Mel O'Neil: 100 not out

0:03Welcome to the Bear Essential podcast, where I will chat to the people who have contributed to the rich history of the Bayswater Morley Cricket Club, formerly known as the Bassendean Bayswater Cricket Club, established in 1946. My name is David Baird and my association with the club began in 1983, and over the years I've been a player, lower grade captain, president, secretary and club coach. Today I will be chatting to Mel O'Neil. Within his first two years at the club, he became secretary and WACA delegate, positions he held for 20 years. Mel also served 11 years as first-grade captain. During this period, he won seven Batting Aggregate Awards, eight Batting Average Awards, eight Bowling Aggregate Awards, and 12 Bowling Average Awards.

0:47He was awarded like membership in 1961-62. Simply, Mel was Bassendean Bayswater. In May 2026, he will be 100. Welcome, Mel. Thanks for your time. Mel, could you give us some background as to how you got to Bassendean Bayswater as it was then, back in the day? Well, I came down to school and stayed with my auntie and uncle who were actually, he was the SV bookmaker right just opposite the hotel in Bassendean. And this was during the war and I stayed there virtually because I worked then, went from school to stay and I didn't go back to the farm.

1:39And I didn't really play any cricket at school or we played about two matches a year because there was no grounds to play on because all the grounds were taken up by the army. And I was always quite good at cricket, although I never played very much. And we played tennis mainly because we had four tennis courts at the school.

2:06And only by pure chance that I started to play cricket, I was up at the farm on holidays and one of the blokes there said, oh, you know, I'm a good cricketer. No, he was a good cricketer. I said, oh, I think I could be a good cricketer too. And I said, I think I could play in Bassendean's side. And he said, oh, you couldn't. So I said, oh, I'll go down and see if I can. And that's how I came to play with Bassendean. Fantastic. And he was, so he went down, and at school, he wasn't such a great cricketer, but it was quite funny.

2:49He got in the seconds, and I got in the thirds the first time, and I thought I was a batsman bowler, but the first thing I noticed, I always put down a bat at number nine, so I made up my mind then I was never, ever going to get out, so they would have to promote me, and that's what I did, and then I never got out in thirds. I went to the seconds after two matches or three matches, I'm not sure. Never got out in seconds, but I still batted at number nine. And then I got the last match of the year, I played my first A-grade match against South Perth.

3:31Ted Holdrewis was the captain. He was a great captain, quite a reasonable bat and a reasonable bowler too. And he was the footballer and he played in the Swan District, He played at full forward or centre-half forward, finally played in the back line. And so I didn't even bother to look. I said, I'm bound to bat at number nine. So he came to me and he said, I think you're a lot better at batsman than all these other people have said. He said, you're batting at number five. So from batting at number nine in the seconds, I was going to bat at five in the first grade.

4:11And the chap that was still in with Clem Rose, and he was a good batsman and he was a wicketkeeper. And when I went out to bat, he said, don't worry, he said, we'll make a good score. And the first time, I made 35 and I got four wickets. So that was my first game and that was the end of the season. So I started off then and I was right. Mel, when you read through the evolution of the Bears and when you talk to players of those early days, simply no Mel O'Neil, no Bassendean Bayswater, which is an unbelievable compliment.

4:54You were secretary for 20 years and WACA delegate. Can you, I guess, give us an insight into the work and just the day-to-day runnings of a cricket club and how you saw things as they should be done? Well, in those days, the cricketers running the club usually had a president who wasn't, who was usually a father of one of the boys, And that was it. And there was no finance and anything like that. You were real. We were really battling, particularly when Ted left, because there was a couple of... Clem Rosewan left, and that was a real...

5:35He was their best best, and he was a wicketkeeper. And Ted retired, you know, and that made a big hole. We didn't really have any really good players, you know, senior players, you know. But actually, at the WACA level, there was 12 teams and they were trying to reduce it to 10. And they were trying to get rid of two of Midland, Bassendean or Netherlands. And as long as we stuck together, they couldn't eliminate us because they had to have three-quarters of majority or something like that.

6:16At any rate, I was offered a lot of incentives to go and play with other clubs to North Perth and Mount Lawley, which are close by. And they said, while you're at Bassendean, you're never ever going to get in the safe side because the wicket's not good enough. So it doesn't matter how you perform, we don't take any notice of it. But if you've played with those other clubs, we will get in. And I still said no. I said, Bassendean is, I live in Bassendean. I'm not leaving Bassendean. So I didn't. And so we looked around, a couple of us, and we thought we'd try Bayswater.

7:00So the president was Chris Wachko and the secretary was a chap called Smith who got into trouble later on. And then they said, well, look, they didn't have any top sport in their area. So they thought, well, we'll make Hillcrest your club. So we said, right, that's what we'll do and we'll have a good wicket and then we went from there right up and we became the strongest club. Although we didn't win a pennant, we were twice the top side at the end of the year, but we were unlucky a couple of times.

7:46We got caught on a final wicket, which is a solid time. We should have won and that was the one that was unfortunate. So, Mel, can I just take you back to the ground situation? So the club started at Bassendean Oval and Bayswater Oval and then in 1961-62 moved to Hillcrest from Bayswater Oval. Now, you know, we didn't go to, we only played a couple of matches at Bayswater. When we decided that we were going to get Hillcrest, we made a couple of, I think we only played two games there. Right, okay. So, and then there was obviously then the move from Bassendean Oval to Jubilee.

8:29How was your involvement in all that? What all happened there? Well, all the football clubs wanted all the wickets off the... So, although we've got Hillcrest, Bassendean still got us Jubilee for the thirds and the fourths. Yes, fantastic. We never played any... Well, we played one first-grade game there. Right. Very interesting. So, again, in those days of you doing the bulk of the work, There would have had to be some allies and some helpers. Who were the good people that you worked with? Oh, Astle and Eric Hill and Jeff Addison later on.

9:11There was a chap called, what's his name? But he was very good. He didn't know anything about cricket, but he helped us financially, you know, got us a bit of money every now and then. And then there was a lot of the players, you know, were always on the committee, you know, Bob Massie and all these blokes. They were all on the committee, you know, because that's how it operated in those days. So, again, the knowledge of the rules, you were very well known for your skill in interpreting rules and there's a good story about going out to Midland one day and claiming a victory there.

9:59Can you remember that, the story there? Yeah, well, I don't know about the rules. I mean, everybody should know the rules of cricket. But we couldn't start the game because they didn't have any wickets. And the rule was that if you couldn't start in 20 minutes, you're forward. At any rate, we waited just after half an hour and they sure couldn't start. So we said, all right, then I asked all the players first what we should do and they said, well, we may as well go forward. We can't stay here all day just waiting, waiting for if we can start.

10:42And, you know, if you lose so much time, the game's different. So that's what happened. So over that 20-year period of time, what were some of your most satisfying moments, firstly as a player and then maybe as an administrator? As a player, I think my ambition was so that players could get to, First of all, into the state side and then into the test side. And that was my ambition all the time. So the players could come from, because we started district cricket and that made the big difference because people couldn't take our players anymore, which they used to.

11:24Anybody that looked like being any good, somebody would pinch them because we couldn't. And then we had district cricket and that's when we started to really benefit because South Perth and us was first to run an under-14 competition amongst the schools. And then we started the under-16s. Everybody started the under-16s then. And we were very strong in the under-16s. And all those boys came up through our club and got into the statesides. And Bob was the first test player for the whole club. Nobody else was a test player before Bob.

12:05And chatting to Bob the other day, he mentioned that he was a scorer for a period of time that you recruited him for. Well, he was about 18 then. And he said, could he stay there? And he stayed there for about three or four months. And then they said, I'm going back. Fantastic. So as an administrator, you say getting guys into the test side and that, but what about any memorable games that you played in that, you know, you'd like to recall? Well, I think the most unusual game, One was North Perth at Perth Oval and they were five wickets down and wanted two runs to win.

12:47I got a wicket and the next bloke that came in thought all he did is he thought he was going to be the hero and he ran down the wicket and this dude got stumped. And then Bob got two wickets and they still wanted two runs to win and there was only one wicket left. And, you know, there was four made no's that Bob and I bowled and then all of a sudden I caught the bloke that short-legged Bob and we won one run. Fantastic, yeah. It was one that we shouldn't have won, but we did win. That was when we finished on top of the ladder, too.

13:28Mel, when we came to visit today, and I'm with Daniel Howes this afternoon, who's the current club president, you had cricket on the TV. You still enjoy watching the game? Oh, yes, yeah, watch all the cricket, yeah. And thoughts on T20s and the way the game's evolved over the years? Oh, yes, well, we had one day as we were poor when I was there, but there were 40 overs then. Yeah. And we played some in the district too, only one, I think, or two a year. But when it was a holiday game, we played a one-day game. Nice. You know, if there's a holiday on the Monday and that was, we played the one-day games then.

14:11Maybe going back, you've been back to Hillcrest a number of times for Life Members Days and functions. Obviously, massive changes to how the club looks today. Oh, yeah. And I think, how do you find that when you do come back and visit? Oh, well, that's just, that's the way things involve, you know. And you're pretty proud of how it's... Oh, yes, yes, yeah. The first thing I always do is look up the results every day. Every day they place. There's one thing I'm not sure I'd like to mention.

14:48Ian Goddard, he was an opening baster and he played for, he wasn't a bad player. Ian had a mole on his cheek and just before he got married, they said, oh, the photos, you'd better take the mole off. And it was cancer and it went right down. But anyway, he came back to play and we were playing at Fremantle. And I think it was, I'm not sure who was bowling, but he was fielding it, I was still in mid-on or something, in near close. And an easy catch came over and he went to catch it. But his left arm wouldn't move.

15:29And at the last minute, he threw his right arm over and of course he didn't catch it. He got the ball and threw it away. I think it went to a four. But everybody was silent because nothing happened and everybody didn't know what to do. And then the umpire said dead ball and then we all surrounded the Edmund. Wow. And that was the most unusual thing and I'll never forget that. Amazing. Mel, can you tell us maybe a little bit about what was it like playing back on the WACA ground back in those days?

16:13WACA ground, oh, it was easy. I liked playing on the WACA and particularly I liked bowling there. I got all good results in bowling. When we played in the final, I took four wickets there and I can remember taking five wickets in a grade match there quite easily because the wind helped the offspender because if you threw it up, if you relied on, say, turn, it wasn't so good. But if you relied on flight, it was very good. And the flight bowlers did well at the WACA. The turners didn't.

16:55Well, I think one of our off-spinners, Bret Mulder, had a pretty good day out at the WACA. Yeah, well, he's the same. He's a flight bowler. Yes, he's the same. And of course, you had like the two grounds. Yes, yeah. So you played there a lot, didn't you? Oh, yes, yeah. Oh, Mel, is there any other stories you might like to recount for us? There's only one. I think I've hit the longest ball because we were playing at Sheeran Park and Trevor Binstamp, who's a pretty quick bowler, he was bowling and I hooked him and it hit the road and the ball went right over the houses on the side because nobody went and got the ball because they didn't know if there was any damage.

17:46How brilliant. I'd forgotten about it until Bob reminded me of it some time ago. And so that's probably the longest or the furthest the ball has been hit. Yeah. Mainly because of the road. Yeah. So what were the pitches like back in those days, like at Hillcrest and Sher Park and that? Were they of good quality?

18:08Overall, the pitches weren't good. The one at Nedlands was very poor. It was okay sometimes and very bad sometimes, you know.

18:21And some of the others were, you know, they were not like anywhere near as good as, say, when we got to Hillcrest.

18:30We couldn't believe how good it is. But the Waka wickets are still the same. Fremantle was okay. Zubiaco, I only played there, I think, once because then they moved to Rosalie Park and then they went, now they play at Florida Oval. Florida Oval, yeah, because Florian had a second grade side. Yeah. They joined up. But, of course, they were eight ball overs too, eh? Yeah. Did you prefer eight ball overs or six ball overs? Eight ball overs. Yeah. Yeah, did you prefer the eight ball overs or?

19:11I never played them. You only ever played eight balls? Yeah. I've played the six ball overs. It'd be good as a spinner, I think, to really get your rhythm in the eight balls in and over for your spinners to really get their rhythm. I'm sure I'd want eight ball overs as a fast bowler, though. Yeah, well, Bob and them all did dead ball overs. Bob should have got, did better, really. He was unfortunate. They wouldn't select him. And finally, they select him in the safe side there. But then they wouldn't select him to go east because they reckon, oh, he was only a swing bowler and it whack-a-thooded him. And actually, I nearly, I got a really big piece about him and said selectors weren't doing a good job.

19:59you know, I really got caned over that by the administration because I was in the administration. I said, you can't complain about the selectors. But the next match, he got selected to go east. Yeah. And, of course, he got the first match he played on. He played with Dennis Livers there and Bob got four wickets. And, of course, then within a year, he was in a test sower. And he had struggled so hard to even get in the stateside. He was a better bowler before he got in the stateside than he was when he was at Testland.

20:45Yeah, yeah. But they wouldn't, they just wouldn't accept the fact that they'd said, he's just a WA bowler. And, you know, the WAC has not really said it to them either. And he just couldn't get it going. Yeah. And Wayne was our, Wayne Clark was our second test player. You would have had a bit to do with Wayne in the early days. Oh, yeah, Wayne was, I played with Wayne a long time. It was funny, we played a, John Rutherford, you know, he was one of the first test players. He finished up being a school teacher at Meriden and he asked me once to take the team up at Easter time and I said, oh, all right then.

21:31and we took, say, a harp, bass, and band, because a lot of our blokes were friendly with some of the others. We had Collie Harburn from Fremantle on the side and the two spinners from Mount Lawley. McGill and Mallop. Yeah, and because they were all friendly with our boys. So in that side, there was all those three, Bob Massie, Danny McEvoy, and Les Varis, And then Nassauville, you know, it was a... People didn't realise that they were seeing such a great team that would finish up.

22:18Yeah. Of course, we beat them easily up there, you know, but it was a good... But we used to go up to the country fair bit in those days because the WACA wasn't very popular in the country, particularly with the golf fields. And at any rate, the first team we took up there was Bob Muehlman, not Bob, Ken Muehlman was captain. And I was a manager and playing manager. And in the following year, Bob Simpson was captain and I was the manager.

23:00Actually, Bob made 76 and I made 74. So they were just like form, like you just formed some teams and then go bush. Oh, no, well, the ones that it goes to were selected by the, yeah. Okay. That must mean a high lot to get to play with Bob Simpson. I was called a man when WA played Brisbane, in Brisbane. And actually I played when the stateside played New South Wales country in Newcastle. We had in the side Tony Locke, Keith Sillager and myself.

23:41But they were going to be in the side four. So Murray Vernon was captain and he said, oh, he said, I don't want to bowl. And he said, because they've got to get some practice. I said, oh, that's okay. In the end, we had, like all the brothers used to play this.

24:02At any rate, they couldn't get him out. And I finished up bowling. It was just towards the end. And I only bowled one ball and I got him out. And so we decided to pack up then because we had to go by train to Brisbane. Yes. So I only bought one ball and bought one wicket. That was it. Harvey. Harvey. Harvey. Yep, yep. I can't remember which one it was now. Yep. Was it Neil? It was one of the other ones. One of the other ones, yeah. So do you travel, so you travelled like as a team manager for the state team, did you? Yes, yep, yeah. Twas. Okay. How'd that come about? They always had a manager.

24:44I don't know what they have now, but they still have a manager. And they asked you to do it because of your connection with the administration? The administration used to select a manager. I think now they probably have a manager all the time, you know, for the whole of the season. Yeah. But, well, they only had one manager because in those days, you did the four matches in a row because to save money. You know, you couldn't afford to fly over and fly back. And actually, if you were going from Melbourne to Sydney... you would go by train because it was cheaper than flying in those days.

25:26And also when we went from Sydney to Brisbane, well, we actually had to stop off at Newcastle Place, so we went by train and then by train.

25:37So, yeah. Different times, isn't it? Now they just fly backwards and forwards for a one-day game. There's a lot of money. Yeah. And it's the same, you know, you didn't get the coverage in the West Australian or the Dailing, yeah. Because we had two papers, like you do now, you know. Even the first grade, if there was a second innings and everything like that, that would probably hardly ever be published in the paper, you know. If it was, you know, to finish off the day, you would always play all out the time so people could get more practice, you know.

26:20Yeah. You wouldn't just stop when the C, when the one size, because we played not very much cricket.

26:29The results of second often weren't in the paper. And actually, to get them in value, we had to ring them through ourselves. Yes, I remember having to do that, and Daniel probably the same. We got in trouble if we didn't. Yeah, you get in trouble. Yes. It was, you know, because you're doing it on the phone, remember, Although, like, often the name's spelled wrong or slightly different names. Yeah, no, certainly. Yeah. Mel, it's been a privilege and a pleasure to chat to you this afternoon. Thank you. Okay.