Looking Back and Reaching Forward - Sydney Cricket Club
Pat Rodgers | January 19, 2023
This is an early chapter of a book entitled Looking Back and Reaching Forward by myself and Ronald Cardwell that was prepared for the start of this season. It is an updated history of the Club that had two volumes written by Cliff Winning in 1980 and 1990.
Chapter 2 The Birth of a Club
“Never before in the history of cricket clubs in New South Wales has any club had such a start.”
So the Australian Star newspaper described the beginning of the Balmain cricket club 125 years ago. In fact, it is difficult to think of any club since that has begun in such a grand manner.
When a crowd of 4000 flocked to Birchgrove Reserve on 25 September 1897 to watch a cricket match littered with the stars of the day and local players, they were there to support the Balmain Electorate Cricket Club, which was due to join the Sydney District and Electorate competition the next month.
The match between the teams captained by F.A.Iredale and M.A.Noble was the brainchild of Mr. W. Cornish, the Headmaster of Glebe Public School and the club's first Honorary Secretary. He felt that a match featuring some of the best cricketers in the colony could gain great publicity for the birth of Sydney's newest club.
Iredale was already a Test player whose junior cricket had been played in the local area. He was very willing to assist the Balmain officials by recruiting some other well-known Test and New South Wales players. Noble had yet to represent Australia, but he was to become one of the country's greatest captains and all-rounders. All players who were invited to play accepted. On the day before the match, the Australian Star newspaper hoped that the club "will have a long and prosperous career." (24 September 1897).
The recruiters did a sterling job as current and former Test players proved great drawcards. Tom Garrett, who had played in the first Test match 20 years previously, was joined by Jim Kelly, Bert Hopkins, Arthur Coningham, Syd Gregory, Harry Donnan and Tom McKibbin.
New South Wales players Alick MacKenzie, Gar Waddy, William Richardson, Andrew Newell, and New Zealander Leonard Cuff bolstered the ranks.
Even one of the umpires was a notable cricketing figure: Garrett's teammate from 1877 against England, Charles Bannerman, who had faced the first ball in Test match cricket and scored its initial century, was called on to officiate at Birchgrove on that spring day.
And there on the scorecard at number 10 in Noble's team was a 19-year-old Victor Trumper, who McKibbin bowled for just 3. No one watching that day could have imagined that in that season of 1897-98, he would score six centuries in eight innings in Electorate cricket for Paddington and become the first player to score over 1000 runs in a first grade season while averaging 204.2. The career of the legendary Australian Test batsman was launched that year. Trumper himself would have had no idea that just over a decade later, his work to begin Rugby League would have its fruition in the first competition matches being played on that very same ground at Birchgrove on 20 April 1908.
Reflecting the working class area in which the club was founded, a future Labor Party State Premier, John Storey, was in the local side. He was to be a key batsman in the first seasons of the club.
The hope for fine weather was dashed as there was torrential rain in the week leading up to the match. Yet, the sun reappeared on the Saturday as the teams were driven from the Oxford Hotel at 1 pm to the ground as organised by Mr. Arthur Wood, the director of the family undertaker firm in Darling Street and with Cornish, the first Balmain delegates to the New South Wales Cricket Association. From the earliest of days, the club benefitted from the tireless work of its administrators- a theme that has run through the 125 years.
In the preparations, “no pains have been spared by the committee to make both the players and the public comfortable”. Marquees were erected, refreshments sold, and a steamer left Circular Quay at 1.30 for visitors. The Balmain Premier Coldstream Band and the Band of the Naval Brigade provided musical entertainment.
The Mayor of Balmain, Gilbert Murdoch, brother of former great Australian Test captain, Billy, started the match by bowling the first ball. At the close of the first innings, a ceremony was held, during which the club was presented with its colours. A richly woven black and gold silk flag "of considerable dimensions,” a gift of the Mayor and Mayoress, was presented. Here is the origin of the present day club colours which it is thought came from the Balmain Sailing Club who adopted them in the mid-1880s. Being such a prominent presence in the area, other clubs like the cricket and rugby clubs followed their example.
It appeared that the whole local community was behind this new venture. Even the Balmain Bicycle Club met at the Local Town Hall and rode in procession down to the oval to show their support. The Johnstone's Bay Sailing club's opening race of the season was arranged to finish their events in Snails Bay, close to the park. When each crew gave three cheers, it was a grand site. (Sydney Morning Herald, 27 September)
The gate receipts which were to be used to improve the ground, which was "already in first-class condition," amounted to 30 pounds. Before a turf wicket was laid at Birchgrove in 1895, it had been "an eyesore to residents of Balmain" but had now been converted into "one of the best cricket ovals around Sydney".
The wicket was rain-affected, and scoring was difficult. Noble’s team could only muster 101 as McKibbin (7-53) proved challenging to face. Coningham (5-23) and Noble (4-4) had Iredale’s XII 10 for 90 when stumps were drawn, resulting in a diplomatic draw. For indeed, the Balmain Electorate Cricket Club was the true winner of this remarkable day.
There were eight clubs in the first season of the Sydney District and Electorate competition in 1893-94, and Balmain joined in 1897 when they were admitted into second grade. The team had a successful first season and went very close to winning this competition.
Events had moved swiftly since June when Gilbert Murdoch had chaired a public meeting at the Balmain Town Hall to apply to the NSWCA for membership. The following month, 100 locals were present at the Club's inaugural meeting and plans for the launch by way of the match described above began.
It seemed certain that Balmain was undoubtedly ready for a cricket club.
Anyone interested in a copy can contact me at prodgers@stpiusx.nsw.edu.au
