Geoff Dymock - Maryborough's favourite sporting son

RICK WHITTLE

MARYBOROUGH is acknowledged as a great sporting city, producing talented sportspeople who have represented at national and international level.

In the sport of cricket, no local sportsperson has risen to the heights of Geoff Dymock.

Born in 1945, Geoff attended Maryborough Central State School and then Maryborough Boys High School (this year celebrating their 60th reunion anniversary since Geoff’s last year in year 12) before graduating to teachers College.

Although talented in lots of different sports such as rugby and tennis, cricket was the sport to captivate a young Geoff.

“Maryborough has and had a great sporting culture, in cricket we were exposed to talented players from other regions such as Gympie, Bundaberg and Burnett “ Geoff said

“Like most kids I was constantly playing sport, either at school, weekend competitions or on the streets at home”

Even though he left Maryborough to study teaching in Brisbane, he still travelled back to Maryborough to represent the region on weekends.

This led to his inclusion in the Country Colts and Queensland Country teams. Geoff’s work as teacher took him to Granville State School and Cherbourg School.

While teaching in Cherbourg he met the love of his life, Merl who 50 years later is still his greatest supporter.

Endeavoring to gain more experience in sport, Geoff had to forgo his teaching career to travel to England to play in the Central Lancashire League.

“It was a great adventure for a country lad from Maryborough, it taught me the nuances of cricket” Geoff said.

“Merl who had never been outside the local region, had her first trip on a plane and joined me in England”

Upon his return to Australia, Geoff soon became a stalwart of Queensland State Cricket

“I was fortunate, just prior to my inclusion, the Queensland State hadn’t been performing too well.

The State selectors picked four new comers to the team, fortunately I was one of them” Geoff said

This was the start of a distinguished 10-year career that culminated in the captaincy, although not winning the Sheffield Shield during Geoff’s era, he saw the emergence of Queensland coming to power through the recruitment of players of the caliber of Greg Chappell, Jeff Thomson and Allan Border.

Probably his greatest sporting moment while representing Queensland was his final game.

“We were playing NSW in Sydney, they had a team with nine Australian test players, we only had me who had played test cricket” reminisces Geoff

“I remember saying before the game, the only way, we could win was if we won the toss and I took five wickets. I ended up losing

the toss taking five wickets and running the last batsman out, and we just got beaten”

Geoff Dymock test career started with the 1973 tour of New Zealand. Overall, he represented his country at test level 21 times, capturing 78 wickets.

He toured New Zealand, West Indies and England.

Undoubtedly his greatest test achievement came in 1979 series against India.

He became the third bowler to dismiss all 11 opposition players in a Test: very rarely has a bowler with a 12-wicket haul ended in a losing side.

He bowled his heart out in the Kanpur Test against India and shone in the most hostile conditions.

“In the first innings I took five for 99, and seven for 67 in the second.” Geoff said

“These were the days before International test umpires. I remember hearing a story about an Indian umpire who gave a local batsman out, when he got home that night, his house was burnt down”

Geoff’s career coincided with the greatest revolution in cricket, World Series Cricket better known as the Packer revolution.

“ Although we were playing before packed houses, cricketers were receiving a pittance in remuneration, in fact it was costing us to represent Australia in Test cricket.”Geoff remembers

“Back in those days, you had to sign for your money after every test, a few lines down from where I signed I saw the gate keepers signature, and believe it or not, he was getting more money than the players.”

When reflecting on a career that included bowling to some of the best batsmen the world has seen Geoff nominates Indian Sunil Gavaskar, West Indian duo Gordon Greenidge and Vivian Richards as the best he bowled to.

Upon his retirement Geoff was awarded a Medal for the Order of Australia in 1983.

He stills coaches cricket with the same commitment and talent he displayed during his illustrious cricket career.

Geoff Dymock, not only a fine cricketer but a great ambassador for Maryborough.