David Capel 1963 to 2020
Randwick Petersham Cricket Club | June 27, 2023
David Capel was the first professional cricketer to play with Petersham-Marrickville DCC when he joined the club for the 1991-92 season. Overseas professionals in Sydney Grade Cricket had become quite regular since Wesley Hall joined Randwick in the 1965-66 season. Hall’s impact on the club and the competition led to a number of other high-level players joining Grade clubs in the 1970-80s, the most notable being Tony Greig and Geoff Boycott with Waverley, Barry Knight with Mosman and Mike Gatting with Balmain.
With Petersham-Marrickville being touted for some time as a club likely to be forced into a merger or wound up altogether to cater for the need to establish Western Sydney clubs, the committee was looking to improve its standard of play and competitiveness. The loss of a number of experienced players such as John Bain, Mark Atkinson, Bart Pozuelo, Pat Farhart and Warren Pepper gave every indication that season 1991-92 was likely to be a real struggle.
It was felt that an experienced overseas player-coach would be of assistance in improving the standard while assisting in the development of young players Corey Pearson, Matt Whitby, Matt Cassar and Jeremy Bray who had been promoted to fill the void.
Following a discussion between President John Pearson and Wayne Mulherin, enquiry was made of Nigel Felton a good friend of Mulherin’s and a county cricketer with Northamptonshire. The result of that approach was that fellow-Northants all-rounder David Capel enthusiastically agreed to join the club for the season.
David John Capel was born in Northampton on 6 February 1963. A pace bowling all-rounder, he had played 15 Test Matches and 23 ODIs for England after making his first-class debut with Northamptonshire in 1981 aged 18. He made his Test debut against Pakistan at Headingley in 1987 making a half-century. In his early days he gained the much unwanted tag as “the next Ian Botham” particularly as he dismissed the West Indian star bat Vivian Richards three times. His best performance in Test Cricket was 98 against Pakistan in Karachi in 1988 while his 3-88 against West Indies in Barbados in 1990 was his top effort with the ball.
Having been provided with an airfare for him and his wife Deb, set up in a unit at Top Ryde and supplied with a car sponsored by a local car dealer, David Capel made his debut for Petersham-Marrickville in round 1 against Campbelltown at Campbelltown. It was a rather inauspicious start for the import scoring just 12 and taking 0-40 off 15 overs in the six wickets loss. And while he took a couple more matches to find his feet, round 4 saw the talent of David Capel fully exposed.
The match was against Hawkesbury at Petersham Oval, the club’s home ground. Chasing 314 after Graeme Hughes had belted 135, Capel demolished the visitors with a sensational burst producing figures of 5-35. Setting a target of 273 after a short and quick second innings, Capel wrapped up the Hawks for 198 taking 6-60 off 20 overs in the process to give him 11-95 for the match in a brilliant exhibition of seam bowling. The win gave the team its first outright victory in 1st Grade for four years.
Capel went on to make 60s against both Penrith and Western Suburbs while he recorded his best figures of 6-26 in an exciting tie with Bankstown. He finished the season with 300 runs and 33 wickets which brought skipper Greg Hartshorne to comment in his annual report: “Capes had an enormous impact on our team, on individuals and on the club as a whole. His knowledge of the game and individual skills, his competitive and aggressive approach and his own performance added to us all”. The fact the 1st Grade team went so close to making the semi-finals supported Hartshorne’s view.
Apart from his undoubted ability as a player, David Capel’s coaching program won accolades from NSWCA with the result the club was awarded the full coaching grant of $8,000. Apart from club coaching, Capel completed a number of sessions at nearby schools Newington College, Christian Brothers Lewisham and Summer Hill Public as well as Marrickville United Women’s CC.
There was a hope that David would get to play another season with the club and that occurred two years later in 1993-94 although it was only for the second half. And while he scored just 147 runs and took 12 wickets in his brief stay, his 42 and 3-60 in round 11 at Petersham ensured a good win for the side over Campbelltown. He also made 58 playing North Sydney.
David Capel played first-class cricket from 1981 to 2003, scoring 12,202 runs with a highest score of 175. He also took 546 wickets with his best bowling performance 7-44. He ran the academy at Northamptonshire after retiring from playing and in 2006 became head coach. He remained in that role for six years before taking a coaching position with the England women’s team.
In 2018 he underwent surgery for a brain tumour. He was inducted into the Northamptonshire Hall of Fame early in 2020 but on Wednesday 2 September 2020, passed away peacefully at his home. He was just 57.
