Ellerslie cricket club
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Ellerslie Cricket Club is a cricket club formed in 1922 at Michaels Avenue Reserve, Auckland.[citation needed] The club served some well-known players, including Ole Mortensen and English Internationals, Devon Malcolm and Wilf Slack. Notable players developed at the club include Bill "Chook" Fowler, Martin Pringle and umpire Barry Frost.[citation needed]
Ellerslie Cricket Club has 9 Senior Men's sides and 1 Ladies' side and a roster of over 150 junior players. The club's mascot is the racehorse Bonecrusher, and the club colours are Black and Gold.[1]
Ellerslie's playing season spans from October to March. The clubrooms are located above the YMCA on Michaels Avenue and are shared with Ellerslie Soccer Club.[1]
Current
[edit]Until the 2005/2006 season Ellerslie's first team played in the First Grade of the Auckland Cricket Club Competition. As a part of restructuring of the Auckland Club Cricket, Ellerslie first grade team merged with the University of Auckland Cricket Club's first grade and collectively had two teams playing in Premier and Premier Reserve Grade respectively. This merge of Ellerslie first grade with Auckland University's first grade was for a 4-year lock in period. Ellerslie now has stand alone sides in both the Premier and Premier Reserve grades.
Junior cricket
[edit]Ellerslie suffered from a moving population with junior cricketers. This made it hard to gain and keep existing and new cricketers through to the senior level.
Going by photo's taken of teams in the 1920s the club had real strength and again in the 1950s. In the 70's a new influx of youth joined the club as it was critical by ACA rules that all clubs must foster junior cricket.[citation needed]
Usually, parents ensure the kids are looked after and coached properly and the club had stated it "had been lucky to have them". People like Roy Schnauer, John Molesworth, Dave Cosgrove, Harold Butler, Wayne Young and many more were assisted by regular club members over the years.[citation needed]
During the 1990s, Kevin Williams took over the junior team.
The Junior Club has had many reps in both the district squads and playing for Auckland.[citation needed]
Ladies cricket
[edit]The Ladies Team was associated with the club in early 1980. Ellerslie formed a team from ALHA, made up of past NZ & Auckland rep cricketers. This team played in the top Auckland grade and contributed to the social aspect of the club.
The current plays in the Women's First grade. They have won the championship in 2004/2005 season, and placed second in 2005/2006 season they
Jubilees
[edit]Ellerslie Cricket Club celebrated two anniversaries. The 60th was in 1982 and 75th in 1997, the latter of which included people coming from Australia and The South Island. Both occasions were special for the club bringing past members together and talking over past times and exploits.
The most celebrated occasion was in 1982 when the Auckland Racing Club named a race after the club. The winner's photo is currently displayed in the clubrooms.
Notable players
[edit]The following Ellerslie players went on to make representative level:
- Shona Gilchrist (Auckland and New Zealand)
- Rob McKinlay (Auckland and New Zealand Under 20)
- Sean Tracey (Auckland and New Zealand)
- Martin Pringle (Auckland and New Zealand A)
- Bill Fowler (Auckland)
- Martin Bradley (Auckland)
- Emily Drumm (Auckland and New Zealand)
- Dean Bartlett (New Zealand Under 19 and Auckland Aces) [citation needed]
When Ellerslie made the premiership grade, they began to call upon English county professionals, with the following known to have played for the club:
- Wilf Slack
- Ian Gould
- Harry "Bhuna" Bliss
- Iain Anderson
- Ole Mortensen
- Bernie Maher
- Bill Fowler
- Devon Malcolm
- Harshad Patel
- Bradley Parker [citation needed]
Former Finance Minister Roger Douglas and umpire Doug Cowie are also thought to have played for Ellerslie. [citation needed]
History
[edit] | This article or section may have been copied and pasted from another location, possibly in violation of Wikipedia's copyright policy. (August 2026) |
The exact date the club was founded is unclear, but it was fully operational by 1907, when it held an annual meeting.[2] By 1927, the club was playing fixtures away from home, facing off against a side from Karaka.[3]
In the early 1920s, the club was playing in the Auckland City & Suburban competition.[4] [citation needed] Club historian and life member Warren Chapman claims that spin bowler Charlie Kerr turned out for Ellerslie during this time period, citing contemporaneous photographs.[4] Chapman also notes that Rex Hooton and John Wiltshire appeared for the club during the 1950s.[4]
By the 50s, the club was playing at The Ellerslie Domain,[4] before purchasing a former US Army building, which became their clubrooms until 1979.
1970s
[edit]This decade saw the club move from a mid grade club playing good cricket through to the ACA Premiership Competition in just 9 seasons.
During the 1970s, the club expanded its playing roster, including the addition of Australian players Ross Hackett and Steve Chapman. Hackett previously represented the New South Wales junior cricket team during his early playing career.
Other players to strengthen the club in the early 1970s were Alan & John Verral, Ian Rout, Graeme Atkinson and many others.
In the 1973/74 season Ellerslie won the ACA Major Club Championship for clubs with 4 or more teams in their ranks which helped establish the club in Auckland club cricket.
In the same year, Ellerslie bolstered its lineup with the arrival of Malcolm Beach from the Eden Roskill club and Stu McKay, both skilled spin bowlers. Supported by the medium-fast pace of Steve Chapman and Blain Mahood, the side began to draw increasing attention for its emerging competitiveness.
During the 1976/77 season, the Secretary of the ACA, Quinton Baddelly, introduced promotion relegation twice a year. Winning each grade Ellerslie entered, both at Christmas and at season's end, they were knocking on the Premiership door.
In the 1978/79 season Ellerslie won its way into the ACA Premiership Competition and its First A side won their way into the ACA Senior A Competition.
Ellerslie was the first club to actually win its way into the premiership in decades as other clubs like Takapuna & Howick Pakuranga were installed in the premiership purely on club numbers. Ellerslie qualified by winning promotions.
1980s
[edit]In the 1980s, the club really started to grow, aided by the promotion to the Premiership competition. Ellerslie gained the services of two respected English professionals, Wilf Slack, a left hand opening batsmen and medium pace bowler who was West Indian and Ian Gould, a wicketkeeper and right hand batsman. Both Wilf & Ian hailed from the Middlesex County Cricket Club 2nd XI but in future years would both move on and play for England.
Ellerslie played his first Premiership match against Suburbs New Lynn. This was then played in a one-day match format. This involved Peter Webb and John Reid, who were both players for Auckland and New Zealand. Ellerslie emerged the winner, thereby beginning a successful decade for the club.
Under the captaincy of first Malcolm Beach and then Bill Fowler, the team made steady progress and established itself as a competitive cricket side. Although Ellerslie experienced some difficult seasons during its formative years, it never finished last in either the One-Day or Two-Day competitions.
The 1983/84 season was the turning point for the club when it finished
- 2nd in the Major Club Championship,
- 1st in the HEC MEMORIAL ROSEBOWL (best premier run rate)
- 3rd Grade won THE OPOTIKI CUP winning the grade,
- 4th and one day 1 pennant winners for 1st round wins
- and the highlight of the season when the Premiers won the
- LION BREWERIES CUP for the ONE DAY FINAL win over Papatoetoe on the last ball of the day at Eden Park No 1.
That season's English professional was Ole Mortensen, a fast bowler from Derbyshire and Denmark.
Other notable players of the day were the old sea dog Alan Hill and the young brigade of Martin Pringle, Martin Bradley, Mark Sumich, John McGregor & Mark Keogh who were to be the nucleus of the team for many years to come under the captaincy of Bill (chook) Fowler.
Ellerslie later won the 1985/1986 ACA Two-Day Premiership. The team had fast bowler Devon Malcolm who was playing for Derbyshire County Club in England at that time. Malcolm then went on to represent England in test matches.
This win was significant as once again Papatoetoe were Ellerslie's main rival with only 4.28 points separating the two teams going into the last match of the season but an outright victory over University saw Ellerslie through to its first major premiership title.
As well the Senior A also won the PRESIDENTS CUP as winners of the Senior A competition making the 1985/86 season the most successful in the history of the Ellerslie Cricket Club.
Other One Day Championship titles were collected in 1986/87 over Takapuna, 1989/90 over Suburbs New Lynn and 1991/92 over Cornwall.
Ellerslie also played in the Premiership final against Grafton in a 3-day match at Eden Park, but were outclassed on this occasion, finishing 2nd. A number of Ellerslie's premier players retired in the early nineties, leaving a big gap to fill, but it has had many fine performances since, with many more to come.
As well as the contribution given by all the players over this period to gain such successes the long-serving scorer Frank Lancaster also contributed significantly during this period.
1990s
[edit]This decade started well but as mentioned, the retirement of some of Ellerslie's established players saw the club go back into a rebuilding mode and even though it had not gained great heights, the club has been steady. Financial woes affected the club like many other sports clubs in the later part of the decade. The ongoing committees have worked hard to fix the problems.
2000s and 2010s
[edit]As is, of most sports, the success of the club is gauged on the top team and unfortunately due to a restructure by the ACA the Premier Team was relegated in early 2000s to a new grade called 1st grade with promotion relegation. Ellerslie is now (2006/2007 season) back in the Premier grade after Ellerslie's top team merged with Auckland University's first grade.
Going into season 2010/11 thanks to hard work from the committee the club is now once again a stand-alone Premier Club.
References
[edit]- 1 2 "Fraser, Angus Robert Charles, (born 8 Aug. 1965), Managing Director, Cricket, Middlesex County Cricket Club, since 2009; Selector, England Cricket Team, since 2014", Who's Who, Oxford University Press, 1 December 2007, retrieved 17 July 2026
- ↑ "Ellerslie Cricket Club". paperspast.natlib.govt.nz. 3 October 1907. Retrieved 11 August 2026.
- ↑ "Ellerslie cricketers' day in the country". paperspast.natlib.govt.nz. 25 October 1927. Retrieved 11 August 2026.
- 1 2 3 4 "Ellerslie Cricket". www.ellersliecricket.co.nz. Retrieved 11 August 2026.