By John Rogers
Sydney’s massive expansion over the Georges River into Sutherland Shire made it inevitable that St George cricket would have to surrender a large part of its catchment area.
Yes, it would lose many players, including its superstar Norm O’Neill who lived in the heart of the shire. But the St George club saw the change as inevitable and welcomed it.
Warren Saunders recalls Norm coming to see him, for once ill at ease. As Norm hesitated, Warren chipped in with: “I know they want you to captain Sutherland.” He then added: “And we think you should do it to get them started properly.” Relief flooded Norm’s face.
Elsewhere, things were much more acrimonious. All the clubs were adamant there should be no more than 16 teams, as only 13 rounds were possible under the then two-day, no-Sunday-play format. Several clubs were threatened with amalgamation, but the ultimate decision was to eliminate the Paddington club which was well-known for fielding many players who lived in others club’s areas. Paddington’s club secretary and first grade captain David de Carvalho was most unhappy and, as a future NSW Law Society president would do, he fought it fiercely right up to the Supreme Court – but lost.
On paper, the St George club was in tatters, with only 20 players leaving to join Sutherland. The famed middle-order was gone with O’Neill, Flockton and Michael, while the clubs best-performed opening bowler Merv Black, would be joining Sutherland, as would other quality players in Grant LeHuray, Don Harkness and Ron Neill. It looked like depth would be a problem.
Was Warren Saunders concerned that the club might go into decline? “Not really,” he says. “I knew there was a lot of good young cricketers around and a bit of staleness had crept in. I felt we could do with an influx of youth and energy. We still had six senior players in myself, Watson, Booth, O’Reilly, Francis and Cristofani – plenty to shepherd the youngsters.”
Proving his words correct, pre-season practice was impressive. It zinged. Batting and bowling spells were well organized with the group of selectors watching closely and talking quietly to every player.
Soon the pieces began to fall into place.
With some misgivings it was decided that at age 34, former Test batsman Billy Watson should give up the wicketkeeping he had taken on so admirably in recent seasons and youngster Ray Tozer should be given a chance.
The, by what seemed something of a miracle, the team looked to have found the pair of quality opening bowlers it had long hoped would appear. After an unfortunate previous season with injury and missed matches. John Martin returned refreshed and looked the perfect downwind strike bowler. At the other end, the 18 year-old Peter Leslie complemented him perfectly with an easy action that enabled him to swing the ball at a very lively pace. With Keith Francis the obvious third pace bowler and John O’Reilly the spinner that meant positions 7-11 in the batting order were settled.
Newcomer John Rogers’590 runs in the previous season for the unfortunate Paddington, earmarked him for the No4 batting spot behind Saunders, Watson and Booth. That left youngsters Graham James, Rod Luckman, Ken Jones and John Wilson to joust with Vic Cristofani for positions 5 and 6. By season’s end, Wilson and Luckman had prevailed. There was further depth in the seconds in seasoned all-rounders Eddie Attwool and Colin Hard.
As luck would have it – or perhaps by design – St George first game of the season would be a home game against new club Sutherland. Norm O’Neill would captain Sutherland and have four former St George first graders in his side (Black, LeHuray, Harkness and Neill). Joining them from the former Paddington club would be ex-state player, allrounder Ted Cotton, and Adam Gilchrist’s father Stan, a very competent leg-spinner/batsman.
In the first game of the season the records show that St George scored 5 for 366 in their first innings and then Sutherland's first captain Norm O'Neill batted beautifully to score 168 in his team total of 280.
This story was originally published in the book written by John Rogers titled “Mr St George” - Warren Saunders and the culture of success he inspired.
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