Kurtis Patterson’s link to Roger Hartigan, the sheepshearing centurion from a century ago

Kurtis Patterson became the second batsman from his school to score a Test century on Saturday but unlike the first he won’t have to put down his bat and rush back to a sweaty Queensland sheering shed.

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Kurtis Patterson became the second batsman from his school to score a Test century on Saturday but unlike the first he won’t have to put down his bat and rush back to a sweaty Queensland sheering shed.

Teachers walking across the schoolyard at Christian Brothers Lewisham always knew when Patterson was batting simply from the distinctive crack which would echo around the cement jungle in Sydney’s inner-west whenever he smacked a cover drive across the basketball court.

Cricket isn’t necessarily high on the priority list for the multicultural school that’s produced rugby league stars Solomon Haumono, Nathan Peats and Paul Osborne, so the sound of Patterson smacking the cover off a tennis ball really stood out.

Patterson has been in great touch. Photo by Saeed Khan.

More than a century earlier Roger Hartigan, Australian Test cricketer No.92 hailed from the same playground and made a hundred on debut against England in Adelaide in 1910.

Hartigan went on to move to Brisbane as a wool broker and as written by Gideon Haigh in his book From Flock to Baggy Green, he obtained leave to make his Test debut on the understanding he’d be back for the start of the wool sales the following Saturday.

Not out overnight on the Tuesday during a timeless Test, he sent correspondence to his bosses that he might struggle to get back to Queensland.

“Stay as long as you are making runs,” came back the reply.

Patterson too would have needed a patient boss if he was living in that era – the St George junior has now been out only once for 556 runs in the past 22 days.

Hundreds for St George and the CA XI got him here, and now Patterson celebrated becoming a Test match centurion in typically modest style with his father Brad and mother Dana watching on.

Hartigan’s work on the farm restricted him to only one more Test, but his fellow alumni Patterson now has an Ashes winter waiting.

Patterson has all but locked up a spot in the Ashes squad. Picture by Phil Hillyard.

At Patterson’s beloved club home ground at Hurtsville Oval on Saturday, time stood still as St George officials turned their back on the grade game to watch the poster boy of their flock became part of the green and golden fleece on TV in the dressing room.

Trent Copeland has played with Patterson since the batsman was a 16-year-old boy. And although it’s been a whirlwind three weeks for a debutant not even in Australia’s original squad, Copeland says Patterson has been no overnight success.

“He was a string-bean and very raw. But you could just see the way he hit the ball. He had a bit of something special about him the way he accessed the ball,” said Copeland.

“He was very different, he hit through the off-side better than anyone.

“He’s a guy that I’ve seen work super hard to have this opportunity and I think he’s been ready for some time now. Arguably four or five years.

“I’ve never seen him more hungry.”

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