6,7,8 wickets...

Who has been the best hardwicket bowler for the mighty lions? Some true legends have taken a power of wickets on the synthetic stuff over the years. Crow, Spider, Gremmy, Jexy, Thommo, Narre Warren and Jedi are some names that come to mind, but in my time, there is two that standout.
Tony Wakefield and Andy Hughan would be ahead in my book. Neither of them were particularly quick, but there control and ability to make the ball talk were exceptional.
Munchy with his left arm swingers were something many hard wicket cricketers would not have had the misfortune to face before. Most right hand batsmen are used to the ball swinging away from the bat, but Munchy bringing the ball back in left them bamboozled.
Tony's ability to make the ball swing both ways, along with his wily cunning and patience, was too much for most batsmen to deal with. The amount of times he has bowled five outswingers with the first five balls of an over, only to bowl an inswinger with the sixth and send the stumps flying, or vice versa and a nick to the keeper or slips with the sixth ball outswinger is incredible. Lets not forget, he was a fantastic turf bowler too.
We've all seen tearaway young quicks come and go over the years, but as they say, 'you can't buy experience'.

i had the privilage of watching the great Tony Wakefield first hand with his whiley swingers, even after 351 games and not having rolled his ard over for many a season the great man's first ball was a well pitched up outswinger that had the batsman play and miss, he continued the same delivery for the next 4 balls and then sneakily slipped in the famous inswinger last ball.

Also don't under estimate Punchy Totton's slippery seamers.....

best hard wicket bowler , spiffa . gr8 aggression .

yeah all those mentioned by ghost are spot on. tony was amazing, i was only a young pup when i played a bit with him, but yeah play miss, snick/bowled would be run of the course. i remember playing 3rds and tony and narre bowled 65 straight. it absolutely killed tony if u threw one in and it hit the concrete and scuffed the ball. 'look after it boys! its the only weapon weve got!'
grem has taken big bags down 'on that stuff', got 7 in the 3rds prem a few years back, but a guy at the other end could send down a decent pill and in my eyes is one of the best walkins to the club ever: the hawk!

great call Rice. He would have 'walked in' to the firsrts in nearly any GCA side. From memory he said he liked the trees around the grounds and that training was split in to 2 groups and thats why he chose us over Highton. Thank god there isn't to many picturesque trees around McDonald Reserve.
Is there any truth to the rumour that he had to leave East after a certain club captain's dog bit his hand clean off???

yes brades very true. that dog in question is a menace and should be sent of to work for the dog squad in beruit or some place far away. i mean we have lost a great player and bloke to the club because he cant hold the bat with one hand. and yes the trees at mcdonald reserve are very poor. asthetically and in function. many days the wind has caused all sorts of problems to game of footy. in fact a certain 'chief laharty' once called for the cricket nets to be roped off at mcdonalds reserve as the ball spent far too much time in that deed pocket. our loss in footy but easts gain in cricket!

Yeah , i would have to agree with the assessment of the Munchkin - Andy Hughan as most likely the best hard wicket bowler Ive played with ..... an absolute nagging length all day (very McGrath like) and he'd never worry any one for pace... but always got wickets.... he was also a steady bat - even though he held down No 11 every game... i remember Andy and I put on about 80 runs for the last wicket in the 3rds or 4ths one day at East against St Joeys... sure, Andy only got 7 or 8 of those... but was rock sloid in defence...