In 1980 Waverley District Cricket Club now Eastern Suburbs held their Presentation Night on a Friday before they flew to Cootamundra early on the Saturday morning.

The team led by Tony Greig all assembled at the Flight Facilities Reception Area before boarding the plane.

We were called onto our flight and walked onto the tarmac only to see our plane with an image of Norman Gunston on the tail. Well this was going to be interesting.

It was a different type of flight as most people stood around on the plane drinking a few beers and nothing much changed when we landed. We did sit down as soon as we landed for safety reasons!!

There was one hostess who was also the mechanic and baggage person.

As the game was on the Sunday we had an option of going shooting, golf or to the pub in the afternoon. We also attended the Cootamundra Presentation night on Saturday night so it had been a big couple of nights.

On Sunday we played for the O’Farrell Cup with Waverley making 166, the top scorers being Mick Suttor 38, Peter Carlisle 30 and Dick Rowland 31 not out while the locals were dismissed for 93, the wicket-takers being Tony Greig 3-16 and David Hourn 3-38.

Several after match refreshments were again consumed before we headed to the airport to board our flight back home on the Norman Gunston airplane.

The plane was delayed as several players were late leaving the bar but we finally made it back to Sydney.

Not many went to work on the Monday. Other players on that memorable trip were Dennis Hourn, Lenny Richardson, Dave Gibson, Rod Foord and Andrew Crawford to name a few.