On March 21, 2015
This article, written by Danny Lannen, originally appeared in the Geelong Advertiser
GEELONG Cricket Association owes former Leopold speedster Colin Corstorphin a profound debt of gratitude.
Back in 1981, the one-time Victorian new-baller scythed through an opposing Geelong association outfit for a return of 10 wickets.
When none in Geelong circles could determine whether the haul was a record or not, East Belmont player and statistician Kevin O’Dowd was incensed.
“I was dismayed and embarrassed that a cricket association the size of Geelong, one of the biggest associations in the country, did not have a book of first XI records,” O’Dowd said.
“So I vowed from that day to rectify this abhorrent situation and research and publish all GCA first XI records.”
His word was ironclad.
With astonishing dedication, perseverance and eye for accuracy across countless hours, anchored in a limitless love of the game, he has furnished the association with a body of work that is as important as it is immense.
Every first XI game from 1896 recorded in central annals; every player, every run, every wicket, every catch, every oddity, every routing, every upset, every triumph, Kevin O’Dowd has it all in the Geelong Cricketers Almanac.
By any measure it is an extraordinary body of work and in his 50th year as a club and association statistician and historian, it is one that deserves celebrating.
Perhaps Sir Donald Bradman said it best in the foreword he penned for the first of O’Dowd’s epics, Geelong’s Blazing Century, Runs and Wickets Since 1862.
The Don asserts that Test cricketers “are merely the display in the shop window”.
“The health and future of the game lies in the hands of the untold numbers of cricket lovers and supporters who labour behind the scenes, largely unseen and unheard,” he said.
“They are the workers who pour a life-giving river of blood into the veins of cricket, without which it would atrophy. Kevin O’Dowd is a splendid example of one such worker.”
World cricket has its holy Wisden. O’Dowd has ensured Geelong cricket has an almanac of its own and appropriately a copy of its first instalment — Blazing Century — sits on the library shelves at the home of cricket, Lords, at the request of curators.
When O’Dowd started his labour of love, already a numbers man as a career accountant, only three of the association’s 47 clubs that had fielded firsts teams had records stored.
His mission to fill the vast gaps started with combing weekly association scores stored in Geelong Advertisers at the Geelong Historical Records Centre and transcribing them by club, by player and by season.
“I did this each lunchtime but after a year realised the task would take me forever. So I then, from the microfilm, took copies of the Addy Monday editions of the cricket page results so I could take them home,” he said.
“Hence I have a copy of each Monday Addy cricket results page from 1896 stored in 18 A4 binders at home.”
He has records of more than 4600 players — himself among them by slender margin.
All-rounder O’Dowd played mainly seconds and thirds during a career that reached from 1964 to 1985, starting with two seasons with St Joseph’s, continuing at East Belmont and concluding with two seasons at Newtown & Chilwell.