Memories of summers past

IT BEGAN in a backyard in Maud Street Grafton in 1948 – a makeshift practice cricket wicket was constructed at the rear of Russell Ellem’s home and it was there the Westlawn Cricket Club was born.

Tomorrow night Westlawn is celebrating the club’s 60th anniversary and there will be no prouder person in attendance than Russell, a life member of the club.

Ellem, who was a member of the original 1949 side, is recognised as one of the best all-round cricketers produced on the Clarence and his passion for cricket has not diminished since those Maud Street days.

“My dad laid the cement for the wicket, you weren’t supposed to hit hard ... it was for practise,” Ellem said.

“Westlawn used to practise Tuesdays and Thursdays, it was the only practice wicket in Grafton at the time.

“After the war it was hard to get people to practise ... for some reason they weren’t interested.”

Ellem said the club struggled to attract players in its first season due to teething problems with the introduction of a new zoning system.

“Boundary lines were drawn up with the original Westlawn area being west of Mary Street to Oliver Street to Turf Street and Richmond Road to Junction Hill. All players had to play in the area where they resided,” he said.

“We only had 29 players for three teams with only seven in third grade ... that was the only time we were short of players...as far as I know.”

Like most cricket clubs starting off, funding was an issue for the fledgling Westlawn outfit.

“We were struggling for money so myself and Reg McLennan decided to do something about it,” Ellem said.

“The association were not interested in running anything so Reg and I decided to put on a dance.

“At the start of the 1949-50 season the NSW Shield side captained by Keith Miller played a stop-over game in Grafton so we held a dance in honour of the visiting team.

“Through word of mouth we had young fellows coming from everywhere ... we even ran out of tickets.

“We charged two-bob to get in and we ended up raising enough money to purchase three full kits ... we were amazed.”

During the early days Westlawn produced some outstanding cricketer – McLennan, Neil and Ken Martin, John Moy, wicket-keeper John Fenn and of course Russell, Keith and Don Ellem.

Few cricketers get the opportunity to play against some of the greats in the game and for Russell Ellem, playing against the likes of Miller, Sid Barnes and Arthur Morris was special.

“I had two seasons playing in Sydney for Balmain and came up against plenty of players who represented NSW and Australia,” Ellem said.

For Ellem, the highlight of his cricket career was representing Northern NSW against the world’s most famous cricket club – the Marylebone Cricket Club.

“We played the MCC at Lismore; I got 3-10 and scored 40 runs. They had a wonderful side with players like Alec Bedser, Trevor Bailey and Godfrey Evans,” Ellem said.

Tomorrow night will be a special one for Ellem. It will be a chance to rekindle old friendships and discuss the game he loves.

Current Westlawn Cricket Club president Ken Wilson said the celebrations start at 6.30pm at the Crown Hotel and for those interested in supporting the current first grade side they can gather at the camphor laurel tree at Ellem Oval on Saturday.