WCC History - Decade By Decade
- Compiled by John Nippress-

Prior to World War 2 there were two cricket associations in Port Lincoln. They were the Port Lincoln Cricket Association consisting of teams called Ramblers, Centrals, Flinders & High School and the Independent Association, which was made up of teams called Loco, Wharfies, Cresco & PMG-EWS. Matches were played on Centenary, Poole, Wellington Square, Convent, High School and Primary School ovals. There were many fine players in these teams, some of whom had played grade cricket in Adelaide.

Following the end of the 2nd World War, local football re-commenced in 1946 and the Wayback Football Club came out of recess. There was a need to keep the footballers together and to also attract newcomers to join the Football Club. It was then decided to form a cricket club. Waybacks were fortunate to have Reg Aveling amongst their members, who had a great ability to organise. He subsequently rounded up a group of footballers and the Wayback Cricket Club was formed.

Verdun Curnow who had 12 months earlier returned from the 2nd World War, where he was held in a Japanese Prisoner of War camp for over 3 years, was elected Captain, with Stuart Sinclair as his deputy. Stuart also took on the role as President, with Reg Aveling as his Secretary.

The first game was against Ramblers on the 19th and 26th October 1946 at the High School Oval. The following players represented the club in its first game: Verdun Curnow, Allan Baker, Bruce Baker, Darcy Harvey, Hink Harvey, John “Skeet” McGeever, Colin Meathrel, Earl Penna, Phil Shannon, Bill Teagle & Kevin Tonkin. Interestingly this was the only game that Hink Harvey, Tonkin, Penna and Shannon played for the club and McGeever and Meathrel only played 1 more game for the club. With an outright loss in the club’s first game, things could only improve.

In the club’s first 2 seasons, our opponents were Flinders, High School and Ramblers, when 2 day matches were played. During the next 2 seasons, one day matches were played and the competition only comprised 3 teams, being Lincoln South, Tasmans and Waybacks. All 3 clubs also fielded B Grade teams during this period.

The club won the Alaska Shield, which was awarded to the minor premiers, in its first season and went on to win the Alaska Shield again in the 1949-50 season under the captaincy of Bill Standing. From the limited records that we have available, we believe that Stuart Sinclair and Reg Aveling held the positions of President and Secretary from 1946/47 to 1949/50.

On a weekend at some stage during the late 1940’s, Waybacks had an end of season wind up and took an A & B team to Cowell to play against the Franklin Harbour Association. The B Grade played at Cowell on the Saturday and won their game. The A Grade played on Sunday at the Coolannie Oval west of Cowell in the Mangalo Hills. The pitch on this oval was apparently set on the side of a hill sloping about 45 degrees. Cowell had a player named Arthur Whyte who could really bat, despite having lost part of one arm and hand during the War. The A Grade won thanks to a “ring in” Ross Hearn, a Tasman player who played for us. Ross subsequently went to Adelaide , played for Kensington and got a wicket with his first ball in Shield cricket. He later went to New Zealand with the Australian Test Team captained by Don Bradman.

After the Sunday the game the Cowell players hosted a bbq at one of the local farms, with chops from 2 sheep, yards of sausages and plenty of other food. By all accounts a good time was had by all and the function lasted well into the night (some things haven’t changed). A very loaded team of Wayback players finally stumbled aboard the bus for the 100 mile journey back to Lincoln and finally arrived home, safe if not sound, even after managing to get off course at one stage.

During the early years of the club, Waybacks also had an Electric Light Cricket team playing in the RSL Electric Light Competition. The matches were played in nets where the RSL building now stands and Waybacks won a couple of premierships in this competition.

Apparently in these early years, it was a grim struggle to hold the club together. Finance was a very serious matter and ball money and subs were only collected from senior players. A quorum for a meeting was never a possibility and most club decisions were made either prior to a match, or hurriedly afterwards, as back then hotels closed at 6.00, shortly after “stumps” at 5.30. Drinking time was therefore at a premium.

Prior to the start of the 1970/71 season, the club was not in a great position. We had finished bottom the previous season for the first time in the club’s history, were very short of players and had hardly any money in the bank. The club was really struggling and at one stage looked like disbanding. A meeting was held between Bill Holland, Trevor Bennie, Max Reidy, Bob Storen and Jack Freer in an attempt to ensure the club’s survival. Due to the efforts of these gentlemen and a few others, the club went from being basically a “basket case” at the beginning of the decade, to being the premier club in the Association towards the end of the decade, when we won the premierships in all 3 grades in 1978/79.

The club became a lot more professional and was run by a Management Committee who met on a regular basis. We also elected a Social Committee each season to organise and run club functions. Our financial position improved significantly, to the point where we went from being almost broke at the start of the decade, to holding meetings in the mid 1970’s to discuss how we were going to spend some of the monies that we had raised. The Club decided to make the Lincoln Hotel its fundraising and social base and this proved to be a very wise decision, as we raised a considerable amount of money over the years from running spinning wheels and a regular 100 club raffle.

The 1970’s were the club’s most successful decade to date, as we won 4 A Grade flags and were runners up in 2 other seasons. One day cricket was played predominately during the 1970’s, until the 1979/80 season, when a mixture of 1 and 2 day cricket with 2 day finals was played. The competition comprised 6 teams. The Railways club folded at the end of the 1976/77 season and was replaced by the newly formed Boston Cricket Club in the following season. Wanilla changed their name to Marble Range Wanilla in 1979/80, so that they could recruit Wayne Hull from the nearby Southern Eyre Cricket Association.

The Colts also enjoyed a successful period winning 5 flags, which include 4 in a row from 1971 to 1974. The Colts competition from 1975 onwards went from 4 clubs to 6 clubs. Each senior team was then responsible for a Colts team and from this point on, our Colts players played senior cricket for our club, rather than for other clubs as had been the case with a number of players in past seasons. From 1979, the Colts Grand Finals were played in March, rather than December, so that the Colts season would “line up” with the seniors season. After having always played 1 day matches, the Colts played 2 day games from the start of the 1978/79 season, where batsmen were required to retire at 50 and each player had to bowl at least 2 overs.

The club’s decision in the mid 1970’s to appoint a Colts Coach or Colts Coaches to ensure that out Colts were coached and looked after, certainly paid dividends in the years to come. A good example was that 9 of the members of the 1978/79 premiership team went on to play senior cricket for the club, with 2 of them eventually becoming Life Members and playing over 300 senior games. Don Pasculli was involved with the Colts coaching for the major portion of the period from the mid to late 1970’s and received support from Jeff Carr, John Humphris and John Forbes.

The B Grade competition was revived in 1976/77, which resulted in all clubs having to recruit additional players, or entice past players to come out of retirement. The club won its first B Grade game against the Railways Club on 23rd October 1976. The players who represented the club in this game were: Phil Rees (Captain), David Herbert (Vice-Captain), Eric Britten, Darryl Hage, Malcolm Harris, David Kemp, Colin King, Rodney McDonald, John Nippress, Neil Simmons & Ron Warland. The B Grade competition initially comprised 6 teams. North Shields had a B Grade team from 1977/78 to 1979/80 and Marble Range Wanilla did not field a B Grade team in 1979/80. The B Grade made the finals in their 2nd season and won the premiership in their 3rd and 4th seasons.

Following the “crisis” meeting prior to the 1970/71 season, Bill Holland became Club President. One of his work colleagues Bob Storen then took over the position the following year. For the remainder of the decade, the Presidents role was filled by Bob Kemp and Barrie Curnow (3 seasons) and Trevor Bennie (2 seasons). Trevor was also the Cricket Association President for a period in the 1970’s. The Club Secretaries (Secretary/Treasurer from 1973/74) during the 70’s were Jack Freer & Daryl May (2 seasons), John Forbes (4 seasons) and then John Nippress (2 seasons). Bob Storen, Barry Brady and Brian Gage were club Treasurers for each of the first 3 seasons in the 70’s. As a result of our “alignment” with the Lincoln Hotel, “mine host” Cyril Allen was our Patron until 1979 when he left Port Lincoln. Cyril was a great Patron and gave the club excellent support during this period. Local prawn fisherman Roger “Doc” Howlett became our Vice Patron in the mid 1970’s and took over the patron’s role following Cyril’s departure and also was a great supporter of the club.

Port Lincoln hosted 2 matches between South Australian Country 11’s and touring overseas teams during the 1970’s. The first of these was in October 1974 against the MCC. Unfortunately, this match was abandoned due to rain after a couple of overs. Brian “Whistle” Harvey who was playing for Lincoln South at the time, was selected as Vice-Captain of the SA Country Team and Trevor Bennie was the Team Manager. In November 1977, India visited Port Lincoln. Kevin Coulter, John Forbes and Brian Harvey were selected in the SA Country team, which was again managed by Trevor Bennie.

In November 1976, the club held a function at the Port Lincoln Hotel to celebrate its 30th anniversary. Former South Australian Captain and Australian Test player Les Favell was the guest speaker and a number of the members of our inaugural team were in attendance. A highlight of the evening was the awarding of the club’s first 4 Life Memberships to Stuart Sinclair, Verdun Curnow, Reg Aveling and Trevor Bennie. Max Reidy became the club’s 5th Life Member at our Presentation Night in April 1977.

Other memorable functions that the club hosted were sportsman’s nights on 27th Oct 1975 with Ian Chappell as guest speaker and 1st November 1977 with Max O’Connell and Terry Jenner as guest speakers and members of the SA Country Team who were selected to play India, as our guests.

With the improvement in its financial position, the club decided to purchase items such as club blazers, caps and badges, which were then sold to members at discounted prices, or in the case of the badges, given to club members. Players were now only required to pay match day ball money, as the payment of subs was abolished. Funds were also used to subsidise a trip for almost 30 players and partners to attend the West Indies Test at Adelaide Oval in January 1975. The club hosted the North Whyalla Cricket Club for a pre-season game in October 1976 and in October 1977, North Whyalla returned the favour when some of our players journeyed to Whyalla.

From the mid 1970’s, social functions such as picnics & bbq’s became regular events, with the main social function each year, being the club’s Presentation Night at the Port Lincoln Hotel. This event was usually subsidised by the club and at times by Cyril Allen and was always an excellent night. Quite often the partners put on an act/revue to entertain those present. The club awarded regular trophies each year, which from 1975/76 also included a trophy for the Most Valuable Player in the senior grades. A decision was made following the 1976/77 A Grade premiership to give each player in the premiership team a memento in the form of a miniature cricket bat engraved with the names of all the premiership players. This trend has continued in future years to recognise premiership wins in all 3 grades.

Having a suitable practice venue had always been an issue for the club and over the years, we had used a number of local venues such as the High School, Primary School, Lincoln South School, Nelson Square and Ravendale for training. Roger Howlett had kindly provided prawn netting, which was used to make a portable practice net. With the gradual improvement of the Club’s financial position during the 1970’s, the committee thought that it was time that we had our own training facility.

It was decided to approach the Wayback Football to see if they would let us use some of their land to construct a practice facility. A letter was written to the Football Club in January 1978 and our request was approved shortly afterwards. Council approval was obtained in July 1978 and construction of our training facility commenced shortly afterwards. We were able to obtain an Overdraft Facility of $3,000 to finance the project, which was kindly guaranteed by Roger Howlett. Following a number of working bees and a lot of volunteer hours put in by club members, under the supervision of construction foreman Trevor Bennie, we were able to commence using the new practice facility in the 1979/80 season. The club now had an excellent training facility that was as good as any other club had in Country South Australia

The 2 training “nets” were initially designed so that they could also be used for night time Electric Light cricket matches. However, the advent of indoor cricket at about this time put paid to this idea, although we did have a couple of social electric light cricket matches against the Wayback Football and Tasman Cricket Clubs.

The 1950’s could be described as a decade of missed opportunities. During this period, we only missed the finals once and finished either top or runner up at the end of the minor round in 7 of the 10 seasons. Despite contesting 6 Grand Finals, we only won the 2 premierships. Ironically when we won in 1954/55, we finished 3rd at the end of the minor round. It should be mentioned that we did actually win the initial 1950/51 Grand Final, but lost the “replay” when minor premier Lincoln South exercised their right to “challenge”.

Wanilla joined the Association in 1950-51 and then 2 years later, the Port Lincoln Association became a 6 team competition with the addition of the Charlton and Railways clubs. During the 1950’s matches were predominantly 2 day games, with the 1950-51 season being the only season where only 1 day games were played. On 20th and 21st February 1953, Port Lincoln hosted a match between a South Australian Country team, who’s numbers included Bill Standing (as 12th man) and the touring South Africans.

We only have club AGM Minutes from 1956/57 onwards, so we are uncertain who held our administration positions during the first part of this decade. It is our belief that in the 6 seasons up to and including 1955/56, that Stuart Sinclair was President for 3 seasons, Len Moller for 2 and Bruce Baker for 1 and that the secretarial duties were shared by Reg Aveling (4 seasons) and Roy Hicks (2 seasons). In the last 4 seasons, Len Moller was President for 3, before handing over the reins to Tennyson Turner, with the Secretary’s position being held by Richard Moller for 2 years and then by Ron Richardson and Rob Kretschmer, who was also Treasurer, for 1 season each. In the 1959/60 season Oscar Bascombe became the club’s first Patron.

During this period, finances were still somewhat of an issue. In the 1956-57 season, subs were $2- and ball money was 20c for seniors and 10c for seniors. The subs were increased by $1- in the following season. At the end of the 1955-56 season, the club had $25 in the bank. Just under $80 was spent on gear and equipment during 1957-58 and at the start of the 1958-59 season it was moved that the club purchase 1 new bat, 1 pair of batting gloves and pads and 1 protector.

The club doubled its number of teams at the start of the 1955-56 season, when a Colts competition was formed. Under the captaincy of Neville Gotch, we won our first flag in this grade in December 1956 and then 3 years later repeated the feat under the captaincy of Wayne McLeod.

In October 1959, a working bee was held to commence work on a practice pitch at the rear of the Wayback Football Clubrooms in Verran Terrace. Shortly after this, a meeting resolved to provide trophies for Batting Aggregate and Average, Bowling Aggregate and Average and Most Improved Student.

To date, the 1980’s have been the most successful period in the Club’s history. During this period, we won 5 A Grade premierships, 9 B Grade premiership and 5 Colts premierships. The club also won a number of the 6-a-side competitions which were held each year for the various grades from the 1980/81 season onwards. In 3 seasons, 1980/81, 1981/82 & 1985/86, we won the premierships in all 3 grades.

The A Grade played in the finals each year and the B Grade were runners up in the one year that they did not go top. In half of the seasons, the A Grade played a mixture of 2 and 1 day cricket with 2 day finals. In the other years, they played all 1 day games and for the last couple of seasons, bowlers were only allowed to bowl a maximum of 15 overs in 1 day games. For the first 2 seasons, the A Grade comp comprised 6 teams. Wanilla folded after the 1981/82 season, which resulted in a 5 team comp the following year. New club Flinders entered the competition in 1983/84, which enabled the competition to revert back to 6 teams for 3 seasons, until Flinders folded after the 1985/86 season. The competition then comprised 5 teams for the next 5 seasons.

The B Grade started the decade with 7 teams. Over the next 2 seasons, this was progressively reduced to 5 teams, after North Shields and Wanilla folded. For the next 7 seasons, the number of B Grade teams was in line with the number of A Grade teams as detailed above. From the 1981/82 season onwards, B Grade bowlers were only permitted to bowl a maximum of 10 overs.

Probably the Colts greatest achievement was in the 1988/89 season, when they just scrapped into the finals after winning only 2 games out of 8, but then won 3 successive finals to take out the premiership. The Colts played all 2 day cricket during this period and the number of teams in the competition was 6 for most of the period with the exception of the last 2 seasons, when there were only 5 teams. The Colts played in every finals series during the 80’s. The committee decided in 1980/81 that a Colts MVP trophy would be awarded each year in line with the senior grades.

During the 1980’s, the club’s leadership was very stable. Trevor Bennie was President for the entire period and John Nippress was Secretary/Treasurer until the end of the 1988/899 season, when he left Port Lincoln to take up an employment promotion. In the 1989/90 season David Meaney and Brenton Parsons took over the roles of Secretary and Treasurer. Peter Davenport fulfilled the role of Assistant Secretary/Treasurer for a fair portion of this period. The following club members also filled various Association roles during the 1980’s: Peter Schmerl (Secretary), John Nippress (President, Treasurer, Statistician, B Grade Publicity Officer & Ovals and Programmes Committee Rep),Craig Holmes (Publicity Officer and Statistician), John Wellington (Colts President) and Steve Weeks (Treasurer). John Nippress, Trevor Bennie and Peter Schmerl were also on the organising committee for the Pakistan v SA Country match that was played at Centenary Oval on 3rd December 1981. John Forbes and Peter Schmerl were selected in the SA Country team and Peter top scored with 50.

The club was fortunate to continue to have senior players take on the roles of Colts coach and Assistant coach. During the 80’s, the following senior players supported the Colts: Peter Davenport & Andrew Farnham (4 seasons), David Meaney (3 seasons) and John Wellington, Craig Holmes, Stuart Sellar, David Leyson, John Gaynor, Robert Meaney, Brenton Parsons and Tim Bates (all 1 season). On occasions, the Colt coaches Friday night social activities saw them arrive at matches on Saturday mornings after play had started. Robert Meaney had a novel way to ensure that this did not happen to him, by driving to the ground on Friday night (or early on Saturday morning) and then sleeping in his car.

The club continued to use the Port Lincoln Hotel as its fundraising and social base. We were certainly well looked after by the various managers Ted Benger, Bevan Woods, Brett Henwood and Jeff Hobbs, who were either Patrons or Vice Patrons of the club during the 1980’s. In addition to allowing us to use their premises for some of our fundraising, they also gave us a monetary sponsorship payment on occasions and provided us with regular meal vouchers to be used as player incentives. We were also fortunate to be provided with other incentive vouchers from local businesses such as T & A Meat Service, Davenports Menswear, Bennie’s Building Co, Lincoln Fish & Bait Mart & Richards Deli. Roger Howlett also continued to give us support, as Patron for the first 4 years and then as one of our Vice Patrons for remaining period. McLeod Tyres were major sponsors in 1981/82 and the club also had a number of regular generous trophy donors, whose financial assistance each year covered the cost of our many club trophies.

Joe & John Dempsey and their wives also gave the club great financial support, by selling bingo tickets for the club in their Shepperd Avenue Deli. The club was fortunate that club members Paul and Kathy Richards purchased the deli in 1984 when Dempsey’s were ready to move on. Paul, Kathy and their staff continued with the sale of bingo tickets, which put the club in a very sound financial position. Towards the end of the 1980’s the club was making approx. $15,000 (net) each year from the sale of bingo tickets. Players were not required to pay subs and only had to “fork out” $2- a match for ball money when they played, which on occasions after a good win, was used to pay for some of the after match liquid refreshments.

With a regular source of fundraising income, the club cleared its Overdraft facility in the 1980/81 season and was then in a position to spend monies on continually upgrading their training complex. In early 1986, one of the practice nets was extended to allow our quicker bowlers to bowl at training off something approaching their normal bowling run ups. In July 1986, funds of almost $3,000 were spent on the purchase of a bowling machine. Shortly afterwards a large storage shed was constructed and in the 1989/90 season approx. $6,000 was spent putting a netting roof over the complex. Funds were also spent from time to time upgrading the irrigation system, replacing the pitch surfaces, installing a large entrance gate and on the purchase of items such as sight screens, a slips cradle, which was made by Dave Barrowcliff, a decent sized lawnmower and other gardening equipment.

In the mid 1980’s discussions were held with the Wayback Football Club regarding the Cricket Club purchasing the land where our training facility was located. Both parties were keen for this proposed purchase to proceed. However, due to issues regarding difficulties in providing appropriate rights of way through the Football Club car park, the proposed purchase did not go ahead. Following further discussions, a 5 x 5 year lease was signed in February 1987, with the Cricket Club to pay the Football Club an annual rental of $100 for the use of the land.

We had regular social functions during the 1980’s, which included players teas, bbq’s, tennis days, fishing trips, October long weekend camps at Thuruna, car rallies, dinner dances, farewells, games nights at the local Prison and bowls nights. The main social function of the year continued to be our Presentation Night at the Port Lincoln Hotel. Attendees at these functions were regularly entertained by skits put on by our female supporters and club songs composed by Peter Davenport and David Meaney, with assistance from our regular musical entertainer Richard McDonald. As a result of the club’s strong financial position, the club on most occasions paid for any food and drinks at these functions, which included covering the costs of meals and drinks on Presentation Night. The standard drinks “order” for most functions was an 18 gallon keg of beer for the male participants and a 5 litre cask of wine for the female participants.

The club was fortunate to have very active social committees which were very well led by Presidents Ken “Jock” MacKenzie and Vince Edge for the first 2 seasons and then by Ron Baulderstone for the remainder of the 80’s with the exception of the 1989/90 season, when Tim Bates took over following Bauldy and his family’s departure from Port Lincoln. The club had a bar-b-que custom made during the 1985/86 season, which has certainly been a wonderful investment, as it has cooked countless bbq’s and is still in use on a regular basis at Thursday night trainings.

After a considerable amount of research was undertaken, the club was finally in a position to have an Honour Board made. At a function on 16th February 1985, the Honour Board was officially unveiled in the Wayback Football Club Members Bar by inaugural Captain Verdun Curnow. Verdun and a number of other past players returned to Port Lincoln for the function, which was also attended by a number of past and current “local” players. A highlight of the evening was the awarding of Life Memberships to long term past players Roy “Snow” Hicks and Ken Bertram.

Roy and Ken became the club’s 8th and 9th Life Members, behind Kevin Enright (in 1982) and John Forbes (in 1984). Life memberships were also subsequently awarded to John Nippress in 1986 and Paul Richards in 1988. Trevor Bennie in 1982 became the first Wayback Cricket Club member to be awarded Life Membership of the Port Lincoln Cricket Association. John Nippress emulated this feat, when he was awarded PLCA Life Membership in 1989. Trevor Bennie’s outstanding long term service to the club was also honoured with a testimonial dinner at the Port Lincoln Hotel on Valentine’s Day in 1981, which was attended by representatives from the other Port Lincoln clubs, as well as many Cricket Club current and past members.

Prior to the start of the 1980/81, it was decided that the club should have some sort of regular newsletter or magazine. Shortly afterwards, the Wayback Wisden was “born”, with the initial editorial staff being Craig Homes (Editor), John Nippress & John Wellington. The first edition had President Trevor Bennie feature as the popular Star Spot identity. In 1980/81, 7 editions were published. In the following 5 seasons, 4 editions were published and for the next 4 season, 3 editions were published. The magazine was always a popular read and had a number of members regularly contribute match write ups, information on club & Association activities and functions, together with the regular humorous Star Spot and Behind Square articles. Craig Holmes, Keith Reynolds and Mark Wicks were editors for 3 years, with Brenton Parsons being the editor in the remaining year.

Over this period, we had a number of matches against clubs from outside Port Lincoln, where we either hosted them, or travelled to play at their venues. In April 1980 we played a match at Centenary Oval against Adelaide University, who hosted us in the following October, when we combined the pre-season game with attendance at the SANFL Grand Final. In October 1982 we hosted the Glenelg ANA Club. On the October long weekend in 1987, a touring party of 32 (players and partners), flew to Kangaroo Island for the weekend. During our time there, we played a game against the Wisanger Cricket Club, had a bus tour of some of the Island’s tourist attractions and provided good patronage to Kingscote’s watering holes. Due to its sound financial position, the club was able to finance a fair portion of the costs associated with any Club trips.

In October 1984, we commenced regular pre-season games against the Tumby Bay & Districts Colts Club, which on most occasions were played at their Mortlock Park home ground and were followed by a pig on the spit and numerous liquid refreshments. In April 1983, we entered a team in the annual Elliston Easter Cricket Carnival and were lucky enough to narrowly win the carnival on our first visit. We continued to support this carnival, which many of our players and some players from other clubs looked forward to each year, as an end of season trip/get together. We were victorious again in 1987 & 1989.

The Port Lincoln Association began to play regular matches against other Associations in the 80’s. Initially games were played between Port Lincoln and Spencer Gulf. On most occasions Spencer Gulf were victorious, which was to be expected given their much larger population base. When a team was picked from Lower EP rather than just Port Lincoln, the matches were more evenly contested. From the mid 1980’s, Port Lincoln played regular matches each season against the neighbouring Tumby Bay and Great Flinders Associations, where each association selected 3 teams (A, B & Colts). From the 1988/89 season onwards, Port Lincoln joined the Eyre Peninsula Henderson (A & B Grade) and Horgan (Colts) Shield competitions. Each Eyre Peninsula Association played 3 representative games each season, with the top 2 teams in each grade playing off in the final. Our players were good supporters of association cricket and we had many players represent Port Lincoln in the 3 grades during this period.

The club continued to purchase promotional items such as iron on transfers for match day shirts, blazers, caps and tee shirts which were either given to members, or were sold at a discounted price. The club tee shirts, became part of our “playing uniform” for 6 a side competitions. Following the three-peat by the A and B Grade from 1978/79 to 1980/81, the club put out 3 in a row bottles of red, with the names of the 3 A & B premiership team members on the label each bottle. 2 years later a 5 in a row port was put out, suitably labelled to commemorate the senior sides achievements from 1978/79 to 1982/83.

The 1990’s were a reasonably successful period for the club especially in the earlier years. We won 4 A Grade premierships, 3 B Grade premierships and 2 Colts premierships. The highlight being the 1991/92 season, when the club won the premierships in all 3 grades. With the exception of the 1990/91 season, the A Grade played all 1 day cricket. In the 1999/2000 season, the maximum number of overs that a bowler could bowl in an A Grade match, was reduced from 15 to 10 overs. At the same time, B Grade matches were reduced to 45 overs with 9 over limitations on bowlers. We started the 90’s with a 5 team senior competition, which increased to 6 teams when the Southern Eyre South Cricket Club joined the Association in the 1993/94 season, after the disbanding of the Southern Eyre Cricket Association. Unfortunately, the Boston Cricket Club folded after the 1993/94 season and the Association comprised 5 senior teams for the rest of the 90’s.

The A Grade only missed the finals once during this period, which was in 1999/2000. The B Grade missed the finals in 1996/97, when they finished last for the first time and also in 1997/98. The Colts played finals each season, which was helped by the fact that apart from the 1992/93 (5 teams) and 1993/94 (6 teams) seasons, the Colts competition was a 4 team comp. Steve Ovens had a big involvement with the Colts during the 90’s and was involved with the coaching every season, with the exception of 1999/2000 when Paul ‘Sammy” Newman was the coach. Steve received able assistance from Paul Richards for the first 5 seasons and then from Keith Tattersall (2 seasons) and Craig Holmes and Nigel Griffin (1 season).

Trevor Bennie continued as President until the start of the 1994/95 season, when he stepped down from the position after a term of 16 years. Steve Ovens then took over the President’s role for the remainder of the 90’s. The club had a number of secretaries during this decade, namely: David Meaney (part of 1990/91, Steve McGuire part of 1990/91, 1991/92 & 1992/93), Bruce Lloyd (1993/94), Mark Hopkins (1994/95 & 1995/96), Tony Martin (1996/97), Michael Swaffer (1997/98 & 1998/99) and Aidan Boylan (1999/2000). Brenton Parsons was Treasurer in 1990/91. Following Brenton’s departure from Port Lincoln, Andrew Schmidt took over the role for the next 2 seasons, until his departure from Port Lincoln, when John Nippress, who had returned to Port Lincoln, took over the position for the rest of the period.

Centenary Oval was the venue for a match between the SA Country 11 and the visiting Sri Lankan Team on 14th January 1990. This 50 over match was a reasonably close contest with Sri Lanka winning by 35 runs (170 to 135). In February 1995 an Exhibition match was played at Centenary Oval. The South Australian Cricket Coach Jeff Hammond brought 6 current SA players, including Darren Lehmann, with him to Port Lincoln. 2 teams comprising the state players and one senior and junior representative from each of the 7 Eyre Peninsula Associations were selected and a very entertaining 50 over match was played, with both teams scoring just over 300 runs. The Association made a good financial return from both of these events. Members of our club continued to assist at Association level during the 1990’s. John Nippress was Association President from 1993/94 to 1996/97. Craig Holmes then took over the President’s role for the next 1 ½ seasons. Steve Ovens was Association Colts President for many years and was also heavily involved coaching and managing Port Lincoln Horgan Shield teams and the Eyre Peninsula Under 16 teams during the 1990’s. He was assisted with the Horgan Shield coaching by Paul Richards during the early 1990’s.

Towards the end of the 1980’s, the committee had decided that it would be a good idea for the club to become an Incorporated entity. Steve Oats and Brenton Parsons spent considerable time drafting a suitable Club Constitution that was approved by club members at a special general meeting in August 1990. The club was officially incorporated on 13th September 1990.

The club continued to be in a strong financial position during the 1990’s, even after funds of approx. $10,000 were spent on a pre-season trip to Renmark In October 1991 and on the 50 year celebrations at the end of 1996. We continued to receive good support from the Port Lincoln Hotel during the major part of the 90’s. Paul and Kathy Richards also continued to sell bingo tickets until their business became a X Lotto agency at the end of the 1991/92 season. The club was fortunate that Trevor, Rhonda and Robert Meaney agreed to sell bingo tickets in their local business John’s One Stop Deli from the 1994/95 season onwards. Boral Tyres were also good financial supporters of the club during the early 1990’s. Roger Howlett was our patron for most of the 90’s and continued to support the club financially as did our various Vice Patrons Paul Richards, Trevor Hombsch and Trevor Bennie.

At the 1990 AGM, it was decided that as well as paying ball money, players were expected to contribute to the club’s finances by paying annual subs of $35, for a family, $25 for a single and $5 for a junior. At the 1994 AGM the subs were increased to $50 per season, which also covered ball money. Unfortunately, our Lincoln Hotel meat spins ceased at the end of the 1980’s and a couple of years later, the decision was made to cease our regular 100 Club fund raiser, which had been going for over 15 years. New fundraising initiatives such as the Pick 6 weekly bingo type draw and club raffles helped boost the club’s regular income.

The Leyson’s Red and David (Crock) looked after the grass cutting and general maintenance of our practice facility during the 1990’s, with working bees arranged when more manpower was required. In August 1990 we obtained some ETSA stobbie poles, which were used to give the facility greater stability particularly on windy days, following erection of the roof structure. Later, a concrete floor was poured for the eventual construction of a small shed to house our gardening gear.

The club continued to be very active on the social side during the 1990’s. Functions such as Mystery Bus Tours, Christmas Shows, Bowls nights. Hawaiian nights, tennis days, golf days and a mock wedding were some of the many functions held as well as regular after match bbq’s and the annual Presentation Night/Day. We had a number of social committee presidents/chief organisers during the 90’s namely, Steve McGuire, Scott Clark, George Shorrock, Coral Bennie, Ron Clarke, Trent Wilkshire, Shane Dean, Corey Fielder and Jeremy Wright. Towards the end of the 1990’s we had end of season “Lost” Weekends at the Redcliffe Campsite at Thuruna. Club President Steve Ovens was for many years the major driving force behind this annual social get together.

The club celebrated its 50th anniversary with a dinner at the Wayback Football Club on 23rd November 1996. Over 200 people attended the function, many of whom travelled from interstate, Adelaide and other areas of South Australia. The attendees included Allan Baker, Darcy Harvey and Bill Teagle who all played in the club’s first match. Unfortunately, inaugural Captain Verdun Curnow passed away about a month before the function. A book detailing the first 50 years of the club’s history was published to commemorate this anniversary. The scribes of this publication were Steve Ovens, John Nippress, David Leyson, Peter Mackereth and Brett Bennie. Tony Martin was in charge of the actual printing and binding and Julie Lloyd and Jenny Van Overdijk did the typing. The club also had suitably inscribed glasses produced to commemorate its 50th year anniversary.

A highlight of the 50th anniversary dinner was the awarding of Life memberships to Bill Teagle, Bill Standing, David “Crock” Leyson and Steve Ovens. Unfortunately, Bill Standing had passed away in 1984, however his wife Win who had travelled from Adelaide to attend, was able to collect his award. In April 1999 Brett Bennie became the club’s 16th Life Member, giving the club its first father and son Life Membership “combination”. In March 1993 & March 1994 respectively, former players Brian Whistle) Harvey and Eric Harrison were awarded Life Membership of the Port Lincoln Cricket Association.

The Wayback Wisden continued to be published during the 90’s, although there were not as many editions each season as there had been during the 80’s. 3 editions were published in 1990/91, 1991/92 & 1993/94, with 2 editions being published during the remaining seasons, with the exception of 1996/97 to 1998/99 inclusive, when only 1 edition was published. The following members were involved as Editors, or Assistant Editors: Matthew Roberts, Steve McGuire, Brenton Parsons, Andrew Schmidt, Bruce Lloyd, Dion Potts, Corey Fielder & David Leyson with President Steve Ovens having a general “over seeing” role in the later years. Megan Lucas and Leonie Fielder also did a fair portion of the typing for a few years.

The club had 2 major trips away during 1991. In January a number of members journeyed to Adelaide for the Ashes Test, where they were accommodated at the palatial Ambassadors Hotel. Over the October Long Weekend, a party of 30, which included some partners, flew to Adelaide and were then transported by bus to Renmark where they stayed for 3 nights. Whilst at Renmark, a pre-season game was played against the Renmark Cricket Club. The following day, the touring party went to the Sunraysia region where the men played golf and the women went shopping, before they met at the Coomealla Club for an evening meal and a battle with the poker machines. On the return trip to Adelaide the following day, they had a bar-b-que lunch at one of the Tanunda wineries, which was catered for by Andrew Schmidt’s parents. As had been the case in the past, the club subsidised some of the cost of these away trips. We continued to play pre-season games against the Tumby Bay and Districts Colts Club. We no longer entered a team in the Elliston Easter Tournament after 1992, as we were having difficulty each year getting enough playing numbers to make it worthwhile competing.

Port Lincoln continued it involvement in the Henderson and Horgan Shield competitions. During the 1990/91 & 1991/92 seasons, 3 “minor” round games were played plus a final. From the 1992/93 season only 2 minor round games were played plus finals. In the 1993/94 season, Port Lincoln fielded 2 A, B & Colts teams, which was sensibly reduced back to 1 team in each grade the following season. A Number of our players played for Eyre Peninsula in the South Australian Country Carnivals during the 90’s. These players were Brett Bennie, Ben Daniel, Troy Sargeant, Alan Penna, Dion Potts, Jeremy Wright and Paul Newman. Troy Sargeant and Dion Potts also gained selection in SA Country teams and subsequently played at Australian Country Carnival level.

This decade saw the club win 2 A Grade premierships, 3 B Grade premierships and 5 Colts premierships. The highlights were the 2004-05 season when the club won the premierships in all 3 grades and the Colts 3 in a row from 2002-03 to 2004-05. The A Grade competition was increased to 6 teams from the 2004-05 season when Todd River finally decided to field an A Grade team after dominating the B Grade competition for the previous few years. The A Grade played all one day games of 50 overs with 10 over restrictions on bowlers. Todd River joined the B Grade competition at the beginning of the decade and the B Grade competition comprised 6 teams until the 2004-05 season, when Mallee Park entered a B Grade team. This team went into recess after the 2006-07 season, when the B Grade reverted back to a 6 team comp. The B Grade continued to play 45 over matches with 9 over bowler limits.

During this decade the B Grade and Colts only missed the finals once. The B Grade were runners up twice and the Colts were runners up 4 times. The A Grade were runners up once and missed the finals 3 times. In 2009-10, Phil Tyler assisted the A Grade by becoming their full time scorer. Steve Ovens continued in his role as Colts Coach in the 2000-01 season and was assisted by Wayne “Doc” Halliday, who then took over the role for the next 4 seasons. In his final year as coach, Doc was assisted by John Mitchell, who then coached the Colts for the next 3 seasons. Paul Newman was Colts coach in 2008-09 and in the following season, Brenton Parsons and Trent George shared the coaching duties. The Colts received good support from parents and senior players, with the following people assisting with the coaching, management and support of the Colts: Steve Ovens, Tony Grove, Michael Frost, Mick McCurry and Paul Lands.

In the 2001-02 season, a new competition the Lower EP Challenge Cup was formed, which involved games between teams from Port Lincoln and Tumby Bay and for a short period also Great Flinders. Each club played 3 matches in this competition before the start of their “normal” seasons. The 2 top teams then played off in a final which was sponsored by Nacos Credit Union. After narrowly losing the final in 2004-05, our club won the title in 2005-06, with the $1,000 prize money being a handy boost for club coffers. The senior 6 a side competitions were only held for the first few years of this period. The B Grade won the 2001-02 title and the A Grade won the 2003-04 title. The Colts continued to have a 6 a side comp each year, which our club won on a few occasions. A 20/20 competition for all grades commenced in the 2006-07 season, with a majority of the games being played on week nights under lights at the Ravendale Complex. Our club won the first 2 B Grade and Colts 20/20 competitions.

After 15 years in the position, Steve Ovens decided to stand down as President after the 2008-09 season. John Nippress who had been Vice President for the previous 3 seasons then took on the President’s role. During this 10 year period, the club had 3 secretaries and 3 treasurers. The secretaries were Aidan Boylan for 2 years, Tony Grove for 6 and Paul Newman for 2 and the treasurers were John Nippress for 2 years and then Craig Hudson and Peter Davenport for 4 each. We continued to receive good support from our Patrons and Vice Patrons. Roger “Doc” Howlett held the positions of either sole patron or joint patron/vice patron during this period. Paul Richards was either joint patron or sole patron for 6 years and Trevor Bennie was Vice Patron for the entire 10 year period.

Trevor and Rhonda Meaney of John’s One Stop Deli continued to support the club financially with the sale of bingo tickets until the end of the 2003-04 season, when they sold their business. Luckily for the club, the new owners Ian and Denise Docking agreed to continue with the sale of the club’s Bingo Tickets. We were also fortunate to receive support from sponsors Boston Hotel, Bakers Delight, Bennies Building Company, Budget, EP Tree & Stump Removal, West Coast Security, Kemp Real Estate and Target whose financial support amongst other things assisted with the purchase of new match day shirts, which featured sponsors logos in return for their financial support. Wayne “Doc” Halliday also helped the club’s finances in 2009-10 by providing a substantial donation which covered the cost of the Club’s Colts trophies.

We were also fortunate to have someone like Martin Tyler involved with the club. In the early part of the decade, Martin started having a stocked esky at B Grade games, which was usually well patronised. Before long, we had eskies regularly at both senior venues and we also purchased a fridge for the storage and sale of drinks in the shed at our training facility. Martin continued to stock these facilities and control the sale of products, which was (and still is) a great fundraiser for the club. Other fundraising events run by Matthew Roberts were a 50 club and the sale of cartons of red wine, which he was able to obtain at a good price from past player Scott Cram.

To cover ongoing expenses such as the purchase of match day equipment and Association affiliation fees, which had risen to $1,500 per season by 2009-10, players were required to continue to pay subs each season. In later years this amounted to $100 for senior players, with a discount of $20 if played by 1st December, $40 for senior players who were either students or unemployed and $20 for Colts. Senior players were also required to play $5- a match ball money. In an attempt to reduce the ongoing cost of replacing club gear, players were also encouraged to purchase their own gear. For many years, the club has agreed to reimburse players $50 for the purchase of their own bats and $20- for the purchase of their own helmets and spiked shoes when playing at Centenary Oval.

The day to day maintenance of our practice lanes during the 2000’s was mainly carried out by David Leyson. Working bees were held when major tasks needed attention such as when the interior netting was replaced during the 2009-10 season. New practice pitches were purchased in 2000-01 and a small shed to store our maintenance equipment, such as the lawn mower and other gardening items was erected by Martin and Simon Tyler during the 2007-08 season.

The club continued to have many and varied social functions, such as after training bbq’s, Saturday night teas, Christmas Shows, mock weddings, op shop formals, roast & red nights, Backwards Draws, ladies nights, cocktail nights and junior nights, which were always well organised and patronised. We were certainly grateful for the ongoing support from the Wayback Football Club, who allowed us to use their premises to hold these fund raising events. The following members played key roles in the social side of the club over this period: David Keough, Tim Niikkula, Matthew & Angela Roberts, Craig Hudson, Craig Neale and Martin Tyler. The annual end of season get together at the Redcliff’s camp was also well attended each year and was our club president Steve Ovens’ social event highlight of the year. For a number of years, the Club’s annual presentation of trophies took the form of a Sunday afternoon bbq/get together at either the Football Club or Puckridge Park. Towards the end of the 2008-09 season, it was decided to hold this event as a reasonably formal evening function, which is still the case today.

The club celebrated its 60th anniversary at a function attended by approx. 130 people at the Wayback Football Club on 10th November 2006. A number of past players returned to Port Lincoln for this occasion, which was very well catered for by Angela Roberts and her great band of helpers. President Steve Ovens emceed the evening and did a lot of the pre function organising. John Nippress also assisted by locating the whereabouts of and contacting many past players. A highlight of the night was the awarding of the club’s 17th Life Membership to Matthew Roberts. The club also put out a special Wisden to commemorate the occasion, which featured detailed performances of the previous 10 years since the publication of our 50 year book in 1996.

In March 2001, former A Grade premiership captain and past player Craig Holmes received Life Membership of the Port Lincoln Cricket Association as a reward for the many duties that he took on at Association level over a lengthy period. In March 2006, Steve Ovens many years of work at Association level, as a club delegate, Colts President and Port Lincoln and Eyre Peninsula junior coach was also recognised, when he was awarded life membership of the Port Lincoln Cricket Association. Steve became the 3rd Wayback Cricket Club member to receive life membership of both the Wayback Cricket Club and the Port Lincoln Cricket Association. The Club’s 18th Life Membership was awarded to Peter Davenport at our Presentation Night in April 2009. Later that year, Martin Tyler received a Volunteer’s Certificate signed by the Prime Minister in recognition of his work for the club, as drinks waiter/co-ordinator, social club president, club photographer and general handyman.

The club magazine the Wayback Wisden continued to be published. 2 editions were published each season except for the 2004-05 & 2007-08 seasons when there was only 1 edition. As mentioned earlier a “bumper” edition was published in 2006-07 to commemorate the club’s 60th year. The following members were either editors or strong contributors to the Wisden during this period: David Leyson, Matthew Roberts, Tim Nikkula, Paul Newman, Luke Davidson, Darren Atkins and Steven Hammond. The current editor Julie Davenport took over the editorial role in the 2008-09 season. The 2009-10 editions were the first Wisdens to contain some colour content and also featured photos that were taken weekly at matches by the club’s photographer Martin Tyler. Some of the match day photos taken by Martin were also displayed on the TV screens at the Football clubrooms after games. As well as assisting with the publication of the Wisden, Luke Davidson established a club website during the 2002-03 season, which was functional for the next 3 years. Tim Niikkula financed the initial and ongoing website costs.

Our club continued to have many representatives in Association Henderson and Horgan Shield teams. Jeremy Wright, Troy Sargeant and Paul Newman had the honour of captaining Port Lincoln’s Henderson Shield team. We also had Brett Bennie, Anthony Freebairn, Paul Newman, Troy Sargeant and Jeremy Wright gain selection in the Eyre Peninsula team during this period. Troy Sargeant was EP Captain twice and on both occasions, made the team of the Country Carnival, which included 1 year when he was player of the carnival. Troy (3 times in succession) and Anthony Freebairn (once) won Port Lincoln’s Most Valuable A Grade Player trophy, with junior players Tyronne Craig, Simon Tyler, Boyd McCurry, Anthony Bascombe, Daniel Mitchell and Matt Kelson winning the Association Colts MVP award. Shane Kenny, Boyd McCurry, Corey Grove and Daniel Mitchell also represented Eyre Peninsula at junior level at varying times. Tim Blewit in 2000-01 and Peter Kleinig in 2009-10 won the Association B Grade Most Valuable Player award.

Prior to the 2008-09 Presentation Night, the committee decided to name the Club Most Valuable Player trophies for the A, B & Colts in honour of John Forbes, John Nippress & Steve Ovens. At the Presentation Night, David Leyson spoke about the contribution that these 3 past players and life members had made to the club over a period of many years. The initial winners of the John Forbes, John Nippress and Steve Ovens medals were Andrew Woolford, Ryan Walsh and Matthew Kelson.

The most recent period in the club’s history, has been our most unsuccessful on the playing field, but has probably seen our most active off field involvement. During this period, the club only won 4 premierships, 2 in the B Grade and 1 in the A Grade and Colts. The A Grade won the 2010-11 premiership and were probably unlucky to lose the following year’s Grand Final. Since that time, the A Grade have finished 4th 6 times, 5th twice and last once and have not won a final since March 2012. Throughout this period, the competition consisted of 6 teams, with all matches being 50 over affairs with 10 over limitations on bowlers. The B Grade won flags in 2011-12 & 2015-16 and lost a close Grand Final in 2016-17. In the remaining seasons, they finished 3rd 5 times, 4th once and 5th twice. They continued to play 45 over matches in a 6 team competition until the 2018-19 season, when matches were reduced to 40 overs with 8 over bowler limitations.

After losing 3 Grand Finals in succession, which included the 2011-12 final by 1 run, the Colts finally won a flag in 2014-15. They played finals in all of the remaining seasons and finished runners up once, 3rd twice and 4th 4 times. They also won the 20/20 competition in 2011-12. The 6 team Colts competition played 2 day matches until the end of the 2015-16 season. Matches then became 1 day affairs, based on time, with each team batting for 25 to 30 overs. Initially batsmen were required to retire at 30 and every player apart from the wicketkeeper had to bowl a minimum of 2 overs. From the start of the 2019-20 season, batsmen had to retire after facing 20 balls and bowlers were limited to a maximum of 6 overs, with no requirement for all players to have a bowl.

During this period, the club had 3 Presidents, namely, John Nippress (5 seasons) followed by Andrew Woolford (4 seasons) and then Peter Davenport (2 seasons). The secretarial duties were handled by Paul Newman (2 seasons), Luke Martin (3 seasons), Julie Davenport, who became the club’s first female secretary (3 seasons), Stephen McGuire (2 seasons) and Bruce Lloyd in the final season. The club’s finances were handled by Peter Davenport (3 seasons), Brenton Parsons (2 seasons) and then John Nippress and Kerrie O’Leary (3 seasons each). Paul Richards has continued in his role as club patron, which commenced in 2009-10, as has Trevor Bennie in his role as either joint or sole vice-patron. Roger (Doc) Howlett was our joint vice-patron until March 2018 when he sadly passed away.

After a few years of clubs finding loop holes in the current constitution, our club took it upon itself during the 2011 “off season” to rewrite the whole document. A committee was formed comprising John Nippress, Paul Newman, Jeremy Wright & Andrew Woolford and many weeks were spent going over each and every law and by-law to try and resolve the issues found over the previous seasons. After several Association meetings, the new Constitution was finally accepted by all clubs and formed the governance of the league until further amendments were made a few years later. Over the last 11 seasons, Andrew Woolford served at Association level as Vice President and as a member of the Ovals and Programmes Committee for 2 seasons and as our Club Delegate for 5 seasons. Joel Davies was our club delegate for 4 seasons and Steve Ovens and Peter Davenport also held this position for 1 season each.

As has been the case in the past, the club was fortunate to have past and current players volunteer to assist with the coaching of the Colts. Club members who assisted with the coaching of the Colts during this period were: Shane Porter (6 seasons), Paul Newman and Jeremy Wright (3 seasons), Brenton Hammond, Peter Kleinig and Brenton Parsons (2 seasons) and Hamish Newman, Stephen McGuire and Paul Szumski (1 season). The Colts coaches were also assisted by many parents and senior players, who helped out with umpiring, scoring and the other myriad of duties that need to be undertaken on match days. In the 2018-19 season an Under 12’s competition was established and the Wayback team was looked after by Marc Eckert, Joel Davies and Luke Martin. Joel and Luke continued in this role in the following season, aided by Dru Patel. In the 2020-21 season, Waybacks fielded 2 under 12’s teams who were coached by Joel Davies and Tim Schlink. As was the case with our Senior Colts team, there was also no shortage of parents and volunteers to help out at the Under 12’s games, which included our young scorer, Kai Davies. Whilst on the subject of scorers, the club was lucky to have the services of Phil Tyler as A Grade scorer during the 2010-11, 2011-12 & 2031-14 seasons and as B Grade scorer in the 2012-13 season. In recent years current Colts player Kai Davies has also regularly assisted with the scoring for our senior grades.

Fundraising continued to be one of our major off field activities. Apart from sponsorship and player subs and ball money, our major source of fundraising has been from the sale of drinks, either at/after training and/or during and after senior matches. Towards the end of 2011, John Nippress in conjunction with the Wayback Football and Sporting Club committee arranged for their liquor licence area to be expanded to include our training facility. This then enabled the club to sell and consume liquor at its training facility. Since this time, the club has made significant funds from the sale of drinks at training and senior games. Most of the associated work involved with this form of fundraising such as ordering stock, collecting and banking monies, stocking fridges and eskies, returning unused stock after matches and disposing of empty cans has been done by Martin Tyler and John Nippress. During this period at varying times, Scott Clark and Kerrie O’Leary have also assisted with the stocking of match day eskies. In 2012, 2013 & 2014 the club also made monies when we ran the Centenary Oval Bar during the Port Lincoln Cricket Association Grand Finals.

Other forms of fundraising during this period have been:

The continued sale of bingo tickets by the owners of John’s One Stop Deli until the end of the 2015-16 season.
The sale of red wine that Peter Davenport was able to procure on eBay at a reasonable price,
Social functions and the sale of club merchandise.
An annual Player Auction which was first started by Luke Davidson in the 2012-13 season.
Assistance with Tunarama rubbish removal in 2015, 2016 & 2017.
The sale of Toyota Good for Cricket raffle tickets from 2014 onwards.
The sale of bags of fish berley to local fishing equipment retailers, which was organised by Kamron Clark.
Backwards Draws in 2012, 2015, 2019 & 2021.

As a result of these various forms of fundraising over the years, the club is currently in a very sound financial position, especially given the monies spent of renovations and improvements to our practice facility and the purchase of match day and other forms of equipment over the last 10 years or so.

The club has been fortunate to continue to receive regular financial support from a number of local businesses over this period. Career Employment came on board as the club’s major sponsor in the 2013-14 season and continued this support for the next 2 seasons. Since the 2015-16 season, the Port Lincoln Hotel has been the club’s major sponsor and has provided great financial support, which has been reciprocated by club members. The club now has 3 levels of sponsorship, namely Major, Gold and Silver. The major sponsor and gold sponsors have their business logos displayed on our match day shirts to acknowledge their financial support of the club. The club’s current Gold Sponsors are Bakers Delight, EP Windscreens, Port Lincoln Prestige, The Sarin Group and Shield Security. Other businesses who have been gold sponsors of the club over the years, have been Budget Port Lincoln, Commonwealth Bank, Double Corner Store when it was owned by Paul & Kathy Richards, Japanese Trucks Australia, Kemp Real Estate, Spicy Planet and Westpac.

The club’s current Silver Sponsors are: Allen Jewellers, Career Employment Group, Double Corner Store, Evoke Haircutters, Eyre Refrigeration & Electrical, Gallagher Port Lincoln/West Coast Insurance Brokers, Icon Sports Port Lincoln, Lincoln Fresh Fruit & Veg, Lincoln Glass & Aluminium, Lincoln Tyre & Brakes, SportsPower & Town & Country Valuers. We should also mention Wayne “Doc” Halliday, who although not an official sponsor has since the 2009-10 season, given the club a trophy donation that has covered the cost of our Colt’s trophies each season. Other businesses who have supported the club as silver sponsors have been Bennie’s Building Company and Intersport Port Lincoln. Many of the club’s current sponsors have been on board for a number of years and their financial support, which is worth in the order of $7,000 each season, is greatly appreciated, as these funds certainly help meet the day to day running costs of the club each season. In recognition of their support, each sponsor’s logo appears on the club’s website and is linked to their website/Facebook pages.

Over the last 10 years or so considerable funds have been spent on renovations and improvements to our training facility. In March 2013, the Wayback Football & Sporting Club informed us that they wished to use a portion of our training facility, as a car parking area for an industrial shed that they were planning to build and subsequently rent out. After a number of discussions between representatives of both clubs, a mutually agreeable position was reached, whereby we would “give up” our larger training net so that it could be used as the proposed car park. As a result, we had to completely renovate our training facility, which required the laying of a new concrete pitch, the removal and reconstruction of the western and northern boundary fences, the laying of a new water pipe, the replanting of a large area of turf and a number of other tasks. Past player and local architect Damien McQuillan kindly drew up the necessary plans and the renovation work began at the completion of the 2013-14 season. As a result of the efforts of various local contractors and a number of well attended working bees, our newly renovated training facility was ready for use at the start of the 2014-15 season. The total cost of the renovations was in the order of $25,000 and the club was fortunate to be able to obtain grants from the Department of Recreation and Sport and the South Australian Cricket Association for just over half of the costs involved. We were also able to get some tuna netting donated to act as a partition between our 2 new training nets, which Vice Patron Roger Howlett kindly cut to size and erected for us.

During the 2014-15 season, we were able to replace the portable pitch mats on our training pitches, thanks to the receipt of a further SACA grant. In recent times, the portable pitch mats have been replaced by stick down surfaces. At the end of the 2015-16 season, we obtained further SACA grant monies to enable us to replace the rear and a portion of the front boundary fences of our training facility. At the same time, Paul Newman and Luke Martin provided the necessary man power and expertise to construct an iron fence with an access gate, on our eastern boundary with the Wayback Football and Sporting Club car park. Early in the 2017-18 season, an additional shed was constructed which was to be used as a bar. A local tradesman was employed to do the majority of the work. Club members Joel Davies (paving), Peter Kleinig (wall lining) and Paul Newman (electrical) assisted with the construction and associated work. A number of club members also assisted with the paving of the remaining “C Grade entertaining area”, which certainly tidied up the general overall appearance and made the area easier to maintain. We began using our new bar facility during the 2017-2018 season and at a social function in February 2019, the bar was named the John Nippress Bar. The ongoing maintenance of our training facility such as lawn cutting and edging, watering and weed spraying was undertaken by David Leyson with assistance from Craig Hudson during the early years of this period and in the later years has mainly been undertaken by John Nippress and Andrew Woolford.

In addition to the grants that the club had received to assist with the renovation and improvements to our training facility, the club has also been able to obtain a number of Active Club and Volunteer Grants, together with a one off grant for 2 years, from the Commonwealth Bank. The proceeds from the Active Club Grants provided by the Department of Recreation and Sport were used to purchase club equipment, mainly match day balls. The Volunteer & Commonwealth Bank Grant proceeds have been used to purchase the following equipment items:

Lawnmower, lawn edger & other gardening equipment
Freezers
Marquees
Extension ladder
Large Photo Board, so that we did not have a myriad of different sized photo frames for our premiership photos. We subsequently had all of our premiership photos “redone”, so that they were all the same size.
Extensions to our Honour Board
Construction of a Most Valuable Player Honour Board
Laminator
Defibrillator
Portable score board
iPads for each grade, to enable “live” match day scoring on My Cricket
Fridge for the bar area in our training facility
Bar stools & eskies
Television

As had been the case in previous decades, the club continued to have a very active social side. We had a vast array of social functions apart from the after training bbq’s and Saturday Night teas, which included quiz nights, junior nights, ladies days, op-shop formal nights, Casino Royale nights, pot luck dinners, cocktail nights, bus trips, pensioner parties, pizza nights and the all-important Lost Weekends at the Redcliff Camp. This was in addition to our annual social functions such as Christmas Shows which were either held at the Lions Hostel in North Shields, or one of the local beaches, Hawaiian Nights, which were held in our training facility and quite often featured a pig on the spit cooked by master chef Andrew Woolford. At some of our Hawaiian Nights in recent years, we were joined by members of other clubs. Our formal annual Presentation Nights continued to be held in the Wayback Football clubrooms. In 2013, we invited players from our senior premiership teams from 50, 40, 30, 20 & 10 years ago to attend a reunion in conjunction with our annual Presentation Night. This format was successful as it enabled our current players to meet some of our club “champions” from years gone by and was continued in future years. In 2021, we held the premiership reunions on the night before our Presentation Night, which was also a success. Unfortunately, we were unable to hold our Presentation Night as planned in April 2020, due to Covid restrictions. In December 2013, Andrew Schmidt and John Nippress organised a club reunion in Adelaide during the Ashes Test, which was well attended by past and current players.

The success of our many and varied social functions was due in no small part to the vast amount of work put in by many club members, particularly our Social Committee Presidents and Social Committee members. The following people (apologies for any omissions) deserve recognition for their efforts at varying times: Steven Hammond, Troy Sargeant, Luke Davidson, Martin Tyler, John Nippress, Paul Newman, Marc Eckert, Andrew and Kathryn Woolford, Paul & Teresa Szumski, Peter Davenport, Stephen & Rachel McGuire, Jack Parsons and Jess Burns. The club also appreciated the continued assistance that we were given by the Wayback Football & Sporting Club who allowed us to use their facilities for many of our social functions and fund raising ventures. We were also very grateful for the service provided by the various bar staff, particularly Zonia Thompson whose pleasant friendly manner and co-operative nature was highly valued by club members.

The club formed a Life Membership committee comprising Peter Davenport, David Leyson, John Nippress & Steve Ovens in the 2011-12 season, whose job it was to meet each season, to discuss whether any club members were worthy of receiving life membership. In the 2019-20 season, the management committee reduced the numbers on this committee to 3 and appointed Brenton Parsons to replace David Leyson and Steve Ovens. The Life Membership committee increased the number of club life members by 11 during this period. The deserving recipients were: Jeremy Wright in April 2012, Merv Buddle, Tennyson Turner and Paul Newman in April 2013, Shane Porter and Craig Hudson in April 2014, Troy Sargeant in April 2015, Brenton Parsons in April 2017, Martin Tyler in April 2019 and Darren Atkins and Andrew Woolford in April 2021. All of these current and past members fully deserved to be recognised in this manner. In the 2020-21 season, the club’s committee announced the creation of 2 new club awards, namely the Trevor Bennie Club Person of the Year Award and the Spirit of Cricket Award to a player who epitomises the values that the club wishes to instil in our players. The initial worthy recipients of these club awards were Kathryn Woolford and youngster John Bascomb.

Other awards received by former and current club members were as follows:

Inaugural team member Darcy Harvey received an Order of Australia Medal in June 2010 for his services to sailing.
Club Life Members Trevor Bennie, David Leyson, John Nippress and Steve Ovens received SACA 25 year service awards in February 2011, when these awards were presented for the first time. Andrew Woolford also received one of these awards in January 2015 and at the same ceremony, former player Brian (Whistle) Harvey received a Cricket Australia 50 years’ service to cricket award. Past player and A Grade premiership captain Craig Holmes also received a 25 year service award in February 2021.
Current player at the time, Todd Smart won Port Lincoln’s Sportsperson of the Year in 2016.
Former player Gavin Roberts won Port Lincoln’s Citizen of the Year in 2018 for his voluntary work with the Port Lincoln Lions Club and the Royal Society for the Blind.
Colts player Bryce Hammond won Port Lincoln’s junior sportsperson of the year in 2019.
Former Colts player and Colts premiership captain Garry (Jack) Dennis was awarded Life Membership of the Port Lincoln Cricket Association in March 2017.
Current player Paul Newman was awarded Life Membership of the Port Lincoln Cricket Association in March 2021 and became the 4th club member to be a life member of both the Wayback Cricket Club and Port Lincoln Cricket Association.

Julie Davenport has continued in her role as the editor of the Wayback Wisden for the whole of this period. The Wisden is now a top quality publication, which comes out twice during each cricket season. As well as match write ups and other information relating to club activities, the Wisdens also feature numerous colour photos taken by club photographer Martin Tyler. A club Facebook page was established by Angela Roberts early in 2009 as a “private” page for club members. An additional “public” Facebook page was subsequently established a few years later and in recent times, the club has also established an Instagram page. These social media outlets are used on a regular basis to provide information regarding up-coming club events, team selections, match results, player milestones and profiles, club sponsors and various other club items. They have certainly proved to be valuable resources to keep people informed on what is happening within the club.

Around the start of this period, Cricket Australia partnered with InteractSport Pty Ltd and Sanitarium Weet-Bix to provide a free national online cricket management system for Australian cricket. This new system enabled clubs to keep individual playing records, match results and details, player contact details and other relevant club information on a national data base. It also provided each club with the ability to establish a free website to publicise their club. Our website www.wayback.sa.cricket.com.au was established in the 2010-11 season by Paul Newman. Following the establishment of the website a vast amount of detailed information about club playing records and individual performances was placed on the website, initially by Paul and then by John Nippress. The club website also contains some historical “action” photos and features the logos of the club’s various sponsors with links to their website/Facebook pages. With the details of matches for all club grades now recorded on My Cricket, players will now be able to have access to the playing records for their entire cricket careers.

Following the end of the 2013-14 season, discussions were held at committee level regarding the possibility of recruiting a player or players from England to bolster our playing ranks, in a similar manner to what the Tasmans Cricket Club had successfully done for a couple of seasons. Mark Allsopp used some contacts that he had in the UK to approach a couple of potential prospects and we were subsequently able to welcome Steve Wild and George Walker to our club for the 2014-15 season. The club rented a flat for Steve and George and also arranged employment with the Port Lincoln Hotel. A number of our current and former players and members generously contributed funds to assist the club meet their rental costs. Steve and George fitted in well and still keep in contact with a number of club members. They have both returned to Australia since the 2014-15 season and Steve is now a resident of Hobart and is married with a young child. The following season, the club was able to obtain the services of Ryan Barker from England, who was our leading player during the 2015-16 season. Jeremy, Tracy and Cade Wright kindly allowed Ryan to stay with them during his time in Port Lincoln. Our A Grade Captain at the time, Billy Campbell played cricket in England during the 2019 winter and whilst he was in England was able to enlist the services of Dru Patel for our club during the 2019-20 season. The club’s UK recruiting exercise has been a successful venture as the 4 cricketers whom we have recruited have all fitted in well and have also provided some valuable coaching to our junior players during their times with the club.

The club continued to have senior and junior players represent Port Lincoln each season in the Henderson and Horgan Shield teams. Joel Davies and Paul Newman had stints as captains of Henderson Shield teams, as did Blaze Kay and Hamish Newman with Horgan Shield teams. Paul Newman was also coach of the Horgan Shield team at varying times. Bruce Lloyd won the Association’s B Grade Most Valuable Player Award in 2017-18 & 2018-19. We also had 3 players win the Association’s Colts Most Valuable Player Award, namely Blaze Kay in 2011-12, Isaac Grima in 2017-18 and Hamish Newman in 2018-19. Kia Bascomb and Jess Woolford were members of the Port Lincoln Girls Strikers team in 2020-21, who won the EP Tom Kenny Shield for the 2nd year in succession. The following players were also selected in Eyre Peninsula teams:

Texas Sinclair in the EP Under 14 and EP Under 14 20/20 teams 2010-11.
Tom Szumski in the EP Under 16 20/20 team in 2010-11.
Blaze Kay, Tom Szumski & Texas Sinclair in the EP Under 16 Academy Squad IN 2011-12. Tom was also selected in the EP Under 16 team that season.
Nathan Fox and Troy Sargeant in the EP team in 2011-12, which was managed by Andrew Woolford, who was also the team’s Social Director whilst they were competing in the Country Carnival in Adelaide.
Janna Daw in the EP Under 16 team and Billy Campbell in the EP Under 14 team in 2012-13.
Hamish Newman in the EP Under 14 team in 2016-17.
John Robins in the SA Over 50’s team in 2017-18.
Hamish Newman in the EP Under 16 team in 2018-19.
Kia Bascomb in the EP Under 16 Junior Girls team in 2020-21.

The club has gradually expanded the number of merchandise items that it has for sale to members for use on match days and for casual events. Prior to the 2011-12 season Paul Newman organised a set of coloured polo shirts for senior players to wear in 20/20 matches. A major portion of the cost of these shirts was covered by sponsorship monies received from Radio Rentals, Shield Security, the Double Corner Store, Budget Car Rentals, Bakers Delight, Kemp Real Estate and Lincoln Aluminium and Glass. In the ensuing few years, new match day shirts were purchased, along with other items such as polo shirts, jackets and hats. The purchase and subsequent sale of club merchandise was handled at varying stages by Jeremy Wright, Troy Sargeant and Paul Newman. During the 2015-16 season, the club started sourcing its merchandise from Icon Sports initially through UK recruit Steve Wild and then subsequently from the Woolford family when they purchased a share in this business and established an outlet in Port Lincoln. This business is now managed by Kathryn Woolford who handles all of the ordering and sale of club merchandise items. The club now has an extensive range of merchandise available which includes match day shirts, polo shirts (short and long sleeve), jackets, training shorts, hoodies, training tops, caps, stubbie holders and beanies.

A considerable amount of time has been spent by members of the Club’s Executive in recent years to meet various governmental compliance regulations. All junior coaches, or members who have regular contact with juniors, now need to undertake a Police/Working with Children Check and the club is required to have a Child Safety Officer and a Child Protection Policy (a copy of this is on our website). To enable liquor to be sold and consumed at our training facility, we need to have a member in attendance who has obtained Responsible Service of Alcohol Certification, which a number of club members have obtained. We were also required to formulate Alcohol Management and Safe Transport Policies, which are reviewed on an annual basis by the club committee. Copies of these policies are also on the club’s website. Prior to the 2015-15 season, Andrew Woolford and John Nippress drew up Club Codes of Conduct for coaches and captains, parents and spectators and players, which were subsequently ratified by the club committee. Players are also encouraged to abide by Cricket Australia’s Spirit of Cricket, a copy of which is also on the Club’s website, together with copies of the club’s various Codes of Conduct. To enable the club to apply for various grants, we also need to be affiliated with the South Australian Cricket Association through their Club Support Programme, be a Good Sports Club (we are at Level 3, which is the highest level) and be a member of the STARCLUB Club Development Programme.

We started this decade successfully, as we played in the first 4 Grand Finals. We won 2 and were undefeated for a period of 2 years. Unfortunately, we only made the finals twice in the last 6 years and both times were defeated in an elimination final.

Our Colts team struggled for numbers during this period and had limited success. They played in 3 Grand Finals and won premierships in December 1965 & March 1967. The Colts Grand Finals had been played in December each year, however they were played in March in 1967 & 1968, before reverting back to December 1969. This change in programme format resulted in the Colts playing one less Grand Final during the period Dec 1965 to Dec 1969, to what they would have normally played. The Colts were basically left to their own devices to some extent, although they did get assistance from Les Weston and Ken Bertram. Quite a few of our Colts players played senior cricket for other clubs.

Wanilla went into recess in 1960/61 and then amalgamated with Charlton for the next 2 seasons, before again resuming their own identity. A new club Senior Colts was part of the competition from 1963/64 to 1965/66. For 50% of this 10 year period, it was a 6 team comp, with only 5 teams for the first 3 seasons and 7 teams in 1964/65 & 1965/66. A mixture of 2 and 1 day cricket was played, with 5 seasons being only 1 day matches. In December 1962, a South Australian Country 11 played a match against the touring South African team at Centenary Oval. Ron Richardson was selected as 12th man for the SA Country team.

We had 4 Presidents during this period, namely: Tennyson Turner (1960/61, 1961/62, 1968/69 & 1969/70), Len Moller (1962/63), Tom Bascomb (1963-64) & Neil Bascomb (1964-65 to 1967-68). Rob Kretschmer, Roy Hicks, Brian Johnson, Bill Flavell, Rodney Whenan, Paul Johnson and Jeff Freer filled the position of Secretary and with the exception of Brian Johnson, Bill Flavell and Rodney Whenan, all only held the position for 1 year. In most seasons, the role also included the duties of Treasurer. The exceptions were in 1964/65 & 1968/69 when Ants Nurk and Bob Storen fulfilled the Treasurers role. The club continued to have a Patron and Oscar Bascomb and Stuart Sinclair were elected to this position for each of the first 2 years, with Reg Aveling the Patron for the remaining 8 years. Les Weston and Bill Flavell were scorers during the 1963/64 & 1964/65 seasons.

At the end of 1961 new caps were purchased in the traditional colours of red and blue with a red demon perched at the front. Malthoid was laid on the practice wicket at the start of the 1962/63 season and the Verran Terrace venue continued to be our practice facility until the new Football Clubrooms were opened in October 1967. Training was then held at the practice nets at the High School.

At the beginning of the decade, subs were $2- and ball money was 20c & 10c. By the end of the decade, subs had increased to $5- ($2- for social members) and ball money was 30c. Affiliation Fees for the 1962/63 season were $12-. The club was certainly not in a great financial position during this period, with the bank balance being less than $100- at the end of most seasons. At the end of the 1969/70 season, the club had $27-24 in the bank, with about $35- in outstanding subs (interesting to see that some things haven’t changed). During the 1969/70 season, $121-86 was spent on gear & equipment, which included $37-60 for 2 bats and $28-64 for 9 balls.

WELCOME TO THE

WAYBACK CRICKET CLUB

WCC History - Decade By Decade
- Compiled by John Nippress-

WELCOME TO THE

WAYBACK CRICKET CLUB

WCC History - Decade By Decade - Compiled by John Nippress-

WCC History - Decade By Decade
- Compiled by John Nippress-