The story on stump to stump with the headline Gordon v Sutherland Round 4 1990-91 - a piece of cricket history in many ways is a very popular piece across the cricket community.
It reflects on a game at Killara Oval with scorecards with so much talent across both teams. 3 future Australian Test cricketers, 10 first class crickets and over half the players from the 2 teams had either won or went on to win a first grade premiership in Sydney Grade Cricket.
2 players from Gordon District Cricket Club Mark O’Neill and Adam Gilchrist shared an interesting piece of history as their fathers Norm O’Neill and Stan Gilchrist were members of Sutherland District Cricket Club inaugural first grade team when they entered the Sydney Grade competition in 1965/66. Normal O’Neill was the captain and Stan Gilchrist was a young leg spinner.
When the story was distributed on facebook, long standing umpire Arthur Watson made the following comment.
“A great read with loads of memories 🏏🏏"
Arthur Watson has umpired over 800 games in 50 years of service to what’s now known as NSW Premier Cricket. For 30 years from 1972 to 2002 he was one of the leading first grade umpires in the Sydney Grade Cricket competition.
So I posed Arthur a question of the number of father and sons he might have umpired in his 30 years of first grade.
Here’s Arthur’s generous feedback.
“I never got to umpire Norm O’Neill in First Grade but I did Mark O’Neill. I umpired umpired Adam Gilchrist and went to school with his dad Stan (Inverell High School) but that doesn't count.
The story led me to a warm and fuzzy page in my scrap book where I had listed the fathers and sons I umpired in SCA First Grade.
If I was to include all gradees over the fifty years the number of fathers and sons would fill a scrap book.”
The father and sons Arthur Watson umpired in first grade:
- Hughes - Noel and Graeme (Petersham)
- Madden – Bob, Ian and Dennis (Bankstown)
- Spring – Ken and Graham (North Sydney)
- Taber - Brian and Mark (Gordon)
- Davison – Barry and Rodney (Sutherland)
- Pratt – Barry and Anthony (Sutherland and University NSW)
- Aitken – Bob, Robbie, James and Glen (Cumberland (Parramatta) and North Sydney)
- Pearson – John and Corey (Petersham)
- Wright – Geoff and Damien (Petersham)
- Bull – John and Darren (Bankstown)
- Ridley – Damon and Andrew (Sydney University)
- Colley – David and Dan (Mosman and Gordon, Easts)
- Falk – Andrew and David (Gordon)
- Todd – John and Matt (Gordon)
- Wood – Tom and Michael (Parramatta)
- Duff – Bob and Shane (Sutherland)
- Hill – Michael and Brendan (Randwick and Sydney University, St George)
If there are any other father and sons that played First Grade in Sydney Grade during the 1972- 2002 period I’m sure Arthur would like to add these names, if he has umpired both, to his list.
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