A tribute from Mike Pawley OAM, former NSW, Manly and Sydney University player:
“Bert was of a different generation to today’s grade cricketers. I am sure all of you will agree, he had a very significant influence on all of our lives.
A gentleman cricketer. Terrific fielder. Inspiring mentor. Terrific batsman square of the wicket. Outlived many if not all of his contemporaries. Averaged 100 in one grade season. Never judged any of our insane intervarsity behaviour.
A very kind hearted GENTLEMAN.”
Albert Henry Alderson (1924-2025)
Bert Alderson, who died at Lismore Base Hospital on 30 November 2025, two weeks short of his 101st birthday, was one of the most relentlessly prolific batsmen in the history of the Sydney grade competition. Between 1939 and 1974, he scored over 14,000 runs in all grades, with 10,731 (at an average of 31.10) in First Grade. Only 19 batsmen have scored more First Grade runs.
Alderson was studying at Parramatta High School when he was selected in AW Green Shield by Central Cumberland (as the Parramatta club was then known) in 1939-40. He made an immediate impression, scoring 29, 20, 12 and 87 not out in his four innings. He was not quite 17 when, at the end of October 1941, he was promoted to First Grade to play against Balmain at Parramatta Oval. He scored only 5 in his first innings, but in his next match, against Glebe, although he made no more than 22, the Daily Mirror thought that he “showed more initiative than any other Cumberland bat” and “repeatedly drove and cut with delightful freedom”. In January 1942, he hit his first half-century, 69 in 50 minutes against Manly. Soon he was firmly established in the First Grade side.
A well-organised left hander with a wide range of strokes, Alderson is often named as one of the best Sydney batsmen never to play for New South Wales. But he did play for New South Wales twice, alongside Sid Barnes and Bill O’Reilly, opening the batting in a pair of two-day wartime matches against Australian Services. In the first, he was dismissed by Ray Lindwall and Colin McCool for 0 and 11 and in the second he fell to McCool again, for 16. At the age of twenty, he could reasonably have expected to play more representative cricket, but at that stage of his career he was an opener, and after the war his path was blocked by Sid Barnes and Arthur Morris.
Five times between 1942-43 and 1949-50, Alderson passed 500 runs in a season, when that was by no means a common feat. He was also a lively fieldsman, who often kept wicket early in his career. He was consistently successful for Cumberland, but not invariably: in March 1947, he was (together with Lou and Richie Benaud) in the First Grade side that was dismissed for 42 and 31 by Manly’s left-armer Alan Walker, who took 7-8 and 7-6. Richie Benaud later recalled that, at his family home at Northmead, Bert had a concrete pitch covered with matting, where Alderson and Benaud often practised.
By reason of his studies (a diploma in Town Planning), Bert was qualified to play for Sydney University, and he joined the club for the 1951-52 season (alongside his brother Ken, who enrolled in the same course). Chasing 243 for victory at Waitara Oval, Alderson shared an opening stand of 158 in 103 minutes with Phil Greville, on his way to 139 (in 193 minutes, with 20 fours). He also made a “brilliant, chanceless” 100 against North Sydney and against Glebe his 114 occupied only 132 minutes. He finished the season with 631 runs at 45, and he followed with 625 runs the next season. His studies complete, he returned to Cumberland, where he captained the First Grade side in 1956-57 and 1957-58.
In 1961-62, Alderson returned to the Sydney University club, under a dispensation that allowed the club to field a graduate as captain. He began the season in extraordinary form, hitting 281 runs before he was dismissed – 104 not out against Northern District, 69 not out against Gordon, 67 not out against North Sydney and 41 against Paddington. He was dismissed only five times all season, finishing with 514 runs at 102.80. For five seasons, he provided his teams of undergraduates with thoughtful, encouraging leadership, helping in the development of young players like Mike Pawley. Altogether for Sydney University he scored 2991 runs at an average of 43.98 – which was, by the low-scoring standards of the days of uncovered pitches, exceptional.
Alderson then played out his career with Central Cumberland, for whom he finished with 11,016 runs at 31.21 (7740 at 28.04 in First Grade). He was club President in 1969-70, when Central Cumberland won its first club championship. His sons Doug and Greg both reached First Grade at Central Cumberland, and the grandstand at Merrylands Oval was named the Bert Alderson Stand.
“Bert’s cricket career was extraordinary”, Mike Pawley has said. “Things other than cricket must have clouded the State selectors’ judgment. Who knows why? But I think Bert Alderson, the person, was even more impressive than Bert Alderson the cricketer. Did he ever make an enemy on the cricket field? I am certain not. Did he ever sledge? Of course not. Bert had a significant influence on the life of every sports person he had contact with.”
In the winter, he was an excellent baseballer, appearing for NSW Schoolboys in 1939 and 1940, before representing New South Wales against Victoria in Claxton Shield trials in 1947, 1948, and 1949. Eventually, he was chosen for New South Wales in the Claxton Shield tournaments in Adelaide in 1961, and Perth in 1962. He played club baseball for Waverley, Western Suburbs, and Sydney University, and was named in University’s “Team of the Century.”
Professionally, Bert worked as Municipal Engineer and Chief Town Planner of Holroyd Council for 37 years.
The club salutes a remarkable life and extends its sympathies to the Alderson family.
