Tigers Tales - 1st Grade Captain Mal Freeman 'Cap 475'

Redlands Tigers Cricket Club | February 20, 2023

The Tigers history is a long, rich and varied one which we value greatly. This edition of the Tigers Captains series steps back in time to a very different era of the club.

Mal “Rowdy” Freeman led our top team during a very successful period when the club had a different name, home ground, logo and colours to the ones we are known by in the present.

If you look closely you can still see plenty of traces of the old days around our club today.

Everyone knows you as “Rowdy”, how did you get your nickname?

Greg Ritchie aka FatCat gave me the nickname during a junior carnival in the early 70's. I was the only kid not from Toowoomba in the team, so was having nothing to say and was very quiet. So he called me 'Rowdy'. We played a lot of cricket together after that, formed a great friendship, and are still great mates.

Where was your first game of cricket and who was it for?

My first game was for Beaudesert State School in 1969 against St Mary's Catholic School.

I was 9, and we 'spanked em'!! I got a few runs, got a couple of wickets, but my best memory of that game came from the umpires. They told us that if we thought that we had a batsman out, we had to ask 'how is that'? We all pissed ourselves laughing and were yelling 'howzat' after every ball!

Tell me about your junior club and your memories of playing there.

There was very little junior cricket played when I was a kid in Beaudesert. We played against the men when we were old enough and that was a great education. I was fortunate to have played Qld Schoolboys and Qld U19 as a kid. My Dad deserves a mention as he spent a fortune driving me to Brisbane to play during this time.

What senior clubs have you played for?

I played for Wynnum-Manly District Cricket Club from 1977 to 1981 and then for Eastern Suburbs Cricket Club until 1994. I was fortunate to have been in 2 premiership teams in 1st grade for Wynnum-Manly, but the 1989/90 Easts 1st grade premiership win was very special!

Overseas I played for Hounslow Cricket Club in London in the Thames Valley League in 1981 and played a couple of games for Buckinghamshire in the Minor Counties League.

How did your first game in first grade go?

My debut game in 1st grade was for Wynnum-Manly vs South Brisbane District Cricket Club in 1977. I scored 18, we won the game. Souths had a star studded team including Greg Chappell, Sam Trimble and John Maclean. For a kid playing against these blokes, it was a great occasion!!!

Did you play any other sports growing up or into adulthood?

My dad was a very good tennis player, and we had a court at home. Sadly for dad, there was more cricket than tennis played by me on that court!

Tell me about some of the most memorable characters you’ve come across in your sporting life.

There are too many to mention in this forum. BUT, the best by a mile was a guy called Bill Smith that I played with at Hounslow CC in London.

Smithy was the son of a very wealthy old London Banker, and was filthy rich!! Smithy played hockey for England, was a very good cricketer, but a lunatic. He sadly found himself in prison and played cricket for the prison team.

Smithy was the 'Bradman' of the Prison comp, and, when due for release, he pleaded with the Warden to keep him in jail for an extra 2 weeks so that he may play 1 more game and hopefully average 100 in the prison comp! True story!!!

Greg Ritchie and I could write a book on characters of Hounslow CC and Easts CC. That said, I could probably write a book about Fat Cat as well.

What was your favourite ground to play at?

Bottomley Park. I also loved batting at Souths, Wynnum, Toombul, Uni and the Gabba. Never got many at Wests, Valleys or Sandgate.

Tell me about your best or most memorable personal performance.

I made 222 at the Gabba in 1986 against Colts in a 1st grade game. BUT, my most memorable hundred in 1st grade was against Souths at Fehlberg Park.

I batted for most of the day and never hit a ball in the middle of the bat all day! I reckon I scored 15 boundaries between 2nd and 3rd slip off Souths opening bowler Paul Twible.

After every snick for 4, he'd give me a gobfull, and I would piss myself laughing at him. The last couple of snicks that day, he got over it and laughed with me. That was a fun day at the crease!

Tell me about some of the best you played with or against.

In my time I played 1st grade from 1977 to 1994. Best batsmen (home grown): Martin Kent, Greg Ritchie, Stuart Law, Matthew Hayden. Greg Chappell and Allan Border were pretty good imports as well!!! These guys were a class above all others. That said, special mention for Robbie Kerr and Jimmy Maher who were bloody good too.

Best bowlers:

Carl Rackemann, Craig McDermott, Jeff Thomson, Tony Dell, Geoff Dymock, Malcolm Franke.

Best hundred I saw in 1st grade:

Former Australian allrounder Trevor Laughlin made 150 for Wynnum-Manly against us at Bottomley Park. I dropped him on 0 off Steve Storey, and then he smashed us all over the Park!!! It was a great knock from Larry, but thankfully, we won the game by 4 runs.

Best bowling performance

Craig Jesbergs ‘9 for' against Uni at Uni. This bloke could bowl.

Opposition player you most respected?

Too many to mention, but I will go with Peter Clifford, Bob McGhee and Michael Mainhardt.

How did the coaching and training setup in the 80s compare with now?

Back then midweek training consisted of a bat in the nets, a few catches, and quite a few beers in the Crabpot!

I coached a junior team with the Tigers a few years ago but I never quite warmed to it. I only liked coaching in a bar! Really enjoyed coaching Sam (Heazlett) and Marnus (Labuschagne) through 15s/16s though. Both were a joy to coach and it helped that their parents are great people.

We always wanted Marnus to bat all day because he was such a pain in the arse around the team (haha). Love both of those boys and it’s wonderful to see them succeed.

You were a part of the club during some golden years in the late 80s, what made those first grade premiership teams so special?

Easts were a great club. Bottomley Park on a Saturday night was where every club cricketer in Brisbane in the 80's wanted to be. The 'Crabpot' was still 'open for business' most Sunday mornings at 7am (and sometimes Monday).

That said, we were much more than a social cricket club, and the 1979/80 and 1989/90 Premiership sides were as tough as nails.

What was your biggest challenge in captaincy?

Hardest part of captaincy - collecting the subs off the players!

Best piece of advice you ever received?

Work hard, play hard, and enjoy life.

What’s your advice for a young tiger trying to get up the grades?

Batting advice, just two things: keep your elbow up and your eyes level. Your feet will follow your elbow either forward or back. Keeping your eyes level helps you see the ball.

Think of it this way: if you’re lying on the couch and a good looking sheila comes on the TV what do you do? You sit up to get a good look at her - you get your eyes level!

I look at blokes like Kepler (Wessels) and AB (Allan Border) who built great careers around mastering just a couple of shots (Kepler had a cover drive, a cut and a dink around the corner) (AB would cut, pull and cover drive) but the difference was they wanted to bat all day.

What do you do now/outside of cricket?

These days I do a lot of fishing. My wife and I have spent the last few years travelling overseas. I don't get to the cricket much these days, but still follow the Tigers with much interest.

To finish things off: have you ever had a question you’ve wanted an interviewer to ask you?

Yeah: What are you going to do with the $50m you just won on the lotto?

Can’t argue with that. I’m hitting the couch. Thanks for the chat Rowdy.

~Dom Cassell~