I'm feeling a little nostalgic this morning, settling in to watch the final Test of the Ashes series. With no children to worry about, my route to work has changed in recent weeks, past what used to be one of the most picturesque cricket ovals in Canberra - RMC Duntroon Oval No.1. Nestled on the corner of Pialligo Avenue and Morshead Drive, it now appears to be a holding ground for heavy machinery involved in the reworking of the Majura Parkway.
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It doesn't seem that long ago that it was one of the most pleasant places to imagine cricket being played. If I'm honest, I can't remember watching a cricket game there, but with its white picket fence, willows on the far boundary, and the ramshackle pavilion, there was something particularly English about it.
The oval appears on original plans for the college and was created between 1910 and 1913. There was a sign on the near boundary, if I remember correctly, that noted the oval was one of the oldest continually operating sports grounds in the city. In 2005, it was put up for consideration on the Commonwealth Heritage List but was rejected. It is, however, listed on the register of the National Trust (ACT).
True, the oval had been in a sad state for a while, even before the roadworks began, but it will apparently be upgraded once they're completed and will once again become a sportsground.
My nostalgia also has something to do with Brad Haddin. He's no 19-year-old whippersnapper giving me cheek out at Freebody Oval as I try to cover the cricket for the sports pages.
Watching the Big Bash too, I realise I've missed a whole generation of cricketers coming through - Ryan Carters, Jono Dean, Jason Floros, Blake Dean. These lads were still playing under 10s or so when I rode the tail of the Canberra Comets as they made their debut in the Mercantile Mutual Cup in 1997.
Imagine, for a moment, if the Big Bash was around then. Would players such as Peter Solway, Darryle Macdonald, Ian Garrity and Hall O'Meagher have been on the roster for the Sixers or the Hurricanes? Every chance. Justin Williams, the rambunctious all-rounder from Ginninderra, would have been a start for sure.
I started thinking about who the best cricketer to come out of Canberra might have been. Haddin and Michael Bevan are the obvious choices of recent times. It would be hard to split them.
Mark Higgs has also achieved national honours, but he doesn't match these two. And then there's a whole line-up of players who didn't get their chance on the national stage through choice and circumstance - Peter Solway, Greg Irvine, Neil Bulger (who did play in a national indigenous team or two), John Bull. And let's not forget Ellyse Perry, Kris Britt and Bronwyn Calver.
I went and dug out my edition of Don Selth's Cricket on the Limestone Plains, a comprehensive history of local cricket from 1922-1992, to prompt some ideas about who the best players might be. Tucked inside I found a scrap of paper containing what I can only assume were some notes from a story I was working on. It's not dated but the phone numbers I scribbled don't have a six in front of them.
It appears I was compiling a list of the best players over the century, no doubt with the help of Selth, a man who was always happy to indulge me when I had cricket questions I needed answered.
Selth passed away in 2006 and, as an aside, I had no idea what an interesting life he led until I read his obituary at tinyurl.com/kocm8o6.
But here's what we came up with: 1920s, Bill Tickner; 1930s, Lorne Lees; 1940s, Tom O'Connor; 1950s, Bruce Robin; 1960s, Kev McCarty; 1970s, Graeme Smith; 1980s, Neil Bulger and Greg Irvine; 1990s Irvine again and Peter Solway.
Lists like this are always fun. Who have we left out? Who should be on it now? Let us know.
