Waratahs NQS Tour to Lismore 2007

When the light has almost dimmed from the eyes of a champion and he has only a finite and measurable number of heart beats left to pound in his once proud chest …. they say it is in these times he rises up for one last heroic effort to win the day and savour glory that last time.
Well, that didn’t happen in Lismore.
However, sixteen blokes – predominately of Waratahs heritage – gathered for three gruelling days of cricket and socialising. It was a time of discovering who your mates are and clearly, mates are blokes who can laugh in the face of adversity … that is, laugh in the face of your adversity!

Thursday
The gathering began from about lunchtime Thursday. The planned visit to the racetrack was abandoned as a few of the nags had a bad cough. The early arrivals decided to act as quality control for the team and spent the afternoon taste-testing beer at one of the local distributors. The majority slowly gathered in the rooms of our accommodation and confined ourselves to quietly lubricating old and new friendships. The “official” team dinner was held without Tim Bindley – still gathering himself – and much merriment was punctuated by speeches for those who have left the wicket. Garry Holloway and Tony Bennett spoke warmly of Harry Deiderick and Bob Hughes respectively. The official colours were handed to each player in the form of their playing shirt and caps commemorating every player’s membership of Waratahs were handed out. In the case of Kevin Pike, David Nosworthy and Peter Quirk, caps were paid for by team members, as they would debut for the club in this tournament. The night raced on and gradually wound its way through local pubs, clubs and glasses of port back at the accommodation.

Friday
It was a gentle start – the first game being after lunch – so players took advantage of sleep-ins, breakfast at all times and places and some sight seeing.
The first game began in sunshine which was still too bright and casting a nasty reflection off the Skipper’s roll-on-deodorant-like head. We batted badly, with Frost and Connolly gone early which left Sattler and Langston to mount a recovery. This stalled when Lango discovered he could still middle the ball but had forgotten how to run. At least we weren’t all out in the sixteen overs … but nearly. The opposition racked up a 96 run win and only Connolly and McNeill could hold their head as bowlers.
Waratahs 8-62 (Wally 20, Lango 15x) lost to Legends 5-158 (Conno 2-20, Radar 1-11,
Quirk 1-19)
The second game for the day started immediately the first flogging finished and wholesale changes swept through the side with the Skipper looking for some good news to trot around town that night on the Captain‘s Tour. Two hours later, he was still looking. The others batted first and looked to have posted a reachable target for a side which possessed such a rich batting lineup as ours. Armanath’s first appearance yielded a hostile one over spell of 1-1 and Radar and Quirky again dined out on the scraps. Mention should be made of Davo’s first stumping for the club but it won't be. Sattler and Frost made plans for a long stay and thrilling late order victory when they returned after retirement … didn’t happen! Frost left in the second over and was followed by McNeill soon after. Armanath Campbell upped the pace for a while but once Sattler played over one it was another debacle and we barely beat our first game total.
Worker’s Wobblies 3-134 (Armanath 1-1, Radar 1-19, Quirky 1-24) defeated Waratahs 7-68 (Armanath 17, Wally 15)

A reasonable post mortem was called for so we retreated to the accommodation and nursed our wounds with a few cold VB and Extra-Drys as there was no ice available. It seemed the only reasonable thing to do. After much thought, the tour selectors wrung the changes again and even the Skipper stood aside, Denness-like, to allow other tourists the chance to play in the 9:00 am Saturday game. Wally was always a man to face sacrifice stoically. Teams decided, showers and best rags on, we filled a few taxis and headed for Mary Gillhouly’s Irish Pub and dinner. Here we stayed until the punk/thrash/crap band next door drove us out and the lads scattered to a variety of venues, not to be seen until their pale appearance the next morning.

Saturday
Change of venue and change of Skipper for the first game. Veteran of the ’03 campaign, Davo slipped comfortably into the Big Hat. It was a similar start, despite the change in personnel and Armanath, Bino and Holloway were all gone with 17 on the board. Frost and Connolly dominated the rest of the innings, batting in two stints before and after retiring. There were touches of vintage Frosty, with one flick over the square leg boundary being right from the Frost scrapbook. Lango managed to hang about for a few, including a rare all run two. Our bowling started well with Bindley picking up two wickets opening the bowling. Davo’s man-management was brilliant, as was the bowling of the last three of Davo, Barwick and Campbell, who took 3-17 to secure our first win and give Davo his second win as Skipper. The novice Sattler sat quietly on the boundary’s edge, bemused by events but still able to laugh, as he had just watched Frosty secure a rare stumping in a long career which had included many of those years behind the stumps. It was fitting he deftly remove the off and middle stumps from the ground at the third attempt.
Waratahs 9-105 (Frosty 41x, Conno 40, Lango 11) defeated West Of the Range 9-102 (Conno 2-3, Armanath 2-9, Bino 2-13, Davis 1-3)

We changed venues again for the second game of the day and volunteers were sought to stand aside for this game, as everyone except Frosty (who would be absent on the last day) had stood aside. There was a consistency to our batting on both days as we scored about the same in each game on each day. Sattler and Davis opened superbly and tamed the demons in the synthetic over concrete pitch. Armanath, promoted to three, batted strongly and with much of the flair of his youth and Bindley swung lustily in the dying deliveries. For the next ten overs at least, we stuck out our chests at what we had achieved but because we had had so much practice, we easily accepted the eventual 46 run pasting. Bindley and Sattler were seriously competitive with the ball but our out-cricket looked like old men on tired legs which is pretty much what it was.
Waratahs 3-107 (Wally 25x, Davo 24, Armanath 21x, Bino 13) lost to Profile Pools 5-153 (Conno, 1-1, Wally 1-3, Bino 1-10, Radar 1-13,
Pikey 1-17)
We left to lick our wounds but imagining what this might look like, we toughed it out and had a few beers instead. We needed to reassess our strategy, revamp our selections, revitalise the enthusiasm in our team mates – oh, to hell with that. A few beers back at the digs, we polished up and went into town for our last team dinner. It was raining so hard that hamstrings and thighs had started to relax at the thought of the final day being unsavoury. A lot of good stuff happened during the evening which reminded us of why we were there and we laughed and sang and stirred and embraced each other in our manliness. If you think that’s odd or want to giggle about it, then you’ve missed the point. We sat about and watched the footie and Wally led the way as the inspiring bloke he is. AJ McNeill was the clown of this particular circus but oh how we missed Tim Muldoon. The singing was good but short-lived as they closed the bar on us! Only bad moment of the trip.

Sunday
It hadn’t rained enough! We started our last game reluctantly, aware that we were only a win away from having to play in the C grade final – go figure. Our form was good enough to suggest a loss was an inevitability and Wally had the look of a man who knew the result before it happened. The most disconcerting element in this particular pre-match brew, was that the opposition only had four players until five minutes before the start. Things were looking decidedly black. We batted first and the Skipper pulled a master stroke by having Lango open. Batting slower than Geoffrey Boycott will when he’s dead, Lango compiled his runs in stealthily taken singles. To enhance the position he ran Radar out by the length of the pitch in the first over. The only danger occurred when Snorkel went berserk but a low total was obtained regardless. The opposition somehow managed to pass our total and we bid them happily to the final. Our first injuries of tour finally surfaced with Conno (leg somewhere) and Bennett (a shoulder too far) having their complaints taken seriously. Our previous days of good health had seen the St John’s people abandon us as low risk.
Waratahs 3-81 (Snorkle 26, Lango 21) lost to Station 3-99 (Gazza 1-3, Radar 1-4, Bino 1-20)
So from there, we left in stages, some reassembling at Grafton to have lunch at a pub on the riverbank. Frosty had left the day before and Davo that morning. I think we would all call the four days a great success.

Thanks
Thanks to all the players who were really co-operative in the planning of the event. Thanks to Davo for his constant input when I needed it. Thanks especially to Wally who was so enthusiastic throughout every stage of the project. In the end, this event worked because all sixteen who were there made it work through their good humour and sense of camaraderie. As many have said, it was so great to be lost with your mates again. Stay in touch fellas, as though your lives depend on it.

Lango