Jim Curran Page 39

Alumni Reflection - Class of 1957 Jim Curran

From the Principal, Mr Joe Zavone: We received this reflection from old boy Jim Curran during Term One of this year. Jim had been keeping an eye on the Eddies Cricket Facebook page. He reached out to the parent who runs the cricket page enquiring how to go about obtaining a cricket cap as he has no physical souvenirs of his time at St Edmund’s. We sent Jim a cricket hat and College tie pin. Jim is now 79. Canberra was his home for 60 years, followed by 17 years in Muswellbrook and for the last two years he has been living on the Gold Coast. Jim knew Bishop Pat Power, in fact they started kindergarten at St Christopher’s together in 1948. When Eddies opened they both enrolled and have remained great friends ever since. Five years ago Jim and his wife renewed their wedding vows in celebration of 55 years of marriage. Bishop Pat travelled to Muswellbrook to celebrate the Mass.

My great thanks to Karen Hutchinson, one of College parents, for alerting us to Jim’s story. These are

Jim’s cricket reflections from his time at St Edmund’s

We used to play cricket on Wednesday afternoon against Canberra Grammar, Telopea Park, Saint Gregory’s and Queanbeyan. One of the greatest highlights of my days at Eddies was one afternoon when we were told there was special practice from 1pm till 3pm. We turned up and to our great surprise we were greeted by three Australian test players who had toured Great Britain in 1938, part of Sir Donald Bradman’s team. They were Jack Fingleton, who was an opening batsman and had two boys at Eddies, one was in my class. Then there was Stan McCabe, who was a brilliant batsman; he sold sports gear to the school and had a big sports store in Sydney. The third player was Bill O’Reilly, a great bowler who worked at Parliament House press gallery with Jack Fingleton. The practice went overtime and I missed the school bus home to Duntroon. When Mr O’Reilly found out he arranged for the Commonwealth car that came for them to take me home. When we got to my home there was a small gathering of people with my father who was very angry looking. He had asked my brother where I was and told him I had been at practice but did not see me get on the bus. We pulled up and Mr O’Reilly went up to my father. I did not know what was going to happen as dad was 6 ft 7 and O’Reilly was bigger. Mr O’Reilly beckoned Mr Fingleton and Mr McCabe to get out of the car (Stan McCabe happened to be my mother’s favourite player) and we all had afternoon tea together.

We all had to play in our zones for Saturday morning cricket. I was told I had to play with Ainslie, but my father disagreed, claiming that I was closer to Kingston. There was a short cut through a dairy farm down near the palliative care unit where there was a small foot bridge beside the power house. Turns out dad was right, so I played with Kingston in under 14s, I was age 12. I was an opening bowler some afternoons at Duntroon. My brother and I and a couple others used to go to the nets with a few cadets to practice (four of them), there were no helmets then and they were fast, and we ended up with plenty of bruisers. We shifted from Duntroon to Narrabundah, which was in Kingston zone, playing under 14 on Saturday morning. We often had to play in the afternoon with 2nds or 3rds so it was full on. I advanced to 1st grade at age 16. I was an opening bowler batting at number 10/11 … plenty of ducks or not outs.

I was a good fieldsman and we had a great side. I did not get a lot of batting. There were two fast bowlers that came to training and were straight in 1st grade. They had transferred to the banks at Kingston and boarded at Kingston guest house. My mother knew I was not very happy but told me not to give cricket away, then one Saturday I turned up at Manuka Oval, walked in and the captain and two selectors were having a discussion. They nodded to me - they were with a real smart looking gentleman and I had a feeling I was the topic of conversation, so I went and got changed (more on this to follow). There had been a lot of rain in that week. We lost the toss. I got the shock of my life when the captain (John Cope) came up and told me to put the pads on as I was opening. John Cope went in with me, he was a brilliant batsman, he said I could take strike. The opening bowler was Richard Searle, a left arm, very fast swing bowler who had been transferred to Canberra from Queensland. He had opened the bowling with one of Australia’s best, Ray Lindwall at Queensland in the Sheffield Shield at Marist. I believe there is an oval named after Ray Lindwall. I stayed opener for next 5 years representing Canberra.

I walked past a conversation between the captain and selectors that day about why I was not opening. Stan said I had always batted down the order. He told them he had seen me bat from age 12 and that I was one of the best players of fast bowling he had seen. He was one of the cadets who used to leave me battered and bruised. Just goes to show … hope you boys get the message here, how close I was to giving the game away.

Returning back to my story of the practise at Eddies with the former test players with a player Jack Fingleton. After Eddies he did 5 years at Duntroon, he was awarded the Queens Medal which is given to the best on their graduation and he went on to be Head Master at one of the biggest schools in WA. His son captained WA in Sheffield shield and played for Australia. The scoreboard at Manuka is Jack Fingleton Scoreboard. God bless, Jim Curran.