Greatest school cricket teams: Messenger Community News ranks the teams from eight to one
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. Now we have ranked the teams from 8-1.
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- Greatest school cricket teams: Scotch and St Peter’s
- Greatest school cricket teams: Thebarton Tech and Woodville High
- Greatest school cricket teams: Adelaide High and Norwood High
- Greatest school cricket teams: Pembroke/King’s and Prince Alfred
PICKING eight Adelaide schools’ greatest cricket XIs was incredibly difficult and time-consuming.
It took several weeks to find all the best cricketers that each of the schools had produced then a few months more to whittle squads down to 11 players, plus a 12th man.
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 teams were settled upon and they were finally revealed online this week.
Now we are doing something that will undoubtedly cause more debate – ranking the eight teams.
Separating them is tough because there are so many star players from various eras.
Everyone will have different opinions on the order of these rankings and the make-up of each side.
Ultimately, just like picking the teams themselves, the rankings were determined by players’ career achievements, feedback from cricket followers of various vintages and gut feel.
8. NORWOOD HIGH/NORWOOD MORIALTA
Choosing the school to rank in eighth spot was tougher than picking the top team in this list because Norwood High/Norwood Morialta has stacks of talent and boasts a line-up balanced enough to trouble sides.
Yet some observers may look at this team, see five-Test paceman Jeff Hammond as the only Australian representative and question its place in making the top eight at all.
Ultimately, the series was about picking strong XIs, not a handful of star players.
And it was decided that Norwood High/Norwood Morialta’s line-up was more even than a few other schools that had been in the mix.
All 11 players have played state cricket.
Apart from Hammond there is long-time SA batsman and two-time Sheffield Shield winner Neil Dansie, Bradman medallist Peter Herbert and Harry Whitfield, who holds the record for the best figures (10/18) in grade ranks.
What the side lacks compared to the ones above them in this list is top-end quality, which is one of the reasons why it is ranked here.
7. SCOTCH COLLEGE
Only three schools in this list have an Australian captain in their XI.
Scotch has Victor Richardson, who skippered the Test team for five matches and lined up in a whopping 184 first-class games.
Richardson went to Kyre College, which became Scotch in 1919.
His presence in the XI was crucial to Scotch becoming one of the eight school teams picked for this series.
Having 27-Test wicketkeeper and opening batsman Wayne Phillips as the second international also boosts the quality of the line-up.
But Scotch falls away a little from there in terms of long-serving first-class players and quality.
Dick Whitington featured in 54 first-class games and made 2782 runs at that level.
The other eight players had stellar grade careers but between them donned the whites in just 42 first-class matches.
Scotch might have had a higher ranking if not for pace bowlers John Davey and Malcolm Thompson having their careers cut short.
Davey battled rheumatism and was hospitalised with an eye disorder before going blind, while Thompson was hailed as a future state star but played only one game for SA, getting killed in a car crash in Kalgoorlie, four months after debuting.
6.THEBARTON TECHNICAL
It is a tough call – how do you weigh up Thebarton Technical having three Test cricketers but also five players without a first-class match to their names?
Particularly when you compare it to Scotch, which has one less international but more first-class players in the XI (nine to six).
Like Scotch, which has Victor Richardson, Thebby Tech is also led by an Australian skipper – Barry Jarman.
The others to wear the baggy green in this side are all-rounder Merv Waite and leg-spinner Bruce Dooland.
They could have very nearly had four Test players, if Charlie Walker had got an opportunity on either of the two Ashes tours he went on.
He retired without playing at the highest level but his 104 first-class games and fact he captained SA in two matches added to the strength of this line-up.
The non-state players are hardly slouches.
They include Bradman medallists Jack Carr and Dean Smith, and Woodville’s third-most prolific run scorer Gordon Harrison.
Having said that, the fact there were five Thebby Tech players without first-class experience was the reason it was not higher up the list.
5. PEMBROKE/KING’S COLLEGE
Numbers four and five on this list could have gone either way.
Both teams have three internationals and plenty of quality in their line-ups.
For Pembroke/King’s College, the Australian representatives are star all-rounder Tom Moody, one-Test leg-spinner Rex Sellers and women’s international Caroline Ward.
Moody, in particular, gives this team a big name to lean on.
Not only did he play eight Tests, but also 76 One-Day Internationals and a whopping 300 first-class games.
At first-class level, he made 21,001 runs at 46.25 and took 361 wickets at 30.7.
They are impressive figures.
The remainder of the team includes two former SA captains (Nathan Adcock, Howard Mutton), two-time Sheffield Shield-winning batsman James Brayshaw and two Bradman medallists, Andrew Sincock and Sam Parkinson.
It is an even, well-rounded side that bowls as well as it bats.
But the next team in the list appears to be slightly better stocked in both those areas.
4. ADELAIDE HIGH
Adelaide High has three Test cricketers in its greatest XI but may have had four if Ken Ridings had not died young.
There were high hopes for Ridings, an opening batsman and World War II pilot who had been touted as an Australian candidate and first-class star before dying at age 23, when his aircraft was attacked over the Bay of Biscay in 1943.
The side’s three internationals are controversial New Zealander Lou Vincent, who has received a cricket life ban after admitting to match-fixing in 2014, leg-spinner Bruce Dooland and paceman Tim Wall.
As a collective, they probably had slightly better careers than Pembroke/King’s College trio Tom Moody, Rex Sellers and Caroline Ward, which helped push Adelaide High ahead.
It was a very tight call though because the city school’s batting was not very deep.
Adelaide High’s bowling, also boasting Prospect’s all-time wicket-taker Graham Clarke, triple Bradman medallist Rob O’Shannassy and left-arm orthodox Reg Ellis, was clearly its strength.
3. WOODVILLE HIGH
If you ask cricket followers what Adelaide school has produced the best bowling line-up, it is unlikely many will say Woodville High.
These days, Woodville High is not associated with cricket prowess and yet you can definitely argue that its quintet of Eric Freeman, Neil Hawke, Tim Wall, Norm Williams and John Beagley is the most lethal bowling combination of any Adelaide school and it deserves third spot in these rankings.
Pacemen Freeman, Hawke and Wall have played 56 Tests between them, Williams is the A-grade competition’s all-time wicket-taker with 894 scalps at 18.86 and fast-medium Beagley’s record for Woodville and West Torrens (164 dismissals at 15.06) is seriously impressive.
Woodville High side’s weakness is its batting.
While its top-four batsmen Tony Handrickan, Bob Simunsen, Alan Shepherd and Ray Holman all had stellar grade careers, none scored more than 450 runs at first-class level, and between them played just 25 state games.
The top two sides in this list may not have bowlers that trouble as many teams but their batsmen are a class above.
2. ST PETER’S COLLEGE
Sheer weight of numbers ensured St Peter’s was chosen in second spot.
The college has produced five Test cricketers – two more than any of the teams below it on this list.
Their names may not be familiar to many younger cricket followers but Gavin Stevens, Clarence “Nip” Pellew, Homesdale “Jack” Nitschke, Claude Jennings and Philip “Perka” Lee all played for Australia.
Of those five, only Stevens featured after World War II.
Circumstances cost several members of this side more opportunities at the highest level.
For four-Test opening batsman Stevens, his career was cut short after contracting hepatitis on a 1959/60 subcontinent tour.
Pellew served as a captain, lieutenant and second lieutenant with the 27th Australian Infantry Battalion and did not make his Test debut until the age of 27.
Nitscke’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.
Alban “Johnnie” Moyes was picked on Australia’s 1914 tour of South Africa but that was abandoned due to the war and he never featured in a baggy green.
Who knows how much more well known those Saints old scholars would be and how much stronger on paper this team would be if things had turned out differently?
Bowling is a slight concern – only off-spinner Lee and pacemen Tony Jose and Ron Halcombe are frontline options – but not enough to cost St Peter’s this spot.
1. PRINCE ALFRED COLLEGE
Eight Test cricketers, including four Australian captains, feature in Prince Alfred’s line-up.
Few schools in the nation would be able to boast about such a record.
Or beat a team that includes former Test skippers Ian and Greg Chappell, Clem Hill and Joe Darling, as well as ex-international players Greg Blewett, Trevor Chappell, Rick Darling and Tim May.
Such is Princes’ tremendous depth, their all-time second XI has the potential to beat a lot of sides.
It would include the likes of one-Test opening batsman Ashley Woodcock, three-time Bradman medallist John Lill, Port Adelaide’s second all-time run scorer Gordon Harris, ex-SA captain Don Steele and modern-day Redback Jake Weatherald.
Many of the players who narrowly missed making the XI would get games in plenty of other schools’ all-time teams but in this case were kept out by a near Australian side.
Only wicketkeeper John Ducker and opening bowlers Paul Rofe and Brett Swain did not play a Test.
Rofe and Swain were more than handy first-class performers but Princes’ bowling would certainly not be as strong as its batting line-up.
This team would probably make so many runs it would not matter.
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