Tommy Andrews was Petersham DCCs greatest cricketer.
While claims of this nature generally raise issues for debate, in the case of T J Andrews, there is no argument. He played his first game for Petersham in 1909 aged 19 and his last in 1944 aged 54. He retired in 1936 but made a comeback in 1941 at the request of the club. He was a powerful right hand batsman and leg break bowler who excelled as a close-to-the wicket fieldsman.
He was immediately inserted into the 1st Grade team when he played his first match for Petersham in 1909-10. He made a half-century among his 125 runs but it was his performance in the Wednesday “Half-Holiday” competition which indicted his undoubted ability. He batted 12 times for 468 runs with a top-score of 201*.
The following season, after making a duck batting no. 10, another duck batting at 6 and 21 after opening the innings, Tommy was in at no. 8 against Redfern at the SCG. With the score 6-155 chasing 313, Andrews got together with Ernie Newton and the pair put on a club record 138 for the seventh wicket to take the match with a final total of 402. Tommy made his first century for Petersham that day scoring 108 with 14 fours in 115 minutes. He made 297 runs for the season and took 19 wickets with his leg-spinners.
1912-13 brought with it the start of an outstanding first-class cricket career when he was selected to play for NSW. Nine seasons later after WWI he made his Test Match debut for Australia on the 1921 Ashes tour of England.
In 30 seasons with Petersham he scored 11,719 runs at 36.73 in 1st Grade (28 centuries). His aggregate remains the fifth highest in the history of Sydney 1st Grade. With his leg breaks, he took 503 wickets at 20.84 with 8-72 his best. He took eight wickets in an innings four times and five in an innings 30 times.
