15 wickets in a day .... and the opposition was one man short!

Sutherland District Cricket Club | August 28, 2024

Geoff Glover (left) pictured with Alan Cramond and Tom Iceton

In the Club’s early seasons, we fielded teams in the “A” and “B” Grade competitions of what was known as the Municipal & Shires competition (now Shires). On 3 February 1968, the “B” Shires team played Ryde at Sutherland Oval in a one-day match. Captain Max Silva won the toss and sent Ryde in to bat. Young tearaway pace bowler Paul McCann was making his debut for the club and had a strong southerly at his back. However, it was the gentle medium pace of Geoff Glover that bamboozled the Ryde batsmen. Hooping his inswingers into the strong breeze, he was nearly unplayable as he took 8-6 off 4.7 overs. He bowled six and had one leg before wicket as the batsmen struggled to hit the swinging ball. When 9 wickets were down for only 31 runs, Geoff had his eyes on a 9-wicket haul …. only to realise that both batsmen were walking off the field as Ryde were one man short!

Sutherland replied with 2 declared for 138 off 18 overs. Peter Cox (who would go on to play three first grade matches for Cronulla Sharks as a halfback in 1976) top-scored with 61 not out, while new player McCann made 44 not out. When Ryde batted again, they didn’t fare much better as Glover continued to mesmerise the batsmen. They were all out for 113 off 24 overs, with Glover taking 7-34 off 12 overs to give him match figures of 15-40 – the best match figures for the Club until Devlin Malone took 16 wickets in 2015-16. Sutherland knocked off the seven runs required for a dominant outright win.

 

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