Colyton Colts St Clair Cricket Club
The Club started in 1976/77 as a social gathering of workers from Blacktown Railway. The team was originally known as the Newfounders and played in the Parramatta competition. A few years later it was agreed to move to the Penrith competition and change names to the Colyton St Clair Senior Cricket Club. In the early years the club was sponsored by the Colyton Hotel.
The early 80’s saw a changing of the guard at the club with most players passed the age where they could play higher grades but that all changed in 1983/84. The game of cricket was booming in Penrith and our Club went from two teams to six in the one year. This led to the Club being run in a much more structured fashion and we established ourselves as one of the district’s leading Clubs, fielding teams throughout the grades.
Our first premiership came in 1982/83 when Wayne Brookes captained 9th grade to victory, with a 15 year old Grant Alexander scoring an unbeaten century in the final. The following year saw the arrival of two fantastic allrounders from Wenty Leagues, Col ‘Fester” Bramman and Col Beggs. Fester proved his worth in his first game carrying his bat through the innings and scored 160 not out which must be one of the greatest innings in the club history. These two formed the backbone of our top team for the next 15 years. Joining them the following year from Penrith Leagues was a seasoned campaigner in Pat Yates. They would all go on to make enormous contributions to the Club on and off the field.
During these years so many players would show up for training that fielding drills and sessions on the pitch at Shepherd were run as there were too many players to cram into the nets. Occasionally there were problems filling every team when they all played on the same day however rather than forfeit there was one game where some wives (Karyn Stackpole, Leslie Woods & Kerri Yates) and one father (Peter Alexander) decided to help out.
We added two premierships in 1984/85 when both Ray Oliver (5th grade) and Norm Tickner (7th grade) led winning teams, which was followed by Ray Franzke (7th grade) in 1986/87. Champion allrounders Col Bramman, Col Beggs and Darren ‘Turbo’ Morris ensured the Club’s 1st Grade team was extremely competitive at this time with grand final appearances in 1986/87 and again in 1988/89. Turbo bowled the greatest spell in the Club’s history when he took 9/11 in 1st grade in 1986/87.
The Club moved “homes” and sponsors to the Blue Cattledog Tavern around this time and many Saturday nights were spent there discussing the days play. Sponsorship wasn’t huge so to supplement the income the Club stage the infamous “men only games night” each year. The less said about these nights the better, although it is remembered how Fester saved the Club from possible bankruptcy in one hand of blackjack.
Local juniors such as Caine Bracken and Michael ‘Rowdy’ Wilson continued joining the Club and the Club consistently fielded at least 5 sides. The Club was a real power in the district and showed outstanding initiative by staging the first ever NDCA 7-a-side competition for all teams in the district and teams from as far as ACT came to compete. This proved to be an outstanding success and went on to become a fixture in the NDCA program for the next 15 or so years. Even former West Indies Test star Gordon Greenidge made an appearance one year and the Colts even won it once.
The Club’s sides consistently made the semi finals each year but unfortunately we didn’t win too many premierships over the next 10 years between 1987 and 1997. The Clubs only successes over this time was in 1994/95 with Pat Yates (5th grade) and Steve Barnes (11th grade) taking their teams to victory.
It was around this time that the Club moved base again and established a great relationship with the St Marys RSL Club through a lot of hard work by people like Darryl ‘Dasher’ Wilson, Peter ‘Burgo’ Burgess, Chris ‘Bracko’ Bracken, Beggsy and Rowdy. It is a partnership continues to thrive today.
The Club’s top two grades broke through for the first time in 1997/98 when former Sydney University spinner Adrian White leading the 2nd grade side while Pat Yates led the 4th grade side. It was a great reward for a number of the Clubs stalwarts like Ian Barnes, Dave Cole, Fester, Beggsy, Rowdy, Caine, Bullet, Burgo, Adam ‘AC’ Coleman, John Bates and Mick McAuliffe.
Several longstanding players including Graham Tomkins and Trevor Sargent finally tasted success in 1999/00 when 9th grade took out the competition after many years of trying. Grant Alexander led a 2nd grade team packed with former Colyton juniors such as Caine Bracken and Rowdy to a premiership in 2000/01 and another Club stalwart in Mick Mee followed suit in 2002/03, leading the way with a century in the 8th grade final.
Colyton junior, Daniel Steltenpool, captained the undefeated 3rd grade premiers in 2003/04, with Bill Tillott scoring 748 @ 124 that season. The Colts took their game to a whole new level that year particularly in the semis when at the end of the first day, had amassed 2/478!!! Caine was the star with 255 not out, his knock showed outstanding concentration and determination and deserves its place among the greatest innings played for the Club. A new look 3rd grade team led by Cameron Torrance’s defended the title the following season with veterans Col Beggs, Shane Atherton and Richie Xuerub the stars.
John Bates became the 14th captain to lead their team to victory when he led a young 8th grade team to success in 2006/07. Batesy led the way with a season to remember setting a Club record with a season’s batting aggregate of 802.
Further success followed in 2008/09 with Adam Beggs steering 3rd grade to another premiership with a tremendous team performance.
The club tasted success again in 2009/10 when AC captained 5th grade to victory in what was close to a perfect season only losing 1 game. AC led the way with the ball taking 41 wickets (not bad for a wicketkeeper), with the bat Geoff Nicholls and Alan Moore dominated all attacks.
Pat Yates became the most successful Colts captain when he skippered 8th grade to victory in 2010/11, his 3rd premiership win as captain.
Season 2011/12 didn’t see any premierships but there were 2 individual performances that broke club records and now sit at the top of the honour roll. Luke Hodges scored the clubs first double hundred in the regular season destroying the Panthers 6th Grade attack with 200 not out and on the same weekend AC became the first bowler in the club history to take 10 wickets an innings bowling out Emu Plains 3rd Grade batting order taking the incredible figures of 10/56.
Around this time in the background after 30 years as single entities discussion commenced with the Junior club about merging together. It was through hard work of club members Dasher, AC, John Sultana, Bruce Felsch and Belinda Moore who put the frame work together and after holding extraordinary meetings it was agreed that the new club Colyton St Clair Colts Cricket Club would be formed from season 2012/13.
Our first year as an amalgamated club didn’t bring any premierships but the ground work was in place for us to thrive as a club. In this season Pat Yates notched up 30 years and became the first player to play 400 games for the club.
Our first premierships as a new club would come in 2013/14 with our U16s completing the perfect season coached by Paul Chester and the U10s coached by Darren Bedford and Brendon Robinson also been crowned Premiers. The success of the club saw us win the PJCA Club Championship which was a great achievement.
The U11s then backed it up the next season coached again by Darren Bedford and Brendan Robinson go back-to-back after their success last season in the U10’s.
We celebrated our 40th Anniversary in 2016/17 and saw the club take out the 10th Grade premiership led by Pat this was extra special as we saw the first group of juniors in Bailey Coleman, Oscar Sultana and Jacob McIlwain coming into the seniors and contributed to the team winning the title.
The club tasted success again in 2017/18 with 3 premierships. Our U14s coached by Alex Fenn pulled off one of the greatest upsets beating the undefeated Penrith RSL. Pat Yates led 9th Grade to back-to-back premierships. Capping off a great year 7th Grade captained by AC and Geoff with a dads and lads team plus a few old faces with Deano, Dunnie and Beggsy. They won a nail-biting contest that went down to the last over of the game and it was a fitting combination of bowled Rowdy Wilson caught Riley Wilson to seal the victory. The team contained juniors Bailey, Riley, Oscar and Brenton with dads AC, Rowdy, John, and Mick making this victory one of the sweetest Premierships the club has won.
Premiership success for our U16s joining forces with Emu Plains to go through 2018/19 undefeated. This team has held a special place for the club as it contained 3 grandsons of Life Members Pat Yates, Allan Mee and Daryl Wilson plus the fathers of 3 Life Members AC, Rowdy, and John Sultana. For AC and Mick Mee this was extra special having coached the team from U10s through to the U16s and finally the team broke through after going so close for many years. It was great reward for the stalwarts of the team Bailey, Oscar, Brenton, Reegan, Jacob, Jamie and Stuart who were apart of the team from U10s.
9th Grade completed the “Three Peat” with the nucleolus of this team Richard Watson, Mark Pendergast, Chris Brooker, Matt Harker and Shane Castle having played in the last three premierships lead by Pat. This capped of the season nicely for Pat after notching up his 500th game for the club during the season.
Little did we know that season 2018/19, after 36 seasons, would be Pat’s last playing for the Colts with him hanging up the bat and retiring from playing. He finished this playing career with a few club records 503 games, captained 6 Premiership winning teams, scored 6713 runs, took 105 wickets and 149 catches. There were also a few broken bones and plenty of blood spilt for the club along the way. To this day he continues to be an active member of the club still holding a committee spot.
In our 45th season this year we tasted a double success with Bailey Coleman in his first season as captain leading 5th Grade to a victorious undefeated season with a new team of young guns who are the new future of the club plus 2 old heads in Dunnie and Beggsy. Bailey then became the clubs first captain to take out a T20 premiership, leading from the front with the bat in the A Grade Grand Final against a Phoenix team stacked with 1st Graders
The Club has been going for 45 years now and we continue to prosper. We are a club steeped in history with club Life Members Col Beggs, Col ‘Fester’ Bramman, Grant ‘Bullet’ Alexander, Peter ‘Burgo’ Burgess, Alan ‘Big Al’ Mee, Daryl ‘Dasher’ Wilson, Chris ‘Bracko’ Bracken, Michael ‘Rowdy’ Wilson,
Caine Bracken, Patty and AC who laid the foundation. Our team numbers remain consistent each season through our juniors and seniors. We are a family club which has a strong history. The success of our club has always been based around a hard working committee with AC, Mel, Bailey, Alex, Robert, Batesy, Geoff, Pat and Paige, players and families that have remained loyal to the red and green. Our players have a love of the game of cricket and thrive on competing in each match and having a great time in the process.
We have maintained an outstanding relationship with our long term sponsor the St Marys Diggers and Band Club. This season we secured a new major sponsor in Raine and Horne St Marys hoping with Tom and Jack they become a long-term partners with the club.
There has been 1025 players represent the club, there has been 119 centuries scored, 203 6+ wickets in an innings and 30 hatricks.
In this time, we have won 22 Senior premierships and since the merge we have had 4 Junior premierships but the one grade that has eluded the club over this time is 1st Grade but we now have a new bunch of young guns led by Bailey who are setting their sites on this elusive title in the coming seasons.
