Western Suburbs District Cricket Club in Brisbane - 100 year celebration in May 2021
Western Suburbs District Cricket Club Brisbane | November 06, 2023
Western Suburbs District Cricket Club turned 100 in May 2021 and over 250 players and friends of the club commemorated the milestone with a lunch for the ages at Graceville Memorial Park. A marquee was erected in front of the iconic 85 year old grandstand and the crowd included a great contingent of players from the 1960s & '70s, many of whom hadn't seen each other for decades. Without doubt the star of the show was 91 year old former Queensland batsman Jack McLaughlin who has lived in Graceville for over 80 years and first played for the club in 1947. Not even a broken rib could prevent him from topping the bill in a panel of former club captains comprising John Loxton, Carl Rackemann & Jon Dooley. Wests is also one of the strongest women's clubs in world cricket and the ladies were well represented by its international players including Jodie Fields & Melissa Bulow.
Celebrations continued long into the night and the event showcased the importance of club cricket. 15 May 2021 will go down as yet another superb day in the 100 year history of a great cricket club.
Master of Ceremonies - Dean Tuckwell
Here is Tucky's introduction to the celebrations
In 1921 Graceville was a very different place. The area had traditionally been mostly farmland but this had been changing with the opening of the Ipswich rail line in the late 1800s. Some farms remained and despite being only 10km from the GPO, access to the city and neighbourhoods could be burdensome as the Walter Taylor Bridge wasn’t completed until 1936.
Some things haven’t changed however, the suburb was very green boasting magnificent trees and Greg Rowell’s house was the largest and finest in the district.
This was a challenging time for the country. WWI ended less than 3 years earlier in November 1918 with Australia losing over 60,000, mostly men under 40 from an overall population of less than 5 million. A further 170,000 had been injured, diseased, affected by gas, disabled or suffered shellshock as PTSD was then known. It took almost a year for the more than 160,000 service personnel to return to Australia whilst The Spanish Flu was taking a further 15,000 lives.
Sporting Clubs are an important institution today but then they were an integral part of the local community and in May 1921 at a meeting of Toowong & Goodna Cricket Clubs it was decided that a new club be formed and that it be named The Western Suburbs Electorate Cricket Club. The new club was to compete in The QCA competition that had been founded in 1897 and matches would be played at Graceville. Graham Stirling was named 3rd grade captain.
The club tasted early success winning the 1st grade premiership in only its 3rd season and would win a further 2 before the start of WW2.
In attendance at that initial meeting was Roger Hartigan who 13 years earlier had scored 116 in his test debut against an England team containing Jack Hobbs, Sydney Barnes & Wilfred Rhodes. The Australian team included Victor Trumper, Monty Noble, Charlie McCartney & Warwick Armstrong - exalted company indeed. Together with Clem Hill he put on 243 for the 8th wicket - a record that still stands today. Hartigan also played baseball & lacrosse for Qld & would later serve as Wests president for over 30 years and we are pleased to have his grandson Roger with us today
Another 2 of the club’s earliest players were Mick Brew & Eric Knowles who both went on to play for Qld.
Knowles, a WWI veteran scored 144 in one of his 4 matches for Qld and against Easts in 1926 hit 220 out of 4/500 - not a bad afternoon’s work. This was the club’s highest individual first grade score for 60 years until bettered by Jeff Walker. His season tally of 719 was the club record for some 30 years until broken by Sam Trimble. Those records have subsequently been broken by Steve Paulsen & Aaron Nye. All up Knowles scored over 4500 runs including 11 centuries.
Brew, who also represented Qld at lacrosse was a prolific all-rounder who played 20 first grade seasons scoring 5600 runs and taking over 350 wickets. To put that in perspective that is more runs scored by Chris Smart and more wickets taken by Greg Rowell. He is represented here today by his great nephew Stewart who is one of the few players to score 2 double hundreds for the club & I dare say the only one to also take an 8 for. Stewy represented Hong Kong at cricket & rugby and might have run the 400m at the Olympics if not for injury. It’s no coincidence that civic unrest has overtaken the city since Stewart returned to Australia.
It may be difficult to believe but Brew was not the most dominant all-rounder in the first 30 years of the club’s history. Geoff Cook also a Qld tennis representative, played in the Sheffield Shield over the course of 12 seasons but it is his performances for Wests that are legendary - in a staggering 26 first grade seasons he scored nearly 6000 runs & took 567 wickets @ 15 opening the batting & bowling.
In 1936 this iconic grandstand behind me was completed despite the great depression and it wasn’t long before another war was to impact the fledgling cricket club. 63 club members served in WW2, among them Cook & long serving A-grade wicketkeeper & President Owen Driscoll. Tragically 5 did not return.
In 1942 American forces occupied Graceville Memorial Park and Wests won 2 wartime first grade premierships and a further 2 immediately after. Future invincible Bill Brown was a flight lieutenant in the Air Force who served in New Guinea & The Phillipines but when in Australia was based at Amberley. In 2 seasons for Wests he scored 4 centuries - not a bad effort because the wicket on number 1 was a minefield
Another major factor in these premierships was the performance of Qld spinner & medium pacer Chilla Christ who took 17 for 61 in a match against Valleys in 1941 and a QCA record 107 wickets in the 1942/43 season. All up he took over 500 first grade wickets @ 13, had a fine career for Qld and many say should have toured England on the 1938 Ashes Tour.
Bob Stafford & Ernie Toovey both spent part of the war in Japanese POW camps but returned to play A grade for the club. Stafford scored a century in 1947 and Ernie instilled a fierce competitive spirit in the team. His return did however put paid to the formerly popular Teppanyaki nights after Thursday training.
The war disrupted many cricket careers among them Jack Ellis who was a fast bowler who played 22 games for Qld and was on the periphery of the test side, playing in a number of trials. Famously at one of these trials he dismissed Bradman with his first ball and it was unsure whether this worked for or against his selection. For Wests he took 176 wickets @ a miserly 13.
Another, Nev Donaldson was a man after my own heart. He once scored a century in 34 minutes and on another occasion hit 5 x 6s in an over on his way to 172 in 94 minutes.
Club icon Jack McLaughlin began his long association with wests immediately after the war. Jack was to play 59 games for Qld scoring 4 centuries as well as representing the state at baseball. Jack scored nearly 5000 runs for Wests, all on uncovered wickets as he has told me on numerous occasions.
The arrival of our finest batsman Sam Trimble coincided with the most successful period in the club’s first grade history with 3 premierships in 4 seasons between 1957 & 1961. Sam was enticed to Qld from Lismore forging a path that was to be tread by long time first grade batsman and coach Peter Cameron & wicketkeeper Paul Everingham who joins us today. Sam broke the Qld run scoring record amassing 9500 runs with 24 centuries and was extremely unlucky that his career coincided with those of Bob Simpson & Bill Lawry meaning that 12th man against the West Indies was as close as he came to playing a test despite averaging 89 on that tour. For Wests he also hit 24 hundreds in scoring 7000 runs and is the only player who has scored more than 2000 runs to average more than 50. When you consider that any batsman with a first grade average over 34.64 is an absolute legend, his numbers are impressive indeed.
Sam’s opening partner for Wests & Qld Ray Reynolds came to the club from Bundaberg and was selected for Qld as a 19 year old ultimately scoring 12 centuries in 7 seasons. I am very pleased to see his son Dean here, himself the scorer of 3 x A grade hundreds and in his time the most dominant junior batsman in the country. Unfortunately Glenn Trimble could not join us although the upside is that there may be some red wine left at the end of the day.
The addition of Des Hughson meant that Wests had 4 Qld top order batsmen and a strong & varied attack including leg spinners Col Westaway, John Freeman & Gerry Warr all of whom played for Qld. For Wests all 3 averaged under 20 with the ball - Westaway taking over 400 wickets and Warr averaging 15. The fast bowling was led by Frank Speare & Barry Fisher. Frank, who I am thrilled to say is here today took 8/12 in 1961 which were his best figures until 1963 when he took 10/27. Frank - were those the only 2 seasons that you prepared the wickets?
Barry Fisher was a well performed all rounder for Qld taking over 100 wickets and good enough to be selected for an Australian XI to play England. His performances for Wests are extraordinary - over 13 seasons he scored nearly 3000 runs and took over 300 wickets at an average of 12.
The late 60s, 70s & early 80s did not produce a first grade premiership despite the club boasting some fine players. John Loxton scored a century on his Shield debut and 90 in his 2nd match. Left arm fast bowlers Peter Donaldson & John Bourke formed a potent combination together with Tim Caban and I am happy to say that Locko, Tim & John are with us today as is hard hitting batsman Gary Cosier. Like Roger Hartigan many years before Gary scored a hundred in his test debut but undoubtedly his most treasured cricketing moment was in a 6-a-side tournament on the Gold Coast when he hit my mate Knucklehead through a 2nd story hospital window.
Chris Smart & Michael Maranta brought some glamour to the club in the 80s with their movie star looks and flash cars but backed it up with some fine on-field performances, in particular Smarty scoring twin 50s in the 1984 Shield final against Dennis Lillee in Perth.
Qld ‘keeper Ray Phillips also played for the club when he moved north from Sydney & it is during this era that the inaugural Graceville Gift was run - instigated when burly first grade all-rounder Garry “Piss” Poore challenged fellow burly all-rounder Dave “The Hulk” Lansbury to a sprint after the last match of the season. An institution had been born.
Dirk Tazelaar came to Wests from Ipswich in 1984 & immediately stamped his class with 40 A grade wickets in a team that finished last including 3x6 wicket hauls & 2 of 5 wickets. Dicky was first picked for Qld the next season and was named Sheffield Shield player of the year 87/88.
There will be a lot of talk today about players who were unlucky not to reach higher honours - I pity the poor bastards sitting next to Rowell but Dicky really did deserve to go on the 1989 ashes tour. Unfortunately it was not to be and playing for Surrey he suffered a career-threatening back injury akin to that famously suffered by Dennis Lillee. He managed the pain through the remainder of his career, taking constant ice baths & bowling in a brace at times.
All this effort was not without benefits however, Dicky’s the only man I’ve played with who had groupies at club matches. Every game we would see a couple bring their single, of marrying-age daughter down from Ipswich to catch a glimpse of their hero. They would sit in the front row of the grandstand, the entire front row of the grandstand just hoping for a smile or a friendly word or 2 from their prospective son-in-law & husband. They would have a mountain of food trying to entice Dicky with lamingtons, a chocolate cake or a couple of packets of Tim Tams. I remember one day they even did a pig on a spit. I’m not sure what would have transpired had Denise not been on the scene but it is safe to say that Ryan wouldn’t have such perfect teeth.
John Bell came to the club as captain/coach after a successful career at Norths & Wynnum and set about assembling a team that would ultimately break the long A grade premiership drought which we did in 1987/88. Carl Rackemann & John Maguire joined Dicky to form a test-strength pace attack and start a near 20 year period where Wests had an attack to be feared. Craig McDermott slotted in when Dicky was injured and Moose Maguire was replaced by Greg Rowell who continued terrorising opening batsmen well into the 2000s winning the Burge Medal in 1995. I recall in 1988 playing with Rackemann, Tazelaar & Maguire when the Test pace attack in one Test that summer comprised Bruce Reid, Tony Dodemaide & Steve Waugh. Cricket is indeed a funny game.
Unfortunately though this great depth and rich vein of fast bowling talent did not translate into first grade premierships until Rowell was joined by club junior Steve Magoffin, Greg Schossow & Cameron Glass. Despite high quality performances and becoming one of the most feared bowlers in the competition, Magoffin could get no further than the Shield squad before moving to Western Australia for 7 seasons where he joined Dennis Lillee, Terry Alderman & Graham McKenzie in the state’s top 10 leading wicket takers. He returned from the West to Wests in 2011 and belatedly received his Queensland cap, hitting the winning runs in a nail-bitingly tight Sheffield Shield final win over Tasmania. Mags continued his career in England retiring with a phenomenal first class record of 597 wickets @ 23.
Sandgate/Redcliffe were the team to beat in the early 2000s and our 2 clubs met in 3 grand finals in 4 years. in the 2nd of those finals the team bravely got within 50 runs of victory after being set the near impossible task of scoring 80 to win in a day & a half but the hoodoo was finally broken in 2004/5 squeezing past the Gators by 350 runs.
The domination of Aaron Nye & Steve Paulsen with the bat played a huge part in these teams’ successes and again when the A grade side lifted the trophy 3 years later. Both had tremendous match awareness, will to win, were very effective spinners & brilliant fielders - Harry the best I have seen.
Nysie was to win the Burge medal in 2003 & 2007 for his phenomenal seasons scoring 918 & 804 runs respectively. Belatedly rewarded for his excellence he scored a century on his Shield debut against a test strength NSW attack comprising McGrath, Bracken, Nicholson, Clarke & Waugh. Despite this he was only to play a further 7 Shield matches.
Steve was still dominating when we next won the flag in 2016/17 and finished his 2-day career scoring nearly 8500 runs including 2 double centuries, one being the club record 231 not out. He is still playing white ball cricket & scored a hundred in the most recent season’s 1 day competition. He also played a paltry 3 Shield games scoring an unbeaten 90 in his 2nd match. I’m not alone in believing that both could have had significant representative careers if given the opportunities afforded to many of their peers.
Those premiership teams boasted other quality all-rounders Ross Lupton, Matt Lane & Geoff Paulsen. Lupton one of a small band players to boast both an A-grade hundred and an 8-for.
One of my favourite tales of this recent period was a home T-20 semi-final in 2013 against Toombul. The scheduled day was washed out and despite being under no obligation to do so, Wests agreed to play the game the next week with Toombul now benefitting from the availability of Ryan Harris & Chris Lynn. Toombul got up in a desperately tight finish, Lynn hitting a six from the final ball to finish on 67 out of his team’s 101. We are still striving for our first T-20 title but Wests is a club that I am proud to say I represented.
The side is currently well lead by the 2 Pattys - Collins & Dooley and in the past 10 years has won 2 premierships & 2 x one day titles. 2016 Burge medallist Sam Truloff has emerged as the premier batsman having already scored 18 centuries by the age of 28 and to date has played 10 matches for Qld. He is backed up by all-rounder Steve McGiffin who is averaging over 50 with the bat and fast bowlers Blake Edwards & Brendan Doggett both of whom have played for Qld, Brendan also having toured with the Australian team and taking 4 for in the recent Shield Final win over NSW.
This era has seen great depth right through the grades with Wests winning the club championship 7 times since 1988. As well as on-field success it was players from the lower grades who organised social functions and drove club spirit and it is great to see so many club legends here today.
Eddie Ebert & David Mollah had long, successful playing careers starting in under 18s and both served as long term chairmen of selectors. Moll is a former gift winner & I know that there are many here who would love to see these 2 titans head-to-head. Perhaps tonight will be the night.
John Shirley & Greg Gunton have returned to the scene of their record breaking partnership of 364 in 1988 and can compare notes with Rob Walker who also scored a double hundred that season - 160 of them from pull-shots. Gary Jeffress unfortunately could not be with us today but posted the club record 269 not out in the same year.
Long term committee member Dan Crompton is a premiership captain as is Steve “Flash” Ryan and both took bags of wickets for the club. Although he played most of his cricket down the grades, Flash more than held his own when 1st grade opportunities presented taking 3 wickets on debut.
The “Chilla of the lower grades” Nick Purser has just taken his 533rd wicket but it might be time to give it away though as his career average has crept up over 12.
Perhaps a few of you here know David Cook but are you aware that he was a fine cricketer collecting almost as many wickets as he has test cricketers’ phone numbers? Another to score a century & take an 8-for, in 1984/85 he scored over 300 runs @ 45 as well as taking 24 wickets @ 6. Together with corporal Hank Johnson from Columbus Ohio he holds the record for having slept the most number of nights at the ground.
Clearly we men have tasted our share of success over the past 100 years but it pales in comparison to our mighty women. Since Premier Grade came into existence in 1997/98, we have won 10 x first grade 1 day titles and 2 x 2nd grade titles. Of the 11 x T-20 competitions played our girls have won 6. Recently retired Qld Fire & Brisbane Heat captain (and Australia’s most eloquent cricketer) Kirby Short has won a staggering 14 premierships. There is no doubt that none of this would have happened without the foresight & drive of Katherine Raymont.
Katherine herself was a fine test player but she has overseen the development of her fellow Wests internationals Melissa Bulow, Jodie Fields, Holly Ferling & Grace Harris all of whom we will hear from later today. A measure of the influence Wests players have had on Queensland cricket is the fact that the Brisbane clubs battle for the Katherine Raymont & Jodie Fields Shields in 1st & 2nd grade respectively.
Wicketkeeper Jodie represented Qld over 250 times as well playing over 150 matches for Australia and in 2009 became the first Qld woman to captain Australia. She led the national side to victory in both the 50 & 20 over World Cups and finished her test career averaging 66. For Wests she scored 4800 runs at an average of 66.
Mel is Queensland’s highest run scorer and played tests, one day internationals & T-20s for Australia. She also holds the run scoring record for Wests with nearly 6000 runs @ 53 with 13 hundreds and for 10 years was the most prized wicket in Brisbane premier cricket winning the Kath Smith Medal for the best player in Grade cricket 3 times in 4 seasons.
Grace Harris also won the Kath Smith Medal in 2015/16 and has averaged over 100 in each of the past 2 seasons. The season before last she struck 36 x sixes and last year hit 55 - successful indeed but not doing much for participation of aspiring bowlers in the women’s game.
These 3 players make up the 4 leading run scorers for the club together with Kirby Short who also leads the wicket taking list with 151 wickets @ 16. Fast bowler Holly Ferling completes our list of Australian representatives.
Given Australia’s unrivalled dominance of women’s cricket and The Qld Fire & the Brisbane Heat’s success in their respective national competitions in recent seasons, it is not outrageous to say that Wests is one of the best Women’s cricket clubs in the world.
To honour the Centenary, a ladies team of the century has been selected together with a men’s team of the century and a team of the last 50 years and these will be displayed throughout the afternoon.
So there you have it - 100 years of history of a proud suburban cricket club whose players have performed on the world stage. We have experienced our fair share of success but more importantly those who have played for the club are richer for the experience.
Dean Tuckwell
