Wynnum Manly Cricket Club History – 1960s
Wynnum Manly District Cricket Club | February 17, 2023
On a sunny September afternoon in 1961 a crowd of 1200 gathered at Brisbane's suburban Windsor Park. They watched West Indian Wesley Hall bowl for an hour before he captured the wicket of the Norths captain. Here to play Sheffield Shield cricket for Queensland, Hall was playing for Colts in his first club appearance.
Twelve kilometres away at Deagon, a handful of spectators watched another match where Sandgate Redcliffe and Balmoral Wynnum were making their first appearance in the district competition. Sandgate took the honours with a first innings win. Wynnum batted first, making 238 and 0/8 in its second innings. Reg Bratchford top scored with 95. Sandgate made 7 dec 267 with Ray Hughson taking 4 /109.
Fifty seasons have now elapsed since that afternoon and the clubs have since met 70 times with the honours shared. Contemporary newspaper reports lamented the addition of the two teams to the competition claiming a consequent lowering of standards. Fifty years on, this line of reasoning can still be heard in some quarters when any expansion to the competition is mooted.
Balmoral Wynnum was created by the amalgamation of Eastern Suburbs-Balmoral from Bulimba and Wynnum Manly from the Wynnum area. Those two clubs had fielded teams in the lower grades competition for some years and were rewarded for years of effort when finally admitted as a new Club by the Queensland Cricket Association to its premier competition – A Grade as it was then known, at its Executive meeting of 8 August 1961. Home games were played at Bulimba Memorial Park and Wynnum Memorial Park. Eastern Suburbs-Balmoral was of course an associate of the Eastern Suburbs club then based at Langlands Park. Eastern Suburbs-Balmoral had existed for 42 years, being formed in 1919, and it entered the QCA Senior Division in 1933 fielding B and C grades for 28 seasons. Wynnum had fielded teams in C grade and Intermediate in the season leading up to admission. Balmoral Wynnum fielded teams in five grades: A, Reserve, B, C and Intermediate. 83 players played in that initial season. The Club finished with £476 in the kitty but started with £489 so lost £13 about $30 in its first season.
Those early years were very much learning years. The 1960s produced few notable performances and it was not until the club’s third season that the first A grade century was scored by Alf Birks against Colts at Bulimba Memorial on 28 September 1963. Two weeks later on 19 October Birks returned the best bowling analysis of 8 for 27 against Valley at Bulimba Memorial. It was not until 14 seasons (1974-75) that first grade finished higher than seventh on the table.
B grade finished second to Toombul in the first two seasons but in 1961-62 only A grade played a final and in 1962-63 the B grade final was washed out so Toombul was awarded the Premiership. The Intermediate grade provided the first premiership– in the 1962-63 season they finished on top and beat Eastern Suburbs 88 to 83. In 1963-64 the Intermediate team finished on top and in 1968-69 they finished on top and beat Northern Suburbs in the final.
The club produced two Sheffield Shield representatives in Keith Dudgeon, who came from Cairns, selected in 1967-68 and 1968-69 and local product Bill Albury, who played from 1970-71 to 1973-74. Albury was actually the first selected representative player in a Queensland Colts team but unlike the world of sport today, he was unable to take his place in the team because of work commitments. He later played in a Colts team in a drawn Sydney Gregory match against New South Wales at Church of England Grammar in November 1965 where he returned 3/72 and 6/77 for the match.
