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Submitted by Trevor Vayro
8th A.B.C.C Carnival, Hobart 1966-67
The Queensland Squad of thirteen players, three officials and four supporters travelled to the Carnival by train from Brisbane to Melbourne and airline from Melbourne to Hobart. Accommodation was arranged at the Ingomar Hotel in North Hobart. This hotel at a later time was to become the headquarters of the North Hobart Australian Football Club.
The Queensland Squad had several new players making their debut to carnival cricket on this tour. They were Brian Forster, Kevin Ferguson, Dale Forbes, Terry Eagers and John Cullen. It was a carnival for new players as Bill Siddins was Manager of New South Wales for the first occasion with Glen Siddins, David Blaik and Bill Mason making their debut for their State.
Matches were held at fields in Brighton, a suburb situated near the Derwent River. Each playing day a strong sea breeze would cause much wind burn to the players as well as making it difficult for the totally blind to bowl and bat.
The series was to be a single round with a two day final with the states of Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria and Tasmania competing. Queensland met Tasmania on the first day and lost by the small margin of two runs. This was due to a ring in by the name of Harold Shearer, partially sighted player using a runner. However, in those days states did not apply for a runner, just asked when they wanted to. It was difficult to raise any objection as Tasmania was the Host State and was in charge of Carnival proceedings. Victoria defeated New South Wales in their match. Queensland met Victoria on the second day and lost by many runs, whilst New
South Wales defeated Tasmania. On the third day of matches, Queensland felt sure if they could defeat New South Wales by a substantial margin, this would mean a count back on percentages as we knew that Victoria would defeat Tasmania on the first innings. Queensland batting in their first innings scored in excess of 140 runs and dismissed New South Wales for about 100 runs. Queensland batsmen Brian Forster, Bill McKennariey, John Middleton and Kevin Ferguson all scored runs on that day. It was my best personal bowling effort dismissing three partially and three totally blind in their innings. My bowling was six wickets for twenty-nine runs and I was presented with the cane ball after the match with suitable brass plaque attached to it with engraving. Victoria defeated Tasmania and it meant a count back on percentages and Queensland with the better percentage would therefore meet Victoria in the two day final.
Victoria won the toss and elected to bat scoring a total of 178 runs. Queensland was put under much pressure with excellent bowling and fielding by the Victorian team and our Queensland team was dismissed for only eighty-nine runs. This meant that Queensland had to follow on in the second innings, only scoring exactly half the runs of Victoria. In the second innings Queensland was dismissed for eighty-nine runs. Our team was consistent at least. Victoria scored the one run to win with David Blyth, a former Queenslander scoring this run for his new State of Victoria.
A Presentation of trophies and Farewell Function concluded the carnival. Best Carnival players were Colin Eccles for partially's and Trevor Vayro for the totally blind. My personal bowling efforts and batting had gained me this trophy defeating Ivan Molloy and Ian Nicholls in a close encounter. Overall, I took eighteen wickets to seventeen wickets by the other two players. Kevin Ferguson and Trevor Vayro won the best players for Queensland, Colin Eccles and Brian Barron for New South Wales, Bob Evans and Ivan Molloy for Victoria and David Rainsley and Ian Nicholls for Tasmania. New players for Queensland Brian Forster, Kevin Ferguson, John Middleton and Terry Eagers all had a successful carnival and three of these players would be named in future A.B.C.C teams and of course Brian and Terry are still active players.Queensland returned to Melbourne by airline and from Melbourne to Brisbane by train.