My cricket caps, my journey - Rob Wilson
Rob Wilson | July 13, 2023
Like many cricketers, I have collected, received, accumulated and earned many caps along my cricketing journey. Some mean more than others, but all provide memories that come flooding back the minute you lay eyes on them. In some cases, 20 plus years, but the memories are as vivid as ever.
Whether it was my first ever cricket cap, a Waverley District Cricket Club hat I received as a 12-year-old in 1994, or my Waverley College 1st XI cap I would earn a few years later, they both represent different stages for me. One where I had no idea what I was doing and the other, where I thought I knew what I was doing. Just ask some old coaches haha.
The caps I no doubt cherish greatest, though for different reasons, are my Eastern Suburbs Cricket Club 1st grade cap and Randwick-Petersham Cricket Club 1st grade cap, both clubs with rich histories, terrific people and past-players lists that would rival anyone.
The Eastern Suburbs cap was the first I aspired to earn when I joined the club as that 12-year-old Waverley junior (as it was known then), looking up to all the grade players and thought how cool that would be. Years of cricket playing for Easts that included juniors, AW Green Shield and Poidevin Gray and the odd grade game in the school holidays, I received my 1st Grade Cap in my second full year of grade cricket from captain Anthony Stuart, a surreal moment in itself as I used to watch him on TV as a kid and who could forget his hat trick vs. Pakistan. It meant the world to me.
Fast-forward eight years, I made the decision to join Randwick-Petersham. I received my 1st grade cap six or seven rounds into the season and to be selected in 1st grade at a new club such as Randwick Petersham was a proud moment. We were club champions that year and collected a Club Champions cap at the club’s 10-year anniversary dinner – I’m sure there’s still some VB on it.
All the caps mean different things to me, but the memories they provide me are endless. A team song after a hard-fought win, celebratory beers in the old Waverley Oval back-room, or on Coogee Oval (even after a loss), we liked a team drink at Randwick Petersham and the odd post-game shower. They could tell stories of their own.
