Greatest school cricket teams: Messenger Community News picks Scotch and St Peter’s all-time XIs
Messenger Community News has pored over the stats to choose eight Adelaide schools’ greatest cricket teams as part of a five-day series to find the best. Up first, we look at Scotch and St Peter’s.
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First we chose eight Adelaide schools’ greatest football teams.
Now it’s cricket’s turn.
Messenger Community News sports editor Matt Turner has tried to determine the Adelaide schools that have produced the best cricketers by selecting their all-time XIs, plus a 12th man.
There are again eight best-ever school sides — and more selection headaches.
Who do you leave out? Who bats where? What is the best balance of each side?
How do you compare recent cricketers to those from the late 19th and early 20th centuries?
There were countless discussions over several months about the line-ups — firstly finding the players and then filling spots in batting order.
But with the help of the schools, SACA, grade clubs, cricket lovers, historians and statisticians — special thanks to Ken “KG” Cunningham, Denis Brien, Geoff Sando and Ray Webster — the squads have been chosen.
And Turner has again made the final call.
The eight schools settled upon were the ones he believed had the strongest teams, not just a handful of star players.
Players were picked based on their post-school cricket achievements, rather than first XI performances.
Natural talent was considered secondary to output and accomplishments, which ensured some emerging present-day players were overlooked despite the possibility of future stardom.
If a brilliant career was cut short by war, injury or other factors, that was taken into account.
Team balance was important — it was not an exercise in picking each school’s best 11 cricketers — but some sides boasted deeper batting line-ups or extra bowlers to ensure its quality was not reduced.
Choosing the teams ultimately came down to poring over hundreds of players’ statistics via Cricinfo and grade records, seeking dozens of opinions, and gut feel.
We kick off the series with Scotch and St Peter’s colleges.
* Statistics as of January 31, 2019. Grade statistics, provided by Geoff Sando, Ray Webster and the clubs, have only been listed for non-international players. Clubs’ top-10 run scorers and wicket-takers are mentioned
SCOTCH
The two most accomplished cricketers in Scotch’s all-time XI have played a whopping 298 first-class matches between them.
One is a former Australian captain, the other an international wicketkeeper.
Victor Richardson, the Test team’s skipper for five matches and whose name adorns the southeastern gates at Adelaide Oval, and swashbuckling left-hander Wayne Phillips are the side’s headline acts — and two of its first three batsmen.
Phillips, who has featured in 114 first-class games, including 27 Tests and 48 One-Day Internationals, is at the top of the order with fellow mollydooker Rick Drewer.
Richardson, an all-round sports star who played state golf, tennis and baseball, along with 184 first-class cricket matches and 19 Tests, was chosen at first drop.
He attended Kyre College, which became Scotch in 1919, and was named this team’s captain.
The remainder of the squad might not have such accolades but they had quality first-class or grade careers.
Middle-order batsman Dick Whitington played 54 first-class matches during the 1930s and ‘40s, including for the Australian Services team in the Victory Tests against England in 1945.
At number four is Sturt’s ninth-most prolific run scorer Fred Gould, while two of Adelaide University’s top-five leading wicket-takers are the team’s opening bowlers, Nick Roberts (ranked first at the Blacks with 379 scalps) and John Davey (fifth with 220).
Roberts is the only player in the side not to have played for Sturt.
Davey had his career cut short after battling rheumatism from 1936/37 and getting hospitalised with an eye disorder two years later, before becoming blind.
Malcolm Thompson would be another new-ball option.
He was Davey’s opening partner at University and they tore through batting line-ups for three seasons until Thompson joined Sturt in 1935/36.
Thompson was hailed as a future state star but played only one game for SA — he was killed in a car crash in Kalgoorlie, four months after debuting.
John Mann, a left-arm orthodox from the 1930s to the ‘50s who has taken the eighth-most wickets at Sturt, provides a change of pace.
The side’s all-rounder is a modern-day name — Alex Gregory.
Gregory, a Sturt star before joining Melbourne University this season, attended Scotch for three years then switched to St Peter’s.
Ex-Sturt and Glenelg 1930s and ‘40s player Brian “Bill” Leak, was chosen ahead of Ben Goode in a lineball call for the final batting spot.
Goode pipped Arthur Woolcock, who featured in SA’s second-ever Sheffield Shield-winning squad in 1909/10, to be named 12th man.
The others closest to selection were former Sturt state players Graham Black and Paul Zschorn, as well as Blues and Blacks trio Robert Brice, John Ferguson and Rod Phillips.
1. Wayne Phillips (Sturt) +
27 Tests: 1485 runs at 32.28; 52 catches, 0 stumpings
48 ODIs: 852 runs at 24.34; 42 catches, 7 stumpings
114 FC: 6907 runs at 37.74; 154 catches, 7 stumpings
83 OD: 1804 runs at 28.18; 70 catches, 8 stumpings
SA captain for three matches
2. Rick Drewer (Sturt, Adelaide University, Adelaide)
14 FC: 659 runs at 26.36
2 OD: 49 runs at 24.5
Grade: 4596 runs at 31.05; 12 wickets at 25.33
3. Victor Richardson (Sturt) (c)
19 Tests: 706 runs at 23.53
184 FC: 10,727 runs at 37.63; 8 wickets at 68.12
Australian captain for five matches
SA captain for 64 matches
4. Fred Gould (Sturt, Colts)
7 FC: 255 runs at 19.61
Grade: 5071 runs at 35.21; 20 wickets at 30.65 (ninth-most runs at Sturt — 4885)
5. Dick Whitington (Adelaide University, Colts, Sturt)
54 FC: 2782 runs at 32.34; 1 wicket at 91
Grade: 3056 runs at 32.16; 17 wickets at 51.82
6. Brian “Bill” Leak (Colts, Sturt, Glenelg)
8 FC: 216 runs at 16.61
Grade: 2602 runs at 32.93; 11 wickets at 74
7. Alex Gregory (Sturt)
13 OD: 139 runs at 15.44; 6 wickets at 54
Grade: 2004 runs at 32.29; 89 wickets at 21.53
8. John Mann (Sturt)
7 FC: 199 runs at 28.42; 13 wickets at 37.15
Grade: 1514 runs at 20.18; 225 wickets at 20.21 (eighth-most wickets at Sturt)
9. Malcolm Thompson (Adelaide University, Sturt)
1 FC: 19 runs at 9.5; 1 wicket at 104
Grade: 615 runs at 13.08; 140 wickets at 15.56
10. John Davey (Adelaide University, Sturt)
5 FC: 26 runs at 6.5; 9 wickets at 47.66
Grade: 650 runs at 11; 225 wickets at 15.1 (fifth-most wickets at Adelaide University — 220)
11. Nick Roberts (Adelaide University)
Grade: 551 runs at 7.65; 379 wickets at 21.23 (club wickets record at Adelaide University)
12th man: Ben Goode (Sturt, Adelaide University, Adelaide)
3 FC: 131 runs at 26.2
Grade: 3386 runs at 32.55; 5 wickets at 25.4
ST PETER’S
Only one member of the St Peter’s all-time XI has played first-class cricket in the past 50 years and just four have featured since World War II.
But what the team may lack in familiarity to younger cricket followers, it makes up for with Test talent.
Five Saints old scholars have lined up for Australia — pre-World War II players Clarence “Nip” Pellew, Homesdale “Jack” Nitschke, Claude Jennings and Philip “Perka” Lee, along with 1950s batsman Gavin Stevens.
Stevens opened in all four Tests he played — before contracting hepatitis on a 1959/60 subcontinent tour and having his career cut short — so was named at the top of the order.
Pellew’s opportunities were also reduced by circumstance — in his case, World War I, where he served as a captain, lieutenant and second lieutenant with the 27th Australian Infantry Battalion.
The attacking batsman, who did not make his Test debut until the age of 27 and was the first skipper of North Adelaide/Prospect, was selected at four.
He is the most capped of Saints’ Australian quintet with 10 Tests.
Nitschke’s best seasons for SA coincided with the likes of Sir Donald Bradman, Bill Ponsford, Archie Jackson, Bill Woodfull and Stan McCabe starring for Australia, restricting him to just two international appearances, both times at number six.
Jennings got his chance at Test level in 1912 due to a dispute between the Australian Cricket Board and senior players.
He opened the batting in his first five Tests and did not keep in any of them but he was occasionally behind the stumps during his state career, so was given the gloves.
The side’s batting depth pushes him to eight.
Lee, who featured in two Tests, would provide handy batting at number nine — he had two first-class tons — but was picked for his off-spin.
The team also includes two former SA captains (Nathan Adcock, John Murray) and a Bradman medallist (Ian McLachlan).
Adcock opens the batting with Stevens and is the side’s sole player from the past 55 years.
Murray, SA’s skipper for one game in 1923, made 3355 runs for East Torrens at a stunning 53.25.
McLachlan was a middle-order batsman in the state’s star-studded 1963/64 Sheffield Shield-winning side, featuring the likes of Ian Chappell and Sir Garfield Sobers.
Alban “Johnnie” Moyes was picked as the squad’s final batsman — pipping 12th man Jack Rymill — because he was named on Australia’s 1914 tour of South Africa, which was abandoned due to World War I.
The war cost Moyes four seasons of state cricket.
Spearheading the bowling attack are 1940s and ‘50s Adelaide University fast-medium Tony Jose and ‘20s and ‘30s speedster Ron Halcombe.
Halcombe was a somewhat controversial selection, given there were concerns about his action and he was called for throwing on six consecutive deliveries in 1931/32.
But his first-class record was better than other candidates and luminaries such as Bill Ponsford and Joe Darling believed his action was legitimate.
Given only Jose, Halcombe and Lee are first-choice bowlers, part-timers McLachlan (leg-spin) and Murray (medium-pace) will be expected to chip in with the ball.
Others seriously considered for selection were wicketkeepers Gordon Campbell and David Ligertwood, Oxford University batsman Alan Dowding, prolific Glenelg run scorers Murray Sargent and Richard Niehuus, and Cambridge University medium-pacer William Hayward.
Modern-day Redback Alex Ross is also a near-miss but he can continue to push his case in coming summers, along with John Dalton and Michael Cranmer.
1. G avin Stevens (Glenelg)
4 Tests: 112 runs at 16
47 FC: 3061 FC runs at 38.26; 3 wickets at 41
2. Nathan Adcock (Sturt, Adelaide University)
29 FC: 1190 runs at 23.8; 13 wickets at 45.46
45 OD: 938 runs at 25.35; 12 wickets at 35.83
8 T20: 86 runs at 12.28; 7 wickets at 15.57
Grade: 5332 runs at 39.5; 62 wickets at 33.32 (second-most runs at Adelaide Uni — 4170)
SA captain in 16 matches
3. John Murray (East Torrens)
48 FC: 1964 runs at 26.54; 12 wickets at 57.91
Grade: 3355 runs at 53.25; 92 wickets at 20.52
SA captain for one match
4. Clarence “Nip” Pellew (Adelaide University, North Adelaide/Prospect, Colts) (c)
10 Tests: 484 runs at 37.23
91 FC: 4536 runs at 33.6
5. Alban “Johnnie” Moyes (Adelaide University)
16 FC: 883 runs at 29.43; 5 wickets at 53.6
Grade: 1332 runs at 45.93; 60 wickets at 20.45
6. Homesdale “Jack” Nitschke (East Torrens, Glenelg)
2 Tests: 53 runs at 26.5
45 FC: 3320 runs at 42.02
7. Ian McLachlan (Sturt)
72 FC: 3743 runs at 31.72; 6 wickets at 63.66
Grade: 924 runs at 24.97; 61 wickets at 19.84
Bradman medallist
8. Claude Jennings (East Adelaide, North Adelaide) +
6 Tests: 107 runs at 17.83; five catches, 0 stumpings
60 FC: 2453 runs at 25.55; 38 catches, 3 stumpings
9. Philip “Perka” Lee (East Torrens, Colts)
2 Tests: 57 runs at 19; 5 wickets at 42.4
55 FC: 1699 runs at 18.54; 152 wickets at 30.15
10. Ron Halcombe (North Adelaide/Prospect, Colts)
25 FC: 100 runs at 5; 54 wickets at 38.01
Grade: 180 runs at 8.57; 71 wickets at 21.42
11. Tony Jose (Adelaide University)
29 FC: 269 runs at 7.46; 75 wickets at 30.57
Grade: 57 runs at 7.12; 49 wickets at 19.04
12th man: Jack Rymill (East Torrens, Kensington)
22 FC: 1260 runs at 35
Grade: 3687 runs at 43.89; 7 wickets at 42.14
REVEALED TOMORROW: Thebarton Technical School and Woodville High School
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