Vale Graham Johnson - The Greatest Waratahrian
He was … no is, a legend.
Not a term bandied about without deference to those who really earn the title, rather than the bloke who came back from the bar with a packet of chips.
Graham Johnson is a legend and his legend will live on loudly while ever even one former member of Waratahs Cricket Club draws breath. Graham however has left us.
Was it irony or a just unintentional timing that saw him depart on the 16th September and the very next day, his death unknown to club members at that stage, the club was celebrating his debut 56 years earlier and declaring him the greatest Blue Cap of all time.
Today, as he was being laid to rest in services in Armidale, the city he made his home up there in the New England region of NSW, it was the 53 anniversary of a partnership of 164 with his fellow legend, Alan Gray, on the opening day of the 1969 season. Guiley made 133 that day and Gray 111. Over time, they would be Waratahs heaviest run accumulators.
Some numbers later, because there is so much more than his outstanding batting, canny bowling and sharp slip fielding.
There was captaincy, the aspect of the game that earned Johnno that nickname of Guiley. He was shrewd and he was cunning. He studied batsmen over time and exploited not their weakness but their strength. The best players, he said, knew their weaknesses and spent a lot of time defending themselves against the chance of exposure. Guiley’s ploy was to leave them to that business and remove a man in the process of performing his strength - it’s likely, he said, he hasn’t spent as much time on his strengths in preparing for a big game.
He would move a fieldsman two or three times before settling him back in pretty much the same spot, a distraction that often led to the ball dropping straight into that same fieldsman’s hands.
He’d be chatty with batsmen sometimes and silent other times. He once stood beside a batsman and ordered a change in the field and then clapped his hands and said “okay … okay … remember what we talked about … okay … let’s go. Bowler? You right? Okay everyone.” None of us had a clue what he was talking about but the batsman was out three balls later.
All of that, of course, is just bag of tricks stuff and the Waratahs team he joined in 1966 and in the subsequent 15 years, was full of illusionists who worked into your headspace.
Significantly, when more than 70 former Waratahs players voted for their best team of all time, Johnno was not only the first chosen but he was unanimously selected its captain.
A rarer quality was his ability to mentor. Many very fine cricketers came through Waratahs ranks and played with and under Graham Johnson and his role in teaching them the game, especially in its broader sense, was crucial and these lessons stayed with them as they moved on to higher honours. Some learned so well that when the time came, they became mentors themselves.
I was never of that ilk. My first grade career was a frustration for my team mates and a disappointment for me. Even with an inordinate number of opportunities over a long period, I was left dreaming of one day reaching up to mediocrity. Johnno, by then dropping down to seconds to allow more space for younger players, passed on several kernels which made a difference and gave me pride in what I might achieve in a lower grade: how I could serve the club. He reminded me I loved the game. I went on to be a handy bat in the lowers, a club President and committed to a club which died twenty years ago. All that from a five minute conversation.
He won Premierships in 1st grade in 1971-72, 1974-75, 1977-78, 1986-87 and 1989-90. He captained two of those sides and when he went down to 2nds in the early 1980’s, he was Premiership skipper in 1985-86. In 1990-91, he left the club after 26 seasons, to captain the The Armidale School to the 1st grade trophy … beating Waratahs in the final in a huge boil over, largely due to his crafty band of inspiration captaincy.
His numbers, promised earlier, are a fair bit above impressive.
8320 runs @ 32.63
Highest of 163x for A grade v Easts 25/2/78
One of only 3 players to pass 150 twice
The most club centuries 15
The most century partnerships 14
Highest Club 3rd wicket partnership 262 with Martin Campbell 2nds v Uralla 25/2/89
Plus
196 wickets
Best 7-70 A grade v Uralla 11/2/68
Plus
111 catches
Guiley, by any measure, was the best Waratahs cricketer of all time. He was beloved of all despite being a dentist!
Yet all of the above hardly matters. Yes, we all remember the back foot drives that would stay at head height all the way for six at cover point; we’ll all remember him pulling the ball into Allan Hollerbrandse head at short leg and it going for four past cover; we’ll all remember the slow speaking voice, the QLD “eh” and that long, protracted “ahhhhhhhhhh” which punctuated sentences …
… but mostly …
… we’ll just remember a good bloke who loved the game and wanted everyone else to.
Vale Guiley.