Caught In Slips Pt 13
By Christie Myr

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The weather over here has been quite shocking recently. But I’d never lost power in the workshop for almost 24 hours before (Is chapter 13 linked to my luck). It’s forced me to close the garage because the car hoists aren’t able to be lowered to repair the cars left up on them last night until the powers restored.

So with the nothing to do, I’ve come home and been able to type a short chapter 13 to upload on BCTS, earlier than I usually would. There’s plenty of cricket in this chapter. In fact, you could say it’s an entire season’s worth………There might be romance in the air too! (that's if the weather starts to thaw and warm up)
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By the time I got home after a few celebratory soft drinks at the Canley Heights RSL afterwards, I was almost jumping out of my skin. On telling Sue and Craig about my selection, Sue didn’t seem to care one iota, but Craig seemed excited at my news. I phoned mum and dad to relate the good news and dad promised to let my old club know when he caught up with someone from there. The following day at The Sheaf, I so desperately wanted to say something about my selection, but knowing my workmates as well as I did by now, knew they’d react the same way my sister had. But even some of the patrons could see I seemed to be more hyper than usual during my entertainment in the beer garden, saying so as I served them drinks afterwards.

I walked around for most of the following few days as thrilled as a dog with two tails, but also found that my lecture days now clashed with the additional training afternoon (Monday) that 1st and 2nd grade were required to attend. I simply left my last lecture early to beat the traffic to get there.

At my first “official” training session I quickly discovered how much more serious the senior grades took their cricket. First there were the mandatory warm ups and stretching exercises, followed by sprint training as well as rudimentary strengthening exercises on one of two exercise/weight lifting pieces of gym equipment that had been carried out onto the oval. Then after all that you were picked either for net practice (bowling or batting) or one of the other three groups who did slips catching, outfield catching, or fielding balls and throwing in at the stumps.

Being as slight and short as I was, one of the team’s assistants had to help me during my weights stint and it provided a lot of laughs over my feeble attempts at using different parts of the exercise machine. When they finally allowed me in the nets, I was almost too exhausted to even roll my arm over, let alone bowl. I’d spend most of my next few practices mainly doing conditioning and strengthening exercises in an effort to try and catch up to my new teammates.

Every night after eating tea, I’d hop into Sunny and drive to a nearby park that had floodlights turned on and do laps of the oval there, timing my initial lap and using it as a base mark to improve upon. Three weeks of this saw me doing ten 400 metre laps without a rest averaging just under 2 minutes a lap without stopping! By then at net practices I wasn’t the tail end Charlie any longer, but among the leaders when running “400” laps, although completely hopeless doing arm curls!

Fielding drills (for me) caused some headaches for the 1st grade coach. As skinny as I was I could throw in from the boundary to the wicket keeper on the full (if only just, at about 70 metres), and I knew how to field a ball properly. But where to place me in the field when I wasn’t bowling was quite a conundrum for him. I’d always fielded at mid-off, mid-on or square leg back at the WWCC and even in 5th and 3rd grades. A twenty minute session at the slips cradle proved I wasn’t really a slipper (a person who mainly fielded at slips), but although I could catch close in, my being “vertically challenged” at 5’5 almost 6” found most top edge snicked balls went over the top of my outstretched arms, whereas if I was 5’10” or so I’d have been able to catch them.

What did work in my favour was my ability to stop, pick up and throw back to the stumps quicker than anyone else in either squad. In fact the accuracy of my throwing usually didn’t require the wicket keeper to do more than just stand over the stumps and wait, as almost invariably my throws came in just over the top of the stumps, requiring him to simply remove the bails. I wasn’t afraid to dive along the ground either to stop firmly hit balls, so eventually it was agreed on I was a covers or mid-on, mid-off fielder and if needs required it (and no one else was available), a “silly specialist fieldsman" (PC says fielder or even field’s person)……a close in fielder who was generally no more than 10 feet or so away from and in front of the batsman (O.K. batter! - but batsman sounds better!).

Training to play in 1st grade was demanding. Usually I was a sweat soaked mess by the time I was released to the nets to bowl and my nipples were invariably on “high beam” and prominently showing. I always wore a sport bra under my “club” training shirt but even with those two items of clothing on, my dimmer switch never seemed to work properly. I grew use to teammates often looking at my boobs instead of my face when they talked to me, but no one ever said anything about it, except perhaps humorously. Since I always wore my hair up the way Carrie Fisher did in Star Wars for every practice, I quickly won the nickname “Princess Leia” from my 1st grade teammates, which soon had everyone else in the club calling me “Leia” instead of Cassie.

As for my bowling, almost everyone agreed I bowled a good leggie, but just like back at Wagga, the club’s bowling coach was forever at me offering advice on ways to improve it. At least I didn’t have to tell the batsman beforehand what type of ball I was going to bowl next to him, but to be constantly critiqued by the bowling coach after each ball often tested my patience. My teammates told me to simply ignore him and only ask him for help if I was having “yips” with my run up or delivery. He finally took the hint and let me be, but would always help me out with any bowling action problems I thought I might be having, if I asked him.

One thing I quickly discovered in 1st grade was the difference between a “fast” bowler and a “bloody quick” fast bowler. Our opening 1st grade bowlers were all “bloody quick”, even when using old practice cherries to bowl with. So my first “net” batting attempt was no better an effort than back in Wagga. I could handle the pitched up deliveries just fine, but anything pitched short had me ducking behind my bat as soon as I thought the ball would rise sharply up from the deck. I also found that “bloody quick” bowlers could be very accurate when they wanted to be, and that no amount of padded protection helped if you were being hit almost every second ball in or around the same place on your arm guards or chest guard.

Of course being “vertically challenged”, meant that our bowlers didn’t have to pitch it “that” short to be able to put cherries up around my “chest”. My first few batting practices were accompanied by a lot of me crying out “ouch” after being hit, or bowlers saying “fuck that must’ve hurt”, along with their apologies (sometimes even sincere ones) to me as I tossed back the ball to them. But by the time the new season was close to commencing, I was at least able to avoid being hit most of the time and even finding ways to play scoring shots. But as our coach often told me, I wasn’t in any danger of being promoted up to number 10 in the order too soon!

Our senior grades home ground Rosedale Oval at Warwick Farm was actually a fairly good place to play cricket on. Admittedly the outfield could have been better having to share the ground with football, so therefore the ground wasn’t billiard table top smooth but it wasn’t bad. I’d been assured that our deck also favoured spin bowling later on in the day and although the block was still “persona non grata” to play on yet, the block seemed to show promise according to the curator, who had kindly taken me to the middle and talked to me about it for an hour!

He seemed as excited about my bowling on his deck as I was, since I’d occasionally helped him during the off season whenever I saw him out there when I drove past. I’d most times stop to get out and help if I saw him working there, so he went and got a set of indoor stumps to let me bowl at them while he kept wicket………………“You seem to have gotten the feel of my deck young lady” he proudly told me when I’d told him 30 minutes later I’d had enough.

The club’s executive had numerous volunteer positions on it, usually unfilled each year, one of which was the publicity officer’s position. The executive always had lofty aims it wanted the club to achieve, but had very few volunteers who were willing to be part of it. One thing in particular was helping to publicise the club, where often the club had to rely on the local paper publishing some out of date story about the club, or else rehash a well-used one if they had space to spare in the sporting section of the paper.

So it must have been a slow news day that caused someone there to write an article that appeared in the local paper, about how Fairfield Liverpool CC was seen to be crashing through the glass ceiling of a predominantly male sport by selecting a woman to play in their 1st grade team. The story was accompanied by an unattributed photo taken of me at the last presentation night. Luckily the photo showed me in a “photogenic light” so I thought that no one would ever recognise me at the local supermarket, unless I walked in there face made up and dressed for going out somewhere.

When I went shopping the following week, I learnt I’d need to re-evaluate my thinking about the power of the press, as local shopkeepers stopped me to talk about seeing my picture in the paper and/or about the forthcoming cricket season!

Most clubs usually had friendly trials against other clubs before the start of each season which the governing body sanctioned. It also gave the umpires association a chance to blood new umpires in the lower grades, as well as bring current members together for their own version of grading trials. FLCC’s trial game was traditionally against North Sydney, where I’d played in 5th grade the previous year. Apparently our local paper didn’t get distributed around the North Sydney area, as the first grade trial (at Rosedale this time) saw a stunned North Sydney team watch me warm up close by to them.

And just like Trevor did last year, my new captain (Josh) lost the toss, but this time saw us bowling. Now trial (or warm up) games are exactly that, especially in the higher grades. So after our pace men had all had a bowl and taken a couple of wickets, Josh signalled for me and Geoff to come and roll our arms over from each end. After eight overs between Geoff and me, it saw Josh deciding I’d bowled enough for a while, as it proved I had radar guidance with my line and length, having taken 3 for 5 from my four overs.

I’d unknowingly also committed the cardinal sin at a trial match in not allowing the opposing batsmen to get some time out in the centre. When Josh told me I’d bowled enough for today, I said I hadn’t yet but he was the captain, so that was it. He spoke to me at the next drinks break and told me about my sin, then telling me I’d also set the cat among the pigeons and by the end of the week, news would’ve leaked out about me to other clubs.

The two day trial was a friendly one that saw me mixing with the North Sydney players at the lunch and tea breaks. (In 1st and 2nd grade they play 1st class match hours 10.30 am to 5.30pm…..being 2 hours per session with a lunch break - 40 minutes and a tea break - 20 minutes in between the morning, post lunch and post tea sessions). Lower grades started about 2 hours later and only had an afternoon tea break, usually 30 minutes.

The novelty of having a woman play 1st grade men’s cricket was something quite new to their 1st grade team, even though most of them admitted to hearing about me after last year’s 5th grade trial game, which had in itself been a talking point of sorts back then. I found the North Sydney 1sts players to be extremely pleasant to talk to and had a small crowd of them surrounding me (along with my own teammates) at every break.

As the trial panned out, we passed North Sydney’s score by about 2pm the following Saturday and after our own batsmen had gotten some good batting time out in the centre. Josh and the North’s captain then agreed to “bend the rules slightly” by allowing each team to then have a serious 90 minute batting session against the main bowlers from the other side. I didn’t get to bat either week, but did spend a lot of time bowling in the nets when our side batted. I bowled against my own teammates as well as several North’s players who rotated off the ground (to allow sub fielders a run) and had wanted to bat against me in the nets to see if I was as good as some of their teammates were rumouring I might be……….Josh reminded me later on that it had only been a “trial” match for both teams, but I’d certainly ruined North’s plans for their top team with my three quick wickets.

Our first official game of the season was against one of the establishment’s more powerful clubs St George at their home ground and was also one of four limited overs games for the season (50 overs a side). They’d already heard about me (what a grapevine club’s had!) and although I was a novelty for this grade, treated me the same as they would any other player. That meant an overabundance of sledging and bad language. Josh won the coin toss and batted. Since it was still early in the season, both the pitch and the batsmen were slightly underdone. FLCC could only manage 9 for 171 before I walked out to the middle to have my first bat in Sydney’s 1st grade competition.

The first ball I faced had me being quietly told by the slips cordon that I was a slut, a skank, a rag and just about every other type of unpleasant obscenity imaginable. Fed up with their insults, I moved away from the stumps half way during the bowlers run up. Pointing at the entire slips cordon, I complained to the umpire that their chatter was disturbing my concentration during the bowler’s approach (which is against the rules and spirit of the game).

Through sheer “tenacity” I managed to last just long enough to see our team score move to “173” before my off stump went cartwheeling out of the ground with the 3rd ball I faced, having scored 2 from the previous ball. As foul and personal as the insults directed at me had been, the St George captain spoke to me as we walked off, saying it wasn’t personal what had been said to me, just gamesmanship to unsettle me! I already knew that and told him that I wasn’t bothered about the language, only the fact they were saying it while the bowler was running in to bowl to me.

At the end of the day’s play, their captain (and the two umpires) came over and talked to Josh and then the four of them approached me. The St George captain then “officially” apologised for any foul language spoken to me while I’d been batting. He then told me to expect a lot more during the rest of the season and to just try and accept it. I thanked him for the apology and told him I’d already known what to expect, but as long as it didn’t happen when the bowlers were in their delivery run, I could put up with it. Josh suggested he buy all of us a drink at the clubhouse so any ill will was officially over.

Perhaps what I should have said to the St George captain in reply to his apology was “And I’d like to apologise to your too…….for taking 4 wickets in the game, you pompous clown!” (4 for 42 if you're interested)

FLCC managed to get 6 points for winning the game and was off to a flying start for the season. We certainly ruined St George’s plans of a good start to “their” season and shown that we’d be more than competitive, as soon as our top order started scoring more runs. It had been just like back in Wagga, where the early part of the season invariably always saw the bowlers on top, while it took a few matches before most batsmen found their form. The rest of the club’s results were mixed. 2nd and 3rd grade lost, while 4th and 5th grade won.

Our next two matches were two day games and saw firsts winning both, one outright, the other on first innings. Both were played at Rosedale which was quickly becoming my favourite place to bowl. We annihilated University of NSW outright and beat Mosman on 1st innings and had their tail end batsmen shakily defending against losing outright.

In the University of NSW match (who admittedly weren’t strong that season) my leg spin played havoc among their batting line up. I took 6 for 37 as they crumpled to only be able to reach 97. Our batsmen had improved somewhat from the St George match and knocked up 6 for 218 before Josh declared the innings to allow our bowlers another go. This time it was more pace than spin that skittled them, I took 3 for 34, while our main fast bowler (Des) took 5 for 57.

Our third game, against Mosman had Josh bringing me on much sooner than against University of NSW and it paid off. I only got 3 wickets in their first innings but that included numbers 3, 4 and 6 in the batting order. It didn’t help Mosman’s cause to lose two wickets to suicide attempted runs, while FLCC’s batting went well into the 2nd day before Josh again declared (just before I was to go out and bat!). With only two hours to play in the day, and with first innings points secured, Josh got me to “open the bowling” into the breeze.

After almost an hour’s play, Mosman were 6 for 28 and still 30 runs short of making us bat again. If it hadn’t been for storm clouds hindering playing light, enabling the batsmen to reply yes to the umpire’s question about whether the light was too bad to play further, they would’ve lost outright. Instead they walked off at 8 for 51, managing a 1st innings loss and an overall drawn match. My haul for the second innings was 6 for 25 and I’d also had two outfield catches dropped off my bowling.

I had to miss round 4 because of my final’s exams, but was happy to see that 1st grade won on 1st innings against Parramatta. Our 5th round game against Western Suburbs was a washout both weekends so I didn’t have to chance to burn off post exam stress. I didn’t really have to worry about my exam results because I already knew I’d done well answering the questions, as did the rest of the study group I was in when we got together afterwards to discuss the exams.

With university over and done with, I now had more spare time to earn money and Trudy made sure I spent that time working at The Sheaf. My playing 1st grade cricket for Fairfield Liverpool was no longer a secret at The Sheaf, courtesy of someone reading about me in the local paper and pinning it up on the notice board in the sports lounge bar. But now each game’s results were being placed on the notice board, which allowed a number of regular patrons to talk to me about cricket in general and how it use to be “back then” when “they” use to play (or some still did in a local park competition). It was a friendly joke around the clubhouse that FLCC had a “secret” supporters group at The Sheaf.

What I would never have expected was to have an elderly gentleman (Mr Barry Stiles) from the Premiership Grade committee come to visit me while I was working, in an official capacity. His showing up was so as to tell me (discreetly and off the record for now) that the grade executive would really prefer that I didn’t work at a hotel like The Sheaf. But if I was going to continue to do so, I was to try and ensure I didn’t end up getting any negative publicity about it, which might force the executive to intervene.

He then said he was personally looking forward to seeing me bowl against his team Sutherland after the Xmas break, and wished me all the best for the season before leaving. But during the entirety of our friendly off the record conversation, his eyes kept constantly dropping downwards to ogle my breasts. Go figure! - I should have told him to take a photo instead of trying to memorise them.

I mentioned being visited by Barry Stiles to the FLCC president at the following practice and was told to ignore it, being told that my “job” was just another barb being thrown at the club by some of the other clubs. Evidently (and unknown to me) a few players from one particular club had heard about my job and had gone to the hotel to see for themselves. Then with a few Chinese whispers and more 3rd hand descriptions, it was being rumoured I worked at a private club where the naked staff served predominantly male members!

The president said he’d spoken to a few players from other teams who had come up to him when we played them at Rosedale, and most said I looked good in a corset. They didn’t care what I did for a job either which Kevin explained to them that I did for extra money, while I was going to University. I wasn’t going to stop earning good money just because of crazy stories, so I took his advice and didn’t bother worrying about stories I couldn’t prevent from being spread by fools.

Our 6th round game was against Blacktown on their deck. “Deck” I should have written it was a ROAD! I’d heard the term used a few times before and understood it to be a pitch that played flat, slow, and fast bowlers always hated them because of that, and they didn’t offer any turn for spin bowlers or very slow turn. It was the first time I’d played on one though and had a miserable game because of it. I ended up with 0 for 61 and although I was very economical bowling 21 overs, it irked me to play on a pitch that didn’t offer anyone any help, be it to batsmen or bowlers. We won the game (on 1st innings) but not because of me. The simple truth was that they scored 4 for 278 declared and we scored 4 for 300. To top it off both days were scorchers and there was no breeze.

Our 7th round against Penrith at Howell Park Penrith was another limited overs game. I didn’t do too badly although nowhere as good as in previous matches. I took 3 for 62 off my allotted ten overs. The heat out there was even worse than at Blacktown and I had to have a cold shower (in the lockable umpire’s room) afterwards before attempting to drive home.

Our last match before Xmas saw us playing at home again (Yippee) and beating Randwick-Petersham easily in another 50 overs a side game. I liked their club’s nickname “the Randy Pete’s” and would have liked to have played them on their home deck at Coogee, because the ground was close to the beach so I might have been able to take a swim afterwards.

Our deck at Rosedale oval was beginning to gain a reputation for taking spin, although the curator didn’t do anything to make that happen. It probably came about due to with the fact the side was winning and my accurate leg spin bowling was difficult to play against. The curator claimed otherwise, but any cricketer with some pitch knowledge could tell you that a turf wicket square couldn’t change its characteristics overnight. To do that would have entailed considerable work and expense, often relaying the entire block and maintaining it differently to change a deck’s characteristics. Of course the curator could always leave more grass on (aids quick bowlers) or shave it closer (assists batting) for games to suit the home team’s strengths.

When Xmas time rolled round Sue and I drove home to Uranquinty to see mum and dad. Our big brother was still away on sea duty so it didn’t feel the same as last year’s Xmas. Craig drove down on the 27th, now being considered by our parents as being practically Sue’s husband. So their sharing a bedroom together no longer seemed to bother mum or dad. Sue and I couldn’t top last year’s Xmas present for mum and dad, but they liked this year’s presents a lot.

My university results came out the day before we drove to Uranquinty and my parents were keen to know about my plans for the future. I wasn’t too sure what I wanted to do now I had my qualifications, as obtaining a job even with a degree wasn’t that simple. Plus I wanted to enjoy myself for a little while, as my part time job along with Sue and Craig’s rent (and my other tenant’s rent) enabled me to be able to service my trust’s rapidly diminishing bank loan and still live reasonably comfortably. Sue had ideas of her and I forming our own computer business, run from home once I gained some practical experience, and was busy creating goodwill with potential client contacts at her workplace. Craig had ideas about forming his own small independent subcontracting business to offer to builders wanting carpenters, electricians, roofers and plumbers.

Until any of it eventuated, I had a well paid and stable barmaid’s job now that I was working at The Sheaf fulltime and Sue also had ideas that her and Craig might be getting married soon, once he'd determined if he wanted to go out in business for himself or not. She didn’t mention all of this to mum or dad (not about a possible wedding anyway) and I certainly wasn’t going to mention where (or how) I worked to them. When we left to go back to Sydney our parents were just glad that we were thinking about our futures and not just working five days a week work for pay with no ambitions to get ahead.

Back in my unit at Fairfield, I was fully occupied with working 5 shifts a week and playing cricket. Now I wasn’t going to lectures, I was also the unofficial full time chef too. Sue took on that mantle of a weekend, where she got to remind Craig what he might have to look forward to one day.

The weather gods washed out Round 9 (and the final 50 overs game of the season) to bring around Round 10 and our arch enemies “Gordon” which would be played on their home deck at Chatswood. Although our relations with them had thawed slightly, the entire club was looking for good results in every grade and the practices leading up to the game(s) were very demanding. In what turned out to be an incredible result (and a first for FLCC) the club not only clean swept the grades, but did so having our 1st grade record the first outright win over Gordon, along with Gordon having it's first outright loss to any club since over 60 years ago!

I personally took fourteen wickets for the match (8 for 41 in the first innings and 6 for 30 in the second). Our win wasn’t on a rain affected deck either. Perhaps Gordon didn’t take us seriously enough, although FLCC was running 3rd on the competition table. Their disastrous first innings of 98 in just a little under three hours, saw our batsmen managing to pass their score just before 1st day stumps at 5.30 to be 3 for 110. The plan discussed at training the following week was to bat fast for quick runs and see what could result from it. What Gordon wasn’t expecting was another fine team bowling effort from FLCC two weeks in a row, and our batsmen only needed to slog 30 runs off the final two overs play for victory. It would have been great for the win to have been at Rosedale so we could celebrate, but Tuesday’s delayed celebrations after training, more than made up for it.

But anyone who’s ever played cricket could tell you “cricket's a beautiful lover but a bitch of a mistress.” The following game saw us losing unexpectedly on first innings to Sydney CC at their home ground of Drummoyne Oval. We held on to 3rd place for the rest of the season, but disappointingly lost our semi-final match to Sydney University who wound up winning the final. Our 4th grade ended up winning their competition, while to have four of our five teams reach the semi-finals was considered incredible, taking into account the club’s constant need to scramble to fill teams in our bottom grades most games.

My own season’s performance was universally applauded in the club and the cheers I received on being handed the trophy for FLCC’s 1st grade leading wicket taker at the presentation night was particularly heart-warming. It would have been fantastic for our 1st grade to have won the competition, but sometimes not everything turns out wonderfully. But for me personally I was a winner on two scores. Firstly I’d proven my ability to play with the men on a level field and secondly, I met Rhys (pronounced Reece) in our final game before we lost in the semi-final.

Rhys played for Northern Districts and during the after play drinks on week one, Rhys managed to find a way to speak to me alone for a little while (no easy feat usually after a day’s play). The two of us seemed to just “click” somehow and I spent most of the second week of that game, watching him fielding against us instead of watching our batsmen play their bowlers. We’d also exchanged phone numbers and talked on the phone every night afterwards and even though my sister teased me unmercifully, she was happy about my goo goo behaviour.

Rhys had laughed loudly when I told him over the phone one night about my “job” and I was absolutely stunned, when his smiling face asked for a beer a few afternoons later as he stood in front of me at the sports bar. My face “must” have turned beetroot red in embarrassment at his sudden appearance and in my confusion accidently drew him a full alcohol beer instead of the light beer he’d ordered. He stayed around talking to me for over an hour before saying he had to leave. Afterwards my workmate Jane told me she’d never seen me act like that before, telling me I hardly managed to serve a drink to anyone else the entire time that Rhys was there talking to me!

Several months later I finally got to find out for myself why my sister was so noisy with her boyfriend……..

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The weather has allowed me to rework my story notes around a bit and this chapter enables me to speed up the time line for the next few chapters. CM
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