Premier Cricket: Injury forces Fitzroy Doncaster great Peter Dickson to retire with 10,000 runs and 200 wickets to his name
Just a fortnight after logging his 10,000 run, Peter Dickson snared his 200th wicket. But he’ll limp into the sunset after injury prompted his retirement.
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Fitzroy Doncaster great Peter Dickson will depart Premier Cricket with some nicely rounded-off career stats.
A few weeks back he notched his 10,000 career run against Camberwell and, on Saturday, he used his medium pacers to winkle out the two Footscray wickets he needed for 200 over the journey.
On the downside, another injury — this time his hamstring — will see him limp into the sunset. His retirement followed soon after stumps on Saturday.
Many a batting great has confessed to feeling more satisfaction with a wicket snared than a boundary struck, but Dickson said the milestone had come at a cost.
“It’s a bit different,” he said of bowling or batting success. “But I did my hammy (bowling) and retired at the end of the day. And we didn’t play well and finish where we would have liked, so it was a bit of a sad way to finish.
Dickson has been dogged by injury the past few seasons and Saturday’s hamstring strain was probably the straw that broke the camel’s back.
“That’s probably the thing that settled it,” he said. “I’ve batted with a runner four or five times in the last few years and poor Jack Rudd has been the guy who’s had to do it for me every time.”
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Dickson said he'd been thinking about packing the bat away for a while now, the next generation at Schramms Reserve is ready to take up the challenge.
“It’s probably a good time,” he said. “On Thursday night we had two really good people get dropped to the seconds and even though I’m in pretty good form this year I was thinking ‘I’m struggling around on one leg’ and I’m thinking about the youngish guys I’m ahead of.”
The chance to claim his 200th career scalp came as something of a surprise this week.
“I definitely wasn’t expecting to bowl but (skipper) Ejaaz (Alavi) threw the ball to me and said ‘have a bowl’,” Dickson said. “And the wicket was more suited to a medium-pacer than the quicks.”
And, when his hamstring gave out for the last time, it was in a manner that couldn’t help but bring a wry smile to the most ardent of cricket followers.
“I actually did my hamstring appealing,” Dickson laughed. “I spun around so fast, I couldn’t believe he hadn’t given it out.
“It’s only fitting, after all the grief I’ve given umpires over the years, they got one back.”
Dickson said he'd now take some time off before pondering his next move, although he hasn’t ruled out playing at suburban level next summer.
“I’d be interested in playing local cricket,” he said. “I’ve always loved playing cricket.
“But I’m assistant-coach at Fitzroy and we've still got a bit of work to do, our seconds are still on top.