Red Bull Campus Cricket World Finals Round 1 Team Announcement

Red Bull’s Campus Cricket World Finals gets under way at 11:30amAEST Monday the 5th of September.  Arriving Friday evening Sydney University, Team Australia have acclimatised well and hit the training paddock early Sunday morning in preparation for their debut World Finals. 

Team Australia was drawn in Pool A alongside reigning champions, South Africa, last years semi finalists, England and round one opponents Bangladesh.  Game one takes place at the headquarters of Sri Lankan cricket, Sinhalese Sports Club at 13:30AEST.  Day two sees the Australian side play South Africa at the Nondescripts Cricket Ground at 18:30AEST, before rounding out the pool stages on Wednesday the 7th with a rivalry game against England at 13:00AEST.       

Team Australia assemble at the airport

Skipper Ben Trevor-Jones has named a strong side for the opening game against Bangladesh. Trevor-Jones stated that “there were a number of tough decisions to make, and its unfortunate for those who miss out on game one but I’m sure the whole squad will be required to make some sort of impact as the week goes on.” 

Highlighting the versatility of the squad, Trevor-Jones has named three all-rounders in his side with swashbuckling left-hander, Dugald Holloway joining Charles Litchfield at the top of the batting order. Skipper Trevor-Jones will bat at three followed by Nicky Craze and Joe Kershaw. 

Hayden Kerr and Jack Remond are the two all-rounders in the middle order both looking to continue their impressive performances at the Australian University Games Grand Final that guaranteed World Finals qualification.   Jack Gibson joins them in the lower order, brimming with confidence after a dominant century in Brisbane last weekend against University of Queensland. New Sydney University  Cricket Club recruit Kieran Elley, will be joined by Xavier Frawley taking the new ball, with Jack Holloway rounding out the XI.  Tom Galvin has been named as 12th Man. 

Director of Cricket, Gary Whitaker echoed Trevor-Jones’ sentiments clarifying that “it is a simple game, and we’ve picked the best XI for the conditions we’re going to face, and now the onus is on the boys to ensure they can execute their plans.”  

All games and up-to-info can be found here.  

http://www.redbull.com/in/en/events/1331747859631/red-bull-campus-cricket. 

Sydney University, Team Australia’s XI (in batting order)

1.     Dugald Holloway
2.     Charles Litchfield
3.     Ben Trevor-Jones © (wk)
4.     Nicky Craze
5.     Joe Kershaw
6.     Hayden Kerr
7.     Jack Remond
8.     Jack Gibson
9.     Kieran Elley
10. Xavier Frawley
11. Jack Holloway
Tom Galvin (12th Man)

Sydney Uni represents Australia at Red Bull World Campus Games

Sydney University is flying out today to represent Australia at the Red Bull Campus Cricket World Games, to be held in Sri Lanka from 5 to 11 September.

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The squad for the tournament is: Ben Trevor-Jones (captain); Henry Clark, Nicholas Craze, Kieran Elley, Xavier Frawley, Brodie Frost, Jack Gibson, Tom Galvin, Dugald Holloway, Jack Holloway, Hayden Kerr, Joseph Kershaw, Charles Litchfield and Jack Remond.

The club won the right to represent Australia by winning the Australian Universities Games tournament at the start of last season.  The other seven teams taking part in the Twenty20 competition are: Business Management School, Colombo (Sri Lanka); University of Liberal Arts Bangladesh; Loughborough University (England); Marathwada Mitra Mandal College of Commerce (India); University of Central Punjab (Pakistan); Assupol TuksCricket, University of Pretoria (South Africa); and Heriot Watt University, Duabi (UAE).  The eight teams will be divided into two pools of four at the competition draw on 4 September, and group matches will be played at two Test venues, Sinhalese Sports Club and Nondescripts Cricket Club, on 5, 6 and 7 September.  The finals will be played on 10 and 11 September.  Incidentally, Sydney University played on both these grounds during its 2004-05 tour to India and Sri Lanka.

As an experiment, the competition this year will introduce a new Energiser Over, where the runs for one over per side, tactically nominated by the batting team at any point after the Powerplay overs, will count double. But any wickets taken during that over will cost the batting side 5 penalty runs.

It won’t be an easy competition.  The home side, BMS Colombo, can field three Sri Lankan internationals (Shehan Jayasuriya, Niroshan Dickwella and Dasun Shanaka).  Nine members of the Loughborough side who won the final of the English tournament in late June had experience of first-class cricket.  And South Africa’s TuksCricket has won the last two Red Bull World championships.

In contrast, the young Sydney University team includes only five players with First Grade experience, but they’re not intimidated by the task ahead.  “We’ve been training as a squad for a few months now”, says Club Captain Henry Clark, “trying to hone our T20 skills.  We know we’ll come up against some quality opponents, but we’re excited by the prospect of challenging ourselves against the best the rest of the world has to offer in some foreign conditions.”

You can check out our brand new promotional video, as well as player profiles and a link to the Red Bull tournament page for news, draws and scorecards by clicking here.

McElduff claims representative honour

Sydney Uni Cricketer, Ryan McElduff, has been selected in the NSW Metropolitan Under 17 squad to participate in the National Championships for 2016-17.

His selection comes after a strong off-season within the NSW Under 17 Academy Program, under the tutelage of former Sydney Uni Assistant Coach, Beau Casson, which culminated in solid performances in the State Under 17 Challenge over the weekend.

His Metro - Sixers team took out the Challenge title remaining undefeated against Metro - Thunder, Country - Sixers and Country - Thunder teams.

McElduff contributed two 18s, one a not out, in the first two wins against the country teams, but missed out on the runs in a high-scoring final round match against his Metro counterparts.

He also provided some handy overs of off-spin throughout the tournament, claiming a miserly 1-18 from 7 overs against Country - Thunder in the opening match, and 1-55 from 9 overs in the grudge match against Metro - Thunder.

The Under 17 National Championships will be held in Brisbane from 26th September to 6th October, and the NSW Metro side will be out for revenge against the hosts after falling to them in the final in 2015.

Congratulations go to Ryan and all the best in the preparations for the National Championships.

For the news story on the NSW Under 17 selections, please click here.

For more information, results and scorecards from the NSW Under 17 State Challenge, click here.

Feature: Lieutenant ALAN RUSSELL BLACKET 1894-1916

The memorials to this bright young Law student who died on this day 100 years ago at the age of 22 are surprisingly many and far-flung.

The Blacket family name survives through Alan’s ancestors. Edmund Thomas Blacket (1817-83) was the architect responsible for The Great Hall at Sydney University, St Paul’s College, St Andrew’s Cathedral and many other churches and buildings around Sydney in the Gothic style. Alan’s uncle, Wilfred Blacket (1859-1937) was a respected barrister and litterateur in Sydney in the early 20th century. Another relation, Ralph Beattie Blacket  AC (1919-2008),  was foundation Professor of Medicine at UNSW. R B Blacket played for SUCC from 1937 until 1941, earned a Blue for Cricket and scored 1496 runs for the Club.

Parts of the Blacket family could trace their lineage back to Egbert, King of the West Saxons and the first King of England in 839, and even claimed relationship to Alfred the Great.

Alan Russell Blacket commands commemoration to this day and on this day especially.

At All Saints’ College, Bathurst, where he was a student from 1905 until 1912, there is the ‘Lt Alan Russell Blacket Memorial Shield’ for the highest aggregate point score in the inter-House carnivals. At Alan Border Oval in Mosman, he is commemorated on the memorial to the fallen. At St Alban’s Anglican Church in Lindfield, he is remembered by a plaque. At Sydney University his name is on the plaque as you enter the main quadrangle which commemorates those from the University who gave their life in the Great War. And, most poignantly, he lies at rest in a grave in the Boulogne Eastern Cemetery in France.

At school, Blacket followed a glittering path. Gold medal winner in Athletics, captain of the 1st XV, a talented cricketer, a member of the school cadet corps, second class honours in the senior exams, recipient of the Wigram Allen Scholarship for Law, he enrolled in Law I in 1913. By this stage, his family had moved to  Mosman.

Blacket involved himself in University life with accustomed vigour. He joined the Sydney University Scouts and  played for SUCC in 1913-14, mainly in 3rd Grade where he appears to have been under-graded. He scored 107 not out against Wests in February 1914 in a game where University was beaten outright and followed this with a commanding 145 not out against Glebe in April. The Club was undeniably strong at the time, winners of the 1913-14 1st Grade Premiership, but Blacket may have decided to force the issue in 1914-15 when he was the Club’s delegate to the Sports Union and a member of the selection committee for the 2nd Grade side. Inexplicably, however,he lost form, scoring only 105 runs in his first seven innings in 2nd Grade. Perhaps his Law studies consumed him. He had taken up with his uncle, Wilfred Blacket KC, at Denman Chambers in Pitt St and was associate to Mr Justice Philip Whistler Street, one of whose sons, Laurence, was to be killed at Gallipoli in 1915.

Unavailabilities during the University vacation presented an opportunity for him. On the day before his twenty first birthday, 8 February 1915, he strode out to bat at Parramatta Oval at number 4. He made only 6 but University’s innings was held together by Eric Barbour’s 88 and University scraped to a slender 1st innings victory. Blacket retained his place but batted at number 9 in the next game against Glebe and scored a match-winning 37 not out. It was to be the last time he got to double figures as his next four innings produced 6, 1 not out, 6 and 6.  This was the end of his cricket career.

By the time the next season started, Blacket had enlisted at Liverpool and had been appointed Lieutenant in 19 Battalion. He sailed from Sydney for Egypt in December 1915. From March 1916, he was moved from Alexandria to Marseilles, to Etaples and finally into battle at Armentieres and Poizieres, some of the evocative places in Australian memory in the 100 years since. On 28 July, while in the battalion headquarters dug out at Poizieres, he was severely wounded by a shell burst and by gunshot to his chest and lungs, and evacuated to Boulogne Hospital. He hung on. One of his men, Lance Corporal Sutherland, wrote of him: ”He proved himself a very brave little chap and cool headed.” But, on 13 August, he lapsed into a coma, tetanus having set in,  and was unconscious for three days until death took him at6.20pm on 16 August. He was buried two days later by a Church of England chaplain, Rev C C Aldred.

His distraught parents, Russell and Isabella, were to outlive their oldest son by some years. His father died in 1939 and his mother in 1948, aged 83. But an indication of the family’s sense of duty is in an extraordinary letter that his father sent to the Army in January 1917. Mr Blacket, having received some of his son’s effects, offers his greatcoat, boots and uniform for possible re-issue: “I may be glad to consign them to you or hold them at the disposal of your agents here.”

His son had served his country with great bravery. His family now offered  a sense of service and graciousness.

We should remember Alan Blacket on this day especially.

James Rodgers

RIP Austen Hughes 1925-2016

Austen Hughes OAM, the Patron of Northern Districts Cricket Club, has died at the age of 90. 

Mr Hughes was President of the Northern Districts club between 1971 and 2002.  In a long and distinguished career in cricket administration, he often acted as manager of the NSW Sheffield Shield team on tour, and he was elected a Life Member of the NSWCA in 1984.  He was known to many Sydney University players through his involvement with the Australian Old Collegians Club, for which he often managed overseas tours.

Sydney University CC extends its condolences to the Northern Districts club and the Hughes family.

Sydney Uni Cricket: Pre-season Update

With the 2016-17 campaign approaching rapidly, our pre-season training program is set to start on Tuesday 26th July at the Martin Lambert Indoor Nets from 7.30pm.

The sessions are as follows:

• Tues 26th and Thurs 28th July - existing Club members only (players from 2015-16 and other squad members eg EAP/TAP)
• Tues 2nd and Thurs 4th August - existing Club members only (players from 2015-16 and other squad members eg EAP/TAP)
• Tues 9th and Thurs 11th August - open trials for all existing and new players
• Tues 16th and Thurs 18th August - open trials for all existing and new players
• Tues 25th and Thurs 27th August (onwards) - full Club training

Sydney Uni Cricket Feature: Finding Bob Holliday

By James Rodgers

At first there was nothing.

Then he emerged from the yellowing, crumbling pages of old newspapers.

Until the late 1970s, the records of SUCC which had a rich history, stretching back to 1864, were scanty and scattered. Damon Ridley and I then set about finding the old Annual Reports and putting the Club’s story  together. There were still gaps. No Annual Reports survived from the World War I seasons. Scorebooks had long gone. Anyone who played in these seasons seemed to be lost to record and memory. We did have access to newspapers and microfilm, especially the sports pages, in Fisher Library. And we gathered former players, now elderly but most with sharp, lucid memories, and we interviewed them.

In the 1914-15 Report, we found C D Holliday who played 2nd and 3rd Grades that season and who also played one game in 1st Grade, scored 19, and disappeared. But there he was again in January 1916 in the scores of the Grade games played on 10th and 17th January. C D Holliday batted at number 3 against Petersham at University Oval, scoring 6 and 20. Much of the space in those papers was taken up with news from The Front, lists of dead, wounded and missing, accounts of battles. But this Grade game at University took the eye.

Petersham rattled up 3 declared for 585 on the first day. Future Test players, Tommy Andrews (232 not out) and Johnny Taylor (174) put on an astounding 240 in two hours of clinical demolition of the weak University attack. On the second day, in reply, University was bowled out for 83 and 111 and lost by an innings and 391 runs, still the heaviest defeat in the Club’s history.

So there he was. C D Holliday. 1st Grade career: 1914-16. 2 matches, 3 innings, 45 runs.

And there he stayed for many years. When we interviewed those still alive from that time in the late 1970s, the name C D Holliday drew a blank. Sharp minds like Eric McElhone, Mick Bardsley, Dr H O Rock (“Never heard of him” was the expected gruff answer. Rock was on his way to France in early 1916), Dr Jim Garner, Sir Ronald Grieve, Jimmy Sullivan (still at school in 1916). Even Dr S G Whitfeld, grandfather of Phil Beale (who played 1st Grade for the Club in the 1970s and 80s), who actually played in that game in January 1916, opening the bowling (0-87), recalled that he had no idea where to pitch the ball during the onslaught and little idea which part of the fence the ball would be hit to. But when it came to C D Holliday…nothing.

And so Holliday remained a minor footnote to a swelling history of a Club that approached its sesqui centenary in 2014.

Then, a glimpse of him again. On a plaque as you enter the Main Quadrangle is the list of those University men who fell in the Great War. And there’s his name. C D Holliday.

A quick trip to the Australian War Memorial website now throws up so much information on those who enlisted, including their full military history.

So, C D Holliday becomes more than just a passing shadow. He’s Clifford Dawson Holliday, known to his family as ‘Bob’. Born in Kogarah in January 1895, he lives with his parents in William St Hornsby. His father, Reverend Andrew Holliday, is Rector of the Hornsby Methodist Church. Bob is 5 feet 9 inches tall, 170 pounds in weight, blue eyes, light brown hair. He was educated at Dubbo Public school (when his father was posted to Dubbo), Hornsby Public and Newington College Stanmore.

Another detour brings him to life.

David Roberts, Newington’s Archivist, is readily helpful.

His name is preserved at Newington. He was there from Easter 1905 until Easter 1914. 1st XI batsman. 1st XV. Senior Prefect. Twice Dux of the College. President of the Christian Union. Winner of a multitude of prizes including a University Exhibition. He contemplated studies in Law but settled for Arts at Sydney University and gained a High Distinction in Maths in Arts I. A Newington classmate was Alexander ‘Roxie’ Muir who also played for SUCC, enlisted, was awarded the Military Cross, and never came home. When Bob made his 1st Grade debut in April 1915, Roxy was unavailable and Bob took his place. When Bob played his other 1st Grade game, Roxy had enlisted and, on the Thursday before the second day of that match, sailed with 1 Battalion. Both were stylish, reliable batsmen but at Newington, everyone batted in the shadow of Johnny Taylor, born in the same year as Muir and Holliday, 1895. Taylor played for NSW 2nd XI aged 16 on the strength of his form in school matches and he hit 226 against Victoria’s 2nd XI. He then made his 1st class debut while still at Newington, scoring 83 in 1913. After distinguished service in the 1st AIF, Taylor then played 20 Tests for Australia. In four seasons after the War, he averaged over 60 for SUCC. Taylor’s 174 against University in that game in January 1916 brought two Newington schoolmates together again. It was Holliday’s last game of cricket. Less than two months later, Corporal C D Holliday 4801 sailed for Egypt and was assigned to 54 Battalion. Three months after that, he embarked from Alexandria to Marseilles. This was his last time at sea.

On that dreadful night of 19-20 July 1916, Australia lost 2000 men and suffered more than 5000 casualties in the futile attack on the Germans’ position at Fromelles.

Corporal Holliday was initially recorded as “wounded 19 or 20 July. No further report”. In the confusion and tumult, such vague reports were understandable. But the military authorities were to experience the insistent pleas of Holliday’s distraught parents.

“He is our only son and only child…will easily understand our anxiety,” wrote Reverend Holliday on 14 August.

“Our anxiety is very great,”  Mrs Margaret Holliday wrote on 28 August.

In the meantime, Joseph Cook, the former prime Minister wrote, describing Bob as “one of our most brilliant University boys” and a specially coded cable was sent to London to ascertain his condition and his whereabouts.

And so the correspondence went, back and forth for over 170 pages and over the years.“…our anxiety is daily increasing.”

“We have been kept all these awful months in such agony…the confusion and contradiction are simply astounding,” wrote Reverend Holliday.

On 7 December, Reverend Holliday received a cable.

“Regret report 4801 Holliday prev. reported wounded now killed in action 30 July.” The date was amended to 20 July by another cable the next day.

The most likely account of events was that Bob was shot in the mouth and was then carried to the entrance of the communication trench which was captured by the Germans before he died. His death was then announced by the Prussian War Office. It was not until 1923 that a letter from Base Records finally put the pieces together. It appears that he had been buried in a mass grave at Fromelles or Flerbeaux.

Reverend Holliday poured out his frustration from his broken heart:

“It almost seems to me now that no one knows and no one even cares what has become of my son.”

At Newington, there was widespread grief at the loss of one of their most brilliant.

“…we mourn not only for the loss of a fine man, but the ruin of what we hoped for him.”

The next edition of ‘The Newingtonian’ contained another obituary. Lieutenant A R Muir MC had been killed in action at Zonnebeke on 13 October 1917 aged 22.

The Holidays were sustained by the comforts of their faith and at the memorial service held at Hornsby Methodist Church on 28 January 1917, Reverend C J Prescott, Headmaster of Newington and father of Clarence Prescott who had also played for SUCC in 1914-15, preached the sermon:

“He was intended for a soldier. He looked forward to the avocations of peace, the halls and cloisters of academic calm or the courts where justice is done…’He rushed into the field/And foremost fighting fell.”…He was the pride of his school.”

The Hollidays wished that their son’s name be preserved at Newington. To the present day, a prize is awarded in Bob’s memory. A tablet to his memory also forms part of the Chapel Walkway. And, at the University where he prospered, the ‘Clifford Dawson Holliday’ prize is awarded to the most proficient candidate in third year examinations in Agriculture and Environment. Third year…a year at University that Bob Holliday never started. Now, the splendid website ‘Beyond 1914. The University of Sydney and the Great War’ commemorates all those from the University who served in World War I. It reveals a little more about Clifford Dawson Holliday. There is his photo. A serious, studious, principled young man of great promise. There is also an extract from something that he wrote just before he was killed:

“I am where I think I ought to be and where I believe God means me to be, and I have no fear for the future for I am in His care.”

Finally, 92 years after Bob’s death, in 2008, the existence of unmarked mass graves at Pheasant Wood was confirmed. Gradually, the remains of 250 of the Australians buried there were identified.

One was Bob Holliday

On 19 July 2010, he was finally buried in a separate, marked grave. A distant cousin, Katie Jones, was there at the commemoration ceremony to see Bob finally laid to rest. After all those years, one who had been lost is now found.