St George District Cricket Club First Grade Premiers 1952-53

St George Cricket Club | May 17, 2023

70 years ago, this amazing team took out the 1st Grade Premiership. Led by the legendary Ernie Laidler putting his 22 years of 1st grade experience to good use.

The side only used 14 players throughout the season including just two games from Australian Rep Arthur Morris. On their way to claiming the 1952-53 flag they won 10 games on 1st Innings, lost one and drew two.

The leading run scorer was Vic Michael (393) with Norm Allen (390), Eric Lukeman (389), Vic Cristofani (367), Bob Cristofani (349) and Wally Yeates (313) all exceeding 300 run seasons.

Three bowlers exceeded 30 wickets with Keith Francis (32) Bob Cristofani (31) and

Ross Longbottom (30) taking the lion share of the wickets.

The successful squad also contained two of the clubs most promising up and coming youngsters in Brian Booth (11 innings) and Warren Saunders (6 innings) who both must have taken so much from this particular season as they both went on to score over 10, 000 first grade runs each as well as enjoying many more premiership victories. These two young men would go on to become two of the greatest Saints of all time.