THEY may not be as quick between the wickets these days, but a group of 24 veteran cricketers recently proved that where there is a willow there is a way, setting a world record in the process.
Participating players set the Guinness record for the cricket match involving the world’s two oldest teams at Narre Warren North cricket ground on November 19.
The match saw the world’s second oldest team – with an average age of 74.83 – narrowly defeat the world’s oldest team – average age 78.91.
It was the brainchild of Casey Veteran’s Cricket match convener Rob Wilson, who had the idea for arranging the match while moving house.
He found an old newsletter featuring an article by John Hammer, founder of Veteran’s Cricket Victoria, talking about a game between North and South Yarra in 2003 that set the previous record with an average age of 75.
There were no fixtures drawn for the 70-plus players on the weekend of November 17, so Rob decided to try to arrange two teams to have a go at breaking the record.
The response to his call was so strong that he was too young to qualify for either of the teams despite being 73.
“I missed out by a month and 10 days, but you have to play by the rules,” he said.
Two players who did get to take to the field for the world’s oldest team were Jimmy Armstrong, 77, and Kevin Brown, 76.
Jimmy had been a keen cricketer for most of his life before retiring at 50.
“I’d never heard of veterans cricket and as soon as I heard about it, I had to have a go,” he said.
Since rejoining, he has toured and played cricket in countries including Samoa, the US (Hawaii) and New Zealand. Next on his list is India.
Kevin described himself as “the baby of the team”, saying he had a great time during the game.
“The spirit we played in was absolutely brilliant, but everyone still took it quite seriously,” he said.
“Some people think we’re mad chasing cricket balls around, but I’m not going to die in a rocking chair, I’ll tell you that.”
The second oldest team ended up beating the oldest team with scores of 1/141 off 30 overs and 6/127 respectively.
The oldest team was Roger Grosvenor, Rex Thompson, Terry Dunn, Daryl Clark, Alan Duffus, Norm McLeod, Bruce Hotton, Tom Sankey, Ian McLeod, Jimmy Armstrong, Terry Lindsey and Kevin Brown.
The second oldest team was Frank Benjamin, Keith Sanders, Bill Allsop, Steve Strahan, Ian Wilson, Alan Jelliffe, Michael Perrett, Les Boyd, Graeme Freshwater, Bill Best, Alan King and Phil Higgins.