Howzart - this all-time BSHS First XI is as good as any, anywhere
Test champion Marnus Labuschagne has made his old school’s greatest ever side - but who else is in the team? Here’s a hint - it contains five Queensland captains.
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What a GPS First XI cricket team this is. It is our take on the best of the best who have proudly represented Brisbane State High School over the years.
The side features not only a current Test champion, Marnus Labuschagne, but also features not one, not two but five Queensland captains.
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1. Jimmy Peirson
Peirson is the first of a remarkable five Queensland captains - the others are Stuart Law, John Maclean, Ian Healy and Jim Bratchford - named in our BSHS greatest side.
A fluent batsman capable of playing anywhere from opener to No. 7, Peirson was an outstanding schoolboy player who made both the Queensland under 17s, and then the Australian under 19s.
He maintains Queensland’s proud tradition of producing elite glovemen, with the likes of Don Tallon, Wally Grout, Lew Cooper, John Maclean, Ray Phillips, Peter Anderson, Ian Healy, Wade Seccombe and Chris Hartley elite glovemen before him.
It is no coincidence Queensland and Brisbane Heat cricket is healthy when you have someone like Peirson in the leadership group.
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2. Ian Seib
Aside from being an outstanding cricketer, Seib was also an elite junior coach who touched the lives of a generation of players who have come through Queensland cricket.
No matter their ability, Seib would make them better cricketers - a great attribute for any coach.
Seib was also a stylish opening batsmen who played plenty of valuable innings for Queensland during his 32 innings.
3. Marnus Labuschagne
Mighty Marnus was first put on the Queensland sporting radar by the late ABC commentator and author Peter Roebuck who had heard about his skill long before anyone, aside from family and friends, knew about his ability.
How right Roebuck was.
Labuschagne has at times risen to be the No. 1 Test batsman in the world, and now has 55 Tests behind him, having scored 4346 at 47.
4. Stuart Law
A living legend who captained Queensland to its first ever Sheffield Shield win in 1994-95, a moment so enormous, it rivalled Artie Beetson’s infamous return to Lang Park as captain of Queensland in the first ever State of Origin league game.
Law then captained Queensland to another four Shield wins.
Only the legendary Greg Chappell is superior to Law for grace and style as a batsman.
He played one Test, scoring 54 not out against Sri Lanka, and in 142 games for Queensland scored 9034 runs at 43.85, and also played 54 one day internationals.
Across his career he scored an extraordinary 27080 runs at an average of 50.52, having spent Queensland winters playing county cricket in England where he was revered.
5. Glenn Trimble
Trimble was the son of a gun - his father the legendary opening batsman Sam - but he was an outstanding player himself.
He had a great eye and could launch a big ball - long before bats helped inflate batting averages around the world.
Trimble was also a handy medium pace change bowler, particularly at the Gabba, and he played one limited overs international for his country.
In 53 games he scored 2714 runs at 33.50.
6. Ian Healy
Australia’s Wicket of the Century last century, the great gloveman largely earned that mantle standing up to the stumps to the legendary leg spinner Shane Warne.
But he was a wizard behind the stumps in all conditions - just as Test champions Glenn McGrath and Jason Gillespie, or Queensland icons Carl Rackemann or Dirk Tazelaar.
Healy was a true-blue Queensland who would finish representing Australia one day, only to be playing for Queensland the next.
He was a fierce competitor, tough as nails.
He was an outstanding batsman who consistently scored 30s and 40s, often at run-a-ball pace.
7. John Maclean
It is not often a club, let alone a school, has the luxury of having nurtured two Test keepers, but BSHS does. Ironically it was John Maclean who inspired Healy to be a wicketkeeper.
Healy was a schoolboy in country Queensland who would rush home to see Maclean and his Queensland teammates playing Shield cricket via live ABC television coverage of the final session of Shield games.
Maclean, also a brilliant youth soccer player, talented baseballer, league five-eight and robust rugby player, was the gloveman to the legendary fast bowler Jeff Thomson who Maclean stood 30m back to in Perth - and even further back at the SCG.
“That day in Sydney I was going back probably a metre or two every ball because they were still going up over head height when they were hitting my gloves,’’ Maclean once said.
“Blokes thought we were joking (about his pace). They would come out thinking we were having a lend but that was how quick he was.’’
“How people didn’t get killed is still beyond me,’’ said Maclean.
And Maclean was the one who was his keeper. Some achievement.
Maclean, an 86 match Shield veteran who captained Queensland on 35 occasions, played four Tests against England at the end of his career.
How he cherished those hard earned baggy green caps.
7. Jack Wildermuth
It was a toss up between Wildermuth and Jim Bratchford for this position, but we settled on Bratchford as 12th man.
You don’t get too many better all around records than Wildermuth - 2985 first class runs at 27.13, and 171 wickets at 29.66. Now that’s a record.
From the rich sporting pastures of the Darling Downs, Wildermuth has been a marvel through 66 games for Queensland - so far.
We say so far because who doesn’t think he will add to his wonderful Sheffield Shield record?
No one can ever take his Australian one day cap from him either. He will forever be yet another sporting international from Queensland.
8. Sandy Morgan
Speak to anybody of his era and they wax lyrical about Sandy Morgan.
“Good enough to play for Australia,’’ they will say.
“Unlucky to play in an era of all-rounders Doug Walters and Graham Watson,’’ another will offer.
They loved having his bloke in the Queensland side.
The brother of co-Broncos founder Paul “Porky’’ Morgan, Sandy played club cricket at Easts and Uni.
Oliver was his name, but his nickname was Sandy and through 35 matches he claimed 107 wickets at 28.36, and 1320 runs at 23.57 with a highest score of 81.
10. Michael Kasprowicz
One of the nicest blokes you’d meet in a day’s march, Kasprowicz had the distinction of making his Sheffield Shield debut while still at school at BSHS.
He started as a tearaway, raw quick, but somewhere along the line the heart of Phar Lap must have been inserted in him to sustain him across 101 gruelling matches for Queensland as a fast medium swing bowler.
Kasprowicz took a state Shield record 441 wickets at 24.56, becoming just as effective on a Gabba green top as he was at a swinging WACA or a desolate Adelaide Oval.
He played 32 Tests, taking 113 wickets at 32.88, including a stunning 7 for 36 at The Oval in the 1997 and a five-wicket haul in Bangalore against India (1998).
11. Peter Allan
Allan is another Queensland champion, Allan was a smoking gun who took 206 wickets at 26.10 for Queensland, including a remarkable 10-61 against Victoria in 1965-66.
He was a swing bowling wizard who played one Test against England at the Gabba in 1965, taking two wickets.
Allan’s peers from his era of 1959-69 admire him greatly and time should never diminish his high standing in Queensland - and Australian - Sheffield Shield cricket. Just as the 10 Victorians he dismissed in one innings, or the 14 New South Wales players he dismissed at the SGC in 1968.
12th man. Jim Bratchford
A dip our hats to Bratchford who played 52 matches as an all-rounder between 1952-1960.
A state captain, he scored 1521 runs at 22.36 and took 123 wickets at 30.37.
He was a heart and soul player of the state side during his era and deserves the highest of recognition.
The quality of our BSHS First XI great side is emphasised when you consider these outstanding players also attended the school.
Scott Walter
A prolific club wicket taker, Walter had a tremendous mini career with the Bulls between 2009-2011 when he took 34 wickets at 30.73, with a strike rate of just 50.20. Walter was a University premiership winning champion.
Blake Edwards
A modern day young fast bowling Bull, Edwards has played half a dozen matches for Queensland - and more were certain to come.
Mark Gaskell
A highly skilled right handed batsman who earned 14 games for Queensland between 1977-1982. Affectionately known as “Gas”, he had a crack and was prepared to take on the bowling with his bat. Again, his numbers would be far greater in the modern game given the size of bats and the shortened boundaries.
Tony Brown
Another fabulous club cricketer, an leg spinner all-rounder who played two games in 1984-1985. He was one of club cricket’s high achiever in his era.
Peter Easton
A Valley stalwart where he had the honour of having No. 1 oval named in his honour, wonderful recognition for this champion clubman. Easton had the honour of playing for Queensland in 1960.
Ken Healy
He may have been Ian Healy’s brother, but Ken was also an outstanding cricketer, a prodigious club scoring left hander who played for Queensland in 1990.
Don Regeling
Regeling was a marvellous athlete who had the distinction of playing both rugby union and shield cricket for Queensland. He was a noted clean hitter.
Richard Searle
From the class of 1951, Searle played a match for Queensland in 1950.
John Childe-Freeman
From the class of 1951, Childe-Freeman made his Shield debut in 1956 against Victoria, and went on to play 26 matches. He took 51 wickets.
Alex Kemp
A graduate in 2006, Kemp played six games for Queensland in the summer of 2006-07.
The www.couriermail.com.au will again cover the GPS First XI season when it starts on February 1.
Round 1
BSHS v Nudgee
Churchie v TSS
Terrace v IGS
TGS v BBC
Bye: BGS
Originally published as Howzart - this all-time BSHS First XI is as good as any, anywhere
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