Goofy Lawrence – Swing Master

In the Brisbane Winter Warehouse competition during the early 1980’s we put together a team called Clairvaux College and it was organised by two teachers from the secondary school. One was Tom Mills who up until recently was still actively working at Clairvaux and the other was the late Charles “Chuck “ Disney who just loved his cricket and went on to be Head of the school prior to his passing quite a few years ago. They were both champion guys and happy to be involved. Tom even played a couple of games.

The winter competition back then was quite strong as a lot of guys played all year round and took it pretty seriously. It was not unusual to come up against a few first class batsmen who were keen to have extra hits in the winter. The decks could be interesting but a good challenge.

Anyway the team had a strong Clairvaux contingent of course and we played our home games on the bottom school pitch on Klumpp Road in the suburb of Mt Gravatt. Unfortunately modern times have seen the pitch dug up and soccer uses the field nowadays. Back then quite a few useful players came through the school and they would also play grade cricket for either Souths, Easts or Wynnum-Manly, the closest clubs. The lads would play Under 18s then filter through the grades and despite the fact that I did not attend Clairvaux some of my mates did and we also were at Souths. To get them all together and play in the winter was a no brainer so away we went. We had a pretty useful team across this period.

A notable Clairvaux ex-student of the time who was also at Souths was the former NRL & Brisbane rugby league referee Tony Maksoud. Tony was a good batsman who played 2^nd grade at Souths in a very strong era for the club. He also bowled right arm skidders and absolutely loved his cricket. A fine and tough competitor of short stature who went on to become one of Queensland’s finest ever referees.

Other members of the side who played all or some of the winter fixtures were Souths fine Souths all-rounder Brad Jordison, a strong right arm quick who struck the ball very well and scored a double century in one game. Former Qld left arm spinner Johnny Hill, a real journeyman of the game also played as did the Mansell brothers Lyle and Neale from Souths and Vern Schummacher who played 5ths for Souths and just kept coming in off his very long run up. Great fella was Vern. There was Peter Haley who ended up playing many years for Wellers Hill CC in the Sub districts competition and was also a good rugby union player and there was a tall young right arm quick whose name was Paul Lawrence who joined Souths and ended up playing First Grade as an opening bowler. He had a younger brother, Stephen who played 146 games as a ruckman for Hawthorn in the AFL.

Now amongst these guys we had schoolboy cricketers still attending Clairvaux plus numerous fill ins from game to game from Souths and we did pretty well on the field. I have missed plenty of names but given it was nearly forty years ago I reckon I have a fair excuse. Whoever played for us made up a very competitive team.

Back to the talented Lawrence brothers there is another player who I haven’t mentioned. In an early game we were short on numbers and Paul’s dad Godfrey offered to take the vacant spot. Now Godfrey was tall, around 6ft 8 and he had some years under his bonnet, around 50. But he was good to go and he had his whites with him for some reason. He seemed pretty keen to get stuck in.

I can’t remember if we batted or bowled first in his debut for Clairvaux but I remember viewing his Merv Hughes warm up ritual when I gave him the hint that he was about to have a trundle. He looked bloody stiff that’s for sure.

In he came and what we saw from this giant older bloke was some of the very best swing bowling I’d seen (I was only 20) and have ever seen to this day.

As the keeper I had the best view in the house. His skills were ridiculous. He swung it late and skittled batsmen left, right and centre with a minimum of fuss or carry on. This bloke was a serious swing bowler and he was knocking over young and proven grade players for fun. It is way too long ago to remember the names of his prey but we had stumbled on a diamond for the rest of the winter season!

He didn’t play all of the time but when he did it was just fantastic. After he finished he could not move for a week as he just stiffen up so much!

I’m not sure if Godfrey’s first game was at Marchant Park, it’s too long ago, but after a couple of overs we quickly called his son Paul into the slips cordon to ask about his father’s background. “Where’s he played in the past? “We asked.

They were a South African family and had only been in Brisbane a little while. Paul said his Dad had played a fair bit of cricket in the past including some Test Cricket a long while ago!!

“Some Test cricket” we queried

“Yep, that’s correct, “said Paul

At drinks we pursued our line of questioning. Tough to get much out of the big fella but he was clearly an elite skilled bowler so we quizzed him given Google hadn’t been invented. He did verify that he had indeed played for the Springboks and did okay with the ball. That turned out to be an understatement as he was a very humble man.

As the winter season progressed we got more and more out of him and he was a source of great learning for all of us as he was a cricket fanatic. It was so good watching him bowl and I can only imagine how good he must have been 25 years earlier.

He played on and one day suffered a heart attack on the field which I think ended his playing days. I was not around at the time and don’t know the full details but I do know he is still in Brisbane somewhere. It would be good to catch up with him again.

As I mentioned the two sons had excellent sporting careers themselves and he had another son of whom I don’t know much about.

My detective work established that Godfrey “Goofy “Lawrence played 5 Tests for South Africa just before apartheid ruined many a South African’s cricket career. He took 28 wickets in a series against New Zealand which at the time was a record for a series. His strike rate is up with the best in Test history and his average stands at 18. In First Class matches for Rhodesia and Natal he took 342 wickets also at an average of 18 across 77 games. No wonder he was cleaning up in winter cricket you say – but remember he was 50 bloody years old!

Google tells me he is currently 88 years old.