Trent Ryan - my best captain

Trent Ryan | December 15, 2023

Peter Charles affectionately known as "Sting" was the best Captain I played under, or more correctly with. Sting never set himself as being above any team member in ability or importance. In the Queensland Cricket Premier Competition, back in the day, there were 9 District Clubs and to avoid a Bye in First Grade Qld Cricket would field a "Colts XI". QC would appointment a Captain/Coach and the 9 clubs would each nominate 2 players under the age of 21 as the squad for selection. The side would train together, and our home ground was The Gabba. 

You could not play for more than 2 seasons for Colts, and it was originally used to give exposure to fringe first grade players that may not play at the home club. My first season I am pretty sure that was not the case as we had a great side and finished 2nd on the ladder. Unfortunately, we got beaten in the semi-final by a very experienced Wests side. Sitting comfortably at 2-155 chasing around 175 we somehow managed to lose as Dirk Tazelaar took 8 wickets. Our side included some quality players, Stuart Law, Joe Scuderi, Peter Drinnen, Kim Everts, Craig Jesberg, and Ian Stenhouse to name a few. 

While most of our squad knew each other well as we had played representative cricket for Queensland in underage teams, Sting provided an element that made us a team. Sting had played for Qld Country, famously dismissing 3 top order West Indies batters in a tour game for ducks, Greenidge and Richards were in the list of victims. To give you an idea of the "character" of Sting, he would tell the story that people would mention that the Windies were out late the night before that game, so it wasn't that great of accomplishment. Sting would quickly chirp, "I was home much later than them!"

This was typical of Sting's humour and his off-field antics, not that this was uncommon with cricket players in the 80's and early 90's. What he also added was a hard-nosed edge on the field. Sting loved some banter, or good old- fashioned sledging, the harder the game was played the more he enjoyed the challenge. This was coupled with a great cricket brain and a carefree attitude to trying new tactics. He was a great reader of the opposition batters and loved to mix up field placements and bowling strategies. Nothing was deemed unorthodox in his mind.

The following season I think a lot of clubs decided that sending your top under 21 cricketers to play against your own club wasn't the best idea. We were a much weaker side, but I remember still having the same amount of fun, on and off the field, as we did during the previous year. For a Captain to make a losing season enjoyable from start to finish takes plenty of character and selflessness and that's what personified Sting. 

It was a great shock when he passed away at a young age and the Brisbane Grade scene lost one of its true characters with his passing. I would pay plenty to have one more afternoon's cricket and a cleansing after game ale with Sting. He was one of a kind!