FOUR veteran cricketers never thought they’d be winging their way to England to play three Test matches in an 18-game tour but that’s just what Quirindi’s Dennis Moran and Tamworth trio Peter Virgen, Bob Haling and Albie Barwick are padding up for next month.
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The quartet of cricketers have been selected in an Australian Over 60 squad to fly out on July 14 for London and depart August 8.
Virgen (65), Barwick (65), Haling (63) and Moran (61), cannot hide their delight.
For Barwick and Haling it is their first trip to England and they hope to make it one to remember.
“It’s a lot of cricket – 18 games in 21 days,” Moran said.
“I hope we don’t break.”
At 61 he is the youngest of the quartet, born and bred in Manilla but a left-arm opening bowler who grew up in Manilla playing cricket until his job in the Commonwealth Bank took him to Narrabri, Coonabarabran and eventually Quirindi.
“We won a few premierships down there,” he recalled yesterday.
“But I never stopped playing either,” even when he retired, he said.
He was always being asked to fill in for “just one more game”.
He played in a few Masters games (Over 40s) and when he “got wind” about vets (over 60s) he lined up for that as well.
“I was lucky enough to be selected for NSW last year and now Australia.
“It’s great. I love it.”
Virgen is a former West Leagues (now West Tamworth) wicketkeeper who played against the ultra-strong Bective-East teams that Barwick and Haling were a part of in the 1970s.
“They beat us in three straight grand finals,” Virgen recalled.
“I’m glad I’m finally playing with them now.”
“18 games in 21 days is going to be tough.
“They’ve gone from 16 to 18 now in the squad.
“They want us to play three days in a row at one stage. 50- over games too.”
While a bit worried about the grind it will create, he’s also looking forward to the possibility of playing three Test matches.
Barwick was well and truly retired until last year when he received a phone call from an old Bective comrade, Doug Crowell.
“Doug got me back,”Barwick said.
“He said he had these over 60 games organised and could I have a game.
“It all went from there.
“We’d played with the same club (Bective) all our lives and won quite a few premierships too.
“We had some good teams, especially in the ’70s.”
Haling, who still keeps fit playing tennis, remembers them well.
“In one year we had the best bowler (Brian Camarsh), best batsman (Dave Baxter) and best allrounder (John Brayne) come to town and join us.”
He and Barwick rate Camarsh, as do most, the best opening bowler to have played in Tamworth.
“At one stage we had four Test cricketers and a couple of NSW players in town – it was very strong,” Haling said of a competition that included Johnnie Gleeson, Gordon Yorke, Graeme Thomas and Brian Rhodes.
Haling had a fair break from cricket too after retiring and came back to play a few games a year in the annual Tamworth-Gunnedah-Armidale vets’ games.
Then the Over 60s kicked in and he has loved every over.
