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12th A.B.C.C Hobart Carnival
Submitted by Trevor Vayro
The Hobart Carnival was hosted by the Tasmanian Blind Cricket Club headed up by the President and Secretary John and Alan Richards. The carnival comprised a single round of matches with a two day final and was held during the period 28th December, 1974 to the 7th January, 1975. The five states of Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania competed in this carnival.
The Qld squad of fourteen players and four officials accompanied by fifteen supporters travelled to Hobart by QANTAS Brisbane to Melbourne and flight to Hobart. The squad and supporters arranged accommodation at the City Motel in North Hobart. The playing fields were situated at Goodwood Park, Glenorchy and catering for the players was at the Russell Hotel within a close distance to the fields.
The opening of the Hobart Carnival was undertaken by Member of Parliament Neil Batt, State Treasurer. This is an appropriate name for a sport of blind cricket. Unfortunately because of heavy overnight rain, the matches set down for the first day were cancelled and organised during a spare day. This spare day had become available because of the late withdrawal of the state of Western Australia. The grounds were also not suitable for play during the second day but were transferred to State Schools at Moona and Glenorchy.
Qld had a bye and was not inconvenienced.Queensland under the leadership of Brian Forster as Captain and several younger players from the Brisbane Carnival were keen to perform against the other states. The Hobart Carnival was when the nylon ball was first introduced and the colour at that time was either red or orange. The ball was made by Len Clothier from Adelaide. Queensland lost on the first innings to NSW after the usual close match. The second match was against South Australia and Qld won on the first innings after having failed to gain and outright through determined batting by South Australian players in their second innings. The match against Victoria was lost on the first innings as this state had too much depth in their batting. The fourth match was against Tasmania and was won on the first innings after a very close exciting match. Victoria and New South Wales would meet in the final whilst Queensland met South Australia in an unofficial match. This enabled Queensland to give several of their players not selected in the official squad the opportunity to have a match. The final proved to be a very exciting one with Victoria leading on the first innings by more than sixty runs. However, New South Wales through a fine bowling spell by Glen Siddins failed in their second innings and was dismissed for seventy runs. New South Wales scored the necessary runs with their last batsman Jeff McNeill scoring more than twenty runs.
Best players for Queensland were Terry Eagers and Neil Campbell. Best Australian players were Terry Eagers and Bob Hodder. Players making their debut to carnival cricket were Neil Campbell from Queensland and Steven Short from Victoria. This was the last carnival match for Bob Hodder as because of work and family commitments he retired from carnival cricket.
Prior to the squad departing Hobart, on the 5th January residents and visitors to the City heard the news of the collapse of the Tasman Bridge linking South with North. Unfortunately some loss of life occurred with this accident.
Queensland players returned to Brisbane after finishing third in the carnival and all looked forward to the Adelaide Carnival to be held two years later. Enjoy your winter recess and I look forward to meeting you at Yeronga Park when the season commences.
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this page was last modified 09 January 2000