Club History

Randwick Petersham Cricket 

In the Beginning…

Randwick Petersham Cricket Club came into being on 19 July 2001 when two of Sydney’s oldest and most successful cricket clubs, Randwick and Petersham-Marrickville, decided to amalgamate.   

In announcing the formation of Randwick Petersham, club President Mike Whitney, (who is now in his 18th year), said “While this move represents the end of an era for two of cricket’s great clubs, it is also the dawning of a new and exciting period for the combined club as well as for cricket in the whole Randwick Petersham area”.

Sporting its new colours of green, gold and white, a combination of the colours of both founding clubs, Randwick Petersham first took the field as a grade club on 29 September 2001 at Petersham Oval in a 1st Grade match against University of New South Wales.  Petersham Oval and Coogee Oval would thereafter rotate through each season as the club’s 1st Grade ground.

In 2007-08, just its seventh season, Randwick Petersham proved the value of the merger by taking out the Sydney Grade Cricket Club Championship title after finishing no further back than seventh in five of its first six years. In 2010-11, the club confirmed its position as one of Sydney’s top clubs by again taking out the Club Championship.

In its short history the club has shown itself to be one of Sydney’s most consistent performers winning competition premierships in 2nd Grade, 3rd Grade, 4th Grade (three times) and 5th Grade (three times).  It has also been three times runner–up in the 1st Grade Belvidere Cup competition while winning the Limited Overs competition in 2011-12 and the Twenty20 Cup competition that same season and again in 2013-14 and 2015-16. It has contested the 1st Grade finals series seven times in its 17 years history.

Randwick Petersham has established itself as a supplier of quality first-class cricketers with Simon Katich, Nathan Hauritz, Usman Khawaja and David Warner representing Australia and NSW while Burt Cockley and Scott Coyte have worn the baggy blue cap of NSW.  Simon Katich also captained NSW for seven seasons between 2002 and 2010.

In 2014-15 Henry Thornton and Thomas Jagot represented NSW at under 19 level with Thornton going on to represent the Australian under 19 team which played against England early in 2015. In 2016-17 Jason Sangha played for Cricket Australia XI in the Matador BBQs One-Day Cup; for Cricket Australia XI in the National under 19 Championships in Victoria; in the Australian under 19 series against Sri Lanka in Tasmania in April 2017; in the Prime Ministers XI v Sri Lanka, for Cricket Australia XI v Pakistan, for NSW 2nd XI v Canterbury (NZ) and was a Sydney Thunder Big Bash rookie. That same season, Daniel Sams, Anthony Sams and Nathan Price played NSW 2nd XI against Canterbury (NZ) and participated in the Sydney Sixers Academy.  All three were also named in the Kingsgrove Sports Merit XII-1st Grade Team of the Year.

In 2017-18, Jason Sangha captained the Australian under 19 team, making the final of the World Cup competition in New Zealand. He also made a century for Cricket Australia against the England Ashes team in Townsville—the second youngest in cricket history to do so. Daniel Sams made his first-class debut for Canterbury in the NZ Plunket Shield competition before making the greatest debut of any bowler in the Big Bash League playing for Sydney Sixers. Mac Jenkins captained the NSW under 15 team to win the championship in Queensland while he and Brock Larance went on to play for Cricket Australia in the under 17 Championships and against the touring Pakistan team. Larance later toured England with the Aboriginal XI to commemorate the 1868 Pioneers tour. Alex Deller was selected in the SCA A W Green Shield Merit Team. Jack James also played NSW under 19s while Daniel Sams, Jason Sangha and Greg West played for NSW in the Futures League.

Six members of the club have represented NSW in the National Indigenous Imparja Cup/Cricket Championships competitions.

The formation of Randwick Petersham through the merger of Randwick CC (1900-2001) and Petersham-Marrickville DCC (1951-2001) effectively created a club which rewrote the history books.  Taking into account Petersham-Marrickville DCC was the result of an amalgamation in 1951 between Petersham DCC (1899-1951) and Marrickville DCC (1910-1951), the collective lifespan of each of the four foundation clubs together with the 17 seasons of Randwick Petersham to the end of 2017-18 represents a total of 257 cricket playing years.  This number is well in excess of the 231 years history of the MCC at Lord’s which was founded in 1787 leaving Randwick Petersham with an undeniable claim to be the oldest cricket club in the world.

Randwick Petersham Cricket has been built on strong foundations…hard working administrators, talented players and coaches and most importantly, a powerful volunteer base of dedicated and loyal workers. It has achieved a great deal in a short space of time which is a fitting testimony to the wonderful legacy handed down by its founding clubs.

Lyall Gardner OAM

Randwick Petersham Historian

17 September 2018