Lives in Cricket No 12 - Ric Charlesworth

Appendix Two Hockey Playing Career International hockey Charlesworth played in 227 hockey internationals for Australia between 1972 and 1988, scoring 90 goals and captaining the side in 130 matches between 1977 and 1984. These internationals included four World Cup competitions: in 1975 in Kuala Lumpur; 1978 in Buenos Aires, when the side won bronze medals, beating West Germany 4-3 in the play-off; 1982, in Bombay, when the side again won bronze medals, this time beating Netherlands 4-2 in the play-off; and in October 1986 in London, when the side won gold medals, beating England 2-1 in the final at Willesden. Charlesworth was the leading goal-scorer in this last competition and was selected as ‘player of the tournament’. In the Olympic Games, he played in four tournaments: in 1972 at Munich, when the side finished fifth; in 1976, when the side won silver medals, losing to New Zealand 0-1 in the final; in 1984, in Los Angeles, when the side finished fourth, losing 2-3 to Great Britain in the play-off; in 1988, in Seoul, when the side again finished fourth, losing 1-2 to Netherlands in the play-off. Australia withdrew its side from the Moscow Olympics in 1980, after the side, which included Charlesworth as captain, had been selected. In the Hockey Champions Trophy, the International Hockey Federation’s main annual event, a league competition played between six national sides, he played in nine seasons from 1980 to 1988. The Australian side won gold medals at 1983 and 1984 in Karachi, and 1985 in Perth; silver medals in 1981 and 1986 in Karachi, and 1982 at Amstelveen, Netherlands; bronze medals in 1980 in Karachi, 1987 at Amstelveen, and 1988 in Lahore. In 2000 Richard Aggis asked 33 members of the national hockey community to rank 12 elite Australian hockey players of the past century, awarding twelve votes to their first choice down to one for their last. Out of a maximum possible total of 396 votes, Ric Charlesworth received 347 – 67 more than the second- placed Julian Pearce. Inter-state hockey Charlesworth played for Western Australia in nineteen seasons in inter-state senior hockey, from 1971 to 1988, captaining the side from 1974 to 1977, and from 1981 to 1984. Over these seasons the state side were national champions in twelve occasions. Earlier he played for the Western Australian Under-21 side from 1968 to 1971, captaining it in 1971. 105