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Q: A "Gem of a Man" - Frank Misson - RIP
“Strepter! Great to see you!”
I can still remember the look of pure pleasure as Richie Benaud once greeted his former team-mate, Frank Misson. I’d known that Frank was universally liked in the cricket world, and here was his test captain confirming it.
And it wasn’t just pleasure in Richie’s voice, there was also a touch of admiration.
https://www.cricconnect.com/profile/531/john-rogers/blog/2416/a-quotgem-of-a-manquot-frank-misson-rip
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“Strepter! Great to see you!”I can still remember the look of pure pleasure as Richie Benaud once greeted his former team-mate, Frank Misson. I’d known that Frank was universally liked ...
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Q: The period from the 1950s to the 1970s was a heyday of Sydney grade cricket.
Occasionally there were summers with no international cricket at all, so the domestic game was played with great intensity. One-day cricket and Sunday play did not start until the 1967-68 season, so there was less call on the top players. The sports lift-outs of the three Sunday papers gave grade cricket extensive coverage. The two afternoon daily newspapers, The Sun and the Daily Mirror, also covered grade cricket extensively. Articles on grade cricket were read widely, and the sporting public was interested in what Test and state players were doing in domestic cricket.
https://www.cricconnect.com/profile/531/john-rogers/blog/2173/sydney-grade-cricket-50s-to-70s-strong-opponents
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The period from the 1950s to the 1970s was a heyday of Sydney grade cricket.Occasionally there were summers with no international cricket at all, so the domestic game was played with great i ...
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Q: Neil Marks’s “hole-in the-heart” issues back in 1959, was big news in Australia.
That the new "young Bradman" from the previous season - after 7 innings for NSW he was averaging 98 - would be flying to the famed Mayo Clinic in America for an operation, drew a widespread, collective, outpouring of concern - including from me as a kid growing up in the (then) country town of Gosford.
So too did the news that the operation was a success, but that first class cricket for Neil, let alone playing for Australia, was out of the question.
The year before, In early December 1958 in Brisbane, a new-look Australian team was facing off against Ashes' holder England - and. cricket was dominating the air-waves. Australia had a new young captain in Richie Benaud and Australia’s newest sporting superstar Norm O’Neill was making his test debut.
https://www.cricconnect.com/profile/531/john-rogers/blog/1962/rip-neil-marks-unbowlable
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Neil Marks’s “hole-in the-heart” issues back in 1959, was big news in Australia.That the new "young Bradman" from the previous season - after 7 innings for NSW he was averaging 98 - wo ...
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Q: An epic final - St George v Cumberland at Sydney Cricket Ground 1965-66
Doug Walters aged 19 will play his last game for two years – his birthdate has meant conscription into the Army on National Service – and no amount of lobbying will get the new superstar of world cricket out of it.
He is in cracking form. He’s had a season every cricketer dreams about. It’s not just his two debut test centuries – he’s rung up another four for NSW – plus two in Sydney Grade – including one against St George where Cumberland had by far the best of drawn one-dayer.
https://www.cricconnect.com/profile/531/john-rogers/blog/655/an-epic-final-st-george-v-cumberland-at-sydney-cricket-ground-1965-66
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Q: Always graceful and often flamboyant, Billy Watson amassed almost 8,700 runs for St George at an average of 45. He tallied 500 runs in a season 12 times. Yes, 12 times.
That he should be so consistent was reflected in a comment he once made: “I may fail twice, but I won’t fail a third time.” He wasn’t boasting, just stating what he thought was an obvious with his typical, remarkable confidence.
Short, trim, yet immensely strong thanks to working in the wholesale potato business he took over from his father, Bill feared no bowler, always cocking a snoot at the most fearsome – Wes Hall, Ray Lindwall, Gordon Rorke, Alan Davidson – and, as he approached 40 years of age, the fearsome Thommo and Lennie Pascoe. He also loved taking on the top spinners – Benaud, Philpott and Martin.
https://www.cricconnect.com/profile/531/john-rogers/blog/1850/billy-watson-a-joy-to-watch
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Billy Watson was a former Australian Test Cricketer who played 4 Tests making his debut against England at the Sydney Cricket Ground on 25 February 1955. Bill passed away on 29 December 2018 at ...
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Q: Until Brian Taber arrived, Australian wicket keepers might have been best in the world, but by no stretch of the imagination were they pretty.
His predecessors mostly had been short and squat, some balding, and often quite rotund practitioners, disinterested in how they looked - think Don Tallon, Gil Langley, Wally Grout, Barry Jarman. My goodness they were good - and when he joined their company, Brian Taber was every bit as good. Known as "Herby" to a select few, he beat many renowned keepers to be named in the NSW team of the Millennium.
Yet without being showy, Tabbsy brought style and grace to the art of wicket-keeping. What he added to that dark art was that he personified Australia of the swinging sixties.
https://www.cricconnect.com/profile/531/john-rogers/blog/1345/brian-taber-quotswinging-sixtiesquot-keeper
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Until Brian Taber arrived, Australian wicket keepers might have been best in the world, but by no stretch of the imagination were they pretty.His predecessors mostly had been short and squat ...
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Q: The period from the 1950s to the 1970s was a heyday of Sydney grade cricket.
St George was clearly the team to watch, but Western Suburbs often proved to be the Saints nemesis at finals time. This was particularly so when Alan Davidson turned out for Wests, as he won finals in 59-60 and 63-64 and the 64-65 semi-final almost single-handedly. Each time he had with him a fine state bowler in Les Ellis but Davo’s exploits were telling. Each time St George was missing Brian Booth while Norm O’Neill also missed the 63-64 final as both were on their way to the 1964 Ashes in England. Wally Wellham, Ken Muller, Grahame Corling and Jim De Courcy were the pick of the Wests players in the early 60s. In the late 60s Test skipper Bob Simpson captained effectively and had Gary Gilmour, Brian Rhodes and Stuart Webster as three fine pace bowlers and a dangerous left arm tweaker in Peter Ferguson, while Bob Bartlett was a tough top-order batsman.
https://www.cricconnect.com/profile/531/john-rogers/blog/1317/sydney-grade-cricket-50s-to-70s-strong-opponents
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The period from the 1950s to the 1970s was a heyday of Sydney grade cricket.Occasionally there were summers with no international cricket at all, so the domestic game was played with great i ...
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Q: A golden era in Australian club cricket
As most cricket experts will tell you, comparing standards and statistics of different eras is pretty pointless. Comparisons across eras are unfair because too many things change over time. Fair enough, but there is much evidence that backs the assertion that the 1950s and 60s were the heyday of first-grade cricket in Australia.
These days, premier league cricket, as first grade is called now, is played with great intensity by players who are much bigger, stronger and fitter than ever before. But today’s compétitions lack two things that characterised club cricket in the 50s and 60s.
https://www.cricconnect.com/profile/531/john-rogers/blog/1281/a-golden-era-in-australian-club-cricket
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As most cricket experts will tell you, comparing standards and statistics of different eras is pretty pointless. Comparisons across eras are unfair because too many things change over time. Fair en ...
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Q: In country regional cricket men often play with teenagers. How does this affect leadership and captaincy when there is an understanding that cricket is a platform for personal growth beyond the boundary?
A: James
Assuming your question can be condensed into: “any tips for captaining teenagers in adult competitions” ….. here goes:
By luck, as a youngster I joined a team that had in it the recently deceased Brian Booth, then a 4-year Test player in his early 30s, about to be Test captain.
Six of that team were over 32, the other six under 22, four of them teenagers. We youngsters were in awe of Brian as much for the way he conducted himself as for his cricket skill.
There was no rank-pulling. He didn’t demand he field in slips. He chased every ball as hard as we did. He treated us as adults. He encouraged us, listened to our unsophisticated cricket talk. If he thought our views needed broadening, he’d tell us what he had learned, and left us to to think about it.
He didn’t sledge the opposition, in fact he spoke to them at afternoon tea-time, before the game and after the game, and encouraged us to do so. He never swore, never lost his temper, but always seemed to behave normally as if out on the street. That meant we could talk to him quite naturally and hear of his experiences in cricket and in his workplace.
The other older players followed his lead, and out of it came a happy team, where older and younger players interacted easily and stayed friends long after cricket days. The same applied as other teenagers joined Brian in the team in years to come. All in fact flourished in life beyond the boundary.
Hope that helps.
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Q: 5kms inland from Bondi at the Sydney Cricket Ground another 40,000 people have no interest in the beach. They are packed into the Sydney Cricket Ground watching Australia take on England in the 1962-63 Ashes series. The last test in Sydney was two years previously when the West Indies tour galvanised cricket.
All eyes are on the Australian fast-bowling spearhead Alan Davidson as he licks the first two fingers of his left hand fingers and holds them up to test if the nor-easter has arrived. Yes, he decides, and tells the umpires he will bowl from the northern or Members’ end of the ground to take advantage of the nor-easter coming from behind, blowing over his left shoulder.
Ten minutes earlier his Australian team’s 1st innings series had finished – with a 40 run lead. The England team are not unhappy, a decent performance in their 2nd innings and they might well have the Aussies on toast.
https://www.cricconnect.com/profile/531/john-rogers/blog/1167/davorsquos-masterclass
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The Nor-Easter is in.It’s a classic Sydney summer holiday afternoon in mid-January – every square metre of sand at Bondi Beach has a semi-naked body on it.The humid, stifling heat ...
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Q: The hardest part of Captaincy - "helping your batters"
No matter what targets are set, and suggestions made about hitting areas, the fact is half your top order is likely to fail in any close game.
That means two things.
1. You will need the lower order to come good - regularly, and in times of crisis
2. You have to help the top order to do better more often.
https://www.cricconnect.com/profile/531/john-rogers/blog/1057/the-hardest-part-of-captaincy-quothelping-your-battersquot
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No matter what targets are set, and suggestions made about hitting areas, the fact is half your top order is likely to fail in any close game.That means two things.1. You w ...
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Every time I see Steve Smith go out at the fall of a wicket, whirring the bat around each shoulder, exercising every muscle he can think of, grabbing onto pad flaps, scratching out his mark as if d ...
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Q: 1982-83 Sheffield Shield Final NSW v Western Australia
Before play began, a fired-up Mike Whitney charged out of the change-rooms breathing fire like a rugby league prop at a grand final. Old Bull, Rod Marsh an AFL type who disliked rugby league and NSW with a passion, was not amused and let fly at Whit with a series of loud aggressive put-downs as to his lack of respect - only to suddenly find Whit standing an inch in front of him and towering over him offering suggestions as to his imminent and long overdue retirement.
Effectively it was a clash of cricket cultures. Marsh, Lillee and the Chappells treated with disdain the catch-cry that when NSW is strong so is Australia.
It was all over pretty quickly but set the scene for a fantastic first Sheffield Shield Final - a precursor for many to follow - for what is effectively the 6th Test match played in Australia each year.
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Doug Walters aged 19 will play his last game for two years – his birthdate has meant conscription into the Army on National Service – and no amount of lobbying will get the new superstar of wor ...
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With courtesy to Bob Watson – son of Billy Watson who played Test Cricket for Australia and was the St George District cricket Club opening batting partner for many years with Warren Saunders. ...
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The prospect of batting against Peter Philpott’s bowling always brought a dose of butterflies.Would he make a fool of you? Misread his wrong-un? Stumped yards out of the crease? Hanging fo ...
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“You bowl another bouncer Billy Rogers, and you won’t survive the day”.The last three times I met up with Alan Davidson, his face would light up as he told me the day his family threat ...
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Some of you know I wrote a book about my time playing at St George Cricket Club with Warren Saunders and called it “Mr St George”. Warren’s funeral is next Thursday, where over a thousand peo ...
