Uni dream a half-century slog

Will Bosisto suspended for grand final

It is 50 years since University Cricket Club last won an A-grade premiership.

That’s half a century of heartache and grind, toil and turmoil, false hopes and dashed dreams.

I’ve been there for 43 of those years – a fair bit more than two-thirds of mine and half the club’s active life – mostly spent slogging slow laps of picturesque James Oval, celebrating great wins and commiserating galling losses, preparing tribunal defences and sponsorship proposals, and spending countless hours in the cluttered Irwin Street Pavilion committee room trying to maintain the thread of success demanded by the famous names gold-lettered on the honour boards around the walls.

The opportunity to end that long drought will arise this weekend when Uni take on Joondalup in the grand final at the WACA Ground.

Times are much different to 50 years ago but cricket, a game which confronts regular revolutionary paroxysms that have introduced new formats and focuses, has not really changed much.

Success still depends on finding exceptional talent, developing sufficient depth for when the talent is absent, cultivating an environment for it to flourish, getting the new and old to gel, directing traffic effectively, being smart or cool or hot when required and, crucially, having luck at the right time.

In 1974-75, the team was young but rising. And it had all the factors above.

It was a golden era for WA cricket with five Sheffield Shields wins in seven seasons and Uni, with recruiting rules that made it mandatory for UWA students to play for the club but leave on graduation, reflected that glitter.

Recent Test player and WA stalwart John Inverarity was the astute, firm and seasoned captain; 18-year-old Graeme Wood a future Test star.

Ric Charlesworth had just taken the first steps into what would become one of the great international sporting careers while Colin Penter was still a couple of years away from scoring a century on shield debut.

Rob McFarlane would play a couple of shield games; Earle Scarff come close in a strong era for top order batsmen.

Pacemen Mick McManus, Denis Ireland and Kevan Penter were feisty and effective.

Ric Charlesworth, left, Earle Scarff, Kevan Penter, Colin Penter, John Inverarity and Greg Davies were part of University’s 1974-75 premiership team.

It was a robust team made up of strong-minded members.

Debate was ever-present, even with a captain who had won Uni’s two previous flags and WA’s three past shields. Arguments – about tactics, selection, even the government of the day - were not unheard of.

Uni had by far the better of the grand final against Scarborough though Wood, whose century in the first innings set up the win, was dark for several decades about the way the game finished. He might still be, actually.

Wood was 46 not out leading into the last day and eyeing off the chance to become the first – and still only – batsman to score a century in each innings of a pennant grand final.

But Uni were 300 odd ahead and with no prospect of a declaration, Scarborough captain Derek Chadwick, no stranger to grand final losses given his record six defeats at East Perth during a brilliant WAFL career, was eager to call it quits.

Twenty years after that victory, and the club in far different shape as external and internal winds buffeted it, I became its almost accidental president.

It was a turbulent period. Uni needed Supreme Court action in 1984 to stay alive after the WACA evicted the club from the competition and though that battle was eventually won, it came at a high price.

Recruiting was made more difficult, influential but insular cricket figures smarting at the legal failure whispered in the shadows, and it became increasingly difficult to attract and retain players.

That made AGMs dangerous affairs. The shoe box that doubled as the treasury was invariably empty, there were few attendees and those present were highly likely to be dragooned into positions of responsibility.

So it was for me.

Elected as the least reluctant of very few candidates, I soon found there were only two parts to the job – secure enough money each month to keep the club afloat and each week find 44 players capable and interested enough to put four teams on the park.

Both goals were achieved, just, with small victories providing great vindication for the grind.

The day a threadbare 4th grade team of just eight players pushed powerhouse Midland-Guildford to the brink of a rare defeat was worth a month of wins at a different time.

Slowly, but surely, things improved.

Players emerged, including a couple in Chris Rogers and Ashton Agar who played Test cricket, the bank balance went from three to four to five figures and beyond, and eventually the foundations were restored sufficiently to house ambitious plans.

Now the opportunity is here to execute the biggest plan of all.

But the team will have to break the drought without Will Bosisto, a driven, disciplined and imaginative player who has produced an extraordinary season involving 48 matches in six competitions in three countries.

That includes stints for Karnali Yaks in the Nepal Premier League and an excellent series for Khulna Tigers in the Bangladesh Premier League.

Bosisto’s success as a bargain-basement match-winner in those two Twenty20 leagues will open doors for him around the world this year and provide far more lucrative pay days.

The subject of this Substack column when he had just reached 1000 runs in the early part of the season , he has been suspended by the WACA tribunal.

Bosisto was found guilty of swearing at an opponent who sledged him just as the batsman raised his bat to celebrate a remarkable century.

Will Bosisto was exhausted after scoring a 5 1/2 century in the preliminary final. He was suspended for the grand final after responding to the Willetton bowler who sledged him just as this photo was taken. The incident provided the greatest discrepancy between offence and penalty in recent WACA history.

The team in trouble at 4-69 against Willetton whose batting order contained recent Australian representatives Cam Bancroft and D’Arcy Short, Bosisto manipulated the innings so effectively that Uni got to 326 and were able to squeeze their opponents out of the contest.

It was a master class in tactical manoeuvring, self-discipline, concentration and timing straight from the Michael Bevan handbook.

The exhausted Bosisto reached the milestone after batting for 5 ½ hours in stifling conditions and turned to acknowledge his pregnant wife, his and her parents and a big group of supporters.

It was a moment of extreme emotional vulnerability, a moment that Bosisto will regret for the rest of his life after reacting for the first time to hours of sledging.

Grand finals are not won by one player. Bosisto will be replaced this weekend though his spirit will remain with his team-mates.

It will be a big test for them but history awaits.