Chapter One “Early Days and my cricket stories begin”
My family moved to Armidale, a Cathedral City on the Northern Tablelands of New South Wales early in 1956, at the age of 7 years, coincidently at a time of floods in the region west of Tamworth. My father was delayed by floods at Gunnedah as he was taking the family car by road from our previous town of Narrandera, whilst my mother, my four siblings and I came by over-night train from Sydney.
The train in those days stopped at Tamworth for the passengers to take breakfast in the railway station restaurant and just prior to alighting, boys being boys, I must have been racing up and down the train and reporting back to my mother, that I had befriended a bishop! It turned out that the gentlemen in question was the renowned and much- loved Anglican bishop of Armidale, Bishop John Stoward Moyes, who kindly assisted mother with my younger brother and sister at the breakfast table. He was, as we eventually found out, to be the brother of the famous Alban George (Johnny) Moyes, ABC cricket commentor. Johnny, as he was affectionately known, was indeed a dedicated commentator, as just a few hours prior to his death in 1963, he was commentating on the Sheffield shield match between NSW and South Australia at the SCG.
My father was an academic appointed to the staff of The Armidale Teachers College and he was not a cricketer. At school he was a runner and my cousin in England recently found some medals he had won in the 100 metres and cross-country events at school. He did play in one cricket match for the school X1 against the Masters and was called upon to bowl the last over of the innings, with the last man at the crease (sympathy over?). He was most put out, that on taking a wicket with his first ball, batsman caught on the boundary, and he didn’t feature in the bowling averages at the later school’s sports presentations!
Dad only really used to take a passing interest in cricket, but just for a bit of family rivalry, would always support the Poms in test matches against Australia. In later years, he was a great supporter of Veterans Cricket and was the first sponsor of “Man of Match” awards, in the form of cricket books, for regional and state teams at State and I proudly presented on his behalf the “Sportsman“ awards, to both the England and Australian recipients at the Over 60’s One Day International played at the Armidale Sports Ground in November 2011.
Prior to that International, Dad sent me an email.” I shall be happy to sponsor, but not “Best and Fairest” because that sounds too much like a Rugby award to a drunken womaniser! So I prefer “Sportsman of the game, “because as you know, my sporting philosophy has always been, “Not because you won or lost, but how you played the game”!
Dad passed away in 2017 just six weeks shy of his 100th birthday and I think he would be smiling because at least in years he very nearly eclipsed Don Bradman’s batting average of 99.94!
One of Dad’s great friends was John O’ Brien, who was also like my father, a dedicated family man, and both raising large families in Armidale. John was a lovely, big bear of a man. He was a well- known grazier in the area, and owned Tilbuster Station and played with Easts Cricket Club in Armidale. I had the good fortune to play against Easts B Grade at the Sportsground in 1978, in the very first match after the wicket had been re-laid. John was captain of Easts, and enjoyed playing with the youngsters. John must have been around 60 years of age at that time.
It was good to see him again after several years and for some reason our conversation came to comparing the merits of both golf and cricket.
“ Kevin “,he said ,”You can bowl that red leather ball at me as fast as you like and I will hit that moving ball every time, but try as I might ,do you think I can hit that little white golf ball on the ground standing still!” . It was a pleasure to play John that day, which sadly was his last cricket match as he unfortunately suffered a heart attack later that evening and never returned to cricket thereafter.
I did have a little Family back-ground in cricket as my maternal grandfather played for combined- Irish- Universities in the early 1880’s ,as wicket-keeper ,against the touring Australian team. His name was John “Jack” Hobbs, but alas, not the famous gentleman, with-whom he shared the same name. In later years he was a member of Surrey Cricket Club at the Oval and used to sometimes take my mother to test and county matches. My mother remembers watching Herbert Sutcliffe and Jack Hobbs opening the batting for England and she recalls that Sutcliffe was a little different, as he would tuck his trousers into his socks, whilst fielding.
For my early education, I attended St Mary’s Boys school and later De La Salle (later O’Connor High) in Armidale and spent my secondary years at St Joseph’s College.
At St Mary’s, in my first year, I remember Friday afternoons playing cricket on the race course and being chased by plovers and sometimes we got our own back by raiding the plovers’ nests and “blowing” the plover’s eggs for safe- keeping. At De La Salle I remember Bros Brendan and Finbar were regular members of the De la Salle cricket team in the Armidale competition, but I don’t recall playing school cricket until Under 14’s at Joeys.
In those days the small guys coxed the rowing teams. Rowing, of course, was a summer sport, so that it was only on the occasional Saturday break from rowing, that I played on turf wickets in the 14 c’s for a few matches. I loved it!
However, my passion was listening to test cricket on the radio. It was no accident that the big recruitment event of cricket devotees of my generation, coincided with the 1960/1961 Test Series against the West Indies. For radio listeners the whole series, described by Alan McGilvray, Johnny Moyes and the other commentators of the day, was extremely exciting, especially the closing stages of the tied match in Brisbane and the draw in Adelaide. The commentary was brilliant and the players described to perfection, such as the flamboyancy of Sobers, the lightning speed of Wes Hall and the stoicism of “Slasher’’ Mackay.
Thereafter, in the dormitory, after “lights-out”, I would always be listening in to the test matches from England on a crystal set, until confiscated by our dorm-master. I loved the conversational approach of those English commentators, which somehow complimented the action- related description by the Australian commentators.
Nothing much happened in my cricketing career until leaving school and at the beginning of 1966, I joined the Easts cricket club in B Grade with Doug Lobban, captain, Clancy Sole, John Singh and Neville Halloran, also in that team. However, I dropped out of cricket and golf became my preferred sport for the next ten years or so.
I much later talked John Singh, who was an excellent fast bowler back in 1966, to make a come-back to Golden Oldies cricket in around 2000. Alas, John had lost his action completely over the inter-convening years and never played again.
In 1975/1976 my good friend, Dennis McGiveron and I made a pact- I would introduce him to golf and he would reciprocate by installing me in A Reserve Grade team at St Peters Cricket Club!
Around 1983, we teamed together in the Armidale Winters’ Cup, teeing off extremely early one very cold Sunday morning, frost on the ground and both sporting heavy hang-overs! Needless to say, our first nine holes were not up to par and we recorded only 18 stableford-points. However, on the second nine holes, Dennis was on fire and must have played a par round as we recorded 31 stableford- points, (we were told a record for nine holes), coming home to tie for first place! Much to our consternation we were beaten on a count-back, because we had played the front nine last!
Dennis became a very consistent and keen golfer, whilst my own handicap eased its way back from 18 to around 30 over the next 45 years! However, my rather haphazard perseverance with golf was rewarded in September 2021, when I recorded my first -ever hole in one at Emerald Downs Golf Course at Port Macquarie! Now that was a sporting high-light and really is just an example as to the pure randomness of golf!
So it was that in 1975/1976, I renewed my active participation in cricket. Cricket then became my number-one sport for the next forty-seven seasons, firstly in the lower grades in Armidale and then later with many like- minded cricket friends, where we have enjoyed the magnificent experience of combining travel and cricket in Golden Oldies and Veterans cricket.
Over the years I have enjoyed every summer, eagerly looking forward to the next match or the next overseas or inter-state match. I have developed friendships for life along the way and a wealth of stories!
I have fond memories of matches played on grounds-both humble and posh, from Bruce Browning Park and TAS Meadow Field in Armidale, that you might say, contrast greatly to other grounds of some magnificence, such as the picturesque, Stratford Upon Avon Cricket Club, situated in the lovely Cotswolds in England and Wynberg Boys High school ground in Cape Town with its breath-taking post-card view of Table Mountain!
In the following chapters, I will try to entertain the reader with real -life stories of places visited and the people from cricket- internationals to lower grade “park” cricketers, who all contributed to making these many stories in future chapters, possible.
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A short pen portrait of “Johnny” Moyes
Johnny Moyes played First Class cricket for South Australia 1912-1915 and after the Ist World War for Victoria 1919-1924. He scored 883 runs, with one century, in 16 matches at an average of 29.43 and was considered good enough to be considered for selection in the Australian team to tour South Africa in 1914. This tour was cancelled because of the outbreak of WW1.
He bowled leg breaks and took 5 first -class wickets.
He captained Gordon to the A Grade Premiership in 1923/1924 scoring 174 runs in the final!
He was a well- respected cricket author and his cricket commentary style was described as being always bright and informative
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