It is only June and the Gordon District Cricket Club is announcing its coaching structure for the 2019-20 season. Who said there was an off-season. With the AGM about a month away it wont be long before the track suits will be out and the thoughts of our summer activities will be upon us. It is important however to let both existing players and prospects for joining our club that we will be increasing our coaching stocks for the coming season.

With the view of broadening our approach to our coaching and giving all grade players the opportunity to receive first class coaching assistance, the following group of coaches have been assembled for the season. 

Ben Preece

After joining our coaching staff last season, Ben will now take on the overall head coaching role while also becoming our First Grade match day coach. Before last season, Ben had a stint with Lane Cove Cricket Club, and is a former first class fast bowler with Worchestershire who settled in Australia in 2002 after a knee reconstruction prevented him continuing his first class career. Ben played in the Sydney Shires for South Sydney for 10 years which included winning 3 premierships before he took up the coaching role at Lane Cove in 2015. Importantly Ben also runs a Personal Training company in conjunction with his Original Bootcamp Outdoor fitness business. The players are aware of the great job Ben did with our conditioning last season and is looking forward to starting in the near future with this season's squad.

Trevor Chappell

We are pleased to announce that Trevor Chappell will be with us again this coming season and will concentrate primarily on 3rds, 4ths, 5ths and Colts. The club is very fortunate to have the services of Trevor who people tend to forget comes with a wealth of experience including 88 first class matches, 20 ODI’s (1983 World Cup) and three Test matches. Trevor also played for Australia in the 1977 to 1979 World Series which included a score 110 against the formidable West Indies attack. He has scored over 4000 first class runs with 150 for NSW against WA his best score. Trevor was also a very economical medium pacer who took 59 first class wickets. Our lower grade players will have direct access to Trevor and provide an excellent pathway for their success. Trevor also won the award as Coach of the Year at the NSW Premier Cricket Awards in 2017. 

and there's more....

Mark O’Neill

Our long term former player, coach and Gordon Legend Mark O’Neill will again be coming down from his Central Coast hideaway to provide one on one specialist batting coaching for all grade players at the Shore Indoor centre at Northbridge. Again we are very pleased to have Mark provide this service for us as he continues to grow his squirrel grip business in Australia and overseas. Mark’s list of coaching achievements are extensive and we look forward to him taking our batsman to that next level as we push for that elusive club championship. 

and there's more...

Mark Atkinson

The club is pleased to have the services again this season of Mark Atkinson who will act as a specialist coach on batting, wicket keeping and fielding during the Tuesday sessions. Mark is well know for his excellent first class career with Tasmania during the 90's, however the club also had the advantage of Mark as a player from 2012 till 2014 in our third grade side where he scored 1400 runs at an average of 70. Mark did a great job last season and the players will be thrilled he is back.   

and there's more...   

Terry Howes

This season the club will also be assisted by Terry Howes who will be helping our spinners at training every 2nd Thursday. Terry is a Cricket NSW Academy coach who played his early cricket for Surrey in the UK and moved to Australia in 2006. Terry played first grade for both Wests and St. George before concentrating on his coaching expertise. Terry is a level 2 accredited coach and has been appointed as the specialist spin coach for the Under 16 Cricket NSW Academy. 

Are you interested in playing cricket with one of Sydney’s leading clubs in the Sydney premier cricket competition?

If so, please submit your details via the form below. We will contact you shortly regarding your inquiry and advise of our pre-season practice schedule. We look forward to having you on board this season.

With most sides going deep into the finals last year and a top 5 finish in the club championship, the club is looking forward to another strong season in 2019-20.

We have outstanding coaches to assist you in developing your game, and the opportunity to play alongside some outstanding cricketers.

There are plenty of fantastic initiatives in place at the club. We have great playing facilities, top class grounds, a great club atmosphere both on and off the field. Take your time and have a look around the website to find out more information.

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This was an exceptionally good fun night - magnificently organised by Virginia and Peter Klemt and their committee.  We had two brilliant MC’s in Paddy Effeney and Ed (Hoppa) Howitt, plus the video vision was done to perfection again by Tim Cubbage and the PowerPoint by Paul Stephenson. 

Player of the Year Harry Evans

Unfortunately the photographer had his SD stolen on the night and as such I had to dig deep for all these shots. We were a little scarce on winning titles this season, with only the Colts taking home the flag for us. This was after looking as though we would have perhaps 5 sides in to the semis, right up until the last round - with only the 4’s and Colts then qualifying. Now to the most important part of the night and that was naturally the awards:

Player of the Year (decided by team players on a 3:2:1 basis): This was a really close contest right up to the last round, where we saw Harry Evans triumph by 1 point. Ed kept us informed at intervals throughout the night with his updates on an intriguing contest. Harry won on 14 points with 4 others on 13. Harry scored 807 runs at 38 av, to take his Club aggregate number of runs to 10,481 at 39 av, which is a superlative effort. He has scored 12 centuries and 47 half centuries and has added a sneaky 119 wickets @ 23. 

I remember Marshall Rosen telling me when I returned to the fold many years ago – “Tiddles whatever you do, we must never play favourites”. Of course I strictly adhered to his advice throughout my official duties – BUT – how could I possibly ignore Harold after his efforts for Gordon over all these years. He came to our Club to play Greenies in the 2004-5 season with Hamish Angus (yes sorry Marsh perhaps another favourite) and averaged 40 in his 2nd season. 

Equal runner up Manus Chauhan

He played the last 4 games in Colts that season under the guidance of a returning David Gray (Tweetie) and yes they won the comp. They also had a very handy side with Hamish, James Kennedy and Adam Cubbage amongst a really talented team. Harry played his initial first grade game in 2008 and hasn’t looked back since - despite wishing to stay as a keeper for quite a few seasons. He was regularly scoring between 700 to 900 runs per season, yet for some obscure reason he was overlooked by the NSW selectors and was lured to Tassie for 2 seasons from 2015-16. Despite scoring over 1,000 runs in each of those two seasons he was still overlooked by the State selectors. He returned to Gordon for the 2017-18 season and this POY is a reward for another wonderful season - well done Harold. 

Player of the year runner-up’s: we had 4 on 13 points:
Tym Crawford: (467 runs @ 29 plus 22w 2 25); 
Manus Chauhan: (29w @ 16 plus 241 runs @ 30);
Fraser Wilson: ( 299 runs @ 21 plus 28 catches and 1 stumping)
Glenn Winsor: (321 runs@25 plus 25w@24)then came on 12 points 
Prahlad Iyer: (25w@16) and on 11 points
Jaiden Gray ( 445 runs@34) 

Merit Team Award

I believe this is a very important team award that is selected on merit and stats by Ed Howitt.
The team is:
No 1 - Axel Cahlin, who scored 643 1st grade runs@30 (plus 93 in PG’s) including 3 tons up to early Nov. and 
No 2 - Cameron Eccles – 513 @ 34av with 6 half centuries and what a performer he has been for us with 6535 runs @ 30av. 
No 3 - Steve Colley, with 671 runs @ 32;  (career 7979@31) and of course 
No 4 - Harry Evans with 807@38. 
No 5 - Lachlan Barnsley, with 520 runs @ 47 (plus 165 in PG’s @ 24). Lachie is only 18 and another real talent from the bush – watch him next season. 
No 6 - Tym Crawford, with 467runs @ 29av plus 22w @ 25.
NB: It is not merely a coincidence that our top 6 here are regular visitors to the batting coaching of Mark O’Neill. 
No 7 - Fraser Wilson (Keeper), 299 runs @ 21 (opening) plus 28 catches and 1 stumping. Fraser improved dramatically as the season progressed and is off to the UK to again play 1st grade for Rowledge in the Hampshire League. This should be the defining moment in this 19yo’s career and it was interesting to hear Matt Wright compliment him by saying there was no harder trainer than Fraser at practice. 
No 8 - Manus Chauhan, 29w @16 plus 241 runs @ 30 – another to watch for next season.
No 9 - Dylan Hood, 28w @ 15 and when fit probably one of the most explosive quicks in the Club. 
No 10 - Callum Bladen, 25w @ the amazing av of 6, plus 4w@21 in Greenies. When fit this 16yo is an amazing talent as a genuine quick.
No 11 - Rohan Watson, 33w @ 9av in Grade , plus 8w @ 13av in Greenies, for an excellent season total of 41w @ 10av. Rohan is another exciting young leggie with another year of Greenies left.  

The Colts side - 2018-19 Premiers: 

Charles Mitchell

For a full match report on their exciting win please go to the second story on the website. There are many in this team that will soon be playing higher grades and it was a really mature innings from the youngster Jaiden Gray to ensure their win – he is player to watch. Well done Austyn Nugent for agreeing to skipper them whilst recovering from injury and we must also thank Josh Rigon for leading them in the early rounds.

The next award was the Phil Emery Green Shield award won by Charles Mitchell:
Charles had a magnificent Green Shield season for us, with 218 runs @ 55av plus 15w @ only 9av with his LA orthodox. He then went on to play last week in the U16 State Challenge for NSW Country to score 143 runs @ 71. Charles is another bushie courtesy of Bob Thomas and what a future this 15yo youngster has.

Now to the Ratesetter Player of the Year awards for the individual grades. 

Callum Bladen and Rohan Watson

The Colts Charles Harris Award was jointly won by Callum Bladen and Rohan Watson.
The 5th Grade Award was won by the skip David Monaghan, 220 runs@22 plus 22w @ 12.
The 4th Grade Award was won by Manus Chauhan, 29w @ 16 plus 241 runs 30. 
The 3rd Grade Award was won by Charlie Booth with 20w @ 20.
The 2nd Grade Award was won by Dan Stickland with 28w @ 23.
The 1st Grade Award was won by Harry Evans of course with a massive 807 runs @ 38.
The Brian Taber Award for the best All-Round performance was won by Tym Crawford, with 467r@ 25av plus 22w @ 25. Tym was also perhaps the best Club Captain that we have had for many years.

The Dick Guy Award for the U21 player of the year was won by Glenn Winsor with a combined total of 469 runs @ 23 plus 33w @ 25. Glenn is another country lad in his first full season and how well did he adapt. 

Tym Crawford and Glenn Winsor

A special Award was given to the retiring Elliot Richtor, who at the young age of 31 feels his body must have a rest. What a magnificent Clubman and cricketer Els has been. He really struggled with injuries this season for 266 runs@18 plus 16w@21. Throughout his stellar career he scored for Gordon 6,626 runs, at the excellent av of 31, with 3 centuries and 38 half tons, plus took 193w @27. He did a classic interview with Hoppa and the thing that really impressed me was the praise he saved for Mark O’Neill as being the sole reason why he was able to score heavily in 1st grade. Well done Els and we will all miss you, but don’t you dare desert us and perhaps you may play a future role with Gordon. 

Club Performance Awards went to the following: 
5th wicket 4th grade partnership of 219 runs to Stuart Bromley and Manus Chauhan.

Wicket keeping Award to Max Newman for 37 dismissals. 

Batting Awards of 500 plus runs in a season to:

• Harry Evans (807 runs); 

• Steve Colley (671); 

• Axel Cahlin (643); 

• Lachlan Barnsley (520); 

• Cam Eccles (522). 

A special Award was then give to Tim Cubbage for being the Clubman of the year.There is no one that deserved an award tonight better than Tim. He has been the hardest worker on game day and in particular during the week with covers and grounds. I do not really believe that anyone fully understands the amount of work that he does. It is a thankless task and please Tim do not retire just yet. Thank you for your magnificent effort from all the volunteers and players – you are irreplaceable. 

Paddy then had some classic Fake Awards, which went across beautifully. He had the Shayne Lin award for the most absent player in 2019; the Jim Cattlin award for the ‘spray of the year’; the Tony Wilson award for comeback of the year and the Dave Monaghan award for the best 5th grader of all time. This one was naturally won by Dave and I will refrain from telling you the winners of the other awards..

In closing I simply would like to say that I believe that Gordon has the players to take this Club to the top six in the Club Championships in the coming seasons. We perhaps may naturally lose some senior players however we have many exciting youngsters coming through.  The awards night was a really magnificent effort by a few people and hopefully next season we will have all Grade players attend.

Cheers 

Tony Wilson (on behalf of attendees) and remember our motto is ‘Sharing and Caring’ – so see you all next season!!

The Colts have come from 4th position after the premiership rounds and a loss in the quarter final to win both their semi-final and final and take out the 2018-2019 Metropolitan Cup. This is the second Colts premiership in 3 years.    

Austyn Nugent and his team mates at the final

Having played last week at Chatswood, the Colts were able to play the final at Howell Oval and experience two first grade grounds in two weeks. This in itself was a great experience for this very young side and continues to confirm the exceptional value of the Colts team and how integral it is to the success of the club.

The final was played over the weekend against Penrith who have been a wonderful opponent for our Colts side over many seasons with the ledger about even. The start was delayed after early rain with the wicket not available unit 1.40pm and winning the toss Gordon decided to send in the Penrith team. 

While our bowling was tight, the Penrith bats started to get on top after two wickets to Cam Hewitt and Sam Braham and at 2 for 128 off 48 overs we were in need of wickets. 

Sam Braham at Howell

As the day came to a close our strong pressure started to bear fruit with three more wickets, another one to Sam and one each to Jayden Gray and Nathan Sequeira. At stumps Penrith were 5 for 151 off 64 overs and the match was evenly poised but too many more runs would prove difficult to chase with the strong Penrith bowling.

The honours for the day had gone to Sam Braham and, while he hadn’t taken any wickets, Callum Bladen was very unlucky and had kept control of the scoring rate. Overall the bowling had been excellent with the Penrith bats not being able to take full advantage of the fast Howell Oval outfield  

Nathan Sequeira leading the players from the field.

Due to the rain delay the second day was able to start at 10am with 100 overs allotted for the day. Early wickets and we would be on top.

Again the bowlers didn’t disappoint with this time Nathan Sequeira taking three wickets and Rohan Watson chipping in with one. Including the night before Nathan had taken 4 for 3 off 4 overs of almost unplayable fast bowling due to a great combination of accuracy and pace. The Penrtih team had been bowled out for 162, but this was a final and with runs on the board, Penrith were still confident.

Our batting started promisingly until Cam Hewitt was out for a well-made 26 with the score at 38. With Jaiden Gray coming in at No. 3, he continued with Nick Astridge to keep the score board ticking over. Unfortunately, as so often can be the case, we lost a wicket in the last over before lunch with Nick out stumped for 20. The first hour after lunch was also not helpful to our cause with Riley Behlevanas, skipper Austyn Nugent 4 and Lachie Donaldson losing their wickets and with Nathan Sequeira coming in at No. 7 to join Jaiden we were 5 for 95 and desperately in need of a partnership. 

Following is an excerpt from an article by Dr Daniel Frogan, the legendary Australian sporting identity (coach and psychologist extraordinaire) and historian who has been researching the many and varied pathways taken by Test cricketers all around the world on their way to the highest levels of their sport. 

Sydney Grade/Premier cricket has been wonderfully strong for over a hundred years.  Goodness knows how many Australian players have, at some stage, played at Chatswood or Manly or Coogee or Pratten or Bankstown or Waitara (Mark Taylor) etc etc.

Mason Crane in action for Gordon

There has been a massive amount of publicity about how Steve Smith and David Warner are playing Premier Cricket this season which is fantastic.  A couple of years ago, the ABC Saturday sports program crossed to Chatswood Oval a number of times in the afternoon when Michael Clarke used a grade game between Gordon and Western Suburbs to prove his fitness for the 2015 World Cup.  It was the biggest crowd at Chatswood for a cricket match for many years.

But let's go back a few years to when there was no interstate limited overs competition and T20 was a brand of anti-pimple cream. One would oppose first class players frequently. If there wasn't a Shield game, THEY ALL PLAYED! Second XI or Colts games were played midweek and players were back for the next Saturday. 

Tony Greig, Mike Gatting and Geoff Boycott

Back when the Gordon side contained Phil Emery, Adam Gilchrist, Mark O'Neill, Richard Stobo, the Bankstown team had Steve and Mark Waugh, Steve Small and Wayne Holdsworth, One such game was played in 1991and there was a Shield game on the second weekend. After week one, Bankstown had dismissed Gordon and passed their total, with Steve Small having belted the Stags bowlers to all parts. However, come week two and the Bulldogs were a completely different side (Gordon also lost Emery and O’Neill).  Gordon scored an adequate number of runs in their second innings and then rolled Bankstown for a memorable outright victory. (It was in this innings that Richard Stobo uttered his immortal comment to Waugh III, as recalled by Steve Waugh in his autobiography, page 673).

Ten years before that era, when playing Northern District, one often played the NSW opening bowlers, Steve Bernard and Mark Clews.  Even before that, a St George lineup which included Warren Saunders, Brian Booth, John Rogers, Jack Wilson, Kerry O'Keefe (and others) was something to be feared but also presented a great opportunity to test oneself. 

Andrew Strauss, Nasser Hussain and Shoaib Akhtar

The only overseas Test players since the 60s to play for Gordon have been Scott Styris, Danny Flynn (both New Zealand) and Mason Crane (England).

In fact, since the 60s, over seventy Test players from other countries have graced the Sydney Grade scene.  Some of them were at the beginning of illustrious careers, some in the middle and some at the end.  Many of them have had a great effect on the competition.  Tony Greig and Mike Gatting, for example, had massive seasons and both won the Sydney Morning Herald Player of the Year Awards (in 1975-76 and 1979-80 respectively).  Geoff Boycott scored 1200 runs one season (remember, no Limited Over or T20 games back then!).  Some players used their experience here as an opportunity to broaden their cricketing horizons and went on to bigger and better things.

Mike Gatting even took 55 wickets.  And you didn’t even know he bowled!  Several others players who went on to become English captains, like Andrew Strauss and Nasser Hussain, continued to develop their skills in Sydney.

West Indian star, Alvin Kallicharran, in his only game against Gordon, on a wet Manly Oval wicket, was dismissed for a duck.  Gordon players were impressed by the manner in which he took the umpire’s somewhat dubious decision.  Apparently, once in the safety of the dressing room, his demeanour changed somewhat.

Alvin Kallicharran

In 2001, the “Rawalpindi Express”, Shoaib Akhtar, got off the plane and drove straight to Mosman Oval to confront the Gordon opening batsmen, Damon Livermore and Peter Crocker (who put on 88 for the first wicket).  I think they were very glad he was a bit weary after a long flight.

Following is a list of the overseas Test players who have played in the Sydney First Grade competition since 1960.  (No doubt there are more)

Overseas Test players in Sydney Grade/ NSW Premier Cricket (1960 to present) 

ENGLAND