Greg Geise - Golden 1991-92: Part Two and Three
Brad Bannister | November 28, 2024
After Greg's heroics of his 272 not out. We then travelled to the beautiful Newcastle Number 1 Sportsground for our next fixture versus University of Newcastle.
However, the week before in a mid-week fixture versus the Touring Indian team, Greg represented Norther NSW from memory and made a stella 100 in this tour fixture. We batted first in the NDCA fixture against Uni, and unlike the round before their were no quick wickets, no toilet issues and a much more settled start to our innings. As we sat in the grandstand, all of us young fellas hung off every word as Greg regaled his innings against the Indian test attack.
He started with, "mate I was batting 3 and we lost a wicket in the first over so I had to go out". A prolonged pause followed as he watched a few balls of our own match. "Manoj Prabhaka was bowling and I thought this bloke has played a few tests. The first one was a massive outswinger, so I just blocked it. The second one I faced was a huge inswinger. I blocked it too!!! I then thought, that's all this blokes got, so I ran at him on the third one and hit him back over his head for four".
Story over, a wicket falls and Greg strides to the middle leaving his young team mates in the stands to reflect on the story we just heard. It wasn't arrogant, it was factual and delivered in a way that was extremely respectful to his opposition. It was just confident.
We all then sit back to witness Greg go about his business and deliver Part 3 of the Golden Run. The Uni attack of the day were just fodder to his brilliance and he walked off the magnificent ground with 200 exactly to his name.
So, in a 14 day period the great man from Newcastle had delivered 272 not out, 110 or thereabouts and 200. Just the lazy 600 or so runs, and luckily for this young bloke from the rough side of town was there to witness 472 of them.
This time learning from Greg didn't stop when I returned to Lambton New Lambton after the one season. Greg and I travelled together to Lismore to complete our Level II Coaching Certificate together. And then he became my long term coach in the Newcastle Representative Program.
What a player, what a mentor and what a mate.
