I dropped my SCG membership and missed the Sydney Test. But I have few regrets

For the first time in decades, I am no longer an SCG member for the Sydney Test.

As a 10-year-old, I was fascinated by cricket. I was a solidly ordinary YMCA player, and bought the ABC Cricket Book for every Test series. (Did you know David Colley played baseball as well as cricket, and Doug Walters hit a six out of the SCG No.2 into Kippax Lake?)

Dad brought me back a transistor radio – in a leather case – from Hong Kong, and I listened to the 1972 Ashes broadcast from the UK, tucked up in bed at night. I may have even slept one night with new batting pads on, such was my fascination with the game.

Neville Board (right) with his late father Martin James Board (aged 90) and wife Annie Malcolm at the Sydney Cricket Ground on the first day of the 2019 Test Match between Australia and India.

Keith Stackpole reached 50 in every Test in those Ashes, finally getting the century he deserved. Ross Edwards joined Stacky as opener. Edwards got 170 not out, followed famously by a pair (two scores of zero). I knew all the stats.

In those days cricketers had “proper” jobs; I saw Doug Walters working in shopping centres. Walters was a favourite of mine; laconic, unassuming and, like dashing all-rounder Keith Miller, had seen active service. Walters didn’t take himself too seriously playing cricket. At times glorious to watch batting, he was a natural infielder and useful bowler, but rarely performed at his best in England.

At 34, I returned to Australia from a long stint abroad. I was determined to become an SCG member, sit in those beautiful green-topped stands and see players, prime ministers and premiers close up. This coincided with the SCG Trust, I suspect, realising that in the absence of photo membership cards, some members never died – although their offspring represented them in the stands.

An amnesty of sorts was declared, and members could transfer membership to a relative. Dad was a getting on and I proposed he transfer his membership to me; I could pay for it, and take him as often as he wanted.

These were happy times. I would get on my bike and join the other cricket tragics at 5am, waiting in a friendly queue until the “Paddington Gift” started at member gates at 7 o’clock. Without jostling, young and old would run from the Moore Park and Driver Avenue entrances, show their cards, pick up seat stickers and grab their seats. The best are in the shade at the Members; in the Ladies Stand for those further down the queue. Members arriving later found themselves in the M.A. Noble Stand, or standing in the various bars around the members’ concourse. Yes, the MCG is Australia’s Coliseum, but the grassy verges and shaded tables of the SCG Members are the best places to mingle between sessions of Test cricket.

Members line up for the “Paddington Gift” , the race for the limited number of members stand seats at the SCG on the first day of the Sydney test match in 2011.Credit: Fairfax Media

Seat stickers are proof of your right to a seat. With sticker affixed, seat occupancy is sacred while members grab a coffee, a beer, or a chinwag. Stickers are colour coded and can’t be carried over from previous days. In the dawn queue one Test morning, a UNSW professor showed me his collection of unmarked coloured stickers from previous years. He gave me one so Dad could join us later.

Dad and I would read the Herald and listen to the ABC commentary. We brought sandwiches and bought coffee and, later in the day, beer. We caught up with his lifelong friends, and had wonderful conversations with country members as we learnt about each other’s worlds. Dad got frailer, and we hired a wheelchair. He commented on how polite all members were with him.

Dad and his friends faded slowly. One day, in a purchased M.A. Noble Stand seat in the boiling sun, it all got too much. We came home. I sat him next to the lounge window with a lovely breeze and a cold beer. We watched the rest happily on TV.

After that, and with my dad no longer with us, the long queues for paid up members started to grate on me. Swans matches require the same sort of queuing in Moore Park for hours, then an anxious rush for seats. I started to think of all the things I could do with those hours, and whether the outings were still fun.

I didn’t renew. I miss seeing good friends at the Sydney Test, and some friendly faces each year working behind the bars. I can’t be bothered to queue any more, and it’s a long day.

Now on January Test days I nip down for a social swim; have coffee with a mate, breakfast with my wife and get a lot of “Sydney holiday” done, interspersed with family, with Channel 7, Jim Maxwell and Alison Mitchell on the radio. As Richard Glover said last week, Australian summers evolve.

Neville Board has lived and worked in NSW, Victoria, Brazil, England and Spain. He now lives in Coogee and tries not to get obsessed with street parking in summer.

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