We’re traveling all the way back to the 1964/65 season to take a look at what has to be one of the most incredible matches in Wistow ‘A’ Grade History when Wistow took on the Mt Barker White side.
In those days, we competed in the Mt Barker & Eastern Hills CA comprised of 2-3 Mt Barker teams each season (known as the Whites, Blues & Reds), Hahndorf, Nairne, Onkaparinga, Biggs Flat (which appears to have been a combined Echunga/Mylor side) and Bremer and Callington (who were still two separate clubs at that time). Also competing in the recently formed ‘B’ Grade comp were sides from Hartley and Flaxley (who would soon merge with Macclesfield to field a combined Flaxley/Maccy ‘A’ Grade for most of the 1960s and 1970s).
Anyways, on the fateful day of 14th November 1964, Wistow and the Whites would meet up at the Hill with the Whites batting first only to be skittled for a Sydney Thunder-esque 15 in 12 overs, with Wistow openers Ian Croft (5 for 1 off 6 overs) and Brian “Sting” Nettle (5/12 off 6) needing little assistance from their fielders with 8 of the 10 dismissals being bowled or LBW.
In response, Sting virtually played a lone hand with the willow to top score with 56 but when he fell, it triggered a very Wistow-esque collapse of 7/3 to see the Echidnas bowled out for 87 in only 26 overs, the pick of the Whites bowlers being future Echidna, WCC life member and current AEHCA umpiring stalwart, Robin “Pud” Crompton who took 6 of those final 7 wickets (in the space of 7 balls across parts of 2 overs) to end up with figures of 6/18 from 2.3 overs including what appears to have been a triple hat-trick (5 wickets in 5 balls)!!
However, any Whites hopes of recovering for an unlikely outright victory were soon stamped out as the Echidnas bundled Mt Barker out again, this time for 59 runs to win by an inning and 13 runs. The pick of the Echidnas bowlers in the second dig was vice captain David Will with 3/5 from 2.2 overs.
Also playing for the Whites side was Ian Slade, who would go on to play the following 3 seasons for Wistow (including the 1965/66 and 1966/67 A Grade Premierships). Ian made a duck in the Whites first innings but top scored with 18 in their second dig and also bowled valiantly to take figures of 3/15 from 10 overs.
Meanwhile, the Echidnas side on that day featured no less than 6 future WCC life members (quite remarkable considering the very high threshold to be eligible for life membership – a minimum of 25 seasons of service to the club) in the aforementioned “Sting” Nettle along with Ken Nettle, Brian Blight, Doug Blight, Lloyd Paech and David Stokes.
The below photograph is of the 1963/64 ‘A’ Grade Premiership team which features Ian Croft (bottom centre) and Brian “Sting” Nettle (top, third from left) together with several of the aforementioned life members – Ken Nettle (top right), Brian Blight (top centre, face obscured), Doug Blight (top, second from left) and David Stokes (top, third from right, face obscured).
