Matthew Garnaut & Bret Mulder: the last-wicket stand

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'm chatting to Matthew Garnaut and Bret Mulder, the two men who shared a 177-run last-wicket stand to defeat Midland Guildford and win the club's third first-grade premiership in 1998-99. The scorecard from the game read as follows: Midland Guildford 329-196, defeated by Bayswater Morley 196-9 for 331 at the WACA Ground.

0:50Bret played 200 games for Bayswater Morley, represented the state on 25 occasions, played Australian Under-19s, coached the Danish national side, was a WACA first-grade coach, life member of the club in 95-96, and was also a club captain. He's a four-time winner of the Lawrence Medal for the fairest and best player in first grade at Bayswater Morley, and the only player, as at this time, to play in every first-grade premiership and one-day win the club has had. Matthew Garnaut only had two seasons at Bayswater Morley, but in that time won one flag, one one-day title, and a Lawrence Medal. He won the first-grade batting and bowling awards in 1998-99. He had two seasons at Scarborough before breaking into the state team where he represented WA on 16 occasions. Welcome, Matt. Welcome, Bret. Thanks for your time.

1:38No worries. Good to be here, Dave. Just looking at the 1998-99 season, it was an amazing season in both the one-day and two-day formats, winning both competitions. As I did a bit of research, the two-day final is the one that takes all the focus, but neither of you were shabby in the one-day final where the club beat Midland, a side which contained Mike Hussey and some other names. Matt, one for 25 off 10 and Bret, four for seven off 10. Any memories of that particular day? It was a short day. It was. I know Perth Career Club was at Fletcher and they'd gone to a lot of trouble getting the tents up and those things, but the game was over by two o'clock or something like that. And Cambo took them apart in the run chase is my memory.

2:19Yeah, we bowled them out pretty quickly, I thought. And what did you get? Four for. Four for. And Hussey made no runs, I think, obviously. I think he was running out looking at the scorecard. Again, I might be testing your memory. Can you remember roughly what the win-loss ratio for that season was, 98-99? My memory says that sometime in November, we didn't lose a game in any format to the end of the season. I don't know what our win-loss ratio was up until then, but I think sometime in November, we didn't lose a game for the rest of the year. There you go. You said your memory's a bit hazy, but you're pretty much on the money there. It was 11 wins, two losses. Two losses and one draw, but there was 10 straight wins. So that'd just about be right, sort of maybe a slowish start and then just hit the ground running after that. So now, Matt, you had two seasons at Hillcrest. How come the early exit?

3:11Yeah, well, I literally got dropped from the state team and the time spent with the cricket, you know, training for local level and state team, plus trying to fit in full-time as a police officer. And back then, to be honest, the police weren't that, what would be the right word, accommodating in me, sort of, to play state cricket, for example, I had to take all my annual leave. So I had no annual leave outside of that. And I think it just got to a point where, you know, cricket and work was sort of clashing a bit and an opportunity came up for the family to go into Esperance. And that was the sole reason, to be honest. Just like work-life balance and trying to fit in full-time shift work as a police officer. Yeah. I believe you've hit the winning run in two grand finals. Can you give us a little bit of a background to that?

4:06Yeah. So the first grand final, I think it was back in '91 too at Scarborough. I actually went out on a hat-trick. So I think his name was Ben Ward playing for Perth. He was on a hat-trick and I hadn't even had the pads on. So I'm just trying to whack the pads on. And I think I started walking out without my box. I had to get back, get my box. So I'm walking out a bit unorganised and Wardy came in. I got a couple of boys in slips going, knock his head off, knock his head off and all the rest of it. And he just put one right in the slot and just, I think it was a cover drive for four. And that was it. The game was over. Yeah. Yeah. And the theme that night at the Scarborough Cricket Club is don't bowl there, Wardy. So that was a good night.

4:48In two grand finals is fantastic. Can you remember the winning runs in the Bayswater game? Yeah, I do. I hit a, I think it was a cover drive for three. Didn't quite go to the boundary. And that's when we drew the game. And I'm pretty sure after that Piggy came up to me and said, Matty, we can't lose this. We've withdrawn the game. And I think we finished on top, which meant we would have won that game. But I think the winning runs were the glance down a fine leg. And I don't think they had a fine leg. They brought everyone up and it went for four and that was it. So the 177 run partnership, obviously massive, it's a record, all the rest of them. But there was a few little, if you look back, a few little benchmarks along the way that said, yes, that was pretty out of the box.

5:33But a few partnerships during the season between the both of you. Can you remember those across the season? Yeah, there's probably two I remember. One was at Melville's home ground. I think we put on 100 and something that day. I was, I think I was about 80 odd and Snads declared. Thanks, Snads. And I think Piggy, I'm not sure. I would have made about 15 or 20. Yeah, it was just around that 100 mark. So that was a good one. But I think most importantly, I think we had one out here where we played against I think it was Subi Fauriet. I think it might have been Claremont Netherlands. It was Claremont Netherlands because they had that left-hander bowling. And it just got us over the line that day. I don't think we made that many. I think it was about 66.

6:16Yeah, but it got us over the line that day. And then Northy went out and smashed 100 in no time. And we ended up winning, I think, outright that game, which meant we finished on top of the ladder. I think they were probably the two memorable ones we had that year. So critical moments, weren't they, in terms of how the club finished up? Yeah, I think so. So, going into that grand final, I was chairman selectors and Noel Knight was the coach and whatever. And you were injured going into that grand final. You managed one wicket, seven overs for the game. So obviously fresh for a hit. But can you give us a bit of background as to what you did leading in and the circumstances around that? I think it was the game before, the whacker, the final before where I got whacked. I got hit in the guts. I think it was 20. And I just tore a muscle in the stomach there. And I basically went up to Noel, and it may have been me in self-beating, and basically said, "Look, I don't know how much I'm gonna be able to bowl this week in the grand final." And I think it was purely because we'd made a few runs throughout the year that I was playing sort of as a batsman, I suppose. But what people don't know, and I haven't said this before, is I nearly didn't play that game at all. And the reason for that was Sue, who was obviously given birth to my son, and I didn't play a game at all. And I didn't play a game at all. And the reason for that was having birth complications. She was having what they call a placenta previa, where the baby flips inside. And I'm sitting there in front of the doctor with Sue, and the doctor says, "We need to end up being Josh. We need to get birth as soon as possible."

7:53And that was gonna fall on the 2nd of April. Now, that would have meant he would have been given birth during the grand final, and I wouldn't have played. So I'm sitting there in front of the doctor going, "That can't happen." I said, "Any chance of pushing that out a bit?" So that's why Josh was born the day after the grand final, so it allowed me to play the cricket grand final. Thank you, Sue. Thank you. So Sue had to hold off giving quite a nasty, well, a medical procedure where technically, I mean, people have, you know, passed, you know. And here's the doctor and me having a discussion about her giving birth the next day after the grand final. So that was pre-planned. But definitely having the injury sort of restricting my bowling game. And basically, yeah, I played as a result of-- To be fair, it wasn't the most difficult decision to play you as a batsman, given what you hit during that season. So Bret, you went wicketless in the first innings off 27 overs. In the second, you took three of their top five off 23. So you had a 50-over match. Not quite as fresh as Matt for having a hit, but the red ink was nice, obviously, in that game. How many other times in your first-grade career did you pass 50?

9:06Oh, that's an easy answer. I didn't. Yeah, that was my first. I seem to recall that T, I think Matt, Matt had scored about 30 runs in a really quick time, and I was just there. And I think I spoke to you, David. I said, it'd be nice to hit a 50. I never hit a 50. So yeah, I've never, I've gone and had a few not outs in mid-20s, but never that sort of score. Now, again, in all the years you were at Bayswater Morley, and my time crossed over most of that, I never saw you have a hit in the nets. Is that correct, at Hillcrest? No, no, I did have a few hits in the nets. I wasn't a huge fan. I mean, guys are buying off 18, you know, 18, and trying to bounce you, you know, the guy that can't bat. So I didn't find it necessary, even with my second stint in state cricket, I don't recall having a hit. Maybe a couple of throw downs, but I don't recall having a hit. Fair enough. So again, getting back to the game itself, things seem pretty hopeless when you came together. It was 9 for 1, 25. It's 2:35 in the afternoon. Matt, you were 24 not out. What was the conversation at this point? And I think probably just before Bret came in, you might have had a life, or I'm not quite sure.

10:20There might have been a little bit of a crick in the handle, Dave. So I don't know if it was a life, but yeah, I don't have a recollection of that. I know you do. Oh, I do. Yeah. Well, my recollection is that you nicked one to seal, and he's gone to celebrate by throwing it up, and as he's gone up, he's dropped it. But that's what I think is the story, is the crick. All right, we'll go with that.

10:44Yeah. So again, you wander out there. What was the initial... Oh, look, the game was over. When I went out to bat, the game was all over, and I thought, "Oh, well, I'm going to go down swinging." And I think I hit a couple of sixes, a couple of boundaries. And it wasn't until this bloke came out that he said, "You know, we've had a..." I think you might have said something along the lines of, "Calm down a tad." Yeah. I think we got to 70. I think I remember saying we got to 70, which was 100 or so to go, and I said, "We've done this before." And then I think we started to plan some sort of plan about how we're going to go about it, and they were throwing fielders deep for you and making it a bit tighter for me. And then I managed to get a few fours, and then they were a bit rudderless there for a while, because they didn't know what to do.

11:29That was my recollection. I was just hitting ones, and... Yeah, we took it for a while. And you were hitting a few boundaries, because they brought the field in, yeah. Yeah, that's right. It seemed to play against them, didn't it? Yeah, it did. Because the ones who got through the field, it was four at the WACA, so quick. Oh, yeah. Yeah. So, there was a big crowd there, and lots of people leading to this day go, "I remember where I was listening," because it was covered on the radio, 6NR, I think it was back then, now 91.3, and did a fantastic job with the late Colin Minson calling the game, which was fantastic, and we've got audio of that. The scenes after were amazing. What do you remember of the aftermath of the victory?

12:09Yeah, I think my recollection is just pure joy, and excitement. I remember seeing Pishos running out, and others running out from the players' sort of race, and then, I don't know, just the emotion took over, and I picked this bloke up, and I think carried you halfway back to the boundary. And then I just remember a pyramid of players just sitting on top of us, and at one point I couldn't breathe. And then my pregnant wife coming out, and yeah, it was just pure emotion, I think. It was just, you know, just something that you wouldn't have expected to happen, happened, and, you know, it was just, yeah, just a massive, massive moment.

12:50And the change, I remember the change rooms being so full, and they were big change rooms, and it was just chockers, and then, and then nothing. Bruce got everyone out, and he had a bit of a quiet time, and then, then the celebrations went after that when we came back to the club, yeah. And when you walk into the RAL Massie Pavilion, as you walk in straight on your left is framed, both your bats have been given to the club, which is greatly appreciated. And the score sheet and match balls up there, Bret, this is something a little bit special, and I know you covered it when you spoke about your, your own career, but that bat's got a little something special on it. Would you like to tell us a little bit about that? Yeah, it's got autographs of the state team that year I was playing, and the story goes, we were nine down, we got to nine down pretty quickly, and I was, I had to go quickly, run down, we're at the Gabba, I had to run down the stairs to get changed, and get myself organised, and I couldn't find my bat. And in those days, and probably to this day, most state games, you would have about 20 or 30 bats, just, you know, different, various sizes, and someone had put my bat in the middle, unbeknownst to me, they were all starting to sign it. They hadn't all finished signing it, but most of the players had signed it. And so I've gone upstairs, a bit of a panic going, I need to borrow someone's bat, I can't find mine. I knew it was here somewhere, but no, and of course, a couple of Snickers, and you know, they were laughing a bit, so obviously something's going on, and then someone come up with a bat. So that bat's got signatures on it. It started to fade, and I got, I managed to, you know, get them re-signed it over their existing autograph. So yeah, it was a good memory.

14:25Now, Matt, you played league football for East Perth, you played state cricket, you've won multiple flags again. Would this game be the one that stands out most, like, in terms of your own memories of your sporting career? Yeah, absolutely. Even an assistant commissioner came up to me only two weeks ago, and he was talking about it. You know, he said, people aren't expected to come up and just talk about that grand final, and it regularly comes up. Yeah, definitely. Bret and yourself, you've had lots of highlights, again, performances on the WACA and state cricket and et cetera, et cetera. How does that rate? Oh, it's the best memory of cricket that I've probably got. And just from the position that we were in, to get that win and just watch Midland Guildford just, not implied, but the heads were dropping as they got closer and closer. And what we, I mean, I don't know if Matt felt this, but I was exhausted. And I didn't hardly score in the last three runs. And I'm just thinking, I hope I can last. I don't want to be getting bowled. But I mean, it would have been a horrible, horrible feeling knowing, you know, if one of us didn't get out because we'd done so much hard work.

15:34Yeah, I mean, they talk about in sport, how you just get in that moment of time where everything's just going to go right for you. And I think we're both in that moment. It was just, yeah, just incredible, incredible time. And yeah, definitely the most important sporting moment in my career, yeah. And people still, as you alluded to, Matt, people come to you and still people to this day are still talking, you know, when they haven't seen me for a long time or they'll always tell me where they were, you know, how they watched it or how they were listening to it on radio. It's true. Some people were watching their cars. Some people were driving wherever they were going. And some people didn't know until days after because they'd given up on the results.

16:15Yes. Yeah. And people would then go, "Oh, did you hear?" Nah, no way. So those sorts of things. I think the other thing is, with that particular game, obviously it was a four-day final, four consecutive days over Easter, which there's not every year it rolls out like that. So it was really something of Sheffield Shield and both of you had played at that level. It was an unusual situation for, say, standard grade cricketers to play four days in a row. You guys at least have had that experience, you know, which maybe deep down sort of helped you in some way as it got to the end of that four days to cope with it. It was pretty demanding, as you've just said. Yeah, well, I know for me, I don't know, Dave, for me personally, I was just in that moment of time where the best thing in my life was happening the next day, to be honest, the birth of my son. And I was just in that clear mindset, you know, and I know it's hard to explain, but there's times in sport where you're just in that clear mindset and everything's going to plan, I suppose. It was just one of those days, you know, it was amazing.

17:20And the game had to have flowed over those four days. I mean, we were always from a position of behind. We were always coming from behind over the four days. And then, you know, it wasn't until what, half past three or so before we started to get close to them really in that last day. But my memory also was probably the day before, you know, and you got guys like, you know, Brooksy and Rodgers and Piggy and, you know, even all the other guys that were bowling. Snads. Snads that were bowling that day got us back into the game, you know, to bowl them out for whatever it was, 196. Yeah. Gave us a chance on that football day to, you know, I think that needs to be talked about as well, because it was, you know, let's be honest, it was a pretty flat deck. And those guys bowled beautifully that third day to give us that chance on the last day, you know.

18:08What were Tim's figures? I know you got a five for that, didn't you? Yeah. No, it was certainly the bowlers, again, all stepped up to really cover your loss, which they knew that that was required and they did a fantastic job in that regard. So guys, look, it's been great to catch up. Thank you for your time and all the best. Yeah, thanks. Thanks, Doug. Good on you, mate. Great words.