Mighty milestone: legendary left-armer Sam Kenny to play 500th match for Hampton
Harnessing swing and seam, Sam Kenny has become an all-time great at Hampton Cricket Club. This week he adds to his legend by playing his 500th match for the Seahorses.
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Everyone at Hampton says it about Sam Kenny: he can make the ball talk.
It’s fair to say he’s happier doing that than talking about himself.
The legendary left-armer is not one for the spotlight, but it will settle on him at Castlefield Reserve this Saturday when he plays his 500th match for the Cricket Southern Bayside club.
“I’m not a massive fan of that sort of stuff, any attention,’’ he says.
“They said they would be doing something at the club for me and I’m like, ‘Oh, OK’. I’m not going to be shouting about what I might have done over the time. Other people can do that if they like.’’
Kenny has earned a long list of awards and honours with the Seahorses: their team of the century, selection in three teams of the decade, the First XI captaincy and life membership.
Premiership success too, for which he had to be patient: after debuting in the top team in 1986, his first flag came in 2007, then in 2011 and 2014.
Now comes the milestone, which he will share with his son Hamish, brothers Matt and Joe, and nephews Ben, Jude and Archie.
Seven Kennys will be scribbled into the scorebook for the Hampton fourths. That is no surprise: they are something like royalty at the club, a family that has maintained an important presence at Boss James Reserve for more than 70 years.
The Kenny connection goes back to 1955, when John Kenny started playing at Hampton. His brother, Jim, joined him three years later.
John moved away from the district. Jim stayed, was a long-time secretary of the Seahorses and played 350 matches.
Remarkably, his sons Sam, Matt and Joe all exceeded his games tally.
Matt, 53, is coming out of retirement for his brother’s milestone and will settle on 370 matches. Joe, 51, has eased past 420.
No cricketer has played more for Hampton than Sam, 55, who across 236 games was an outstanding bowler for the First XI, topping the averages six times.
Many times he wheeled away into the wind, searching for swing and movement off the wicket. He was about subtleties, leaving the speed to others.
“It’s a long body of work,’’ he says of his match count.
And how is his body? “It’s seen better days. Goes up and down, as you would expect at my age. You’ve got to manage certain ailments,’’ Kenny says.
“It’s a good thing I can only bowl seven overs these days. It keeps me in check. Otherwise I’d keep bowling and I’d end up breaking down and be out for weeks.’’
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Sam and Matt were the first of the brothers to begin playing for Hampton, in 1980.
“We all grew up around the place,’’ Sam Kenny says. “We were all going to play. I was 10 when I started and I was lucky enough to play with dad. He had a long career in the firsts. I got him on the way down. I was on the way up and he was on the way down, and we played in the seconds together when I was 16 or something like that.’’
He also played with his brothers in the firsts for close to a decade, with his son and with most of his nephews, regarding it as a “great joy’’.
Matt Kenny reckons his brother will keep playing “until he falls over’’.
He calls Sam an opening bowler rather than a fast bowler.
“I’ve never thought of him as a fast bowler since he graduated from the Under 16s,’’ he says.
“He was never particularly quick. But he just made it talk. He could swing it both ways and he could cut it both ways, and he had perfect control as well. He never bowled loose balls. Before we had bowling restrictions and stuff, I reckon I kept to him in one-day games where he bowled 20 overs from one end, unchanged.’’
He adds: “Fierce competitor, too, one of those never-say-die players. You know, ‘Cricket’s a funny game, we’re still a chance’ even if we needed 5-20 or something stupid like that. Wanted to fight it out to the last ball.’’
Sam Kenny is also on the Hampton honour board as a winner of the First XI batting average.
“Admittedly we weren’t flying that year but I think he started at No. 11 and finished at No. 5 or 6,’’ Matt says. “He could give the ball a whack. You still thought you were a chance if he was in.’’
That batting average promotes happy memories for Sam Kenny, but he nominates his involvement at the club, rather than any personal achievements, as the highlight of his time in cricket.
“It’s the friendships, the lifelong friendships, and the sense of having somewhere where you feel so welcome at,’’ he says.
“For me, the joy has been being part of the place for 45 years. Well, really, it’s 55, because I’ve been there all my life, and it will continue on for the rest of my life.’’
Hampton recognised a bunch of its greats at a hall-of-fame function in December.
There was Anthony Quon. Ben Kezilas. Michael Reidy. Clint Ferguson. Anthony Gilbee. Justin Ferguson. Andy Gooden. Dallas Voss. Glenn Finkelde. Mark Anderson.
Matt and Joe Kenny were inducted too. And so was their brother, the opening bowler who can make the ball talk.
HAMPTON COACH JUSTIN FORBES ON SAM KENNY
“The Kenny family is absurd in our history. It’s always been Kenny, Kenny, Kenny and a couple of Grimmers in there too. I played my first game at the club with Sam. He was on the way down at that point but even then and even now he still does whatever he wants with the ball. It is amazing.’’
SAM KENNY BY THE NUMBERS
499 games
5486 runs
957 wickets
218 catches
1st XI cap No. 414
236 1st XI Games
1st XI captain four years
1st XI premiership player three times
Ist XI bowling average winner six times
1st XI batting average
2nd XI premiership player
2nd XI bowling average
team of the century
team of the decade (1990s, 2000s, 2010s)
Killara Medal two times
Club champion five times
Max Grimmer Award two times
life member
Hall of Fame member
secretary three years
treasurer one year
chairman of selectors two years
Originally published as Mighty milestone: legendary left-armer Sam Kenny to play 500th match for Hampton
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