Randwick District Cricket Club First Grade Premiers 1977-78

Randwick Petersham Cricket Club | January 27, 2023

An extract from Lyall Gardner OAM book - The History of Randwick District Cricket Club

The Grand Finals were scheduled to be played over the Easter weekend with Saturday and Monday the playing days. The semi-finals were set for the weekend before. Unfortunately, that weekend, more than 135 mls of rain fell on Sydney accompanied by gale force winds and local flooding.

All sport in Sydney that weekend was washed out.

The outcome was that Randwick 2nd Grade’s season had come to an end as they were placed third on the points table.

The Grand Final in all grades was to be played by the two teams which finished first and second after the 14 preliminary matches. Randwick’s 1st, 3rd and 4th grades finished on top.

Over the Easter weekend which followed, rain fell on Good Friday soaking the SCG2 wicket as covers had not been laid despite a request for them by Randwick captain, Alan Turner.

As a result, no play was possible on Easter Saturday. The argument was that because Good Friday was a public holiday, there were no staff available. Newspapers lay blame on both the SCG Trust and the NSW Cricket Association.

On the Monday, play was again affected with a start delayed three hours after heavy overnight rain.

Alan Turner won the toss and had no hesitation in sending David Colley’s boys in to bat.

It brought immediate success with Tim Towers having Pym caught behind third ball. But Rob Jeffery and Greg Bush dug in until both were gone on the same score. But the Whale’s English import, Jim Love, and Colley hit out after Bensley had Allan Border caught by Bill Knowles. It was only just after Love departed that Colley called a halt.

The Mosman openers made early inroads to the Randwick batting with star openers, Turner and Dyson out quickly. A backs-to-the-wall effort by Tom Wood however, defied the attack and when bad light stopped play at 5.45 pm, Randwick had the premiership