The rampant SUCC juggernaut rolls on!
Last weekend’s performances spoke of a Club in irresistible form. More about this in next week’s column when the Round finishes with more favourable results against Nth District.
For now, consider this:
Exactly 100 years ago, the Club was headed towards an emphatic 1913-14 1st Grade Premiership.
But this was a different era, another age, more gentle, refined, slower.
1st Grade games started at 2.15 pm and finished at 6 pm. (University in one afternoon ran up 4 for 350 against second placed Gordon in 2 and a half hours!)
There were no semis or finals…just 13 two dayers played over a leisurely 7 months.
This was a peaceful time when some undergraduates took a gentlemanly 10 years to complete their degrees.
That was all to change forever, when by the start of the next season, Australia was at war.
12 of the 13-14 1st Graders joined up. 12 were decorated for courage. One was killed.
So, the 13-14 Premiership is a story about ordinary undergraduate cricketers who achieved something extraordinary that wouldn’t be repeated until the 1st Grade premiership of 2002-03…a gap of 89 years…although we’ve won another 3 since 02-03.
Those players from long ago taught us who succeed them to endure, to believe, to play to the limit of our abilities.
This 1st Grade Premiership was won by ordinary men who went to the same Colleges as today’s players do, who went to lectures in some of the same theatres, who played on the same grounds, who played for the same great Club with the same pride.
More about this remarkable side in the next few weeks.
James