LOOKING BACKWARD

Evening Star, Issue 23100, 28 October 1938, Page 5

LOOKING BACKWARD

MR R. A. WILKIE REVISITS DUNEDIN CRICKET PERSONALITIES RECALLED When Mr R. A. (“Bob”) Wilkie dropped in at the * Star ’ Office one day this week, (t Wallaby ” welcomed an old club mate of over 30 years ago, and, incidentally, a very fine all-round cricketer of that period. Mr Wilkie is now a resident of Lithgow, New South Wales, and is revisiting his native city after an absence on this occasion of 15 years. Once before that he lived in Sydney for a period of six years, from 1902 to 1908. Talking over old times, the names of a number of players who were prominent in club and representative cricket wore recalled and their cricketing capabilities and their idiosyncrasies recounted. Memory went back to the days when the Fisher and Downes bowling combination was renowned throughout New Zealand; when sturdy Jim Baker brought his terrific drive into operation while Billy Johnston watched ’em carefully at the other end; when Albert Geddcs and Fred Liggins (both, alas! now passed away) .and Harry Siedeberg and Gerry Austin wielded the bat with grace and l Frank Williams was our champion stumper. A glamour pervades the past all right, and despite the fact that the batting averages of the leading players in those years would appear almost insignificant beside those of the present day, the memory of the popular figures still persists. As for our fellow players of the Dunedin Club, there were personalities there also. “ Remember (Bill Skitch? ” ; we should say so. How Bill organised those practices and kept the material in good order; how he coached, with Ins shouted instructions: “ Forward hard! ” Then there was the natty all-rounder, Billy Mackersey, with his cheery laugh, and more serious Watty Latham, with that quaint turn of the head as he was delivering the ball. “Yes,” says Bob Wilkie, “and do you remember George Reardon’s flopping shirt sleeve?” A good howler, George, iind so was Harry Guntliorp. Jim Croxford was the wicket-keeper round about that time, and a mighty good one, and Bob’s brother. Jack Wilkie, jvas one of the all-rounders. We recalled one match, against Grange, when Bob Wilkie, Jack Wilkie, and Harry Stalker were all recorded in the score book as “ thrown out.” a verdict far too suggestive of closing time, some of us thought. Bob Wilkie, in addition to being a very fine club man (he won both the batting and bowling averages in one season), represented Otago on five or six occasions, his best score in big cricket being 49 against Hawke’s Bay in 1902, just before he left New Zealand the first time. When in Sydney he played for the Sydney Club in the senior competition and afterwards for a steam ship company team in annual interstate fixtures. On returning to the Dominion, however, he met with an accident—a dislocated shoulder—which put an end to his cricket career, and since then he has confined his sporting activities to tennis and, later, to golf. He now holds a Government position in Lithgow. Before leaving for home yesterday, Mr Wilkie expressed the pleasure it had afforded him to meet so many of his old cricket friends. Dunedin, he thought had gone ahead wonderfully during the past 15 years, but he had felt quite at home in his old home town.