Overnight from seniors finals

Update for the 3 finals this afternoon

2nd XI -Our boys, all Out 170, Malvern 2/49. Staffy 58.

3rds – Elsternwick 9/179cc Wickets shared around.

4ths- Bayswater made 9/229.  Great effort after 2/156 at tea. Cam McKenzie 4/55 off 26 overs!

Good luck tomorrow to all our players.

Photos from finals week 1 and 2!

U12A Grand Final overnight update

In beautiful conditions at Peterson Reserve this morning the Under 12A’s started their Grand Final.  This morning Ormond batted first and made 9/93 off their allotted overs.

Fantastic bowling performances were from Jasper Mutimer (2/4 off 4 overs), Brad Marias (1/5 off 6 overs), Ollie Hurley (1/13 off 5 overs), Mitch Domann (1/9 off 4 overs), Tim Barbakos (1/11 off 5 overs), Max Milnes (0/7 off 2 overs) and Duncan McKenzie (1/11 off 4 overs).  There was some great captaincy and onfield leadership by Tom van Dongen and was well supported by Ollie Hurley.

In a great team fielding performance highlights this morning were from Sam Loewe with 2 catchs, Jason Coleman (1 catch), Rob Strong (1 catch), Liam Stocker (1 catch), Tim Barbakos (1 catch), and Jasper Mutimer (1 catch). The 2 wicket keepers, Rob Strong and Brad Marais performed exceptionally well with the gloves.

The game resumes tomorrow at 8.45am.

Finals 17 March and 18 March 2012!

What another big weekend at BCC.  4 out of the 5 teams that made finals last week have progressed through to this week’s finals!

First up this week is the Under 12 A’s Grand Final at Peterson Street Reserve.  After last week’s thrilling victory (last ball, last wicket!) the boys are looking to have a great performance against the team that defeated them in the Preliminary Final -  Ormond.

Then a big afternoon with the 2nd’s 3rd’s and 4th’s all playing in their Semi Finals. The 2nd’s are at Beach Road against respected rival Malvern.  Dave Salter unfortunately missus with a back injury and Finn Spackman is away overseas, but in comes the resurgent Steve Goodman and last week’s century maker Jack Moffitt.

After a fantastic victory v Malvern last week, Bayside neighbours Elsternwick are the next at Malvern City Oval.  Malvern have very kindly made available their ground for the Semi.

And the 4th’s are out to Bayswater this week.  Finally back to near full strength the team will be keen to put on a great show and continue the fine form from last week.

Good luck to everybody involved!

Tas Tudor

FINALS THIS WEEK!

A great weekend for the Club, with 5 teams in the Finals!

In order of games this weekend:

The Under 12A’s are playing Elwood at William Street Reserve at William Street in Brighton.  The boys are looking to bounce back from last week, and the Club urges all to get down and support the team.

The Under 12D’s are on a roll and are playing at Whyte Street Against Elsternwick.

Both games start at 8.45am and continue on Sunday morning.

The 2nds are  looking to get some revenge over Caulfield for last years finals loss at Beach Rd.  It will be a competitive match against good opposition.

The 3rds are at Malvern City Oval against Malvern.  The team is at full strength and should put on a great show.

And the 4ths are playing Box Hill at Endeavour Hills.  They boys will need to play some great cricket to defeat and very good Box Hill team.

Good luck to all involved, play hard and fair!.

Tas Tudor

Interview with Len Hayball

Len Hayball

Rick Thomas recently interviewed Len Hayball, one of Brighton’s greatest players from the club’s golden era in the 1960s. The following is an excerpt from this interview:

Reflections of Brighton Cricket Club great Len Hayball on his cricket career

 Q Tell me about your childhood and how your interest in cricket developed

LH  My father emigrated from England in 1919 and he played a little bit of cricket here.  After coming to Australia he, as did a lot of English people settled in Sandringham, his sister and brother in law had settled there, and he lived with them for some years before he met my mother.

I was born in Flemington in 1939.  My mother’s parents lived in Kensington.  My father and mother decided to become small business people which ultimately didn’t succeed.  My father was Charles and he was trained as an accountant and my mother was Bernice and she was a homemaker and from time to time a casual worker.  I have a brother Robert (Bob) who is three years older.

We moved around a lot when I was young, we had about seven or eight different locations until I was about 12, and in 1951 we moved into a Ministry of Housing house at 234 South Road east Brighton.

Q I understand there was a past Brighton player called Roy Hayball and the Hayball name is apparently well established in the Brighton area, were these relatives of yours?

LH My Dad, Charles Hayball did tell me that at one stage he went to Brighton, I think in the 1920’s, to see if he could get a game and he didn’t get much encouragement.  From what I understand I am not directly related to Roy Hayball. However one of my nieces has been doing some family research and it does appear that the so-called “Hayballs of Brighton” all came from the same part of England, in Gloucestershire.  So there is maybe a connection.  And because of the unusual name we keep getting enquiries from all over the world and we understand the name Hayball describes a trade.  They were the “hayballers”.  They went into the farms and balled the hay.

Q  After moving into the area where did you finish your secondary schooling and did you play cricket at school?

LH I went to secondary school at Sandringham Technical School which is now called Sandringham Secondary College. In those days the cricket at school was pretty rudimentary.  We did have a school team at Sandy Tech and I was captain of the school team for a year.  As I recall, we played in open paddocks in the main, on concrete wickets.  It was fairly basic cricket.

Q While at school you started playing local cricket I understand?

LH  I played at Moorabbin as a junior in the Under 16 competition for three years.  The Under 16 games with Moorabbin were terrific because it was on matting and Moorabbin was part of a new growing population area in the 1950’s after the second World War.

They were a strong club and gave a lot of encouragement to their juniors.  I played my last season at Moorabbin in their VJCA second eleven on turf.  So that introduced me to turf cricket. We nearly won a premiership in that final year. I’d had very little success until the grand final and I then top scored in both innings which was an odd thing given I had had a generally poor season with the bat.

Q So how did you get to Brighton?

LH  At that time my brother Bob was at Brighton and kept saying what a great club it was. So while Moorabbin wanted me to stay I decided to switch to Brighton.  My first year at Brighton was I think the 1955/56 season which also was the first year of Harold Shillinglaw as Captain Coach.

Q Tell us about your batting and bowling at this stage and where you played in that first season at Brighton?

LH  in later years I was a right-handed batsman and right-armed fast bowler, but when I joined Brighton  I bowled offspinners.  I had done a little bit of bowling my spinners at Moorabbin.  I didn’t bowl in the Moorabbin seniors but certainly in the Moorabbin juniors I did bowl.  When I went to Brighton, my first season was in the seconds under Bill Easton as captain and I bowled my spinners.  I did a little bit of bowling in the seconds but not much because I was really getting used to senior cricket.  The step up from VJCA to Sub-District was a challenge.  I started at Brighton batting at number 7 or 8, as I was the youngster in the team.  I really didn’t earn a place in the team until – I remember it was either the last or the second last game.  We were playing Brunswick out at Brunswick and I made 75.  Suddenly everything seemed to click.  You get those times in cricket where you never think you’re going to make a run and suddenly the conditions suit your game.

Q Bill Easton was your first Brighton Captain and became a mentor to you?

LH I have great, great regard for Bill Easton.  He was a terrific mentor to me almost like an uncle.  He used to drive me to games and he was very encouraging.  When I made those runs at Brunswick I think Bill was more excited than me and he drove me home.  My Dad and Mum were there and Bill explained that I had had a fantastic day.  They were very excited as well.  At that time Brighton was going through a very difficult time. We were struggling on and off the field.  I’m not sure of the sequence of events but during that season, or maybe in my second season the old pavilion was demolished.  And that was unfortunate because that was Harold Shillinglaw’s first year.  When the pavilion was demolished we were changing at the bowling club.  It was pretty unsatisfactory because the facilities were poor.  This was before the City of Brighton built a new single story pavilion.

So the first season was with Bill Easton in the seconds.  A little bit of offspin bowling and then the second season I mainly opened the batting for the first eleven and we were well beaten in most games.  While we still had Ken Brinkman, Col Shipley and Bob Treasure in the firsts they were nearing the end of their first eleven careers.  Harry Nance had arrived at the club from Ivanhoe that year. He was a good player.

Harold Shillinglaw as Captain Coach was the star player.  He was a terrific cricketer and reminded me a little bit of a kind of poor man’s Keith Miller: he could bat, bowl, field.  Terrific talent.  He didn’t look after himself that well and he wasn’t that fit but he was a terrific player.  I liked him.  He was a character.

Q Harold Shillinglaw left Brighton late in the 1956/57 season can you remember much about that time?

LH Well I was very young at that point and really didn’t know much of what might have been happening behind the scenes. So I can’t provide any more information on any falling out with the Brighton hierarchy.  I think it was just a cultural misfit with Harold and Brighton.  He came out of that sort of tough Fitzroy at that time and also I don’t think he was particularly suited to coaching as he was a bit all over the place.

Remember I was only 17, not quite 18 when I played with Harold and he would regale us with all sorts of stories.  I remember because the pavilion wasn’t there and we used to watch the game in someone’s car. I remember being in his car a few times and he’d amuse us stories of his sexual exploits.  And also Neil Harvey’s.  He was a great mate of Harvey and had grown up with the Harvey brothers.  He was in a sense a kind of larrikin, the old fashioned Australian larrikin.  He was in for a good time and he had all these stories about all these well-known cricketers who he played with.  He was a funny character.  He didn’t seem to fit in at Brighton.  I do remember him having an accident and writing off the car that the club provided.

However as a player he was a star. In the field he was brilliant.  We were a weak team and most of the other players were past their best and there were a number of younger players like me who struggled. Harold was the standout in our team and he compared with the best players in Sub-District.  Even though it was just the one season, I’d put him clearly into a team of the best players I played with without hesitation.

Q At the end of the 1956/57 season you decided to try your luck elsewhere?

LH Well, what happened is that after two seasons at Brighton (1956/57 and 1957/58), as mentioned things weren’t good there with Harold Shillinglaw leaving the Club late in his second season and the teams struggling for success, I decided I would go down to St Kilda in the District ranks. In hindsight this was a mistake as I was not ready for District cricket.

 Q Was Bill Easton  in charge of the club then?

LH I can’t remember.  I recall his father, TL Easton, was president I think the year I started.  I don’t think Bill became president until he stopped playing which may have been at the end of my first season, but it must have been about that time.  Bill was in a sense acting as president because I think he was responsible with Col Shipley and Ken Brinkman in getting Harold Shillinglaw to Brighton.  He would have been involved in negotiating the Shillinglaw arrangement. So with all of this disruption and the lack of facilities at Brighton I decided I would try out at St Kilda.

Q Tell us about your time at St Kilda?

LH I had two unrewarding years there (seasons 1957/58 and 1958/59).  By way of overall comment regarding my time at St Kilda, the club then had a strong view about how players should bat. Most young cricketers who went there were encouraged to be back foot players.  I was predominately a front foot player and with the St Kilda approach my batting went downhill in a big way.  I spent most of the first year in the seconds.    I made 80 odd in one match and was twelfth man for the firsts on one occasion. However the back foot coaching took over and I got so confused because my natural instinct was always to be a front foot player. My main scoring shot was driving.

However at St Kilda I started to do more bowling.  In those years, State player and legend John Edwards was playing, Peter Hosking another State player was also there  with Norm Lynch the leg spinner was playing and there were two or three other quite quick bowlers.  I was particularly impressed with John Edwards.  He was similar to Max Walker and was a late inswing bowler. I enjoyed watching him bowl in the nets.

So I then started bowling in the nets as you get your ten minutes batting and you’ve got something else to do.  I started copying Peter Hosking and John Edwards.  Norm Lynch had a younger brother called Ted Lynch and he was a quick bowler too.  So I thought this looks good, I enjoyed fast bowling, so I started bowling for long periods at the nets and in my second season I started bowling in matches.  I had a couple of games in the seconds but my bowling was not ready for that standard, so I bowled mainly in the thirds.  Then I developed a knee injury towards the end of the second season.  I had surgery for a chipped bone in the knee caused by banging the knee down too hard on hard wickets.  Also by that stage I was starting to study a lot more, and I decided I did not have a future in District cricket.  I had knee surgery during the winter following the 1958/59 season with St Kilda.

Then at the start of the next season (1959/60) I decided I would come back to Brighton.  Lew Carter was coach by this stage and I was still in contact with Ted Fowler.   So I went down and while I wasn’t bowling very fast I had learned to swing the ball.

I notice from the figures that I didn’t do much that first season at Brighton.  I didn’t start playing until after Christmas I recall.  So that was when I started to bowl more. The surgeon who operated on my knee advised I shouldn’t ever do any fast bowling but, at 20 years old you tend to ignore that sort of advice.

Q Were you happy rejoining Brighton?

LH Yes. Lew Cater was fantastic.  I have a great regard for Lew because he really improved my bowling and restored my confidence in batting.  In fact he said put all that St Kilda approach aside.  He knew all about the St Kilda method and advised “I’ve seen so many young cricketers affected by that St Kilda method” and he said it was wrong in his opinion.

So I started to gain in confidence.  Lew spent hours with me both batting and bowling.  And he taught me about varying your pace and bowling position at the crease.  He was a great coach.  I know a lot of people held him in high regard.  We became good friends and I designed a house for he and his family.  Gradually I gained confidence and the team was becoming stronger.  Bill Easton was the president and he was always strong about the links with Brighton Grammar and attracting players down from the School.  Dave Kerr had joined the Club as well. It was an exciting time to be at Brighton.

Q I can remember you won the best player in the VSDCA I think it is called the RM Hatch Trophy?

LH In the late 50’s this award was called, I think, the EA Goss Trophy after a former Port Melbourne player.  Then I think it became the R.M. Hatch Trophy.  I remember going with Col Shipley to a VSDCA presentation when I won it the first time for the 1961/62 season and I was asked to make a speech.  I had the impression that the Goss family had donated the trophy and I made some acknowledgement of this. Col took me aside later and said the Goss’s were no longer involved and it was now called the RM Hatch Trophy after RM Hatch who was president of the Sub-District cricket association.  I won it two years in a row, also in the Brighton Premiership year of 1962/63. It should be noted that in those days, as I recall, they excluded all the professionals and the captain/coaches.  Lew Carter  couldn’t have won it and either could the Ray Harveys, the Don Mathiesons and the Val Holtens who were some of the great players in my era.

Q The 1962/63 Premiership was a highlight for the team and you?

LH  Yes it was.  We were well performed over the season but the grand final was a clear highlight. In the grand final we batted first and Bill Gillard rescued the batting.  I think we made just over 200.  Then there was about half an hour to go on the first day that Preston had to bat. I was opening the bowling with Dave Kerr and Lew was very keen for me to get at Ray Harvey.  So he got me out on the ground before we took the field and got me bowling against the nets warming up.  He said I want you to really fire up first thing.

There was a well-known Sub-District umpire, Bill Bell and this is the time of the front foot no-ball rule.  I had experienced a bit of trouble with Bill Bell during the season with no balls.  He was very strict.  Some of the umpires didn’t seem to mind so much but I had this trouble getting no balled at Bill Bell’s end so Lew observed the end to which Bill Bell was heading and I opened the bowling from the opposite end.  Lew said, “I don’t think you’ll have any trouble with no balling now”.

This was in fact the opposite end to which I would normally have bowled at the Brunswick ground.   I would have normally bowled from the southern end with the breeze.  It wasn’t a full into the wind stint but it was a cross-wind.  In that first over I bowled Ray Harvey first ball, the No 3 batsman came in and he got an edge for a single through the slips and then the other opening batsman was in strike and I bowled him.  So they were two wickets for one run in the first over.  That was the first day of the 1962/63 grand final. Ray Harvey was a very good cricketer, a very good batsman he was their number one trump batsman. The other opener was an ex-District player also.  They were both back in the pavilion in the first over.  And it all happened because of Lew’s shrewd thinking.

Play on the next Saturday was rained out and on the third day we had Jack Iverson and we dismissed Preston for about 60-odd.  I hardly bowled on the third day because the soft wicket didn’t suit me very well.  But Dave Kerr came into his own and Lew and Jack Iverson and Barry Brown easily mopped up the wickets.

As an aside I always bowled well at Brunswick as I found I could swing the ball at that ground.  I got an “eight for” there earlier in the same season.

Q Then Bill Easton got Colin McDonald to the club

LH Yes that was a real coup.  That was the year after the 1962/63 premiership.  Colin joining the Club the next season added depth to our batting. At that point I had been back at the club for five seasons and become an all-rounder.  I was really enjoying my cricket and Bill Easton and Lew Carter were key reasons I had great success.

Q Did you get approaches to try again at District ranks?

LH  The year after the grand final I had some approaches from District clubs.  It was very interesting.  I had an approach from St Kilda and also from Bill Lawry on behalf of Northcote. Bill used to be a hot water salesman and visited the office I was working in Brighton. He had heard about me and invited me to play with Northcote.  I also had an approach from Collingwood and I went to practice with that Club.  I remember it very well because the “King”, Jack Ryder was there and was at practice complete with hat.  He must have been in his eighties at that time.  Keith Stackpole Jnr was also at the practice.

I had a hit at Collingwood and a bowl. Then each of the three teams (Collingwood, St Kilda and Northcote) all offered me six games until Christmas and that apparently was the standard thing for a Sub-District cricketer.  I thought about it and I had a long talk to Lew Carter and I said, “Lew, be honest, do you think I can make it?”  He was a bit equivocal and I knew I had a knee which wasn’t in A1 condition and I thought, is there any point in going to District cricket unless I could go further because architecture was really my prime interest?  Remember there was no money in cricket in those days.  It wasn’t a money thing and I thought am I prepared to do the work?

So at the last minute before the start of the 1963/64 season ,  I decided to stay at Brighton and I just told the other clubs  I wasn’t interested and I think it was the right call.  I might have been a District cricketer for a year or two but in retrospect my knee wouldn’t have stood up to the District standard.

Q At that point was your bowling or batting the dominant skill, so far as you were concerned?

LH It’s hard to say.  I became a better bowler later.  My best bowling season was not until season 1967/68 when I took 50-odd wickets.  As my bowling got better, my batting tailed off a bit.  My best batting was the season of the 1962/63 premiership.

Q You credit Lew Carter with a lot of your success can you comment on Lew as a player? 

LH I understand Lew was 33 when he came to Brighton. So probably his best cricket, really top cricket was behind him.  But he was still a terrific player and he had a kind of academic approach.  He was quite a thoughtful man.  I thought he was a terrific bowler as well as an outstanding batsman.  Sometimes on hard tracks people would get to him, the good players like the Ray Harvey’s would sometimes get to him.  He was no Jack Iverson, he wasn’t unplayable, but he had a terrific temperament.  In a contest Lew would usually rise to the occasion.

Late in his time at Brighton he opened the batting.  We were short of an opener in the mid 60’s and I think Lew thought he could do better than anyone else against the new ball and that’s why he pushed himself up the order.  I think he then spent the rest of his career opening with great success.  That’s my memory of it.

There was a funny story about when he changed into his cricket gear.  Dave Kerr would talk about it because it was legend.  He used to turn his underpants around.  I don’t know why that happened but he preferred his underpants back to front for his batting particularly. He didn’t wear an athletic support.  He had these sort of odd mannerisms and he was a little bit eccentric.  For example, when batting he would rotate his cap as the sun moved in the sky to adjust the peak of his cap to shield the sun on his face.  Lew had a good sense of the game, was a good captain, really thoughtful and it’s hard to say whether his batting was better than his bowling.

And Lew was remarkably versatile.  I remember we played a game at Preston.  I don’t know if I was bowling or not but we were a bit short of a bowler so he opened the bowling and bowled medium pace swingers and took six wickets.  That was, I think, my first season back.  I don’t know that he did it very often but he could because he had terrific ability and versatility.  I became his pin up boy because I remember taking a couple of very sharp catches off him close in.

Q  Can you comment briefly on people like Dave Kerr and Colin McDonald and Jack Iverson?

LH   I will take Jack first because I was on the selection committee in the 1962/63 season and Jack had rejoined the club that season having been retired for some years.  Heading towards the end of the season we had this big selection fight about Jack.  Col Shipley was the seconds captain and wanted Jack in his team and of course Lew wanted Jack in the first eleven.  Jack was still a terrific player.  I think in that season he got 30-odd first eleven wickets in six or seven games.  When we came to the semi-finals, there was a very bitter debate at the selection table because Colin wanted Jack back in the seconds and both the firsts and seconds were in the finals.  I don’t know how it was resolved because Lew and I said this is ridiculous.  We’re in the race to win the first eleven premiership, the first one for 20 years or so, we’ve got the best bowler in Jack, probably he was still, I reckon, capable of playing District cricket if not higher and we’re going to put him in the second eleven.  However Col prevailed at selection, I don’t know how, and Jack played in the seconds in the semi-final.

In the semi-finals the seconds lost and the firsts won.  The firsts played Oakleigh at Oakleigh in the semi-final and we just scrambled home.  But the seconds lost. So Jack was able to return to the firsts for the grand final.  I remember that selection issue well because it was very heated.

Jack Iverson was a remarkable bowler,  I think in Gideon Haigh’s book on Jack, someone told the story of how he’d come down to practice early and he would be at the end net against the young players and loved beating them all ends up.

I do remember a story about Jack when we won the premiership.  After matches Jack Iverson very rarely stayed for a drink he’d be off out the room.  But after we won the premiership I remember we came back down to Brighton Beach and everyone got very, very drunk.  I remember around midnight Jack said, “We will go out and urinate on the pitch”.  So we all went out and had this ceremony of urinating on the centre wicket.  Jack was in great spirits.  He was really thrilled and he got a hell of a kick out of the win as we all did.

Dave Kerr was of course a very experienced cricketer before he came to Brighton.  He played District cricket for many years and played Shield cricket for Victoria for a handful of games playing with both Colin McDonald and Lew Carter.  Dave was also an architect and that gave our friendship a kick start.  He was tall and I first played against him when he had a season or two with Hawthorn/East Melbourne Sub-District side before coming to Brighton.

I remember playing at St James Park and I found him very awkward because of that height and he was so accurate.  A bit like Glen McGrath I suppose, not as good a bowler but that style. I understand Colin McDonald described him in this way also.

Dave was tall, accurate, did a little bit off the seam and Lew Carter used to use him very well.  Whenever he wanted someone to contain a batsman Dave would do it.  In addition, of course, he could open the bowling.  Before Bill Gillard came in as an opening bowler  I would  open the bowling down wind and Dave would push into the wind down at Brighton which he used to make wry jokes about.  He could bat well too particularly when he first came to Brighton.

Dave was a lovely man. He was very competitive on the field but he was not a sledger. A wonderful role model as both a man and a cricketer. I was very sad when he died and one of my great regrets is I was in the city one day long after we had both retired from cricket and I saw Dave in the distance and he was limping.  He looked unwell and I was rushing to a meeting and I didn’t even have the chance to stop and say hello to him.  It was about six months later that he died.   He was a terrific cricketer and great team man.

Colin came in 1963/64 the year after the grand final premiership.  He made a big impact. He was a brilliant batsman (he was only three years out of the Australian Test Team) and a good team player.  Because of work he didn’t practice.  I recall that caused some resentment with a few players.

The batting order just before Colin came was Wally Williams and Bruce Aldersea opening, with me at first wicket down followed by Lew Carter at No 4. When Colin came my batting was starting to go off a bit so I went further down the order. Then in the mid 60’s Lew put himself up the order and opened and Colin played at No 3 or 4

Colin was very generous with his time.  He used to have these impromptu batting coaching sessions in the dressing room at different times.

Q  Colin McDonald was, as I recall, very adamant about how you should bat and that cricket is a side on game?

LH When he came to Brighton he’d have these little sessions.  He’d talk about the side on game and he’d take people aside if he thought that they were playing too square on.

I remember the story a number of times and my memory of it was that there was a period when he was struggling in his early years.  He was very vulnerable to getting caught in slips and it was Lindsay Hassett who took him aside and said look, Colin, you’re far too square on.  You’ve got to remember cricket is a side on game. Hassett used to play a lot of golf and Colin said Hassett’s advice changed his batting.  It wasn’t until he was in his middle twenties, I think, that he really established himself as a star, he was always known as a good player, and he had a breakout series against England in Australia in 1958/59.

I do remember going to the Melbourne test on the 1960/61 West Indies tour when that record crowd was there.  I had to work or do an exam in the morning and I got to the ground at about midday and I couldn’t believe it.  I couldn’t get a seat.  It was open slather those days and I remember watching the game from up at the outer, the old Southern Stand, right at the top.  Colin played and he had, as you would know, a lot of duals with Wes Hall and the other fast bowlers from the West Indies.  He had become that side on player.

Q You played a lot with Alan Tudor.

LH Alan was a terrific player.  In my best years I don’t think he was at his best, but in the latter 60’s he started to do very well.  Alan was in the seconds for the 1962/63 premiership year where he bowled at times in tandem with Jack Iverson. They were an interesting combination as Jack was a big powerful man and Alan was slightly built and he was always getting his fingers hurt but he was such a determined player.  I remember he and I had a partnership once, it was after tea we were playing Camberwell and we put on about 180 in about two hours.  He was very deceptive, he had all the shots and he could graft the runs or score quickly if he wanted to.  Of course he’s been a fantastic club man.

Q You mentioned your bowling action was called into question at some point When did this happen?

LH There were a handful of opening bowlers in Sub-District cricket in the 60’s who were seen as questionable.  This was around the time of Ian Meckiff who was queried by the English press in 1958/59 and was later no balled out of test cricket in the early 60’s. Some put me in that category.

In Sub-District cricket in the early 60’s there was Ross Chapman who played with Ormond who was quick.  He had, some people thought, a suspicious action and there was the famous Shuffles (Ken) Dunbar of Preston.  He played against us in the 1962/63 grand final and he had this very odd action a bit like Muralitharan except he was fast medium.  He looked as though he was double jointed and people thought he was a “chucker”.  Colin thought he was.

I did ask Colin once if he thought I was a “chucker” because that was always a thing that I lived with my whole career.  Colin said no, look I can tell you I’ve looked at you and I don’t think you are.  Colin’s the sort of guy if he thought you were he would say so.

In my case it wasn’t until the last couple of seasons when my knee got worse and I tended to become a bit proppy.  I think at that point however my action probably did become a bit suspicious. My last season I played a bit in the seconds in 1972/73 when Linden Adamson was captain.  I remember one game – it must have been the last or second last game – and I played – I did have a problem with a shoulder, a dislocation of my shoulder and I deliberately threw a couple just to get up the umpire’s nose.  He no-balled me and I thought it was unfair so I then said okay, if I’m going to be called I’ll give you something to call.

I think the over went on and Linden was trying to calm me down and I was getting angrier and angrier.  I think that might have been the reason I suddenly thought I don’t know whether I’ve got the patience to do this anymore.

Q  Talk about some of the top liners that you played against in Sub-District ranks?

LH  I have already mention Ray Harvey who was a top line batsman. At the same time Val Holten who played at Malvern and then Oakleigh was around and he was a terrific batsman.  I played with him in one of the representative Sub-District teams.  He was a good captain.  As I say, a rather dour, quiet man.  With Val there was a connection with Brighton because his father Aub Holten was a former Brighton player. Aub used to come to a lot of the Brighton games when I was playing.

Another top opponent was Don Matthieson who was Captain Coach at Ringwood in the Sub-District competition in the 60’s.  Don had played District cricket with Prahran and for Victoria. He was a batsman but also bowled medium pace swingers.  Don also captained one of the Sub-District representative teams I played in against Adelaide Turf.  He was a good guy, I liked him.

Tom Trembath an ex Victorian and District player played I think at Coburg and then was at Ivanhoe and his opening bowler there was Geoff Trivett.  They were both in the Ivanhoe team we beat in a semi-final at Brighton in 1967/68. Geoff Trivett was pretty lively.

Stan Davis from Balwyn was a very successful leg spinner in this era. He played in sandshoes and he bowled a good number of top spinners . The ball would just skip through off the wicket, he got plenty of players bowled and LBW.

Then there was John Wildsmith another ex Victorian and District player who was at Sunshine. Good batsman and left arm wrist spinner who took large number of wickets for Sunshine. As Colin McDonald has remarked elsewhere, he thought John could have played more at the Shield level.  I think there might have been a bit of a temperament problem with John.  He was a very destructive bowler and pitches gave him plenty of assistance at Sub-District level.  I remember once playing Sunshine down at Brighton, it was in the middle sixties and Colin McDonald was all over Wildsmith and made about 140.  At Brighton that day it was one of those nice batting pitches and on that day Wildsmith was devastated as I recall. Then of course you would go out to play Sunshine where there’s little grass and the ball turns at right angles.

Fred Lalor of Port Melbourne was an ex District cricketer and a good one.

At Moorabbin there was Max Papley (the South Melbourne footballer ) who could really hit the ball, he absolutely murdered me one day.  In the same match, as I recall, the Moorabbin opening bowler Keith Baskin, who was quick, was called for throwing. At one stage he came in to bowl to Lew Carter who had strike and stopped behind the umpire at the bowlers end and threw a delivery.

Keith was temperamental.  I played in a representative game with him in Adelaide.  I think Don Mathieson or Val Holten was the captain and was tearing his hair out because it was a very flat hard wicket, hot day and Keith was all over the place and then wouldn’t bowl and wanted to go off.  So I ended up doing a lot of bowling.  I think in that match the Adelaide team made about six for 300 or thereabouts but we got them by tea the next day.  We had a terrific Sub-District batting side.

Q  You played a number of representative sides didn’t you?

LH The first representative game I played, George Tribe the captain coach of Yarraville, was captain. He played one test for Australia I think, and then he spent most of his career in England.  He played a lot of county cricket and took a huge number of wickets.  He was captain and we won that match.  The next year we went to Adelaide and – I forget who was captain of that game.  We also won that game.  Then there was a game in Albury where I recall Don Mathieson was Captain.

I played at least four representative games that I can remember.  It might have been five.  I think the Sub-District Cricket Association asked the clubs, who is available?  I don’t think a lot of people were necessarily available.  But I enjoyed playing in these games and tried always to be available to play.

Q Can you give me the best Brighton side from your playing era?

LH I will do my best and give you a team in batting order.

• Lew Carter,
• Wally Williams
• Colin McDonald
• Harry Nance
• Harold Shillinglaw,
• Alan Tudor,
• Bill Gillard,
• Dave Kerr,
• Nick Tonkin,
• Charlie Warner (wicketkeeper)
• Jack Iverson.

I think this team would be pretty competitive.

 Q  On retiring from cricket you had a family?

LH  My first wife was Belinda and my second wife is Anne and I’ve got three children from these marriages: Sam born 1975, Sarah born 1982 and Amie born 1985.   I’ve been with my current partner Susan for 18 years.

I’m always sorry that I moved away from the area and then got involved in a whole different life.  My wives and my partner Susan are not interested in sport so I sort of had a clean break from cricket when I finished playing.

Q Did you play any cricket when you left Brighton?

LH  Physically I think I was finished anyway when I stopped playing At Brighton.  I had both shoulder and knee problems.  I did little but in the early ‘80s I became friendly with the captain of Melbourne University’s Club XI.  They were struggling and were short of players so I said, I don’t know how my knee will go.  I practiced and had about a season with them.  One Saturday the Nawab of Pataudi (who made six centuries for India in test cricket) turned up to play. The captain gave him some cock and bull name because he didn’t want him recognized.  He was about 40 at the time and he made a very smart 60 in about half an hour.  I batted with him for a while.  He was quite a character.

Q Any amusing stories?

LH  There was a Brighton player called Bob Wilson. He had a wife who apparently ran a very tight household.  He was in the Brighton premiership team, I think in the late 1940’s.

As the story goes, Bob got drunk after the premiership victory.  He got home very late the worse for wear. The next morning when he woke up with a terrible hangover, all his creams were on the line and his wife had dyed them all pink.  That was one of those legends passed on by older players.  Col Shipley and Ken Brinkman used to swear by it.  And Bob used to come down to the ground when I was playing.  A big sort of friendly man.  But I thought that was a terrific story.  I remember Col used to joke about it all the time and when Bob came down would always ask “How are the dyed pants, Bob?”  Allegedly he didn’t play cricket again after this incident.

Q You have had a long career in architecture, tell us about this as it has been a big part of your life while you played cricked and after?

LH  I have had a long career as an architect. Post secondary school, I studied architecture part-time at RMIT and ultimately at Melbourne University. This career was one of the main reasons why I dropped out of cricket.  Ultimately I found that the difficulty of a career in architecture and  cricket difficult to balance and I dropped any cricket involvement.  I also moved away from the Brighton area as well getting married and raising a family.

 Q Have you retired now? 

LH No, I’m still a director of my company, Hayball Proprietary Limited.  We practice in architecture in a whole range of fields.  We design schools, multi-unit housing and we have an interiors division and currently employ about a hundred people. It is quite a big organisation?   I I don’t know where it fits in the scale but it’s probably one of the 10 largest practices in Melbourne.  A lot of that growth has come in the last five years.  I still work about three days a week there.

Q How did your architectural career develop?

LH In 1970 I joined an architect named Graeme Gunn who is very well known.  He’s designed a range of houses for a company called Merchant Builders and I joined him and became a partner in 1974.  I was a partner there until late ’82.  We then had some differences and I decided to bail out and sold my interest in the practice.  I didn’t really intend to start another practice but three or four months later I was just doing some pottering around and I did a small project development with a developer and then one thing led to another and I started to get work from previous clients and built a new practice. I also recruited two previous employees of mine who are still with me today as partners.  We started that in 1983 and so just working away quietly for nearly 30 years we have built up a healthy business.

Q  Looking back by way of overall comment on cricket and your time at Brighton, what would you say to sum it up?

LH  I’ve got very fond memories of  my early years at the Club and of the senior players such as  Col Shipley, Bill Easton, Ken Brinkman, Bob Treasure and, Harry Nance.  They were the real strength of the club in terms of mentoring at that time.  They were the leadership group if you like.  It’s become a clichéd term, hasn’t it.  However they were terrific and very encouraging of younger cricketers.  While I played, cricket was a very big part of my life and it was the only sport I really played seriously. The friendships and the mateships that you had were wonderful.  The camaraderie and the friendships with people like Alan Tudor and Ted Fowler who was very close to for a long time.  And Tony Thornhill, it was lots of fun playing with Tony. Overall I’ve got great memories of a terrific time in my life.

_ _ _

Editor’s Note

Len Hayball represented the Brighton Cricket Club in 14 seasons between 1956 and 1973. In 161 1^st XI matches he scored 3685 runs at an average of 21.8 including three centuries and took 290 wickets at 14.88. He played in a number of VSDCA representative teams and was awarded the RM Hatch trophy for the outstanding Sub-District player on two occasions.

November 2011

BCC Newsletter #15 – Raffle, raffle raffle! Last week for seniors/ Junior Finals

Greetings all

We had a fantastic event last week at the Past Players Lunch – Huge thanks to Gilla and Dodge on the day, great effort and raised a few dollars for the Club!  An even bigger thanks to those that chipped into their pockets for the development coach fund!  But what was a real highlight was ex Australian Test cricketer (4th oldest living) Colin McDonald giving a fantastic little speach about his time at Brighton and a few great tales.

It will be adnauseum – but get your raffle tickets in!  Send them in to 385 Hawthorn Road, Caulfield South, 3162, or hand them to Ryan Sweeney or myself, or bring them along to your junior presentation night!

Huge week this week for the 1st XI.  Sitting just outside the 6, a win will see our boys make the finals.  If they succeed, it will be the first time in the Club’s history that all four teams will make the finals!  Lets hope that the rain can hold out to the evening!

One thing we did miss over the last couple of weeks, was a couple of milestones according to a esteemed historian David King:

Ryan Sweeney will play his 100th First XI game this coming week. He also took his 100th First XI wicket last Saturday against Moorabbin.

Andrew Harrod will play his 100th BCC senior game this week.

Matt Bennett brought up his 100th BCC game a couple of games ago.

Tas Tudor brought up his 250th BCC senior game a couple of games ago.

Milo & In-2-Cricket

The season is coming to a close.  This week is the last week for both programs.  I would like to thank Mat and Kate Bennett for being the Milo co-ordinators this year, and our team managers Bruno and Norman who have been fantastic with the T20 Blast.  And we look forward to seeing you all back again next year.  (Remember to bring in your raffle tickets tomorrow!)

Junior Finals

Under 14 Finals started last week.  The A’s are chasing 145 at Peterson St Reserve.  Best of the bowling was Aydn Coleman with 2 wickets and Charlie Franklyn with 1/8 off 4 overs with 5 wides!

The D’s did not fare quite as well against a bigger Ormond side.  The boys batted gamely and courageously, but were dismissed for 61 and Ormond are 1/31 in reply.

The U12A’s are playing tomorrow and Sunday morning against Ormond at Whyte Street.  And the U12D’s are playing East Sandy Boys Club at Chisholm Reserve.  Good Luck to both teams.

Review of the last weekend

Great innings by our Club Coach Dale McDonald, who knocked up 110 not out in hot conditions.  Great reward for Dale who has threatened the three figures a few times, but had just fell short.  Tesch provided great support with 67 not out.  The push for the outright in front of the past players just fell short, Moorabbin scoring 6/94 in the 2nd innings.  It was also great to see Andrew Harrod taking 9 wickets for the match.

The 2nds had a similar result to the 1sts, attempting to push for the outright.  Stu Fairley scored 80 and Mike Tredgear 64.

A bit different for the 4ths, securing top spot with a thrilling outright with a couple of overs to go.  Chasing 51 for the outright off 10 overs, Chris Walker continued his form with 27* to help steer the ship home.

The 4ths unfortunately could not chase down the large 300 plus score, but put up a great show.  Dan Fraser top scored with 75 and had support from Pidge, Milney and Cam McK.

The U14′s had a brilliant “super 6′s” event on Sunday.  Great work Tom on organising.  Highlight definately was Jono Bretherton’s 6 according to Tom Tan.    Tom was on 6 duty at the time and  was no where near tall enough to stop on going on the neighbours roof!!  Great stuff.

Happy cricketing

Tas Tudor

Acting President

BCC Newsletter # 14 Raffle, Raffle, Raffle! Past Players and Friends Lunch Tomorrow

Hi BCC family and friends

Welcome to another edition of the BCC newsletter.  We had a fantastic night last Saturday night at the Half Moon.  We raised some dough for the Club (a bit over $5k) and we had an excellent evening.  Huge thanks to those in no particular order, Milney, Vanessa, Wok, Staffy and Lara for the great work in organising.  And an even bigger thanks to those that donated goods or services, or donated some money in liew of attendance!  It was very generaous and very much appreciated.

Great news is the raffle has been posted out to the Club today, so you should all receive our tickets in the post.  Sell them and get them back to the Club!  We all know somebody we can hit up to buy a raffle ticket, and if you don’t, $50 worth of tickets shouldn’t be too hard to buy yourselves!  If you don’t receive a book, then please email myself at tas@tudorandco.com.au or tas0173@gmail.com and I will get one out to you ASAP!

Again we thank Jo Geary from Excell Travel & Cruise (http://www.excelltravel.com.au/) for assisting us with the main prize in the raffle.  With the aussie dollar being so high at the moment, what a great time to travel overseas!

Past Players Lunch

Just a reminder to all that the past players and great friends of the Club that Gilla, Goo and Dodge are putting together their usual fantastic lunch.  We have some great raffles and silent auction items, so we look forward to catching up with you all.

T20 Blast and Milo In-2-Cricket

Tomorrow, T20 Blast returns to Carnegie South at 9.45am.  In-2-Cricket is back on tomorrow at Beach Road at 9am.

Finals this week

Great news that the finals for some of the juniors start this week.  Great seasons have been rewarded to our Under 14A’s, who are playing Brighton Union at Peterson St Reserve and our U14D’s who are playing Ormond at Whyte Street Reserve.  Both games start tonight at 4.30pm.  Good luck to thos teams!

Review of last Saturday

There were some great results amongst the seniors last week with the 1st XI having a good day against Moorabbin.  Bowling first Andrew Harrod was the chief destroyer with career best 1st XI figures of 6/44.  Off the hamstring deat bed, our esteemed Secretary Ryan Sweeney chipped in for 2/18 including the dsmissal of one of the competition leading batsman in Pradeep.

The seconds also had a great day, they have already won their game!  Moorabbin were dismissed for 105 of 55 overs.  Mitch and Staff both took 3 wickets.  Then the snake onslaught began!  After 25 overs the twos have piled on 133 runs without loss.  Snake (Stu Fairley) is on 74 from 74 balls and Mike Tregear is on 54 from 76 balls.

The youthful thirds continued the theme and have knocked over Moorabbin for 93 and in reply are 3/149.  3 wickets each to Gater, Jono Dojcinovic (great to see returning after injury) and Moff.  Chris Walker (60) and James Westlake (53) put on a great opening stand.

The family team, the 4ths, did not have as much luck on Saturday.  What was great to see was Max Milnes (son of Cam) and Duncan McKenzie (son of the other Cam) both making their senior debuts!  Duncan had a dream start getting wicket with his first ball (2/7)!  But, on the small ground, Moorabbin put on 309 off their allotted overs.

Happy cricketing to all!

Tas Tudor

Acting President

BCC Newsletter #13 Cocktail Party, Raffle and Past Players & Friends Lunch

Hi all our BCC Family!

Cocktail Party

Well, we are gearing up for a big week or two at Brighton.  Saturday Night we are having the club’s big fundraising night of the year at the Half Moon Hotel Function Room.  Attendance is highly important as there has been a massive effort put in to put together some fantastic auction and silent auction items as per below.  Please let Ryan Sweeney (bcc1842@gmail.com) or James Perkins-Stafford (james.perkins-stafford@lakesideconsultants.com.au) know whether you are attending.

If you are unable to attend, the Club asks for a donation for which can be paid direct into the club bank account (Brighton Cricket Club, BSB 633000 A/c # 134086651).

Big tick to the U12′s, T20Blast and the seniors on organising most of the silent auction items listed below.  The U16′s, U14′s and In-2-Cricket programs, well we need a great attendance from you guys on the night and bid high on the auction items!  And if you would like an item and can’t attend, we will take email bids between the hours of 8pm and 9.30pm.  To email your enquiry email silentauctionbcc@gmail.com.  We will have somebody monitoring this email across the night.

Club Raffle

Tickets will be going out this week for the club raffle.  Everybody at the Club will be getting tickets and the raffle will be drawn on 20 April 2012 at the Club Senior Presentation Night.  We welcome Jo Geary from Excell Travel & Cruise (138 Church Street, Brighton, VIC 3186) as a new sponsor of the Club.  Excell Travel & Cruise has sponsored the main raffle prize in the form of a $3500 Travel Voucher.  So for all your travel needs, head to Excell Travel and ask for Jo!

The prizes are as follows:

1st Prize – $3,500 Travel Voucher from Excell Travel & Cruise (Valid until 31 December 2012)

2nd Prize – Peroni limited edition single speed road bike courtesy of Glenn from Cellarmasters in Hampton (Value approx $2,000)

3rd Prize – Sony 40″ 3D TV and Sony Home Theatre System (Approx value $1700)

4th Prize – Apple iPad 3G 32GB (Approx value $839)

5th Prize – Kookaburra pads and gloves (adult) (Approx Value $190)

Past Players & Friends Lunch – 25 February 2012

A reminder for all our past players to get on board next week’s Past Players and Friends Lunch on Saturday 25 February 2012.  Start time is 12.30pm.

Milo In-2-Cricket and T20 Blast this week

IMPORTANT – Please note that there is NO Milo In-2-Cricket this week.  T20 Blast is at Carnegie South CC (Munro Avenue, Carnegie South)  at 9.45am.

Review of results

The 1sts had a fantastic win on the Saturday against Box Hill.  Richard Pearson wrapped up Man of the Match after his 65 the week before, with 5 for 64.  The balance of wickets were shared around amongst Andrew Harrod, Ryan Sweeney and David Salter.

The 2nds and 3rds both had comfortable wins on the Saturday also.  Skipper James P-S took 5 wickets and Hamish Graham took 3 in a good performance at home.  The 3rds had a good win against Kingston Saints with runs and wickets being shared around all day!

The one day games on Sunday were not great results with the firsts and seconds losing to Mt Waverley, the 3rds being washed out after being a good position at 5/136 (Wilson 56 / Some other bloke 51*), but the 4ths defied the trend and had a good win against Kingston Saints (Matt Raven 50).  The firsts probably had the youngest team fielded by our 1st XI for some time after numerous injuries throughout the prior day and week and fought hard to the end, but some slow batting probably cost the Tonners victory.  Attempting to defend 112, Mt Waverley put on 30 odd for the 9th wicket to just scrape home.

Fixtures this week

This week a return to normality with all senior XI’s playing Moorabbin.  The 1sts ofcourse are at home  on the Sat, 2nds away at Moorabbin, 3rds at home on Sunday and the 4ths at EE Gunn Reserve on Saturday.  For all other fixtures please see the calendar on the front page of the website.

Thanks look forward to seeing a lot of you on Saturday Night!

Tas Tudor

Acting President

BCC Newsletter Edition 12 – Cocktail Night

Hi to all our fantastic Brighton Cricket Club Family

The committee have been all working hard on the cocktail party on Saturday 18 February at the Half Moon Hotel.  You have been had notices out about getting silent auction items or auction items for the evening.  IT IS A VERY IMPORTANT EVENING FOR THE CLUB, SO IF YOU KNOW OF ANYBODY / ANYTHING THAT MAY BE ABLE TO HELP, THEN PLEASE ASK!  IF YOU DON’T ASK YOU DON’T GET!  It will be a great night and we expect a sell out, order your tickets from Ryan and James as per the link to the flyer.

There is a misconception in our community that our club is financially secure and wealthy, but without going over old ground and our Cricket Victoria Dividend being cut next year, we need to dig deep as a club and give the club the buffer in its cash reserves going forward so that we can invest in our facilities and programs, so such events are vitally important to the club.

Also next week we will be launching the Club Annual Raffle.  Every player and family at the club will get a book of raffle tickets to sell.  There will be some great prizes and the raffle will be drawn on the Senior, U16 and Hatch Presentation Night on 20 April 2012 (Venue TBC).

Milo and T20 this week

Milo as usual will be at Beach Road at 9am.  And T20 Blast this week will be at Carnegie South Cricket Club at Munro Avenue Carnegie South 10am.

Fixtures this week

Please see the calendar on the main page of the website for the game times and venues.  Let me reiterate to team managers and captains, it would be great if you could post some match summaries.  I cannot stress how easy it is!

Note for the seniors this Sunday:

Sunday – 1sts v Mt Waverley at Home

2nds v Mt Waverley away

3rds v Mt Waverley at Shipston Reserve

4ths v Kingston Saints at St Bedes College.

Some great Performances on the weekend

Steven Goodman continues to re-discover his form and belief with the bat, making a superb debut ton at Beach Rd v Box Hill in the 2nds.  It is great to see Steven proove to everybody that he is not just a very good keeper and can score the big ones.  There was great support from Andy Martin (53) and Nick Wanless (34).  The final score was 291.

Also making his top score for the club was the “old pro” Richard Pearson who helped rescue the 1sts after being in dire straights scoring 65.  David Salter continued his comeback in the 1sts with 42, Tesch, reliable as always with 43 and good to see our esteemed Secretary Ryan Sweeney scoring 30.  The final total of 203 is hopefully defendable against a good club in Box Hill.

Presentation Nights

Next week we will highlight all the Presentation Nights and Days for all the age groups (You will note above that the Hatch and U16′s will be on Friday 20 April 2012).

Past Players Function

A reminder to all past players and friends that the past players lunch is on Saturday 25 February 2012 at 12.30pm.

Jack and Stephen at the MCG for Bushrangers training

Today, Jack Nichols and Stephen Athaide from our U16 and our successful Hatch team are having a great experience going to Bushrangers training and getting a close up tour of the MCG courtsey of VSDCA sponsors Coca Cola.  Next week we hope for a report from them about their experience!

Nets

Due to some unauthorised use by some local schools, we are going to protect our investment (nearly $100K) in our nets and will be locking two of the nets going forward.  And we will be leaving two nets open for use.  Please speak to your junior co-ordinators on how to access the nets for training.

Happy cricketing!

Tas Tudor

Acting President