every time. Alec Bedser used to wear a hole in the pitch where he landed the ball all the time. We decided that what set them apart was accuracy, and the way to develop that accuracy was practice - but not just any practice, but perfect practice. So we'd get together after work, and we'd bowl alternate balls in the nets for two and a half hours. By the end of that, you were running in just on adrenaline, but we learned to put the ball where we wanted it.”

From the start of the South African tour Davidson's bowling was a constant threat, his fielding unrivalled, and his clean hitting could change the course of a match in half an hour. With the single exception of the freakish Garry Sobers, Davidson had become the most dangerous all-rounder in world cricket.

It was no coincidence that in the nine seasons of Davidson’s cricketing maturity, Wests reached the final of the First Grade competition six times. Western Suburbs was a good team anyway - sometimes a very good one - but often matches, and even whole seasons, were transformed by Davidson's individual brilliance. There was no clearer illustration of Davidson's impact than the closing weeks of the 1956-57 season. Wests fielded a very solid team: Ray Bowden, Ken Muller, Daryl Washington, Alan Strickland, Tom Brown and Vic Cristofani provided the side with plenty of runs; Stan Sismey was still brilliant behind the stumps, and led the team astutely; and paceman Alan Wyatt and Wally Wellham troubled most of their opponents. Wellham had returned to Wests after three years of teaching in the far north of New South Wales. "Alan Davidson was at Wests when I came back, and Alan Wyatt, so there was no way I was getting the new ball. So then I started bowling spinners as well as fast-medium." Wellham's versatility gave his captain, effectively, an extra bowler, since he could operate just as dangerously at fast- medium or with orthodox spin. Yet with two rounds remaining before the semi-finals, Wests sat in sixth place, having won fewer than half of its matches.

With three games remaining, Davidson rejoined the team, after returning from a gruelling seven-month tour to England, Pakistan and India and carrying the New South Wales attack through the Sheffield Shield season. No-one could have blamed him if he had been weary. Wests' bid for a semi-final place seemed hopeless when Balmain grabbed seven for 60 on the first morning of a one-day match at Pratten Park. Somehow, Cristofani, Sismey and Wellham lifted the total to 164 and then, sensationally, Davidson and Wyatt blasted out Balmain for only 20. In seven devastating overs, Davidson took 6-4, and Wyatt supported him with 3-12. Barely an hour after defeat appeared inevitable, Wests enforced the follow-on, and Davidson collected three more wickets as Balmain folded for 115.

The outright victory gave Wests the opportunity to reach the semi-finals by defeating Petersham in the final round - and this time it was Davidson's batting that decided the issue. His pulverising 119 not out included two sixes out of the ground. Oddly, that innings is not Davidson's strongest memory of the match:

“Alan Strickland was batting, facing Pat Crawford. Crawford had gone to England in ’56 and he was pretty quick then, and he cut one back in to Alan and got him right in the groin. Alan went down moaning and we went up to him and undid the buttons on his trousers. 'Where's your box?' we asked. 'Oh', he said, ‘I never wear one!' We didn't know whether that was bravery or something else! But he’d played 25 years of grade cricket and never been hit there before.”

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Mosman was swept aside in the semi-final, unable to cope with the pace of Wyatt (7-52) and Davidson (3-34) and in the final, Glebe South-Sydney was overwhelmed. Wests surged to a total of 393 on the first day, with Darryl Washington, Ken Muller and, with a sparkling 73, Ray Bowden laying a solid foundation for the innings before Davidson battered the Glebe attack (which was without its injured spearhead, Frank Misson) for 126. Never content to rest on his laurels, Davidson began the second day of the game with a beautifully-controlled opening spell of 18 overs, in which he took 4-37. There was never any danger of Wests losing the game, but a draw would have been enough to give Glebe, the Minor Premiers, the title, and in mid-afternoon it looked as though Glebe might be able to hold out. Tom Brown was bowling his leg breaks at the time:

“In those days, you got the second new ball after 200 runs, and we wanted to get it so Alan Davidson could use it. But they kept blocking and blocking, and I had enough of it, so I bowled a ball really wide of leg stump that ran away for four byes, and that gave Davo a new ball to use, and he came back and got the last two out.”

Davidson ended the match with 6-67, completing the most compelling all-round effort ever accomplished in a Sydney First Grade final.