Remembering Woodleigh Kernot Cricket Club

By Garry Knox

IT’S been fifty years since Woodleigh Kernot won the first of four cricket premierships. 

The Woodleigh Kernot team from 50 years ago were recently asked to remember the ’74 grand final – remember their roots in a rural community, and where life has taken them over the 50 years since. 

The stories were circulated online to players and supporters.

The Woodleigh Kernot Cricket Club (WKCC) virtual reunion started at Christmas and finished last week. 

Nearly all players or player’s families responded.

Some players are no longer with us, Graeme Otto is in Perth, Max Crawford is 92 with memories of his century at the showgrounds and an umpire revealed a long-held confession.

The reunion became as much a reflection of social history as cricket history.

All of our cricketers came from farming stock, all could reach out and touch the Woodleigh to Kernot Road. 

Team bonding was not necessary.

This is a summary of the stories that piqued the interest of Woodleigh and Kernot families past and present over the past 10 weeks.

The first new photo to surface at the virtual reunion was from Keith Hall’s daughter Bev. 

A great picture of Keith Hall and Max Crawford at the Ranceby presentation night admiring the Ranceby shield and the ’74 Premiership certificate. 

We think this grand final was Keith’s last game before his enthusiasm for life shifted to lawn bowls and numerous aviation adventures.

We were given access to Evan Jones’ eulogy.

It captured every aspect of Woodleigh life fifty years ago. 

Keith Challis was not in the team but very much a part of Woodleigh cricket. 

“Played cricket to make up the numbers,” he said, now living in Main Street, Nyora. 

He watches every game of Nyora cricket and football.

Tony Ware remembers losing blood at the crease thanks to a Peter Vick bouncer. 

Brother Charlie remembers Tony taking a crucial catch “out in the deep” in that grand final. 

Tony remembered playing for Ranceby Association in the Westernport Sunday competition in ’74. 

Ranceby won it in that year. 

Rhonda Day told us that husband Tony very much enjoyed the company of his cricketing teammates. 

At Kongwak, he played with Russell Hayes and when they both ended up with dairy farms at 

Woodleigh and Loch respectively, they reunited in their cricketing whites at Woodleigh Kernot.

Tony led us to a Premiership in ’76. Russell was perhaps the best bowler going around at the time. 

Both played in all four WK premierships in the seventies and a fifth if you count Leongatha’s Lightning Premiership.

The Leongatha Lightning Premiership – an innings consisted of eight six ball overs – was three preliminary matches, a semi final, and a grand final all on the one day. 

The annual event attracted more than 20 teams, some from Melbourne.

Russell went on to bigger cricketing things at Lang Lang Cricket Club and now lives near Portland. 

Charlie and Tony Ware, Graeme Otto and Garry Knox were the four teenagers in the team. 

Our Captain was Cam Crawford. His enthusiasm back in ‘74, along with “the four kids,” the newly recruited Russell Hayes and Tony Day and the dairy farmers of the day created a winning combination.

One of those dairy farmers was Barry Johns.

He and his wife Ruth came to Kernot to milk cows for Bruce Campbell. 

Both are life members at both clubs. 

They celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary last year.

Bill Brook gave us the lighter side of Woodleigh Kernot cricket. 

He mentioned his regular pre-game whiskey with good mate Evan, swapping a tethered black goat for a white goat in the middle of the night, our visitation to Coal Creek to examine the Woodleigh

Railway station, the fundraising strippers in the Jeetho Hall was well organised by Wilbur Collis and raised enough money for a new pitch at Nyora, how the Ashes were created inside and then outside the Loch pub, and the ritualistic fence painting in Loch’s main street after a winning grand final. 

He even named the alleged culprits.

Bill Brook maintains an extensive collection of clippings from his time playing football at Loch and cricket for WK. 

We inserted a few of his favourite clippings in the virtual reunion. 

Robert Hughes gave us a piece extolling the virtues and the forward thinking of Ranceby cricket. 

Rule changes added another 10 years to the life of Ranceby Cricket, but not sufficient to stave off its demise. 

He mentioned the smell of Pennyroyal at the Loch oval, and the pre season job of linseed oil on treasured cricket bats. 

“Better to celebrate that we were lucky enough to share the Ranceby experience, rather than mourn its demise,” Robert said.

We acknowledged our opposition in that ’74 Grand Final.

Poowong’s Alex Miller gave us a hint of where his players are now. 

Chris Gasgoyne, Graham Edwards, Ken and Bruce Salmon, Tony and Alex Miller, Geoff Ferguson, Peter and Michael Vick, David Ryan, Alan Trigg all played for Poowong. The scores Woodleigh 
Kernot 181 and 92 defeated Poowong 81 and 105.

The ’74 Grand final was played at Hallora. 

One of the umpires divulged via the virtual reunion that his well-kept secret for 50 years involved him at the bowlers end at what turned out to be the last over of the grand final. 

So intent was he, so engrossed, he very nearly let out an appeal for LBW when a Russell Hayes delivery hit the Poowong batsmen on the pads. 

He strangled his appeal and duly gave the batsman out.

WK began its celebrations. 

He went on to umpire many subsequent Ranceby grand finals.

Charlie Ware had one of the biggest stories to tell but in true Charlie style he ordered that “this better be brief.” 

Charlie has the rare honour of once taking all 10 wickets in an innings.

The s16 part WKCC virtual reunion can be found on Facebook on the Kernot Community page.