Back in the late 1970’s Nambour Cricket Club used to host the Nambour Double Wicket Competition annually and the games were played on the club’s two grounds at the Nambour Showgrounds. It was a very large and popular tournament where pairs of players from far afield would enter into a draw and play rounds up until a final. It was a fantastic weekend and was well supported by a number of Brisbane grade clubs where the players would flock up to the Sunshine Coast hinterland town to vie for the prizemoney on offer.
It was always held on the Australia Day long weekend in January so grade players would play normal fixtures in Brisbane on the Saturday and then drive up and participate on the Sunday and Monday.
My first taste of the carnival was when I was playing Under 18s for Souths and we had many players from all grades enter.
Each year we stayed at various places such as the Nambour Midway Hotel (a high class establishment indeed!) or the Yandina Caravan Park for those less financially endowed. Players from Souths, Easts, University, Sandgate and Wests would often cross paths whilst stopping at the Caboolture Roadhouse for a pre-dinner Chiko Roll on the way up prior to feasting on pizzas from the old Nambour Pizzeria on arrival before painting the town red in preparation for the next two days competition. Those who preferred the beach would stay at Maroochydore in the evenings!
It's a long time ago and as memory fades I can’t remember every player who participated but over the few years I recall players such as Wayne Broad (Wynnum & Qld), Ian Greig (Uni & England), Neil Bevan (Wests), Rod Rice (Souths), Billy Brown (Souths), Monte Lynch (Wynnum & Surrey), Paul Downton (Sandgate & England), Alex Parker (Souths & Qld ), John Bell (Wynnum, Qld & Tasmania), Lou Mierzwa (Uni ), Gary Mackay (Sandgate), Evan Bancroft (Easts), Denis Schuller (Wynnum & Qld ) along with local Sunny Coast players such as Pat Drew, Mick Blundell and the Ledgers and Johnston’s.
Players from Ipswich, Gold Coast and further afield also played in what was usually a large contingent of pairs. Evergreen local umpire and former Nambour record scoring batsman Gav Marschke was in charge at one end along with his umpiring mates from the coast – what a character Gav Marschke!. Chewed off many an ear! Great fella.
The double wicket format was pretty simple really. You and your partner batted for two eight ball overs bowled by your opponents (pretty tough if you are a non-bowler like me!) and then obviously they chased your score. There were always nine extra fielders as catches were worth prizemoney – when a high ball went up it was interesting. Usually you would try and round up your own club mates to field if they didn’t have a beer in hand. The higher grade players were seeded and if you were young or a lower grade player you would come up against tough opposition in the early rounds. If you lost in round one you would go into the plate event and if you then lost you would either field or drink or both for the rest of the weekend. As a young bloke I tried to keep wickets as much as possible to earn some dollars to then drink!
I remember my first tilt at the event and partnering fellow Souths Under 18 team mate Peter Bertram where we came up against “Louey” Schuller and “Mad Dog” Mackay, a couple of hardnosed and experienced all-rounders. My mistake was firstly hitting Denis for a couple of boundaries and then bowling an accidental beamer at him. Luckily we lost the game and he was happy in the end.
The main ground had a recently completed large grandstand beside it which was built to host the visiting English team on their 1976 MCC tour but when that fixture was completely washed out the next year the touring Indian’s played against Queensland Country at the ground.It was a facility well before it’s time and still stands proudly to this day. Monte Lynch who was a visiting English county batsman playing the summer for Wynnum actually cleared the roof completely of the large stand. Now the ground was pretty small and had a gravel racetrack around it but a hit clean over a grandstand is some effort.
On the Sunday evening each year they would select two teams to play against one another in a limited overs game under the lights. These teams usually comprised those players who were not indulging in the beverages during the day so for young blokes like myself we loved the extra cricket. After the night game we would certainly have a few beers under the grandstand and they were the days I could actually utilize my knees and we would have bar jumping competitions for cash prizes if you could crouch down and leap unaided onto the high bar. I won a bit of cash to put on the bar but nowadays I’d struggle to leap upwards onto a magazine from a crouch! I do remember that former Sandgate keeper and Windsor Zillmere full forward David Pie was the bookmaker for the events. I cleaned him out.
During the course of the weekend there would also be a 400 metre running race which one year was dominated by the Souths duo of Rod Rice and Billy Brown. There was also a ball throwing contest and from memory Schuller and Wayne Broad fought out a close battle for the trophy.
A memory recently observed by Pat Drew was of big hitting Nambour batsman Gav Ashworth taking out the $50 sponsors prize for hitting the giant Suncoast Milk carton at the end of the main oval. Any batman who could hit the carton got fifty bucks. The thing was Gav was batting on the second field! He should have got $200.
The last time the event was played it was wrecked by rain and the only play that was possible was a social game on the synthetic field on the Monday where former Easts cricketer and legendary Hawthorn full forward Jason Dunstall participated just before moving to Melbourne to pursue his footy career. Imagine these days an expensive signing of an AFL club putting down his beer to run in and bowl just before pre-season kicks off! Great stuff.
Again the following year rain meant abandonment and unfortunately the Nambour Double Wicket Competition was consigned to the history books. How good it would be to see it return.
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