Look at us - Hawkesbury Cricket Council to Penrith Cricket Club
Standing are Phil Dingle, Greg Gavin, Bobby Morris, Tony Carroll, John Benaud, Ron Hall, Geoff Davies and Col Hall.
The historic first season Firsts line-up with the Morphett brothers, Rod, John and Ray in the front row.
Standing are Phil Dingle, Greg Gavin, Bobby Morris, Tony Carroll, John Benaud, Ron Hall, Geoff Davies and Col Hall.
In Seasons 1971/72 and 1972/73 the NSW Cricket Association invited the Hawkesbury Cricket Council, which included the Nepean District Cricket Association, to compete in its Rothmans Knock-out Competition. This was a Limited-Overs Competition played on Sundays.
In 1971/72 the team was eliminated in round one by Sydney but the following season defeated
Randwick and then, on 14 January 1973 thrashed Waverley by 119 runs in the Quarter-final.
The scores were:
The Semi-final was against Newcastle, always a tough nut to crack. The scores were: Newcastle 161 (T Walters 49, J Bentley 3/15, C Hall 3/61, R Morris 2/17) defeated Hawkesbury 133 (T Maroney 29, D Cooper 24, A Carroll 19, G Claridge 4/42, G Corling 2/15, R Wilkinson 2/4) by 28 runs. These strong Rothmans performances by the Hawkesbury Council team mightily impressed the NSWCA Grade Committee, which had been considering an application from the area for Grade status.
Many of the Council players would later play with the new Nepean (later Penrith) Grade Club: Tony Carroll, Colin Hall, Ian Forrester, Greg Gavin, Barry Clarence, Bob Morris and Ron Hall. A couple of these ‘pioneers’ displayed what these days is termed ‘attitude’, some were there only fleetingly, and one even caught the eye of the State selectors!