Lives in Cricket No 12 - Ric Charlesworth

was as a close family friend. He retained warm memories of many visits to Kalamunda in the Perth hills, where the Charlesworths owned a block of land near the Carmody family home: ‘I knew the Carmody girls as well as anybody in those days,’ he recalled in 2009. While Edwards, Carmody and other family friends were significant elements in Ric’s formative years, the biggest single influence on the way he played, when he first started organised cricket at Dalkeith primary school and in an under-14 competition on the Nedlands foreshore, was his father. Lester’s last first-class match was against South Australia in Adelaide in February 1951. Although The West Australian newspaper, not for the first time, criticised his defensive play in the second innings, his dismissal for 83, with the score at six for 192, suggests he had played an important role in achieving a draw. Forty-five years later – in an interview by this writer for his history of the WACA – Edwards, captain that day, criticised the paper for not approaching him to see whether Lester was following orders. In a later interview in 2009 Edwards also said that Lester’s innings, in his second game for the state, against Queensland, had proved he had the ability to play attacking cricket. Not out 84 in the last over on the third day, he ‘belted four fours’ to reach his one and only first-class century. 1952-1969 13 Cricket influences. Between them, Allan Edwards and Keith Carmody played 110 first-class matches.