Cawkers Well now has a cricket club (ABC: Catherine Heuzenroeder)
"Elaborate plans are coming to fruition for bush cricket to be played at an outback cattle station.The support of volunteers to make the unusual event possible has knocked the organisers for six.More than 200 cricket-loving Rotarians from across Australia and abroad will make the trek to Cawkers Well, where a temporary cricket pitch has been established with the help of former Adelaide Oval curator Les Burdett.The station, east of Broken Hill in far western New South Wales, has been a hive of activity as volunteers have established irrigation, turf and fencing at the oval, amid 1,000 head of cattle on the property.The venture stemmed from a chance discussion between two Rotarians.Cawkers Well station owner Charles Townsing and fellow Rotarian Des Watts, from Berri in the South Australian Riverland, were overlooking an old cricket oval at the station when Mr Watts made what he thought was a throwaway remark."I said 'We'll have a game of cricket while we're here' and I just said it as a joke then walked away, but that's what's happened," he said.Mr Townsing and Mr Watts met when the latter was touring Australia on his motorbike and heard about Mr Townsing and his involvement with Rotary during a radio segment on ABC Broken Hill."
The "pitch" being prepared for the game:
It's an international game to be held at the station, we've got a team from India, from New Zealand and from each state of Australia and this just started out as a joke
Mr Watts decided to stop by the vast cattle station, 140 kilometres east of Broken Hill. "Out of that the idea was to have a motorcycle meeting up there because we're always looking for something different," Mr Watts explained. "Charles said 'I've got an oval over there, at the end of the airstrip' and I said 'Well, we'll have a game while we're there'."
The bush cricket will be held during on first weekend of November and proceeds of the event will support Rotary, Legacy, Variety SA and the Royal Flying Doctor Service.
2 comments:
I've always considered cricket the slowest game on earth and therefore unable to keep my attention. But I do recall listening to a cricket match on my car radio (there was nothing else that I could get) and becoming so engrossed, that what should have been an hour's drive turned into nearly two. I was driving slowly, totally enthralled with the broadcast. Of course it has never happened again!
Here in Canada it's mainly the Indians, Pakistani's, and Srilankans that play cricket.
I just got the book Empty Cradles from the library (had to order it) and can't wait to start reading it. Thanks for the info on the bugs,
Gill
Post a Comment