the history of western suburbs district cricket club 1921-2002

-36-player scored a century all season. The three years with WSDCC must have been very emotionallydraining for John Bell since he used to spend hours at Graceville after practice cajoling the best possibleperformances out of players. To some he was a father, to others a marriage guidance counsellor. Somehe disagreed with. His main wish was to be respected whilst not necessarily being loved as a successfulleader. John would occasionally use unusual tactics to win matches such as placing nine fieldsmenwithin three metres of the bat or placing ten fieldsmen (yes ten) on the boundary and having his bowlersbowl six overs an hour on the last day of the 1987-8 grand final, all within the rules at the time.When younger, John was an extremely talented WK who performed some very sharp stumpings as wellas diving catches from his fast bowler bullies, Rackemann and Maguire. He was an excellent hard hittingbatsman who was not averse to hitting the ball in the air with great ferocity. His favourite shots weresquare of the wicket but he was also an excellent driver. Whilst he did play two matches for Queenslandand one for Tasmania against Vivian Richards as a WK, he would not have been out of place as a statelower order batsman. John is the clear cut choice as captain of this team.Greg Rowell was invited to WSDCC by another Wests player he met at the Australian Cricket Academy,Gavin Maslen. He had played a handful of matches as a promising fast bowler for NSW but sought fameand fortune north of the Tweed just as Sam Trimble had done 34 years earlier. Greg had difficulty findingGraceville Memorial Park and thought it to be deserted when he arrived and that his first practice hadbeen called off. He did notice however some park cricketers playing a match on a Gabba grass wicketon Graceville No 3. He wandered over to be a spectator for a while to see what the standard of parkcricket was like in Queensland. When he was a little closer, he felt one of the bowlers in this match(remember he had never met any other Wests players before) bore a remarkable resemblance to CarlRackemann, and another Dirk Tazelaar. When he saw them bowl he felt their actions were very similarto those players. Finally, Greg realised this was a Wests first grade practice and unlike what he was usedto in Sydney the players wore shorts and knockabout coloured clothing. All Greg had were his longsleeved and legged whites. He quickly made his mark looking every inch a state cricketer with his bulletlike returns from the boundary (25 metres away) and terrifying the daylights out of the batsman with hisbounce on the Gabba Grass wicket.From this inauspicious introduction to Brisbane club cricket, Greg has gone on to play 37 matches forQueensland, a season with Tasmania and for Australia A in its only year in World Series Cricket. Inbetween, he had a career threatening injury when he captained second grade, nurturing not only youngplayers but renewing his own batteries just as Dennis Lillee had with a back injury in 1973-4. Indeed athis best Greg very much resembled Dennis Lillee with his movement and bounce. Apart from being aninspired leader in 2001-2 to the extent that he lifted his team into the grand final, Greg performed so wellhimself, he became the first Wests players to win the Peter Burge Medal and was again selected by theselectors to play for Queensland. He did not play but that is another story. Greg himself was surprisedabout his Peter Burge medal win because of the differences of opinion he has had with umpires over theyears. Perhaps Greg’s best batting moment was smashing Greg Matthews all over the SCG in a losingShield final.Undoubtedly Greg would have added to his 118 wickets for Queensland but for recurring foot injuries.After obtaining a primary degree at ANU, Greg recommenced study in 1999 and became a solicitor.Col Westaway was one of three cricket loving boys who grew up on a farm at Moggill. His hands wereso large they could grip three of his beloved pineapples at once so a cricket ball was barely visible whenhe placed his fingers in the leg spinner’s position prior to giving it an enormous rip. In his 19 games forQueensland he took 52 wickets and after 1968 in his last seven seasons for the club was a very wilycustomer for a newcomer batsman to encounter. Col was by far the best spinner in the era and was thelongest playing survivor of an era when Wests had three state leg spinners at once, the other two beingJohn Freeman and Gerry Warr. Col was also a very big hitter with the bat when the mood struck him andwas a forerunner of the modern day pinch hitter.Dirk Tazelaar came to Wests from Ipswich in 1984-5 and after taking 40 wickets at 23.40 was a fixturein the state team apart from injury until his retirement in 1995-6. He, together with Carl Rackemann andthGreg Rowell (12 man) were in the first winning Queensland Sheffield Shield team in 1994-5. Dirk wasSheffield Shield Cricketer of the year in 1988-9 and went within a whisker of making the famous Ashesthtour of 1989. Indeed his 257 wickets of 27.43 in 73 Sheffield Shield matches places him 24 on the alltime interstate wicket taking list, all 23 players above him having played test cricket. Together with his258 first grade wickets for Wests this made 500 wickets in first grade or first class cricket. Dirk bowledleft arm over the wicket inswingers but obtained most wickets with the away slanter or by seaming. Hisbest batting moment was late on the fourth day of a Gabba NSW match where he led Queensland to anearly season victory with some good hitting in near darkness. He suffered a bad injury during a fine legcollision with the wicket-keeper, Wade Seccombe but made a good recovery to return to play in the 1994-5 Sheffield Shield final.Peter Donaldson also was a left arm over the wicket fast bowler who made his debut against an Eaststeam containing two test players and four other Shield players in Round 2 of the 1971-2 season. He wenton to play 88 first grade games in nine seasons taking 282 wickets at 19.78. Together with another leftarmer, John Bourke, he was often unplayable. Peter’s finest moment was taking 6 for 25 in the SydGregory Cup for interstate colts against New South Wales. He was unfortunate never to play forQueensland. He was faster than Dirk Tazelaar, at times terrifying batsmen with his pace. Peter wenton to become amongst other things a sports master at BBC and has been a good talent spotter for Westsincluding boys who bear the names of famous fathers, Dell and Border.The twelfth man in this team is Tim Caban who came from Maitland in an attempt to break into theQueensland team at a time when the NSW team was very strong (when isn’t it if at full strength). Heachieved his aim, playing a game for Queensland in the successful 1975-6 season. Tim was a handymedium pace bowler with good control and movement and a very good hard hitting batsman. He went