A Short History of the Scots Old Boys Cricket Club Formation The Club was formed in September 1951 by a group of enthusiastic cricketers brought together at the initiative of John Gilder. The team, as the name suggests, were all old boys of The Scots College and many, like John, were members of the 1943 undefeated GPS premiership winning college team, the first team in the GPS competition to win all matches outright. The Club was provided with a loan of sixty pounds by the Scots Old Boys Union for equipment. It then joined the City & Suburban Association (C & S) and commenced playing teams affiliated with that association as well as various school teams. The results of that first season were more than satisfactory with 25 matches being played, for 16 wins (64%), 7 losses and two drawn matches. Individually, the batsmen were lead by Ross Scribner with an aggregate of 732 (including the Club s first century and two other scores in the nineties) (av 40.67), followed by David Brockhoff with 371 (av 20.61) and Fred Calcraft with 359 (av 23.93). The outstanding bowlers in that first season were Terry MacBride who gained 41 wickets at an average of 13.71, ably supported by Alan Mortlock 29 wickets at 15.21 and David Brockhoff 24 wickets at 19.29. Ross Scribner ended the year by being the first Club member to be selected to play in the Combined City & Suburban team to play the NSW Cricket Association at the Sydney Cricket Ground in 1952. At the conclusion of the year the first of many annual reports was prepared, by the captain John Gilder and the Secretary/Statistician Alan Mortlock. The foresight shown by these two players, together with much hard work by others subsequently has resulted in the enviable statistical record contained in current annual reports. 1
The Early Years (1951 1960) In the period to 1960 the Club prospered under the leadership of John Gilder, Alan Mortlock, Peter Land and Geoff Eastment, with good team results, sound personal performances, but more importantly the establishment of a number of traditions that are still with us today. On the team front, most years saw a 2 to 1 win loss ratio established for those games in which a result was achieved, despite a fixture list which tended to arrange games with most of the strongest clubs in the C & S. David Kellaway headed the individual performances. He achieved most runs for the Club up to 1960 with 2887 (closely followed by Ross Scribner 2826 and Fred Calcraft with 2159) as well as most wickets for the Club, 421 (followed by Geoff Eastment, 261 and John Gilder, 197). David also achieved the best bowling average in 5 consecutive seasons up to 1958-59, and had the most wickets in an innings 9 for 35. Other notable performances included two centuries each to Bob Martyr, Max Taylor and Ross Scribner. In wicket- keeping, Peter Land dominated in 6 of the nine seasons with most dismissals by a wicket keeper. Four bowlers, David Lord, David Kellaway, Colin Orr and Peter Kellaway, took hat-tricks. The highest totals were 7 for 324 against Sydney Grammar School and the lowest 33 against Gordon Vets. This era also saw the start of two relationships with other clubs that endure to the present. In the 1953 the Club invited the Old Scotch Collegians from Melbourne to play matches in Sydney over the Easter weekend. All Melbourne players were billeted in Sydney players homes and this was to form the basis of many enduring friendships resulting in the fixture became an annual fixture alternating between Sydney & Melbourne. The 50 th anniversary of the event was held in Sydney in 2003 attended by a number of players when were part of the original matches. The other special relationship has been with the St George Vets team which has also become an annual fixture on the last Saturday before Christmas, a fixture known for its hospitality as well as for good cricket. 2
The Maturing Years (1961 to 1975) The era from 1960-61 to 1974-75 was one of consolidation and then growth. Many of the players that built the Club were maturing and it was necessary for strong recruiting of new talent during this period the Club was actively involved in normal C & S matches but it also got involved in a number of other events that helped build the interest and enthusiasm that was to see it build to a point where in the 1972-73 season the number of games being played grew significantly. In the early part of this period the Club was playing 32 to 35 matches per season. That number fell to a low of 23 in the 1967-68 season when wet weather severely interrupted play. To stimulate interest, in 1969-70 season a knockout competition between 4 C & S clubs was held and this continued for another 3 years, a successful innovation. Games against a touring team from the Cricket Club of India were hosted in the 1961-1962, 1966-67 and 1971-1972. Regular country visits to play at Canberra (RMC Duntroon) and Goulburn, and to Orange were all part of the thrust to help build team numbers. Over the period it became clear that while bowlers were able to get regular games, batsmen often were penalised through lack of practice with the result that it was largely due to outstanding bowling efforts in the early part of this period that the Club enjoyed its success. Some highlights were: Alan Mortlock 7 for 41 v Hawkesbury 1961-62 Harley Suttor 8 for 19 v St George Vets 1961-62 David Kellaway 7 for 7 v Duntroon 1963-64 8 for 12 v Hunters Hill 1966-67 Toby Sommerville 8 for 13 v Nthn Districts 1963-64 8 for 28 v I Zingari 1964-65 8 for 21 v Commercial Bank 1965-66 9 for 25 v C.C. of /India 1966-67 Peter Kellaway 7 for 14 v Paddington 1967-68 3
Obviously the Club was well served with quick bowlers in the early part of this era. The batsmen also performed strongly with the following Ross Leabeater 102 v Duntroon 1963-64 Peter Howarth 141 v Commercial Bank 1964-65 David Kellaway 100 v Briars 1964-65 Others to perform strongly over this period included Peter Davidson, Fred Calcraft, Bob Martyr Andrew Burney Roger Ward, and there were others whose efforts on the day turned the game around. By 1971-72 it was clear that the Club was ready to go to 2 teams. They were to be part of its history for many years. The strong financial position together with the availability of St Andrews College wicket at Sydney University meant we were able to take the plunge in the 1972-73. In this year we played 38 and selected 45 players. Consistency in playing saw an improvement in batting and fielding particularly. In 1973-74 we played 36 games but lost another 12 due to bad weather, in those games 52 were selected to play. The era was one of consolidation and growth cricket results were pleasing with the Club winning more times than losing but more importantly the spirit of the game was upheld with the post match reviews being a vital part of the enjoyment. Many happy hours were spent after the games at St George, at Concord, at St Ives and others with great camaraderie between both teams. Many of the players were grade material but they would prefer to play C & S, because of the competitive standard, the quality of the grounds and the after match replays. The many friendships made on and off the field still survive the test of time. The Consolidation Years (1976 to 1990) If the 1960s to mid 1970s could be termed the golden era of Scots Old Boys Cricket Club the period until the late 1980s continued to reflect that ongoing strength of the Club. This was shown by an annual fixture list that always amounted to in excess of 60 matches and two teams regularly on the field each Saturday. Often the 4
Club called on in excess of 60 players to meet its obligations. During this period the Club was regularly winning in excess of two thirds of matches played. It continued to be a time when players (John Simpson, Hugh Bryan, John Holmes, David Williams and Mark Adlam) left their grade careers to concentrate on a business career while still enjoying the hard competition of the City & Suburban, playing against former first grade, Sheffield Shield and the occasional test cricketer. During this period consistency in management structure flowed through to the playing field. Peter Davidson (4 years), Peter Howarth (3), Ross Leabeater (2), John Simpson (4) and Jim Anderson (2) provided consistent leadership from the Presidency. One major change on the management front that would have an effect some 10 years later occurred in 1980/81. Since the inception of the Club there had only been one year (1971/72) when the Captain and Vice Captain did not stand for at least a two-year term. As the Club (and players) matured there were increasing family and business pressures on the players that forced a decision to reduce the period of tenure. This in hindsight caused later problems as the pool of potential leadership was too quickly exhausted. On the cricket field performances were high. David Williams topped the batting aggregate 4 times in competition with Peter Howarth (twice all up 9), John Holmes (2) and Charlie Knight (2). Competition was evenly contested among the batsmen until a young Mark Adlam came on the scene in the mid 1980s. Previous aggregates in the 600s were swamped by Adlam who topped 1000 for the first time in 1987-88 (1045) only to beat his own record with 1338 in 1989-90. He then had a mediocre season with 1059 in 1990-91! Ross Leabeater between 1963 and 1979 had created a Club record with 6 centuries. This was broken by Adlam with 15 centuries! 5
The bowling aggregate was dominated by John Simpson (5 times top aggregate) and Hugh Bryan (4 6 all up) who for a period were vying against each other with wicket totals into the 60s. To reflect the change in the late 80s the left arm spinner Michael Lennox twice had the leading aggregate. By the late 80s and into the 90s the Club was having problems with the changes in society and how this effected the player base. Whereas the child of the 50s played cricket, the child of the 90s might more likely be found on a basketball court. The pool of talented cricketers from Scots College, which had served the Club so well, was now not as strong. The Turbulent Years (1991 to 2003) The Nineties and the early part of the 21 st century have been a contradictory period in many ways. Success on the field continued throughout, with many outstanding performances but on the other hand the impact of more sports being played at schools has had an effect on the players available and the teams being fielded. In the period 1991 to 1998 the Club was fielding 2 teams. Sadly, reduced numbers of recruits, lead to the Club reverting to only one team in the 1998-1999 season. That position remains today. The batting in this period has been dominated by Mark Adlam (completed 6 consecutive years as the leading run scorer up to 1992-93), Danny LeMoy (3 consecutive years as the leading run scorer to 2001-02) and Dave Goddard (2 years leading scorer). Danny LeMoy in the 2000-01 season scored 155 not out against Rangers, the Club s highest individual score ever. Outstanding bowling performances were recorded by Hugh Bryan and James Fitzpatrick (3 times each season s highest wickets) and supported by Anthony Pitt (best average in 1999-00 and 2000-01) The 2002-03 season ended with the 50 th Anniversary of Easter Cricket against the Old Scotch Collegians quite a remarkable achievement. Over the years the annual Easter event has been keenly contested with the Melbourne side being temporarily ahead by a small margin. 6
Club Statistics Most Runs for the Club P G Howarth R F Leabeater M A Adlam F B Calcraft P F Davidson D L Williams R P Martyr A M Burney J A Holmes C R Knight Most Wickets for the Club 11,349 8,274 7,782 6,184 6,147 5,948 5,454 5,202 4,645 J R R Simpson P L Kellaway J D Somerville D J Kellaway K B Orr H F Bryan G A Eastment J A I Gilder M J Lennox 904 853 733 766 558 496 296 294 290 4,637 A J Edgar ) D F Hughes ) 266 266 Photo: The winning 2009 SOBCC after defeating students 1st XI 7