Ken & Neil McAullay: you ducked or you hooked

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 Ken and Neil McAullay. Ken, or Not Easy as better known, represented Western Australia in 22 first class matches, 88 first grade games for Bayswater Morley. Ken was also one of the last sportsmen to be able to combine football and cricket at the highest level.

0:43He was a champion of the East Perth Football Club, winning a premiership, Simpson medals for the best on ground in state games versus Victoria, and also best on ground in a grand final, together with a Tassie medal for the best player in a national carnival. Neil, or Sticks, also played 88 first grade games for the club and captained the seconds. Neil also served as secretary for six seasons and was awarded life membership in 1985-86. Today I'm talking to Ken, Noddy McAullay, and Neil, Sticks McAullay, and we'll go with Sticks and Noddy through the chat so everyone will know where we're at. Now guys, same games for Bayswater Morley, one wicket each. My first question, who were your victims and what were you bowling? Sticks, I cannot remember who I got out, unless bowling leg breaks.

1:34Fair enough. I was a quick medium bowler, I was a net bowler really, but I was given the ball by Mel O'Neil and I got John Nazari, he's leftist, he's upstairs, but the amazing thing about the wicket was it was caught by the world's worst fieldsman, none other than Bob Massie. Bob held this one, something he did very few times in his cricket career. He wasn't the best fielder. Fair enough. Now, catches is a bit of a disparity, 43 for Noddy and Sticks, 18. Is there any reason for that to? I have to say that I wasn't the greatest fieldsman under the sun and I very rarely fielded in the slips, so I was mainly mid-off, mid-on, to find leg, third man, and you don't get many catches down man, so.

2:25I think you and I got to play one game together and you just went out and went straight to mid-off, like we didn't, so I guess that's the case. I think, thanks for asking, I'm in this interview as well, Sticks is talking a lot, I, 43 or something, and most probably 41 of them, I caught, no one else would have got them, I was in the gully, but I was a diver, you know, and had sticky fingers, so they would have been, you know, the reason I'd say. Fair enough, fair enough. In the 60s and 70s, football and cricket ruled winter and summer, and you guys played both along with your older brother Glenn, did you have a favourite, Noddy, or what, how did this sit with you?

3:09Yeah, I, well I loved them both, obviously, like everyone does, because it was summer and winter, but I was getting to a stage before I finished, when I got injured, I was getting a stage where I was going to have to make a decision, and I was going to concentrate on cricket, because I'd achieved everything possible I could, even beyond my expectations for football, but in cricket, the big difference, you know, it's just, you know, you've got a big difference is that you're in control of your own destiny, and I was knocking on the door for test selection, and really, I knew that I needed to focus purely on cricket, because East Perth were always in the finals, so it meant you started off behind everyone else in the cricket season, and Bastney Bayswater were also in the finals, a lot of the seasons I played, so cricket, great game, and also the longevity is more in cricket than in football.

4:09So, loved them both, but cricket would have got my final nod. And Styx, yourself? Absolutely cricket. I was too skinny, and I was always in the ruck, and everybody was about 20 kilo heavier, and so for me, I played footy mainly because your friends played, and we played it pretty much through school, so cricket way and above in terms of both the sports. And Styx, you were secretary when I first got to the club, it was a pretty exciting time to be at Hillcrest through the 80s. What are your memories of those times? Very good. I mean, the camaraderie back then for all the players, and even the wives, it was fantastic, so you go to the game, you had a great deal of friends, all the camaraderie was great, the women all got on well together, so it really was just a big family, and we had a bit of success as well, and yeah, I think just that camaraderie and the fact that we all knew one another, we were all friends after the game, and it was just a great big family, and it was really enjoyable.

5:09And being on the committee. I mean, I had, Frank Clark was president for a while, and then I think Max Clements. And John, I think, followed. John, yeah, okay, yeah. And great people to work with, and on the committee, we had good times. It was, yeah, very good, loved it. And, Noddy, 1972 must have been a pretty wild year. Bob Massie was starring at Lord's, taking 16 wickets while you were winning Sheffield Shields, and in football, you won Simpson medals for the best player in the state game versus Victoria, Tassie medal for the best player in the carnival. The carnival, the AFL carnival, national carnival. And as an East Perth supporter myself, a premiership in 1972 versus Claremont, and the Simpson medal there.

5:50And that broke a long drought for East Perth through the '60s, and just wonder what your thoughts of, again, that time was. Yeah, well, just on the Bob Massie and myself, it all happened on the same weekend. Bob is in London, playing at Lord's in his debut, gets 16 wickets over the weekend. I'm playing football in the national carnival, and playing fullback, where not many people medals for playing fullback. It's usually the centre line, as is the case today. But to think that two teammates from Bastion near Bayswater, as it was called then, representing your state, Bob was representing Australia, to think that we reached those heights on the same weekend in '72 was just quite amazing, really.

6:42Yeah, it is. It is, you know, and Bob and I were playing shield cricket at the time. But I didn't realise until most probably about 20 years later, in my case, the enormity of what that 1972 season included. And it was simply because I was so programmed to treat every game as a new game. And what happened last week's got nothing to do with this week, so I just sort of blotted out of my mind. So, you know, because you had to prove yourself every week you went out, whether it's football or cricket.

7:23So it's quite remarkable. I can remember Neil, there was an article in the paper when we were all locked down with COVID, that John Townsend did a series called Football 101, and it was on things that happened during the, you know, over a long period of time. And his headline on mine was, "Jules, you're the best football player I've ever seen." Jules' sport feet were simply amazing. And quite honestly, that was really the article that actually reminded people of what happened. And even Sticks, who looks in the mirror a lot, he didn't even realise.

8:06A bit of jealousy, I think. But no, an amazing year and just sort of fronted up the next week as if nothing else had happened. Sticks, you stayed on, you served your time and then, but for many years, you'd be doing bar shifts and kept that connection with the club. You're now president of the Mount Lawley Bowling Club, so continued that interest in sport. What were the things you enjoyed, I guess, continuing that connection on? Certainly playing days, but just, you know, being prepared to stay involved. I mean, I suppose there's three things in life. And there's family and friends, you have your work, and then you have the outside interest. And cricket was my outside interest.

8:47So to be involved and contributing and volunteering for Bowls on the Mall event was, for me, something I could give back to the club after all those years of playing there. So, yeah, it's just a matter of you love the club, you want the club to be successful, you're therefore prepared to give your time up to help them financially or whatever it is from a game day point of view. So, yeah, so I just love the challenge, love the people, love doing what I was doing. And, yeah, I did that for maybe seven or eight years after. I finished up as secretary in playing. So, no, it was a very enjoyable time, yeah. But seeing Basil de Morley do well is the most important thing. Yeah, that was good. And, Ken, you had a brief stint at Scarborough near the end of your career, and it was cut pretty short.

9:33Was that hard to accept? And what did cut your career short? And how did you move on from there? Yeah, well, I missed the whole year in sport in 1974 when I was 24 years of age through Achilles tendons. Looking back on it, I got some terrible medical advice from East Perth when I had problems in one Achilles tendon, and then I was told just to keep playing. Then I had three operations, and none of them worked. So I basically finished my state career at 23, and I wanted to have one more go after about a year and a half, but I needed a break from the scenery.

10:22And at Bassine Bay, sort of, you know, in my mind, I was disappointed. I was most probably depressed. I needed a new environment, and Chaddy was playing at East Perth. That was Derek Chadwick, who was at East Perth, yeah. Derek Chadwick, great sportsman, great cricketer, footballer. Him and I were playing at East Perth, and he was the captain of Scarborough. So Chaddy whispered in my ear, look, give cricket one more go, and what about joining Scarborough? And I live in Wembley, still do, and so I made a decision to go to Scarborough, which I thoroughly enjoyed, and I think I might have got through about one season.

11:04I made a ton in one game, but I was in trouble. But the biggest setback, really, was my great mate Bob Massie had just been made coach of Bassine Bay's water, and I was obviously an important part of his plans, and I had to tell Bob that I wasn't going to play for Bassine Bay's water. I was going to clearance, and Bob didn't take kindly to it. I think he's got over it now. But that was really the hardest thing. But going to Scarborough, it was like a test team. You know, you basically had Sam Gannon, Chaddy, Beetle Watson, who was a very, very good cricketer for Australia and Western Australia.

11:51Rod Marsh, I think, was playing. Mick Malone. It was a fair dinkum, star-studded side. So it was enjoyable, but unfortunately my Achilles never ever allowed me to play any more than I think it was one season. It might have been one. There's three things I remember in my 88 games. It's amazing how you think of these things. My very first game was against Midland Guildford, and Noddy was talking about a test team. So the team Midland Guildford had was Norm O'Neill, Kevin Garchill, Tony Mann, Doran Mann, Peter Cahoon, Keith Slater, Bruce Sharding, Dennis Jagmeet, Stima Wilson. You made 100 that day, I think. 122, not out. I made eight or nine.

12:32Anyway. So what I remember is I'd faced an over, eight ball overs back in those days, and I faced Mark O'Shaughnessy, and I must have played and missed him seven out of eight. At the end of the over, he comes up to me and says, can I have a look at your bat? And I said, why? He said, I want to see the edges on it. Now that was one. That was, I still remember that. My last A-grade game was Bruce Reid's first, and my best catch ever, leg slip off Bob Massie. And you know what? It was a no ball.

13:02Leg slip, I put a hand out, stuck. So yeah, funny. But those three memories, I had a lot of great memories. But those three stand out. What age is your debut in the ones? I think I had two years in second grade. I won the batting average and all that stuff. So I would have been 19, 18 or 19. Yeah, 10. And Noddy, what about yourself? I was 15. I was playing under 16s in the morning and playing A-grade in the afternoon. And my first game, as Neil said, was also against Midland Guilford. And I didn't know the rules of any game I played. I just played, you know. I'd never sat down to read the rule book.

13:43But I went in about number eight in my shorts, Hill Christoval, and all these fellas that Neil rattled their names off. It was like a test team. Plus, they did something I'd never have been exposed to before, they sledged. And I'm facing my first ball. There's two straight umpires at the ends, Norm Townsend and Warren Carter. And there's a... I'm about to face my first ball. I'm hearing Spud Slater and Kevin Gartrell talking and flicking their fingers. And Norm O'Neill was a gangster. And anyway, I waited for the bowler.

14:25And Mick O'Shaughnessy, he'd get near the crease. And then I just turned my back and walked out to square leg. And anyway, everyone's asked, what in the hell's going on? I said, these fellas are talking. They're not supposed to talk. And it was the first time that Midland Guilford blokes, who were the masters at sledging, they were told to shut up. And years later, many years later, Keith Slater told me, Noddy, we actually loved you. Because guess what, mate? You've actually, in your first game in your shorts, you actually were responsible for us being told off by the umpires.

15:08And we thought, shit, that's great for a young kid to do it. Mate, I'd never done it before. It wasn't premeditated, but that was my first game. And what it did to me, was it conditioned me to the fact that, hey, this is how adults at top level can behave. And I never engaged in chatter. I just kept my head down, never ever gave oxygen to anyone that was saying, you know, like Neil said about, where's your edge on your bat? I just kept my head down. And it helped me in footy, because the amazing thing is that Midland Guilford hated Bastling Bayswater.

15:49And I could never ever work out, I know the reason, and I won't go into it, but to think neighbours, I suppose it's not unusual, neighbours hated each other. Anyway, that was my introduction. So I was only 15, and there were a couple of blokes that played a great at 15, I think Kim Hughes and a few others. Ron Innes? Who? Ron Innes. He was 13, wasn't he? Yeah, but Ron's was a little bit different. Ron and the team didn't play. So that first game I played against Midland, the steamer was eight ball overs. I think you could bowl eight bounces and over then. There was no restriction.

16:30And I remember Bernie Zia's steamer, Bernie Zia's steamer. And they might have been saying that when I was there. I didn't have the confidence to walk away because I was, you know, playing my first game. So it's interesting, yeah. But unbelievable, yeah. And of your 88 games each, how many would you play together? Oh, I can list 60. Yeah. Easy. 60, maybe even more. Actually, the only time we didn't play together was when Kemmer's in the state team. Right. So we would play a lot together, yeah. It was good because we were playing together in the summer in cricket, but in football. Neil played before lunch. Neil played before lunch and I played after lunch. But honestly, he's better off now because he never got sunburned and he hasn't got skin cancer because the sun wasn't out when he was...

17:21And probably going back to Midland Guildford, it's probably quite nice that the three premierships that the club have got have all got a Midland connection. The first one against Midland, the second we played at Midland and the third was Midland as well. So there's, you know, the old karma bus comes around every now and then. So that's great. You know, I can... Just talking about modern day cricketers, all the gear they have. I mean, just talking... If you talk about nodding back in your day, I mean, I used to bat middle order before I started opening an A grade. But I used to wait for him to get out so I could use his gear because he had the best pads and the best bats because you used to use club bats back then and club gloves and club pads. But the gear that I have now versus we had nothing.

18:03I think you and I, our thigh pads were the same size. There was a gap between the flap and the thigh pad. Every time you got hit, you got hit in the skin. I mean, it's just amazing how the game... I mean, you can't get hurt, basically, can you, playing cricket as a batsman now? Whereas back in our day, you either ducked or you hooked. And, yeah, it's just amazing anyway. And maybe in 20 years' time, people will go, oh, what were those pink boxes people talked about back in the... Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's unbelievable, isn't it? The other great thing about playing for Bastion Air Base or the one we did, Hillcrest wicket, which the curator was Bill Shaw, that was like the WACA and the WACA was regarded as the best wicket in Australia.

18:46So we were very lucky to have that as our home ground and the quick bowlers back then and there were plenty of quick bowlers twice as fast at Hillcrest as they were Midland Guildford or anywhere. It's interesting. Because in the 80s, when you were there, the strength really was Mulder and Mylos on a crumbly wicket and you kind of don't think of Hillcrest as being quick with some of the great quicks. Maybe Sticks can tell us who some of those quicks were through that era where it wasn't. Yeah, I mean, when I first started playing, Bob was obviously our quickest bowler and he was quick.

19:27I mean, okay, in test standards, he wasn't a quick bowler in that regard, but he was quick at great level. Tom Mullooly, he was very serviceable and maybe that's, I should have used a better word than serviceable. He was a very good bowler for Bayswater Morley. Wayne Clark, another one, fantastic for Bayswater Morley. Bruce, as I said, my last game was his first game and he always had potential. You could, in the nets, you could tell straight away that he had something special with him and his height and all that sort of stuff. So, but yeah, I mean, those three bowlers were the main ones in terms of, Les Barris was a great all-rounder. I mean, he could bowl. He opened the bowling a fair bit for Bayswater Morley, but he was a gifted bowler. Fieldsman and a batsman. He was the best. He played a lot more state cricket than he did for some reason.

20:09He was the best all-rounder in Western Australia back in those days, but unfortunately for him, Ian Brayshaw was in the state team and Sticks was a great all-rounder, but Bundy was, Bundy was an amazing player. If there was a little chink in his armour. Bundy being Les Barris. Sorry, yeah, yeah. Les, if there was a chink, it was most probably just in his temperament. Mental. He, I always remember he making runs and getting wickets and one day after making another big score, he came in and said, oh, jeez, this game's too easy.

20:50I'm getting bored. I'm getting bored. And guess what happened? He couldn't make a run for about the next six games. So it's a great evener-upper cricket and I think that's another thing about the game when you look back on it and the game that I used as an example of what a great leveler it is when I'd give a talk was we played Subiaco at Rosely Park and it's the first and only time I ever batted through the whole innings and I made 106 not out and we made 146. Anyway, we come in and I was quite proud of myself but I got a shitbag from Danny McEvoy.

21:33Danny reckoned I played for myself. So my response to Danny was, well, if everyone else had it, we would have made a lot more than 146. That was the last game of that season. The next season, our first game was against Subiaco at Rosely Park and I was out first ball for the match. And you know who was coming in next? Me. And I hadn't had the pads on. I didn't have the pads. I thought, no way you're going to get out first ball. So I didn't have the pads. I had my thigh pad on my box now but no pads on, mate. I thought you were going to say you were waiting to get the pads off again. I think I earned enough money by then or by my own. So here's me going in first trial and he's out first ball.

22:16So can I get back to that Danny McEvoy story you've told it to me before about the last over of the night? Yeah, well, as opening batsman, we'd take it in turns to face the first ball. Anyway, on this game, we're at Hillcrest and the worst thing ever for an opening batsman is to have to go in and just face one over. And it was my turn to face and I thought I'd just walk up to the bowler's end, you know, and make out as if I'm up there. And Danny never said anything. So I thought I've got away with that. And then off the first ball, and there's only one over the bowl before Stubbs, off the first ball, Danny, off the middle of the bat, glances it down the deep fine leg and starts running.

23:03And I've turned my back on Danny and stuck my hand up. Danny, obviously, and Danny was a captain, Danny's putrid. And he says, Noddy comes up to me and says, why didn't you run? I said, oh, simple, Danny. You're seeing him better than me. And I'm standing, I'm staying up here. So don't think about running. So that was a true story. I was sort of hell-bent on... And a bit frosty in the rooms afterwards. Noddy's been a total professional, but that was, I was there. I can't remember whether I was playing or watching, but that was selfish. That was a dog act. That was selfish.

23:43I mean, he goes to third and fine leg. There's two runs there. And he had to run it all. And that was selfish. But anyway. David, I have to make a confession. And I only made it to my wife for about five, five years ago. I've got an identical twin called Wayne. And when I introduced Wayne to Judy, she said, yeah, and his last name would have to be Kerr. Anyway, that was Wayne looking back on it. It wasn't me. Because now, at the age of 75, if I have a little outburst or something, I just say, that wasn't me, love. That was Wayne. So I think Wayne, that was Wayne looking back on it. Fair enough, fair enough. And you can tell him whoever he wants to know.

24:24Selfish. Yeah, selfish. Okay. Now, Sticks, we'll get back to you. You've been given credit for Stephen Walker's nickname, which you can tell us, and also Raymond Robinson's moniker of Sugar Ray after the box of Sugar Ray Leonard. Is this fact or fiction? Steve Walker, yes. So we had a quiz night or some night at a club, cricket club, and Angry Anderson from Rose Tattoo was big in the music industry. And I think I just came from watching him on TV and he had all these tats. And then rock up and, that night, and there's Angry with all his tats and that's how angry he came. Just call him Angry. So that was, I don't think Ray Robinson, I don't think it had anything to do with Ray.

25:06Fair enough. Certainly Angry. Yeah. That was my call him Angry for that night. All about Rose Tattoo and Angry Anderson. Yeah, yeah. So as we probably get to the end of our chat, what about some of your favourite teammates or people off the ground that were responsible for, I guess, making your time at Hillcrest an enjoyable one and a pretty special one? Sticks, maybe we start with you. Danny McEvoy would be, I mean, he was captain most of the time when I was playing and he's such a great person and very, very sincere in terms of when you, and I got dropped a few times, by the way, so it wasn't as though I'm a regular. I was a regular for two or three years, but after that, but Danny was very good. I mean, Mal and Neil in the early days was okay.

25:47Jeff Addison was good in those days and they all sort of, they're old and they brought you along. But I suppose Danny was my main one in terms of who assisted me most in terms of encouragement and that type of thing. Ray Robinson was very good from that point of view as well. Administration-wise, he was fantastic. John Moore, Frank Clark, all those people. I mean, there's been a lot, Peter Lawrence, Bill and Betty Lawrence, there's a whole heap of them who they all had an influence and they made you a better person and they made you want to play at Basel and Morley. And so, yeah, I mean, Noddy, obviously, brothers as well as best friends. Diesel Boots was in our group of friends as well.

26:29So all the people that we sort of mixed with at all in the cricket and the circuit, so, no, very good, very good. And Noddy, what about yourself? Yeah, off the field, when we first started at Bassineen Bayswater, there was this mature age, I'd call him these days. His name was Pop and Pop was a fella who just lived for Bassineen Bayswater and we'd even go and pick him up to come to the cricket. Nils just realised who Pop is and he's nodded his head. But Pop, I don't know what his last name was, but he went to the football and he went to the fourths, he went to the thirds. Just unbelievable. The other fella that I was very, very fond of was Teddy Metherall.

27:14Teddy Metherall was the most amazing servant for Bassineen Bayswater. He worked the scoreboard.

27:23You know, we didn't have iPads back then or calculators. We most probably did have calculators, but Teddy's contribution

27:32to Bassineen Bayswater and he's just left us last year, he was, amazing and just loved him. And I think the scoreboard is named after him. So they're two fellas off the field that really were fantastic to be associated with. On the field, Nils covered it. Danny, he was captain coach of our club from the time Mel O'Neil retired. So Danny would have been 21 at the most or 20 when he was made captain, captain coach.

28:11Mel O'Neil, for Mel O'Neil, to have seen something in me and to pick me at 15 years of age, that was pretty special. Played with, you know, the likes of Bob Massie who you've mentioned before. Just so good to be in the same team. Jeff Addison, he was an opening bat. Most probably was knocking on the door for state selection because back then, I think Danny and Bob were the first two state players. The first two Bassineen Bayswater fellas to make the state team. And I might have been the third or fourth with Les Farris. But look, right through.

28:53And one last one, because he was a real pro, came to us from North Perth and that's Bruce Reid's dad, Neville Reid. What Neville taught us was he was a very good all-rounder. He'd get wickets with the ball and he was a very good middle-order batsman. But he had a real fight in him, you know. He reminded me a lot of Sticks Brayshaw. And Neville, I think, was a Kiwi. But I still remember these two little kids always with him. And one of them's obviously Bruce who became one of the best bowlers Australia's ever had. And he would have been for sure if he hadn't have broken down.

29:36But look, there was great camaraderie between the players. As I said earlier, Les Farris was the most gifted I ever played with. But no, it was just a wonderful time. And to think, how lucky were we? We came from Australia from Merritt and Dad was an engine driver. They bought a house in Leek Street. We end up more or less just down the road from Hillcrest to end up at a cricket club like Bassendean Bayswater in the summer and then in the winter you're at Perth Oval with East Perth.

30:19You couldn't have wished for two better clubs.

30:23So no, very, very blessed we were. Guys, it's been great to catch up. Thank you very much.