Johnnie Moyes at Chatswood Oval
Gordon District Cricket Club | November 25, 2024
On 25 March 1922 probably the fastest double century of all time in either representative or grade cricket was scored at Chatswood Oval on the first day of a grade match between Gordon and Central Cumberland. We will describe the innings and maybe why it happened later in this story, however we should first refer to the Gordon player and the incredible role he played both in cricket circles and in the war.
Johnnie Moyes (full name Alban George Moyes) was a batsman who played for South Australia in the 1912-13 and 1913-14 seasons scoring 883 runs with a highest score of 104 against Western Australia. He was considered good enough to be selected for the Australian tour of South Africa in 1914 but the tour was cancelled due to the outbreak of the war.
The role Johnnie played and his sacrifice during the war reach the level of legend status and continually reminds us of the service of our Gordon cricketers’ in both the First and Second World Wars.
To say that Johnnie fought in the war from 1916 to 1918 on the battlefield of Pozieres, Flers, Polygon Wood, Bellecourt and Passchendaele and had three extended visits to the 3rd London General Hospital for major knee and hip surgery as well as Pleurisy, is probably enough to indicate his service but if you add a further list of achievements, it certainly adds even more to his impact over those three years. They were:
· Johnnie enlisted as a 2nd Lieutenant, and through to the end of the war was promoted to Lieutenant, Captain, Major and Lieutenant Colonel. The only reason he didn’t become a Colonel was the war ended.
· He led the 48th Battalion (as a Major) into the ill-fated Battle of Passchendaele where he was seriously wounded, and made the comment in his diary Almost every man who showed himself became a casualty
· For his combined efforts in the Battles of Polygon Wood and Passchendaele he received the Military Cross.
· He was rewarded with a match at Lords in June 1918 for the Dominions against England. Where the batting order at opener, no 3, no 4 and no. 5 were all Gordon players Charlie Kelleway, Charlie Macartney, Johnnie Moyes and Johnny Taylor
Johnnie scored 1,886 runs at an average of 28.15 for Gordon. After his retirement, an ‘Appreciation’ appeared in Gordon’s 1927-28 Annual Report and the following is an extract from that item:
‘…who as Hon Secretary and delegate was such a great executive officer. Very few men have had the same large and varied experience as he; both in the administrative and playing departments of the game his name has been written in large letters. He has been prominent as a delegate on the Cricket Associations of South Australia, Victoria and New South Wales.’
‘As a player he has represented the first two named states and was selected in the Australian team to tour South Africa in 1914, and in the side to visit New Zealand in 1921. …was appointed a State selector. It can be readily seen that his retirement is a big loss not only to your Club, but to first-class cricket. His record is one that any man might be proud of…’
On Saturday 25th March 1922, Gordon won the toss and elected to bat at Chatswood Oval against Central Cumberland. Interestingly also on that day, the State of NSW was engaged in a State election where 90 seats were being decided and the incumbent Labor Premier James Dooley was standing against the Nationalist leader George Fuller. Obviously, Johnnie had forgotten to vote and he needed to get to a polling booth. Fortunately, the nearest one was the Chatswood Willoughby School of Art Hall in Willoughby Road. Johnnie of course would have been driving an “Australian Six” that was the first Australian made car built in 1919 by FH Gordon & Co. He had worked out the route to take.
It was the second last round of the season and only Johnnie’s fourth game for Gordon and he was in no mood to let the bowlers settle in. Johnnie opened the batting and within 20 minutes he had scored 50 being mainly fours through the covers and the point region.
The crowd at this stage started to get excited as Johnnie doubled that score by reaching his century in only 40 minutes. The fours were becoming prolific as the bowlers had no idea about where to bowl to him. His rate of 50 in 20 minutes slowed dramatically over the next period when he took a further 22 minutes to reach his 150.
This is when he decided that hitting fours wasn’t progressing his score as much as he wanted to get to the polling booth before lunch. That is where his love of hitting sixes onto the Railway line came to the fore and he moved to his 200 in only an additional 10 minutes.
Just as Johnnie was eying the two highest scores by a Gordon first grade batsman of 224 not out and 227, both being scored by his mate Charlie Macartney, he was dismissed for 218. As he walked from the ground after a stay of only 83 minutes, he was given a standing ovation by the now bulging crowd as word had spread through the streets of Chatswood.
Johnnie didn’t do a lot of running in his innings, hitting 36 fours and 7 sixes, totally an amazing 186 of his total score of 218. For the record Gordon declared its innings at 8 for 396 and bowled out Cumberland for 159.
Johnnie, of course, became known as an exceptional journalist and became News Editor for the Daily Telegraph in 1928. He served again in the Second World War as Commander of the 7th Australian Garrison with the rank of lieutenant colonel. Johnnie also wrote thirteen books on cricket, including accounts of Test tours, biographies of Bradman (1948) and Benaud (1962), and one on Australian Cricket (1959). In 1949, he started as a cricket broadcaster with the ABC and became a household name in Australia and New Zealand in the 1950s and early 1960s. As described by Kenneth Inglis his infectiously hysterical description of the last over of the tied Test between Australia and the West Indies in December 1960 has been replayed many times.
Moyes was awarded an MBE in 1959 and died of coronary vascular disease on 18 January 1963 at his Chatswood home.
