Nathan Whittingham, Daniel Rixon and Chris Williams - Life Members of Sutherland District Cricket Club

Sutherland District Cricket Club | February 22, 2024

Nomination of Nathan Whittingham for Life Membership by Mathew Duff

Nathan Whittingham joined the Club in 2003-04, when he played AW Green Shield (among his teammates was young Steven Smith). The annual report said “Nathan Whittingham bowled some good, tidy spells of off-spin and is sure to improve with good tuition at grade level next season”. He certainly did that, as he finished up playing for Sutherland for 18 seasons, capturing 422 wickets in all grades (average 23.2) with his off-spinners. In all grades, Nathan has played 270 matches, including 21 in 1st Grade (player #233, making his debut on 28 February 2009), 91 in 2nd Grade and 72 in 5th Grade.

In all grades, along with his 422 wickets, Nathan has scored 2591 runs and taken 111 catches. In 2nds, he took 128 wickets at 31.2 (=7th all-time). In 3rds, he took 72 wickets at 18.6. In 5ths, he scored 1325 runs at 27.6 (6th all-time) and took 156 wickets at 15.7 (4th all-time) and 43 catches (4th all-time). He played in three premiership teams: 4th Grade in 2006-07, 3rd Grade in 2011-12 and 5th Grade in 2018-19. In the 4th Grade semi-final, he was part of a crucial 9th wicket partnership to take us to a 1st innings lead and, in the final, he and Blake Miller held on for an hour in the 4th innings of the match to avoid outright defeat after we had a 1st innings lead.

Nathan captained the Club in 91 matches, including 38 in 2nds and 52 in 5ths (3rd all-time). He captained 2nd Grade for 2½ seasons, from 2014-15 to 2016-17 – unfortunately missing the second half of 2015-16 when 2nds made the finals due to a badly broken finger. He then stepped down to captain 5th Grade for 4 seasons, from 2017-18 to 2020-21. 5ths played 3 successive finals series in his first 3 seasons as captain, highlighted by the premiership in 2018-19.

In 2017-18, Nathan won the James A. Daly Memorial Award for Player of the Season and the Ted Cotton Memorial Award for Players’ Player of the Season. However, the undoubted highlight for him that season must have been when he scored 127 against Randwick Petersham at Tonkin Oval, finally confirming the AWG report of 2003-04 which said “capable of scoring runs but will need to work hard on his defensive batting skills”!

During those 4 seasons, he played a significant role in the development of many players who have gone on to play higher grades for the Club, including future 1st Graders Ethan Deal, Justin Green, Dylan Holdstock and Ronak Bedi. In this season’s Poidevin-Gray Shield premiership team, 7 of the 12 man squad had spent at least 5 matches in 5ths with Whitto, including Greeny (25 matches) and Ronak (23 matches).

He was also AW Green Shield coach for 2 seasons in 2015-16 and 2016-17 and has continued to be involved in the AWG selection process since then.

Nathan has also served on the committee for 8 years as a committeeman and he will be taking over from me as President at the conclusion of the AGM.

Nathan’s contribution to SDCC as a player, captain, coach and committeeman over the last 18 seasons has been outstanding. He is a most worthy candidate for life membership of the Club and I am pleased to nominate him. He deserves your unanimous support.

Nomination of Daniel Rixon for Life Membership by Tom Iceton

Daniel Rixon joined the Club for the 2003-04 season after playing his junior cricket in the St.George area. Being the son of a club legend didn’t daunt him – as Jason Packer wrote in the 2nd Grade report that season, “Dan has a lot of confidence for a young guy”. He has gone on to play 361 matches for the Club in all grades, 4th on the all-time list.

Not surprisingly, wicketkeeping was his forte and he has gone on to set marks that will stand for at least a long time. In all grades, he has taken 396 catches and made 102 stumpings. His total of 498 dismissals is the club record by 61. In 1st Grade, he took 359 catches and made 82 stumpings – 210 more than the next best. He holds the club record for most wicketkeeping dismissals in a season with 52 in 1sts in 2005-06. That was always going to be hard to top, but over the next 7 seasons in 1sts, he gave it his best shot, with 35, 46, 66, 44, 37, 38 & 38 – a total of 326 dismissals over 8 seasons!

In all grades, Daniel has scored 6702 runs, 19th on the all-time list. This includes 3627 runs in 1sts (16th all-time) and 2356 runs in 2nds (10th all-time). His highest score was 272 in 2nds in 2015-16, when he was returning from a broken thumb. This is the 7th highest score in grade cricket history. His partnership that day for the 3rd wicket with Jamie Brown of 347 is not only the club record for all wickets, it is also the 7th highest in grade cricket history. His highest score in 1sts was 98, when he was agonisingly caught in close at GMO in 2015-16 (he also made 95 the previous season). He also holds the 4th wicket partnership record for 2nds with Jason Packer of 199, in his first season with the Club.

In the latter part of Daniel’s career, he took up medium pace bowling (now slow medium) after an unbelievable winter playing in Scotland where he took 10 wickets in an innings in one match. He has now taken 74 wickets in all grades.

Daniel has played in the most finals matches for the Club, 35 (including 31 in the various 1st Grade competitions), and the most finals series for the Club, 20 (including 17 in 1st Grade comps). He was a member of the 1st Grade Limited Overs premiership team in 2009-10 and the 1st Grade T20 premiership team in 2018-19. He also played in the 1st Grade finals in 2009-10 & 2012-13 and the 2nd Grade final this season.

Daniel has captained the Club in 31 matches, including 2nd Grade for the 2018-19 season. In that season, he won the James A. Daly Memorial Award for Player of the Season and the Ted Cotton Memorial Award for Players’ Player of the Season. He won the James A. Daly Award again this season.

Daniel was an assistant coach for two seasons in 2014-15 & 2015-16 and then head coach from 2016-17 to 2020-21. He also coached AW Green Shield for three seasons, from 2006-07 to 2008-09. He has also run the SDCC-Tradies Development Squad sessions since they began in 2017-18 and various other junior development gala days.

Daniel’s contribution to SDCC as a player, captain and coach over the last 18 seasons has been outstanding. He is a most worthy candidate for life membership of the Club and I am pleased to nominate him. He deserves your unanimous support.

Nomination of Chris Williams for Life Membership by David Cush

Chris Williams first played for Sutherland in 5th Grade and AW Green Shield in 2001-02. The team reports said “Chris Williams from Green Shield exhibited huge talent” (5ths) and “Chris Williams, a first year boy, showed himself to be a fine all-round cricketer, topping off some fine performances with a hat-trick against North Sydney” (AWG). The following season, the AWG report said he scored “a fine ton against Parramatta” and he “will have benefited from a full season of grade cricket and can look forward to a bright future with the Club”. He steadily worked his way through the grades over the next three seasons before, on 14 October 2006, he became 1st Grade player #219. A highlight for him that season was sharing an opening partnership of 72 with Phil Jaques at North Sydney Oval the day that Phil scored 321!

After a good first season in 1sts, he lost form the following season and ended up captaining 3rd Grade to the semi-finals after we had used 6 captains in a disjointed season. He also captained PGs that season after Steve Smith became a first class player. Over the next four seasons, he fluctuated between 1sts and 2nds without establishing a regular 1st Grade spot. He had a break in 2012-13 and returned in 2013-14 with 559 runs in 2nds and a couple of matches in 1sts. Chris then fulfilled the predictions from his AWG seasons as he became a dominant 1st Grade player. Over 8 seasons from 2014-15 to the season just ended, he played 150 1st Grade matches and scored 5370 runs at an average of 39.78, with 7 centuries (highest score 183 not out).

Chris became 1st Grade captain in 2016-17 when he filled in for Ben Dwarshuis when Ben was on representative duty. He became the full-time captain the following season and led the team with distinction over the next 5 seasons. During that time, 1st Grade played finals series in all three competitions – the highlight from Chris’ captaincy perspective being 2017-18 when we played finals in all three comps in the one season.

Chris has played 370 matches in all grades for the Club to date (3rd all-time), scoring 10903 runs (4th all-time) and taking 164 catches (3rd all-time). In 1st Grade, he has played 185 matches (9th all-time), scored 6189 runs (5th all-time) and taken 84 catches (equal 7th all-time). In 2nd Grade, he has played 82 matches, scoring 2875 runs (7th all-time). He scored over 500 runs in a season on 9 occasions. He has played in 18 finals series (equal 2nd all-time with Matthew Hughston, behind Daniel Rixon), involving 26 finals matches (6th all-time). He was a member of the 1st Grade T20 premiership winning squad in 2018-19. He also played in the 2nd Grade final in 2009-10.

Whilst his use at the bowling crease was spasmodic after his early seasons with the Club, Chris does have 39 wickets to his credit. The hat-trick from his AWG days makes him one of only 12 players in the Club’s history who has scored a century and taken a hat-trick for the Club.

Chris has captained the Club in 113 matches in all grades (3rd all-time). He has captained 1st Grade in 94 matches – the most for the Club. He has developed into one of the most respected captains in 1st Grade. At the end of the season, he announced his retirement as captain.

Chris served as Poidevin-Gray Shield manager for one season in 2013-14. He has also been involved in AW Green Shield selections over the last couple of seasons.

Chris’ contribution to SDCC as a player and captain over 20 seasons has been outstanding. He is a most worthy candidate for life membership of the Club and I am pleased to nominate him. He deserves your unanimous support.