CAPTAIN WALTER JAQUES STACK DSO, (1884-1972). SUCC 1905-1913. 269 1st Grade wickets

The cricket historian, Warwick Franks, has written to me recently:

“You might be interested in the fact that a Pillars of Bathurst feature has been developed on the western bank of the Macquarie River  - above flood height, thankfully. There are 80 names on 20 four-sided stone blocks which sit underneath a kind of wooden trellis structure. There was a process of nomination and committee selection of the names and my nomination of Walter Stack was successful. Unfortunately, his soldiering and doctoring took precedence over his cricket but, nevertheless he is there, a far-flung outpost of SUCC…

“Walter married Elinor Homes, daughter of a prominent Bathurst grazier, in 1930, when he was 46 and she was 22. They had one daughter, Mary, who was born c1935, and married Bruce Emmott, a grazier from Queensland, in 1961, and moved to his property which was about 150kms south-west of Longreach. After Walter's death, Elinor moved to Longreach (she was only in her early fifties) and lived with her daughter until her death in 1991. Mary must be close to 90 but is very sharp and aware and delights to hear of her father's cricketing exploits.” 

Doctor Stack’s long life may be condensed to the following facts:

He was born in Sydney but his family returned to England when he was 14 and he was educated at Dulwich College, a classmate and friend of the renowned novelist, PG Wodehouse.

The Pillars of Bathurst

When Walter enrolled at Sydney University, residing at St Paul’s College, his family had returned to Australia once more and were living in Strathfield.

Walter initially played 2nd Grade for the Club in 1905-06 before promotion to 1st Grade. He changed courses to Medicine in 1908, took two years off study (1910 and 1912) to enable him to concentrate on his cricket and represented NSW in seven games (his father, George, had played two games for NSW in 1866), bowling his leg spinners with such guile that he took 24 wickets for NSW in seasons when he twice took 50 wickets in 1st grade. He played in three 1st Grade Premiership sides, was captain of one of them, took 269 wickets @18.9 in 1st Grade  and finally graduated BMed in 1914.

He bowled from a short run and his calm, contemplative approach gave him significant advantage over impetuous batsmen. As was the custom at the time, he opened the bowling with a medium pacer at the other end. He was a batsman who was at his best in a crisis. In the 1905-06 Intervarsity match, his 9th wicket partnership with Eric McElhone produced 185 as Walter stroked his way to a stylish 116.

His form in 1st Grade grew increasingly irresistible and in one period of four seasons, he claimed 174 wickets. In the 1911-12 Final against Redfern, his 7 for 48 was decisive. In 1912-13, he routed Cumberland with 6 for 54 and followed this with 4 for 10 in the 2nd Innings as Cumberland capitulated, all out for 22.

Mid way through the 1914-15 season, Walter enlisted and in April 1915 sailed to Gallipoli as Medical Officer in 4 Battalion. He landed at Anzac Cove in July 1915. Twice he was Mentioned in Despatches for devotion to duty (at Lone Pine and at Pozieres in France) and was awarded the DSO with which he was invested by King George V in May 1919 at Buckingham Palace.

After he returned to Australia, Doctor Stack, who lived for another 52 years, qualified as an ophthalmic surgeon and married in February 1930. He continued to play cricket in Bathurst where he lived until his death.

His final representative game was in 1929 when Percy Chapman’s English team played the Western Districts of NSW in a two-day game in Bathurst. Walter, then aged 44, captained the local side and showed that his skill had not deserted him. He  caught and bowled Jack Hobbs and had Maurice Leyland caught in the covers. He finished with 2 for 45 and took two sharp catches at 1st slip in MCC’s total of 319. Batting at number nine, he contributed 16 and 0 not out as the home side was well beaten. 

As an undergraduate, Walter Stack was the Club’s Honorary Treasurer and 1st Grade Premiership captain. His 269 wickets were the most in 1st Grade for the Club until Peter James broke that record which had stood for over 60 years.

Doctor Stack was a NSW cricketer, a war hero, a skilful surgeon, a husband and father. Perhaps no one will ever repeat his rich mixture of varied experiences and virtues.

James Rodgers

FDC Family T20 Day 2022

As we get closer to our FDC Family Day, please see the details above for all that will be happening throughout the day!

Be sure to head to following link to purchase your adult ticket, which includes the lunch service:

FDC T20 Day Adult Ticket

Key details:

Date: 4/12/2022

Venue: University Oval No. 1

PGs: 10:00am

Restaurant Open: From 11:30am

Lunch Service: 1:00pm

Kids Cricket: 1:00pm-2:00pm

1st Grade: 2:30pm

We are looking forward to seeing you at Uni Oval 1 for this great day!

Captain WILLIAM ROBERT ASPINALL, MC

This week, we remember one of our former players who was killed 105 years ago.

The story of a Grade cricketer, a NSW Rugby player, a medical doctor, killed at 24 in The Great War.                                                                                  

                                                                Captain WILLIAM ROBERT  ASPINALL, MC

                                                                                  SUCC 1912-14                                                             

William Robert (known as Robert) Aspinall was hidden from Sydney University Cricket Club memory for over a century.

He was never  listed among those who played for the Club and who gave their lives in The Great War.

His name is not among any averages or summaries in the Club’s Annual Reports for 1912-13 and 1913-14, during the time when he was an undergraduate.

The reason for this is simple enough, if not exasperating. 3rd Grade scorebooks were lost so that the 3rd Grade averages for 1912-13 were non-existent. And there’s no mention of WR Aspinall in 1913-14, even though there’s other evidence that he played in that season.

In 1917,however, there’s  a brief reference to him at the time of the death of Major Gother Clarke, a doctor who had played for Sydney University and NSW in the late 19th century. Amidst the details of Clarke’s death in The Referee, WR Aspinall is listed as one of a number of former Sydney University sportsmen and medical graduates who had been killed in  France.  Aspinall’s obituaries were being written, but not by the Club he had represented.

His former Cricket Club made no reference to him and that silence continued until this year, 103 years after his death. Meanwhile, there’s also another connection in his family to Sydney University and The Great War.

Robert’s only sister, Dr Jessie Strathorn Aspinall (1880-1953) married Ambrose William Freeman (1873-1930). Six weeks before they were married by Jessie’s father, Reverend Arthur Ashworth Aspinall (1846-1929), one of Ambrose’s brothers, Douglas, was killed at Gallipoli, at Quinn’s Post, and  one of his cousins, Colonel HN MacLaurin, also a Sydney University 1st Grader, was killed at what is now known as MacLaurin’s Hill. Ambrose Freeman had also been a Sydney University 1st Grader, for one match, against Sydney at Rushcutters Bay Oval in October 1902. No runs. One wicket. He played no more.

From 1925, Jessie and Ambrose then lived with their four children at Berida, 6 David St Bowral. Another family, the Bradmans, had just moved from 52 Shepherd St to 20 Glebe St, a few minutes’ walk from the Freemans. Donald, the Bradman’s 17 year old son, was the talk of Bowral when he scored an astounding 234 for Bowral against Wingello during that cricket season. there is some suggestion that AW Freeman and DG Bradman were related.

From 1990, Berida, with its 43 guest rooms, adjacent to the Berida Golf Club, has been a well appointed guest house.

WR Aspinall was the youngest of the five children who survived childbirth (twin sisters died soon after birth) of Reverend Aspinall and his wife, Helen. All five became medical doctors.

One of his brothers was the medical doctor who declared Don Bradman unfit to play in the 1st Test of the infamous Bodyline series of 1932-33.

He was educated at The Scots College in Sydney where his father was the founding Principal and where he was involved in three activities that would continue to shape his life. He was a cricketer, a Rugby player and a Colour Sergeant in the Cadet Corps. 

While studying Medicine at the University of Sydney, he joined the Rugby Club where he played from 1911 until 1915, eventually earning a Blue for Rugby where he played predominantly as half back and goal kicker. These were palmy and leisured days when one could study Medicine, play Rugby and cricket, and then do one’s duty by enlisting in the 1st AIF. Three Aspinall brothers turned out for the University Rugby Club in those years. Robert began in Second Grade in 1911, before playing 1st Grade in the following three seasons.  His path to representative honours was blocked by the NSW captain, Glebe’s Fred Wood, but when Wood was unavailable to tour Queensland in June 1914, Robert made the trip and played two matches for his State, against Queenland and a Brisbane Metropolitan team.

Meanwhile, as is now evident from several recently-consulted newspaper reports of the time, he played cricket for the University 3rds in 1912-13, scoring 33 against Glebe in December 1912.

The 3rd Grade side was weak while the top sides were dominant. As it was the lowest of the Club’s sides, it suffered more regularly from exams, vacations and whatever else induced undergraduates to declare their unavailability or just not turn up!

When Aspinall made 16 and 11 against Cumberland in March 1914, 3rds were bowled out for 51 and 38. His 21 against Sydney in the same season was the highest score in University’s two innings.

He graduated MB, ChM and was RMO at Sydney Hospital when he enlisted on 21 January 1916.  His three brothers also enlisted. Their mother had died during the previous year in England where she was holidaying and their father never regained his enthusiasm for life.  Robert’s three brothers all survived and returned to Australia but Robert saw Sydney for the last time on 16 March when he embarked on the ‘Malakuta’ with the rank of Captain in the 1st Field Ambulance.

By June, he had developed pneumonia and enteritis in Egypt and such was the gravity of his sickness that he was evacuated to Wandsworth Hospital in London. He gradually recovered but it took six weeks before he was fit enough to be sent back to The Front.

At Lagnicourt In France in April 1917, his bravery earned him the Military Cross “for conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty”. Even though he was surrounded by German soldiers, “he displayed the utmost courage and devotion in tending the wounded under heavy fire…showed the greatest gallantry throughout.”

He never received his award and it was presented posthumously.

At Zillebeke, near Lake Ypres in Belgium, on 19 July 1917, he had come under heavy shelling which continued for some time. At 11am the next day while attending to a number of wounded men, he was hit by a shell splinter which penetrated his heart, killing him instantly.

He was still only 24 years old.

He was a young man of undoubted bravery, of prodigious promise, one who set the highest standards in generosity in all that he did. 

His remains lie now in Reningheist New Military Cemetery, Belgium, Plot III, Row E, Grave 28.

And he has now been found and finally recognised.

James Rodgers

TRUMPER AND SUCC

                                                                               TRUMPER AND SUCC

Last Wednesday at Trumper Oval in Paddington, a small group of devotees gathered to mark the birthday of Victor Trumper who was born on 2 November 1877, 145 years ago.

Trumper played Grade Cricket on the ground which has been  named after him since 1931. He also played at Chatswood Oval where the Trumper Pavilion has been named after him since 1924. And he played for Australia and NSW at the SCG where the grandstand which has replaced the old ‘Hill’ has been  named, since 2008, in Victor Trumper’s memory.

What’s his connection with SUCC?

Apart from sharing a birthdate with SUCC stalwart, Hartley Anderson, Trumper’s legacy lived on in the person of Eric McElhone who played with him for NSW and against him for University in the early 20th century. Mr McElhone, even into his nineties, was still celebrating Trumper’s peerless life as one we should aspire to and was writing insistently that Vic was “the most beautiful batsman.”

The clock on the Grandstand at No1 Oval is called “Victor” as it replicates the famous photo of Trumper leaping out to  drive.

But, did you know that Trumper played for our Club?

Well, not quite.

But  Charles Robert Trumper (1924-1986), son of Victor’s youngest brother, Charles Ernest Love Trumper, and a  nephew of Victor, played one season for SUCC in 1946-47.

He had played for Gordon CC from 1940 to 1943 without a great deal of success but he did play 1st Grade in 1942-43 (99 runs @11. two wickets @43)

In 1946-47, when he was studying Law at Sydney University, he played his only season for the Club, mainly in 2nd Grade (111 runs @8.7. 11 wickets @45.6). The 2nd Grade side, ably captained by Bob Norton, won only two games. Trumper’s best figures were his 2 for 23 against Petersham in round 8. His highest score in 15 innings was 28.

“Charlie Trumper never found his true form save for a fleeting glimpse in the last few games”, wrote Bob Norton.

Charlie discontinued his studies and returned to Gordon where he played until 1950 in 3rd and 4th Grades. Until he died in 1986, Charlie lived within easy walking distance of Chatswood Oval where his famous uncle, who had died nine years before Charlie was born, played out his last days before succumbing aged 37 to kidney disease, far too young.

Charlie’s  uncle, Syd, another of Victor’s brothers, was Chairman of the Gordon General Committee.  Two weeks after a monthly meeting in January 1956 he died suddenly.

He had a long playing career with Gordon beginning in 1909 and was on the Executive Committee of the NSWCA when he died.

Comparisons with the famous Victor were always going to cause his relations to live in his shadow.

Victor’s youngest son was Charlie’s cousin (also named Victor, 1913-1981). He played for Manly and represented NSW in  seven games as  a left arm opening bowler who took two wickets in his first over in Shield cricket against Queensland in 1940-41 but they were two of only 12  1st Class wickets that he took. His 10 innings produced 74 runs.

The burden of the surname became such that Victor’s grandson (Victor jnr’s son), played for Gordon during the 1960s under another surname, Turner.

James Rodgers

THURSDAY AFTERNOON T20 AT UNI OVAL NO. 1

Our First Grade side will be playing a T20 on Thursday the 17th of November at 3:45pm.

Having won their first three games, the boys are undefeated so far this T20 season and hope to make it 4/4 after this top of the table clash with Bankstown!

Get down to Uni Oval No. 1 for what is set to be an entertaining match!

Hartley Anderson's 80th Birthday

Hartley Anderson’s 80th Birthday celebrated with:

L to R - Ted Le Couter, Damon Ridley, Peter James, Hartley Anderson, Pam Anderson, Ian Fisher, Ron Alexander

THE GILTINAN FAMILY

The surname ‘Giltinan’ is most easily recognised as the name of the shield presented to the Minor Premiers of the NRL Competition.

From 1951 until 1996, the handsome JJ Giltinan Shield was won by the 1st Grade team that won the Grand Final.

Since 1997, the Shield has been awarded to the NRL 1st Grade side that wins the Minor Premiership.

In 2022, that side was the Penrith Panthers and the Shield was presented on 26 August after the Minor Premiership was concluded. Penrith also won the Grand Final on 2 October when they were presented with the ‘Provan-Summons Trophy.’

But who was JJ Giltinan?

James Joseph Giltinan (1866-1950) was the eldest of five sons.

On the night of 8 August 1907, at Bateman’s Hotel in George Street Sydney, JJ Giltinan was elected Secretary of the newly formed NSWRFL which had broken away from Rugby Football in NSW. Victor Trumper was elected Treasurer.

Giltinan then invited the New Zealand ‘All Golds’ Rugby League team to tour Australia on their way to Great Britain in 1907. Then, after the first Rugby League premiership season in 1908, Giltinan led the first ‘Kangaroos’ Rugby League tour of Great Britain.

He was Honorary Secretary of the NSWRFL from 1909 until just before his death in 1950. The ‘JJ Giltinan Shield’ was instituted in 1951 in memory of one of the founders of the game.

Just a month or so after the first Rugby League season had concluded with South Sydney as Premiers, the 1908-09 Sydney Grade Cricket season began. Playing for Sydney University’s 2nd Grade side was Richard Giltinan (1881-1948), JJ’s youngest brother who was studying Arts at Sydney University as an evening student, preparatory to taking up a position as a secondary school teacher. He had previously played three seasons for Leichhardt and had batted steadily in 3rd Grade before promotion to 2nd Grade. His last innings of significance was his 46 against University in 2nd Grade in 1907-08.

For his new club, he scored 14 in his first game against Balmain but that was to be easily his highest score for the Club in 2nd Grade. Two more games produced 5,0, and 2. His bowling was used sparingly and he took no wickets. Inevitably, he was dropped to 3rd Grade where he made some moderate scores before reclaiming his 2nd Grade spot for a late-season game against Paddington. He failed to score in both innings.

He had played his last game for SUCC.

He was appointed to schools in Lismore and Grafton before becoming Headmaster of Wagga High School from 1926 until 1936. He died in Wagga in 1948.

Before that, JJ Giltinan appears to have played a few 3rd grade games for Burwood in 1908-09.

He may not have been much of a cricketer but he was a 1st class umpire.

In the 1903-04 season, the MCC side under Pelham Warner, was touring Australia. When they played NSW at the SCG from 12th to 15th February 1904, the appointed umpires were William Gregory Curran and James Joseph Giltinan. Curran was significantly experienced and he was to umpire two Tests some seasons later. Giltinan, however, was umpiring his first 1st class game. And his last.

The NSWCA attempted to appoint JJ Giltinan to umpire the 4th Test starting in Sydney on 26 February. There was an uproar. England’s RE Foster kept a tour diary which contained some strident opinions. On 23 February, he thundered:

           Dispute over umpire for the Test. NSWCA appointed Giltinan. Quite the worst umpire we have met. Deadlock…We shan’t play unless they give way.

AE Knight sent regular reports on the tour to the Sheffield Daily Telegraph. His opinion on the appointment was relatively subdued:

         On our return from Bathurst, we found the cricket atmosphere much disturbed by the umpire difficulty…Noble [the Australian captain] and Warner both agreed that Crockett and Argall were the two most satisfactory umpires for the Test Match but the NSWCA appointed one to whom Mr Warner strongly objected on the grounds of inexperience and lack of the necessary ability.

In the event, the NSWCA backed down. The Test went ahead as scheduled. Philip Argall and Bob Crockett were the appointed umpires.  Giltinan umpired no more at this level.

JJ Giltinan had his administration of Rugby League from the founding days and his later interest in Sailing to soften any wounds he felt from what the English players thought of him.

And, he has a Shield named after him.

RP Giltinan had his profession as a schoolmaster to attend to after his moderate returns when he played just a few games of cricket with SUCC.

James Rodgers