Lives in Cricet No 33 - Jack Robertson and Syd Brown

78 Syd soon got down to it, coaching every day at local schools, clubs and at the Corporation. Among the first players he coached were eight from the Marist Brothers Club, who would go on to be runners-up in the final of the local Barrier District Cricket League. He was clearly working hard. In a letter back home soon after arriving he said that despite meals like steak, chips and two fried eggs he had lost seven pounds in weight. I’m not sure how sympathetic those back in food-rationed Britain were to his plight! One of the highlights of the season for local cricketers was the chance to represent the Barrier District Cricket League in the Mildura Cricket Carnival at the end of January. Mildura, nearly 200 miles south of Broken Hill, is located on the Murray River in a major agricultural area, and teams representing their districts played there in a week-long tournament for the Linton Cup. Syd was the player-coach of the Broken Hill side. The players were royally entertained. After travelling down the Silver City Highway on Sunday they were met by officials of the Mildura Cricket Association who had arranged a river trip for the participating teams. 107 After an early morning reception at the Town Hall next day, the tournament got going. Hours of play were 10.30 until 5.45, with some games on turf and some on hard wickets, and special buses were made available to transport players to and from the various ‘ovals’. Monday evening was free, but on Tuesday the teams were entertained to a ‘smoke social’, on Thursday they were taken to the pictures, and the Carnival came to an end on Friday at the Grand Hotel where the winning team were presented with the Linton Cup. 107 The four other teams taking part were based south of Broken Hill in Victoria. Broken Hill Broken Hill. Did the Australians really need any help? Syd shows aspiring stars how to play the forward defence.