Wicket taking secret revealed
The secret to taking more than 500 A grade wickets is out.
It’s simple. At least, according to veteran Halloran quick Simon Phillips.
“For most of my career I relied mostly on moving the ball into right handers (away from lefties),” Phillips said.
Undoubtedly, an innocuous sounding approach. However, it is one that has troubled batsmen after batsmen, over after over, season after season in the Warragul and District Cricket Association.
On October 18 in round two of season 2015/16, the WDCA stalwart was at it again moving the ball back into the pads of Western Park captain Allan Chandler, trapping the allrounder in front for 11, and achieving the scarcely believable feat of 500 A grade wickets for Hallora, the club he has represented since 1994/95.
Prior to this, Phillips played his junior cricket and made his initial senior endeavours at Ellinbank, before moving in December 1992 to Nilma-Darnum to have the chance to play A grade cricket.
Tempted by good friend Craig Hutchison to make the move, Phillips spent a successful season and a half at the Dusties - representing the league at GCL and senior Country Week.
However, when Hallora were accepted into the A grade competition in 1994, Phillips made the change and has stayed there ever since. Statistics from his Nilma-Darnum days are - to the best of Phillips’ knowledge - lost forever, but he believes he claimed around 35 victims in his time at the Dusties.
At Hallora however, the statistics are laid out for all to see.
Twenty years, 3059.5 overs (18,359 balls for those playing at home), 820 maidens, 15 5-for’s, 500 wickets.
His first scalp for Hallora was in their first A grade game.
Taking the new ball in the first over of the match, he was able to breach the defenses of Chris Ayres and send his stumps - and Ayres packing. Out of his 535 (approximate) A grade victims, ‘Sos’ counts two others as equally memorable.
Having moved from Ellinbank to Nilma-Darnum he removed Keith Gilbert with his very first delivery for the club - luring the batsmen into a false shot and snaring an edge that was safely snaffled by Rick Emery behind the stumps.
The second came in the 2005/06 A grade grand final against Western Park where he had Adam Mason caught at bat-pad for 0, one of five wickets he snared in an unplayable opening spell.
In that game he finished with 6-32 from 22 of the highest quality overs, and followed it up with an unbeaten 28 that sealed a tense threewicket win for Hallora their first A grade premiership.
The match stands out clearly in Phillips’ mind.
“The first flag we won in division 1 was huge,” he said.
“It felt like the whole community was out there behind us, both at the game and afterwards.”
Among the keys that have kept him at Hallora for 20 years is that very sense of community. In his time, there has been the construction of new social rooms, the installation of the turf wicket, and the continued development of the club as a force.
“All these things didn’t seem initially possible without community support,” he said.
His longevity has also seen him achieve the remarkable feat of playing A grade cricket with both is father and brother, and Phillips also appeared alongside his son in division two last summer on his way back from injury.
When prodded on the best batsmen he has faced in the league Phillips comes up with three names. Bob Baldry: “He was a great batsmen even in his later 40’s”. Dale Serong: “For his ability to take apart any bad bowling”,
and Graeme Rankin: “He had very good concentration and a tight defence”.
It is likely that a sense of modesty stopped Phillips short of noting that he - in all likelihood - bested them on many an occasion.
Phillips has seen great change in the association over the course of the past 20-odd years.
The increased professionalism in A grade, the move from two-piece to four-piece balls in the higher grades, the ‘death’ of the Nilma-Darnum Dusties, the installation of four turf wickets across the association, and the recent appearance of overseas firstclass cricketers in the WDCA.
Despite these changes though, one thing has remained constant. The ever-present threat that Phillips is to batsmen.
The latter issue has particularly caught Phillips’ attention, due in no small part to Hallora’s recent recruiting.
The club are no strangers to overseas players, with the likes of Benjamin Stebbings, Laurence Scott, and this season Hugo Whitlock all moving over from England for a summer.
When asked about the emergence of such players Philips was enthusiastic about their presence.
“I think the right player can improve a club and it’s a good thing to have exposure to different cultures and different ideas,” he said.
When quizzed about his future for Hallora, Phillips was philosophical about his outlook on the game.
“I couldn’t say I’ve still got the drive I had earlier in my career,” he said.
“Back then playing and winning seemed like everything, obviously as you get older you get a bit more perspective in your life.
“I definitely think I will play some division two cricket - in some part I’ll be disappointed if I don’t because that will mean younger blokes aren’t playing to their potential.”
A grade batsmen can’t rest too easily though with Phillips noting that he still has the belief that he can play a role in division one if that’s where Hallora requires him.
No doubt many more opening batsmen will have to face the nervous walk out to the middle to face a fired-up Phillips, cradling the new-pill in his hands, before his career is over.
A couple of hundred more wickets maybe?