Following the success of the initial UK tour in 1993, the club executive decided that tours should occur on a regular basis, so that any player who belonged to the club for four or five years would have at least one opportunity to tour. The result of that decision was a visit to England and Scotland in 1997. Unfortunately, not even the best-planned tours to Britain can make allowance for the vagaries of the British weather, and we lost the first week of the tour (including the match against Cambridge University) to rain. But then the sun shone, mostly, and some excellent games were played. Our opposition was usually strong, but we won more than we lost. Tour captain, Brendan Hill, was outstanding, scoring a century against the York and District League team and taking 5-59 against the Midlands Club Cricket Conference. Richard Wiles and Duncan Macintosh batted consistently, and Tom Cowan played one brutal innings at Leeds.
As the manager of the tour, the rain presented me with the unexpected challenge of keeping the squad occupied and out of trouble when no cricket was possible. What make that challenge even greater was the fact that the team included several players who had an alarming and inexplicable fondness for public nudity. It began with a nude re-enactment of the Great Court Run around the quadrangle of Trinity College, Cambridge, as the clock struck midnight. I also still have, somewhere, a letter from one of the universities where we stayed informing me, in very stern terms, that if there was any repetition of the nude football match our team had staged, we would be asked to leave. I was extremely grateful when Dave Butchart (our hosts’ captain) worked wonders to get us onto a soggy Three Bridges ground in Sussex to play our first game.
One of the enjoyable aspects of club tours is that players from lower grades get an opportunity to play against opponents of a higher calibre than they would usually encounter – often with surprising results. At York, we played against a left-arm spinner who had been the highest wicket-taker in Indian first-class cricket the previous season: Liam McGowan, who usually played Fifth Grade, drove him to distraction by repeatedly late-cutting him to the boundary. In Edinburgh, we played against a Scottish Leagues team that was almost a full-strength Scotland side; Third Grade stalwart Michael Farrow helped us recover from an early collapse by striking 64, most of them (against fast and slow bowlers alike) from the sweep. And we dismissed a powerful MCC team, full of county players, for only 131 – the prize scalp was claimed by Third Grader Matt Salisbury, who surprised Zimbabwe’s Andy Flower with a lifting delivery that he nicked to slip, where Chris Williams held a head-high catch.
1997 was an Ashes year, and we were fortunate that the Australian side was managed by our club President, Alan Crompton, who provided a tour of Lords during the second Test there (Ian Healy, however, was not amused when he returned to the Australian dressing room and found it full of Sydney University players). We also caught up with the tourists at the Old Trafford Test, where Steve Waugh scored his legendary hundred on one good leg. Two of our players decided that a handy nightclubbing strategy in Manchester would be to pass themselves off as Brendan Julian and Michael Kasprowicz – two members of the touring party who weren’t playing in the Tests. This might have worked if Kasprowicz and Julian hadn’t turned up at the same club. By the end of the tour, its soggy beginnings were forgotten and it had become a highly enjoyable trip that enhanced the reputation of Sydney University cricket.
Touring Party: Brendan Hill, Richard Wiles, Andrew Pearson, Michael Farrow, Liam McGowan, Matt Salisbury, Max Bonnell, Mark Wilson (deceased), Chris Pelly (deceased), Luke Hartman, Chris Williams, Duncan Macintosh, Nick Ridley, Tom Cowan