NORTHERN DISTRICT CRICKET CLUB
P.O. Box 154, Hornsby, NSW 2077
Founded 26th May 1925
BLACKMAIL
9th Mar 2017
2016/2017 Season
Congratulations to the G.O.A.T…. 8
No.16
fa 50 … NICE GARY!
NDCC Test cricketer, Nathan Lyon, wrapped up the first innings against
the Indians who were dismissed for 189. Yet another devastating spell
from Nath who just gets better and better with age!
Bottom line … 1 Test all!
Toyota Futures League
The Toyota Futures League is Cricket Australia’s official second tier
competition for men.
The competition features sides from each of the States, as well as the
ACT, with teams playing one-another once in a Four Day fixture.
Players are primarily chosen from the McDonald’s Sydney Grade
competition, while players from this competition who originate from
regional NSW are also eligible to represent the ACT.
Congratulations to Andrew Harriott, Henry Hunt for their selection.
Sheffield Shield
Congratulations to Harry Conway who joins Daniel Hughes in the
NSW Sheffield Shield side. Games coming up …
KEEP IT IN MIND
We play Campbelltown on the weekend. The Club has had a pretty good season … 1st Grade
T20 Premiers, Green Shield in Grand Final, 4 grades in semis contention with 1 round to go.
Brewer Shield Premiers … And we now have a huge chance to make it a great year!
The cricket season is a long season. It starts with fitness and a pre-season program (2
months). It runs for another 6 months. It is a marathon, not a sprint. So much work from
everyone goes into it … players, coaches, scorers, committee, ground staff …. EVERYONE.
We are now down the business end where it all counts.
Weather permitting, we can win the Club Championship. It will be one of the best 48 hours you
will ever have. EVERYONE mentioned above plays a part in winning a Club Championship.
EVERYONE gets to celebrate together. #ALLIN ?
Drifter
PLAY HARD! .. Make your own luck.
PRESENTATION NIGHT – Fri 7th April 2017 - BOOK IN ASAP!
Your event NDCC Presentation Night 2016/2017 has been successfully created. To make it easy
for people to find your event, please share the following link with your guests.
https://www.trybooking.com/OMQQ or https://www.trybooking.com/254608
Article from Peter FitzSimons in SMH 4th March 2017
Men of Mettle
TFF met a singularly impressive young bloke from Sydney Grammar last year, Cooper Rice-Brading,
an outstanding cricketer for their First XI, who developed a rare and malignant bone cancer called
sarcoma.
Through it all he is getting on with both his studies, and his cricket, including playing a very strong
match against Kings, a few weeks ago.
Only after the match did the Kings First XI captain, Baxter Holt, hear of the medical challenges
Cooper faces. That very evening, Baxter wrote him a heart-felt email: "Firstly I would just like to say
how much of an honour and privilege it was to play in a game with you today and how much of a true
inspiration you are to many . . . Now you have inspired me. I hope you have a great life and continue
to love everything you do . . . Kind Regards, Baxter Holt TKS 1st XI Captain."
Bravo to both fine young men, and you've gotta love this city!
Cooper will be speaking at a gala dinner on March 28 with the funds going towards the Chris O'Brien
Lifehouse for sarcoma research.
Baxter Holt was this week named captain of the combined GPS cricket team.
NDCC GOLF DAY 28TH FEB 2017
Well done to Paul Byrom for organising a great day at Pennant Hills Golf Club for the inaugural NDCC
Golf Day.
The course was magnificent, the food fantastic and the weather was ordinary! But it didn’t matter!
Paul announced the winner of the longest drive for the day. Mitch Coombs won it twice … one for a
cracker of a drive on the 14th? And again for driving down from the Central Coast to be there! Look
forward to it all again next year.
ND BOWLS DAY Sun 12th March 2017
Underarm deliveries are back!
Last year was a sensational day. Please contact
Matt Johnson to book a seat!
[email protected]
You never know, we might be celebrating a Club
Championship!
Bobby and Gozza will be on the tongs.
Check out the bias in this Club!
ROUND 14 vs Manly … ALL WASHED OUT! – No Reports
ROUND 15 vs Campbelltown this weekend!
Table Positions are:
1st Grade – 11th
3rd Grade – 6th
5th Grade – 5th
2nd Grade – 3rd
4th Grade – 2nd
Club Championship ….
ND SCHOOLS CUP
Congratulations to Kings and Barker schools on making the 2016-2017
Northern District Schools Cup Final. The final is scheduled for a 2.00pm
start, Tuesday 14th March at Mark Taylor Oval, Waitara. (please note we
have a wet weather backup day scheduled for Thursday 16th). Bruce Wood
and Arthur Watson will be umpiring the game, with the one and only Gary
Kerr as scorer.
Good luck to all involved and we look forward to seeing you at the game!
NDCC & HKHDCCA TOUR TO WEST INDIES
A Tour Social Night (dinner & drinks) has been arranged in the Terrace Room at the Blue Gum
Hotel, Waitara, from 7.00pm on Monday, 20 March. This is purely a ‘get-to-know-you’ social night,
not a Tour Information Night, as we won’t have all the final details by then, eg. hotels, opposition
teams, match venues, bookings for tourist attractions on tour, etc. We are hoping that all 14 players,
plus the travelling tour supporters and parents, can attend if possible. I’m sure everyone will enjoy
meeting each other on that night, if they haven’t already met.
HARPO’S VAULT – ONE MORE DAY
Just one more day to go before the season proper ends and the finals sweep
down upon us. It appears that 4 of our teams could win the comp and the
Club Championship is still there for the taking.
Over my life with the NDCC I’ve participated in 3 premierships and 2 Club
Championships. (This doesn’t make me anything out of the ordinary, I just
happened to belong to a strong club with a fine group of players). Yet I have
cricket mates, from other clubs who have played for over 20 years and never
been part of any winning club premierships. Neil Harvey is arguably
Australia’s greatest living cricketer yet, although he was associated in the winning of a number of first
class comps; Ashes, Sheffield Shields etc., the only club premiership he has ever won was the
Sydney first grade competition where he captained ND’s. Sydney grade cricket remains one of the
strongest club comps in the world, so give it all you’ve got blokes and the memory of it will remain with
you all your life!
I don’t want to be negative but I have just been watching the 4th day of the test from India and I have a
question to ask: “Why are the selectors continually choosing the Brothers Marsh?” I read on the
internet a couple of days ago that Mitchell Johnson suggested that it’s not only what they do on the
field that is important but the way their presence enlivens the dressing room.
If that is the case, why don’t the test selectors choose Humphrey B. Bear in the team? I mean,
Humphrey makes everybody happy and he couldn’t do any worse on the field than the brothers.
However, he doesn’t come from W.A. so that would no doubt be against him.
CONSUMER WATCH ….
BEWARE OF WINDSOR SMITH SHOES … They fall apart after 3
months and the company refuses to do anything about it! Try
another brand.
HARTLEY ANDERSON’S FLASHBACKS
How I Became Hugo …
More than fifty years ago the Sydney Grade Cricket scene was vastly different to now.
Blokes weren't nearly as fit, there was no preseason fitness, indoor nets hadnt been invented, and it
was often very difficult to get to Waitara for midweek cricket practice if you worked in the city. So nets
for some of us used to be on a concrete pitch in David Norths back yard at about 6.00am. Daylight
saving had been invented during the war but was rightly discontinued afterwards.
Matches started at 1.00pm, except the all day games which started at 10.00am.
In those days media coverage was different. There was only black and white TV, so sport wasn't as
well covered as now, and there were no mobile phones, computers with apps, or any electronic
gadgetry. Pay TV had also not been invented.
Kerry Packer hadn't begun to show any interest in cricket and Rupert Murdoch was still on his first
wife, let alone dreaming about Foxtel.
Grade Cricket coverage was via the newspapers. Everyone read the Sunday newspapers to read the
scores in all the matches, which were published faithfully every week, unlike now. The Sun Herald
would have a table of best performances with bat and ball and a competition ladder for first grade.
Best and Fairest Votes would also get a run at some stage during the week.
There were also newspapers on Saturday afternoons.
Both the Sydney Sun, now defunct, and the Daily Mirror, also consigned to history, would publish
editions every hour so people could get all the racing and other sporting results, including first grade
cricket.
Images in the mind still exist of the diminutive journalist Roy Wenholz from the Daily MIrror, at Waitara
Oval, writing his notes before going to the phone box in Park Avenue to file his story. Roy was like a
press character from an American black and white serial, with his little pork pie hat, bow tie and a
sports jacket concealing his firemans' braces.
In those days the front foot no ball rule hadn't been invented, so bowlers were able to land behind the
popping crease and drag over the batting crease with the front foot landing often well in front of the
batting crease. Gordon Rorke from Mosman was the most famous dragger with a total stride of about
nine feet but a lot of others also dragged quite a long way.
I was a dragger and on day one of an early season match the umpire, possibly Jack Adams, no-balled
me about three times in the first over.
Remember the overs in the sixties were eight ball overs in Australia, as opposed to six ball overs just
about everywhere else cricket was played. This was enough for Roy to make his story of the hour.
In the translation between Roy the girl taking the story at the Mirror desk, the name 'Hartley Anderson'
became 'Hugo Anderson'.
That was enough for Harpo Marks, Full Marks, Soapy Hope, Tex Longley, Jingles Jocelyn and
Southy. The name Hugo stuck.
Only at ND's mind you, but it was easier to say, and no harm done.
Hugo
PRESS
John Besley, Northern District Times. February 23, 2017
The best young athletes in the state were honoured last night as the winners of the 2016 Junior
Sports Star competition were announced.
About 600 people were in attendance for the special gala event which was held at the prestigious
Waterview in Bicentennial Park.
The Northern District Times Junior Sports Star was 17 year old cricketer Joel Foster while 16 year old
water polo player Nicola Schubert took out the Northern District Times Young Sporting Spirit award.
Joel is one of the Northern District Cricket Club’s top young talents.
In 2016, he captained the NSW Metropolitan side to victory in the under-17 National Championships
in Brisbane.
His impressive leadership and performances throughout the tournament earned then him a spot in the
Cricket Australia XI side for the under-19 National Championships.
It was an outstanding achievement for a teenager who first started playing when he was six.
According to his dad Mark, Joel “never wanted to play anything else”.
ANTI-CRICKET!
As much as I truly believe cricket is the greatest game in the world, I have a dear friend who
thinks otherwise! I would like to share his thoughts with you. He receives the Blackmail every
couple of weeks and responds with a barrage of vitriol. I promised him that I would print his
babble of abuse to ensure an even coverage of the sport … He is definitely ANTI-CRICKET, but
underneath it all I think he wished it was in his blood! …
Email N0.1 – 12th Jan 2017
Dear Mr Longbow,
Whilst it is commendable that you persist in publishing a newsletter, can you please be factual and
honest in your coverage of the previous matches.
There are some glaring discrepancies, e.g.: in your most recent post that I am referring to, you
mention the Words “Cricket & Exciting” in the same Sentence???
For Heaven’s Sake man, what in the world were you thinking when you wrote that???
Does one not proof read the material, prior to posting? Obviously Not!
You know why the camera man from channel 7 constantly pans the camera to the southern end of the
stand during a test! Because the Bloody Squabbling Seagulls from the local tip are more
interesting than viewing empty seats and two men having a hug in the middle of a field in 40 degree
heat.
To call that exciting is an absolute disgraceful abuse of the English language! You should be totally
ashamed of yourself as I know you are! So let’s have more accurate coverage of your interpretation of
what most would consider a ponderous exercise in complete futility?
So let’s hear more about the Seagulls and what tip they came from, as opposed to advising that a
bunch of sweaty blokes with a stick and a ball could even remotely register as even interesting, let
alone exciting!
However, I am aware everybody has different interest’s and that there are some people who are
interested in Gumboots and flooring … cricket lies somewhere in between Cork tiles and moulded
Rubber products.
I look forward to the next Blackmail
Keep up the Good Work!
Email No.2 – 1st Feb 2017
Dear Mr Longbow,
I must say it has once again been a terrible month for the ND Cricket Club, many losses, no doubt put
down to the fact that your “Superman Collection box was stolen!” Bad Karma
The Morale of the team must indeed be very low? (the fact that they are playing cricket does not help
morale to begin with) Obviously. I am lead to believe Kryptonite may have been involved in the Heist!
However I am very concerned that a member’s spouse of the NDCC has openly declared that they
are prepared to take the law into their own hands in regards to the above theft?
Whilst as horrifying as it is, that some low life has stolen / pilfered $250.00 odd dollars of donations,
not to mention the Superman collection box as well? “which is probably worth more than the contents“
is an obvious abomination, and must be avenged.
However the said spouse suggests identifying the offender and subsequently “using ones previously
unknown and covert Skills” hunting them down, and extracting atonement with extreme prejudice!
My Goodness this woman has Mettle, not to mention a deep disconcerting sadistic underlying hatred
of lowlifes!
If the NDCC 1st grade had the same “Grit” they would not be in the position they are today!
Food for thought?
Email No.3 – 22nd Feb 2017
Dear Mr Longbow,
I do not know what to say? I am almost speechless!
That so called newsletter was less interesting than Dear old Aunty Ollie’s Funeral, and no one even
turned up for that one! And as such, I had to drag the poor old biddy’s box to the boneyard!
My God that was Punishing!
Which brings me to the 1st Grade under-performance in this atrocious result of a “litany of failures and
acceptance of such loss” …. Indescribable defeatism at the core! And just as punishing.
As Teddy once Said, …Far better it is to win glorious triumphs, although checked with failure, than it
is to take solace with those poor souls, who live in that grey twilight that know not victory nor defeat!
Teddy also said, “It is hard to fail, but it’s worse than never trying to succeed!
I think there is a lesson in there somewhere, if one is willing to look for it?
Generally the answer is lying at your feet.
ATTEMPTED HUMOUR:
I’ve asked more than 100 women
What type of soap they prefer to use
In the shower
The most common reply is:
“How the hell did you get in here?”
THANKS TO ALL OUR SPONSORS & PARTNERS