SA Country Cricket Legends Second XI named from Whyalla to Strathalbyn
The selection critics came out firing after we named SA’s 20 top bush Bradmans, now we’re back with the backup team featuring more legendary country cricketers.
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Following a strong reaction from the regional cricket community to our initial top 20 Country Cricket Legends, we had to name a backup team.
There were too many additional names from the past and present rolling in and we simply couldn’t ignore these Bradmans of the bush.
From a Whyalla leftie who faced down an Indian bowling legend to a wily “Chinaman” who could do it all and a Strathalbyn icon who took 10 wickets in an innings, here is our Country Cricket Legends Second XI.
JOHN LYDEAMORE
Central and South Whyalla cricket clubs, Whyalla Cricket Association
A more than reliable bat and gun “Chinaman”, the name John Lydeamore won’t ever be forgotten around Whyalla cricketing circles.
Once regarded as Whyalla’s most versatile and successful sportsperson – Lydeamore was also a trotting reinsman, footballer and basketballer – he won the area’s sportsman of the year award in 1974.
And across 12 seasons and 116 games from 1959-60, Lydeamore made 3688 runs at an average of 29.04 with four centuries and 21 fifties for Centrals, including a highest score of 118.
He also collected 226 wickets at 14.23 with six five-wicket hauls and the best figures of 6/14.
“Many of the old Central Whyalla players speak highly of John’s playing ability and his competitive nature,” Central Whyalla player Brad Smith said.
Lydeamore then played a further ten years at South – where his exact statistics are lost to history – winning three premierships at each club.
However, he recalls fondly compiling a hundred at Prospect Oval for Upper North in a country carnival as an 18-year-old saying “that stands out more than anything”.
In 1980, he also played against a touring India at Whyalla while representing SA country.
“They were a good team,” he said of the Indian outfit, with Kapil Dev making 105 that day.
“I took 0/22 off eight, I always remember that.”
Then, when the SA state team visited Whyalla, he remembers captain Les Favell saying Greg Chappell, then 17, was going to be star of the future.
“Favell said that bloke there, he’ll take my place and he’ll captain Australia,” he said.
A regular captain of association and regional teams, Lydeamore said he had loved the game ever since growing up in Port Pirie.
“I just grew up that way, I loved batting and bowling, it’s just one of those things you did in those days,” he said.
BARRY HUTCHINSON
Solomontown North and Proprietary cricket clubs, Port Pirie Cricket Association
Association records reveal Barry Hutchinson made more than 15,700 runs in a career which began at senior level in the 1960s at the age of 14, with 24 hundreds and an incredible 104 half centuries.
Hutchinson, who made the state schoolboys side, also played against a touring England in the late 60s.
As captain of the country SA team at Port Pirie’s Memorial Oval, Hutchinson recalls making around 20 runs and bowling the final over of the match.
“That was a good day, Geoff Boycott, he was a very intelligent, good man, I was very impressed with him,” the 76-year-old said.
Hutchinson remembers, playing for “Props”, making 99 and then 199 over the course of one weekend, then 102 to go with his 4/100 on another occasion — even though he didn’t bowl a great deal.
Memories of his career statistics are sketchy, but Hutchinson estimates he played around 300 games, winning five A-grade premierships.
“I’m not really into that sort of thing,” he said when asked about his favourite flag.
“I played to enjoy myself and if we won we won if we lost, bad luck. It was just good to play.”
WILL PENGILLY
Wilmington/Melrose Cricket Club, Northern Areas Cricket Association
Across four decades from the age of 16, Will Pengilly was a cricketing force in the state’s Mid North.
A regular association bowling trophy collector, Pengilly was a fine exponent of cricket’s hardest craft: leg spin.
“I had good fingers, I could really make a ball rip,” Pengilly said, who recalls the day he took 9/30 in a country carnival match in Adelaide.
The now 90-year-old was also once a more than handy bat, scoring 325 in a grand final at Melrose Memorial Oval — his team making close to 500 in a premiership-winning effort over Wirrabara.
“People won’t believe it but it’s right,” he said with a chuckle.
“(The opposition) didn’t give in easy, they finished up around 400 themselves.”
While his memory is not quite as sharp as it once was, Pengilly estimates he won about 15 premierships, with a golden run of about four or five on the trot.
Then an association secretary, some cricketing colleagues joked: “we’ve got to get him out … he’s running the association to suit himself”.
Winning the league’s best bowler trophy at least ten times, and a couple of batting gongs, Pengilly maintains the greatest cricketing gift he ever received was building mental strength.
“It’s a game where if you concentrate, like all games, you can play cricket,” he said.
“That’s what the game’s about, sheer concentration, you’ve got to give it 110 per cent.”
Aside from the premierships, wickets and hundreds, Pengilly loved association and country carnival play, too.
“Every day you’re playing different players from all over the state, I got to know people from all over South Australia,” he said.
Although he remembers being criticised for making 192 at a carnival.
“I got told off for not getting a 200,” he said.
“A few older cricketers, they reckoned batting was easy, but if you run up and down the wickets a lot, see how your legs feel.”
JAMIE ‘BOOF’ BENNETT
Thevenard Cricket Club, FW Knights Cricket Club, Ceduna Cricket Club, Far West Cricket Association
Jamie Bennett’s career spanned for 340 matches from 1996-2017, starting at Thevenard and eventually ending after 10 seasons at Ceduna.
Throughout his career, Bennett tallied 8760 runs, 363 wickets with a best of 7/2, won six association cricketer of the year awards, 12 club cricketer of the year awards and also achieved 12 premierships.
He also scored over 500 runs in a season eight separate times.
FRANK BAYLEY
Parrakie Cricket Club, Pinnaroo and District Cricket Club
Frank Bayley simply did it all for Parrakie for more than 40 years.
Starting his career in 1950/51, Bayley belted more than 18,000 runs, with 35 centuries, and took more than 500 wickets.
Captaining for 11 years and the club’s president for four, he was unsurprisingly made a life member.
He performed at a higher level too, playing over 20 years of association representative cricket, scoring five centuries.
Off the field, Bayley held a number of roles at a junior level or on the executive committee, guaranteeing his association life membership.
ROHAN REID
Meadows Cricket Club, Hills Cricket Association
Approaching his 40th birthday, Rohan Reid continues to carve out an even bigger name for himself in Hills cricket.
Reid’s first junior coach, Chad Dawe, told The Messenger his protege began playing A-grade at just 14 years of age and has spent the past two decades and more in the top flight ever since.
During that time, Reid has played over 250 matches, earning more than 12,000 runs (with 37 hundreds) and 400 plus wickets with his left arm swingers.
A 12-time premiership player – including nine in a row – and captain of several of those flags, he once took 6/0 off six overs as Mt Lofty were rolled for just 14 in a premiership decider several years ago.
“I could not believe it,” Dawe said, who was playing that day.
“We have played in the past 12 or 13 grand finals in a row, and it’s all off the back of Rohan Reid.
“He’s a big game player, always stood up in a final, whether it be a five-for or a hundred.
“He still opens the bowling today.”
Alongside an impressive double century at Stirling, Reid has also been a fine performer at association level for the Meyer Shield and has won numerous league player of the year prizes.
BRIAN NETTLE
Wistow Cricket Club, Alexandra and Eastern Hills Cricket Association
Brian Nettle played 20 seasons in association cricket beginning in 1959-60.
He became the first Wistow player to play for the SA Country XI in 1969, taking 2/32 against the West Indies.
The fast bowler was a mainstay in the Country Carnival teams and played in the combined SAACA Country XI in 1969-70.
He also took five wickets against the SA City XI in 1968.
Nettle won five premierships leading the attack for Wistow in the 1960s and through his career won several club bowling trophies and consistently topped the association bowling aggregate.
He was also handy with the bat, winning the association’s best all-rounder twice and was also Wistow’s youngest A-grade century-maker at just 16.
RANDALL PITT
Strathalbyn High School, Ashbourne Cricket Club, Milang Cricket Club, Kensington District Cricket Club, Alexandra and Eastern Hills Cricket Association
Randall Pitt’s astounding career stretched from under-16s at Strathalbyn from 1969 and finished in 1997 at Milang.
Part of a storied country cricket family, he was a child prodigy, and as an under-16 made 242 not out over two days for Strathalbyn in a grand final against Finniss. This led to a retirement rule being introduced.
Pitt made 5,641 runs for Ashbourne and also took 137 wickets with a best of 8/38.
At Milang he tallied 6,071 runs at an average of 66.
He received countless individual accolades, including the association’s best player and leading run scorer.
Pitt also rarely ever wore gloves while batting, adding to his notoriety as a batsman.
PERRY JONES
Strathalbyn Cricket Club, Alexandra and Eastern Hills Cricket Association
Arguably the greatest country player of all time, Perry Jones’ bowling record is impeccable.
A left-armed medium pacer, Jones played 384 matches in his career and took a staggering 1305 wickets while also making 5008 runs.
He boasts 10 senior hat-tricks in his career, and also clean-bowled the entire Ashbourne team out in 1973/74 finishing with a performance of 10/29 in that match.
Jones also took over 600 wickets at state two-week carnivals.
He won the association A-grade bowling trophy 12 times, was Strathalbyn’s leading wicket taker for 20 straight years and played a big part in nine premierships with the club from the late 60s to early 90s.
CLIVE BOWMAN
Lameroo Cricket Club, Pinnaroo and Border Cricket Association
After starting his A-grade career at just age 11, Clive Bowman would turn out summer after summer for five decades as an opening bowler with “handy” batting skills.
Very handy for a bloke who never received any formal coaching, but still managed to snare almost 1000 wickets from more than 450 games.
Association statistics reveal Bowman once took four wickets off four balls, ten hat-tricks and shattered a stump at Hawthorn for Mid North during a SACA carnival.
A captain and coach, he also played plenty of representative cricket for Pinnaroo and Border Cricket Association (PBCC) and in country carnivals for the Mid North.
Bowling to the likes of Les Favell, Barry Jarman, Ian Chappell and Gary Sobers against the SA state team at Crystal Brook in 1964, and taking the wicket of Pakistan’s Younis Ahmed in a six-a-side competition, were golden days from Bowman’s career.
Completely uncoached, Bowman received an award for 50 years of service from the SACA and life memberships for the PBCC and Lameroo CC, where he was a president for both club and association.
Bowman went full circle when he completed a four-week SACA coaching course and went on to marshall the Lameroo Colts for over 20 years.
GREG STEPHENSON
Parrakie Cricket Club, Pinnaroo and Border Cricket Association
Over a career which began in the mid-1980s – and is still going – Greg Stephenson has stroked more than 18,000 runs, with 35 centuries and taken nearly 750 wickets with his leg spin, all the while skippering for 11 seasons.
And that ton tally could have been higher, with Stephenson – a nine-time Cricketer of the Year winner – either out or not out 20 times in the 90s.
Stephenson has played in all of the club’s seven A-grade premierships, with season 1993/94 a particularly special one with 1114 runs at an average of 101.3.
He was also a regular feature at SACA carnivals for Murray Districts for nearly 20 years, making a century and claiming nearly 100 wickets.
Representing the association, he made over 1300 runs and took 61 wickets, with two centuries.
He also played 18 games for SA Country.
Stephenson also gave back to the game and was a worthy club life member, earned from being a club president, secretary for over 20 years and an association delegate for 30.
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