Club History
After the paperwork was lodged for both an A and B grade team with the then Rockingham Mandurah Cricket Association, the hard task of finding enough players to not only fill the A and B grades teams nominated, but also to be competitive in the competition , was what the founding members faced. The prospect of two day cricket with 80 overs played out each Saturday was relished by some in the A grade competition and with the slightly less committed, but equally as enthusiastic 50 over B grade competition, the season got under way in October 1991.
There was four players who left the South Coastals Cricket Club in the first season – Paul Gillam, Mark Rowe, Ian McIntosh and Shane Shanahan formed the nucleolus of the A Grade side. Four players definitely is not enough to fill two teams and the arduous task of encouraging new players, retired players and countless phone calls to not so welcoming young men after a night club exit at about 3am began. Players of the calibre of Leigh Burns, Laurie Cross and many others stayed at South Coastals but joined HHCC as time progressed.
A defining moment in the Clubs history was in the winter of 1997 when the turf wicket block at Ruston Park was to be moved to Peelwood. Members of the club moved the wicket by hand and then re-laid it at Peelwood in two days, however, no games were played on the wicket until season 98/99. The first Grand Final played at Peelwood was deservingly won by Halls Head who defeated Waroona by five wickets and consequently win the clubs 5th consecutive A grade premiership.
Halls Head Cricket Club was the brain child of life members Paul Gillam and Mark Rowe in the winter of 1991. With both Paul and Mark playing cricket for the then South Coastals Cricket Club based at Falcon Oval they were constantly faced with the prospect of driving home after consuming copious amounts of “light refreshments” at the club. This, combined with the lack of back streets at the time, increased the risk of running fowl of the constabulary so they decided they needed a club closer to home and set about forming the Halls Head Cricket Club. The thought was to initially form a club in Halls Head and utilise Ruston Park turf – There is many back streets from Ruston Park to home for Paul and Mark! Also believing that with a rapidly growing area such as Halls Head, a junior club that could feed into the senior club was very achievable and additionally, with only four teams in the A Grade competition and an expanding Peel region, a 5th team would easily be sustained. In fact, in the same year as HHCC was formed, another former A Grade club re-entered the competition thus forming a six team A Grade competition.
With all of that behind them, the A grade team captained by Mark Rowe lost their first match to Singleton and the B grade captained by Steve Doyle defeated Rockingham. The A grade team would go on to beat Singleton in the semi final which is still considered by some members as one of the best games of cricket they have played in and then went on to comprehensively defeat Rockingham in the Grand Final. The B grade also qualified for the Grand Final in their first year, however was defeated by the Navy side.
Did you know; The Mandurah Cricket Club defeated Halls Head in the first two grand finals they played against each other before Halls Head went on to defeat Mandurah on the next eight occasions they met in a grand final. The club has had more than a dozen players play for the Western Australian Country XI, along with three Australian Country XI representatives.
Players who played in the first season who are still playing at the club are Peter Wyllie, Jeff Dillon and Colin Birdsall. The Club colours Brown and Gold (Yes Hawthorn) were adopted as we were to be known as the Halls Head Hawks. Thanks to Paul Gillam and Peter Wyllie for their accounts and insight into the Inception of HHCC
Country XI
Below are a list of Halls Head Cricket Club Players who have played Country XI.
- Cameron Burrage
- Dale Burns
- Leigh Burns
- Rian Elliot
- Matthew Gordon
- Mitch Green
- Michael Griffiths
- Bryce Jeffrey
- Brendon King
- Josh Peterson
- Chris Phelps
- Craig White
- Peter Wyllie