Famous International Cricketers I NEARLY Knew
This week’s meeting featured an interesting talk by Graham Ottens, a self confessed cricket tragic who played for many years with the Grange Cricket Club. His full time occupation was in the teaching profession in SA and Victoria including 18 years as a Principal.
He grew up on the family farm on the eastern Eyre Peninsula where he developed his lifetime love of cricket. In his cricketing career he travelled extensively and met many people in the cricket world including a number of famous international cricketers he NEARLY got to know.
Graham started his talk by explaining that every cricketer who played for Australia was issued with a number and he then went on to give us stories of some of these elite sportsmen that he came across in his travels and the circumstances in which he met them.
Some of these together with their sometimes (in his own words) tenuous connections are listed below.
David Hookes- Australian Batsman. Met him in 1968 when David was playing as a junior at the Grange Cricket Club.
Ian Chappel - Former Australian Cricket Captain. Lived in the same street in Netley.
Kevin Wright -Australian Player and Victorian Wicket Keeper. Met at the indoor nets at Lords.
Neil Hawke - SA and Australian Cricketer and SANFL Footballer. Taught with his brother.
Paul Sheahan - Victorian and Australian Cricketer. Met him whilst Principal of Geelong College.
Terry Jenner -West Australian and Australian Cricketer. Met him playing a game for Grange CC.
Eric Freeman - SA Cricketer and SANFL Footballer. A look-alike. Several times mistaken for him.
Trevor Laughlin -Victorian Allrounder. Met at indoor nets at Lords.
Len Darling - SA and Australian Cricketer. Employed him as Turf Curator at Immanuel College.
Sir Donald Bradman - SA and Australian Batsman. Presented SACA Coaching Certificate to Graham.
Barry Richards - South African Cricketer. He ran a coaching clinic at Immanuel College.
Graham kept us entertained with his obvious love of all things cricket and acted as a quiz master along the way. The star pupil was Hyde Park Rotary Club member Mike McAuliffe who knew EVERYTHING and more about cricket than all of us!
A great evening’s entertainment. Peter Griffiths thanked Graham on behalf of the club and presented him with a bottle of wine.