Liam Robertson and Dugald Holloway Selected in the NSW Men's First Grade Team Of The Year 2019/20

Liam Robertson and Dugald Holloway Selected in the NSW Men's First Grade Team Of The Year 2019/20

It’s been a week of full of awards for our Sydney University Cricketers and what better way to end it than with news of Liam Robertson’s and Duglald Holloway’s selection in the NSW Men’s First Grade Team of the Year 2019/20. Both have performed fantastically throughout the season and it’s a pity they couldn’t have continued to dominate during the finals series.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EXeG87yUwAErtTk?format=jpg&name=small

H.H. MacMahon

H.H. MacMahon

James Rodgers remembers the unfortunate end of one of the Club’s early First Graders….

HEBER HUGH MACMAHON….Fell to his death

 Late on Saturday evening 15 September 1900, a young 1st Grade cricketer fell to his death from a railway bridge onto the road below just near Chatswood Oval.

He had missed the last tram from Milsons Point Arcade and had boarded the north-bound train, intending to alight at Chatswood Station. He was on his way to his family’s home in Penshurst St Willoughby. But,  falling asleep on the train, he missed his stop and was carried on to Roseville, when, by now awake but with clouded judgement, he decided to walk back south along the railway track. He had reached the bridge just south of Chatswood Station, over Albert Avenue, when he slipped and fell 22 feet onto the road, fracturing his skull and breaking his left leg. By the time he was found, he was dead. The coroner, sitting at Willoughby on the Monday after the death,  handed down a finding of ‘accidental death’.

 Heber Hugh MacMahon had played two seasons in 1st Grade with Sydney University (1895-96 and 1896-97) and then another two seasons (1898-99, 1899-00) for North Sydney.

 Tragedy had already visited his large family. The youngest of his three sisters, Mary, had died aged 4 in 1876, just after Heber was born. The third of his five brothers, John Stephen, aged 24, had drowned in 1887 at Braidwood, 85 kilometres south of Goulburn.

Their father, Patrick MacMahon (1831-1910) had arrived in Sydney from Ireland in 1854 and was employed by W Dean & Co Auctioneers, before branching out with an associated company, Macquarie Bond. He married Dora Macdonagh (1835-1908) in 1857 and within eighteen years they were to have nine children. The youngest, Heber, was named after the Irish Bishop, Heber MacMahon (1600-1650) who was martyred and executed by hanging at Enniskillen in Derry.

 Patrick made a considerable success of his life in Sydney. He established a large family home in Hurstville where Dora St and MacMahon St still exist as memories of the family influence. He was an Alderman on the Sydney Council and a pillar of the Catholic Church.

 St ignatius’ College, Riverview, opened in 1880. From January 1885 until December 1886, Heber was a student there. For some reason lost in the mists of time, he transferred to Sydney Grammar School and completed his schooling there early in 1895. In the co-curricular life there, he prospered. He held his position as wicket keeper in the 1st XI for five seasons (“easily the best in the position that the school has ever had”, commented The Sydneian of October 1900); played in the 1st XV of 1893 and 1894; won a Gold Medal for Athletics in 1894; was an expert rifle shot; and performed with distinction in the College musical concerts (viola, cornet, singing).

But, did he neglect his studies?

 Nevertheless, he joined the Sydney University Cricket Club for the 1895-96 season (1st Grade cap no42). He does not, however, appear to have ever been a student at the University. Four of his Sydney Grammar contemporaries were playing there, HC Delohery, PS Jones, William Harris, NF Stephen. They may have persuaded him to join them and to strengthen the side with his wicket keeping? Eligibility rules for the Cricket Club were rather loose and liable to be interpreted liberally. Veterans played with other graduates of long standing. Graduates of other universities played. Some callow undergraduates were there as were others with only vague connections with the University. Team success was elusive (1st Grade won only four games in Heber’s two seasons) although Heber’s runs down the order were valuable (160 @12.3 in his two seasons) and he kept wickets competently. The Club’s continued existence, under circumstances where it won only the occasional game, was precarious. Under intense pressure, the Club decided to withdraw from the Electorate Competition for 1897-98 and was only allowed back in 1898-99 on humbling terms, restricted to undergraduates only and permitted to play the 1st XI in the 2nd Grade competition only. The Club did exist in a sort of ‘twilight season’ in 1897-98 when University  played non-electorate clubs and Heber continued to play against such disparate sides as IZingari, Maitland Albion, Illawarra. Sydney University (bolstered by some Melbourne University players) did play in January 1898 against Stoddart’s touring English XI. Heber was named in the ‘Universities’ thirteen for the game but didn’t bat or bowl or take any catches.

 University’s continued exclusion from the top grade forced him to North Sydney Cricket Club (1st grade cap no48), for whom he was residentially qualified as his residence at Willoughby was within Norths’ boundaries. He played in 1898-99 and four games in 1899-1900.

 What did he do outside the cricket fields?

He continued to live at home.

He continued his musical interests. Indeed, that talent passed through the generations. A nephew, Patrick Moore MacMahon, who also went to Riverview (1911-13), became a noted musician in Sydney.

And, he joined the military volunteer force, the NSW Irish Rifles, formed in 1895, and was commissioned as a Lieutenant in 1898.

 Heber was easy to like: “Comely in appearance, bright-eyed, companionable, able to sing a good song.”

 His Requiem Mass at St Mary’s Cathedral, was celebrated by the Cardinal Archbishop of Sydney, Patrick Francis Cardinal Moran, and his body was carried on a gun carriage to Rookwood Cemetery where he was buried with full military honours. Representatives from most parts of his short life paid their respects. St Ignatius’ College was represented as was Sydney Grammar School. The Irish Rifles, North Sydney Cricket Club were in attendance. Wreaths were placed from Balmain and Leichardt Cricket Clubs.

But, apparently, no one from the University Cricket Club.

 The Club was  experiencing  its own difficulties, banished to 2nd Grade. Its administration had suffered from a passing parade of officials. There were five Honorary Secretaries from 1894 until 1900. Monty Faithfull stayed on as President from 1891 until 1909 but he was the only one of the venerable graduates who stayed to guide the Club through stormy seas.

And, within a twelve month period, the Club was to suffer  deeper sorrows brought about by young deaths.

Seven months before Heber’s death, Dr Erskine Hugh Robison, a medical student when he scored the Club’s first century in Electorate Cricket, 113 not out vs East Sydney in 1893, died in a tuberculosis sanitorium in Nordrach, Black Forest, Germany where he was working aged 28, leaving a widow, Ethel, who was to survive him by 58 years.

And less than four months after Heber’s death, in February 1900, Robert Martin Gibson, an Arts I student in 1900, resident at St Andrew’s College, aged just 21, was drowned in a river in Queensland. He had played twice in the Club’s 1st XI in 1899-00 and once in 1900-01.

 This still doesn’t explain adequately why the Club did not apparently  acknowledge one of its own. Tragically, accidentally, dead at 25.

 James Rodgers

Lieutenant Henry Delohery

Lieutenant Henry Delohery

James Rodgers continues his exploration of the Club’s history with this piece on one of the two Sydney University cricketers to serve in the Boer War.

LIEUTENANT HENRY CHARLES MORRISET DELOHERY  1875-1928

Henry Delohery, born in Maitland, attended Sydney Grammar School, as did his four brothers. All of them played cricket with some skill.

Five sons and three daughters were children of Cornelius Delohery (1838-1924), one-time Deputy Stipendiary Magistrate, and Harriett – nee Roberts – (1838-1923) who were married in 1861. Henry was the only one of the family to pursue medical studies and he enrolled in Medicine I at Sydney University in 1893. His entry into the University coincided with the Cricket Club’s emergence as one of the clubs in the initial season of ‘Electorate Cricket’. Indeed, Henry played in the first game of the new competition (SUCC 1st Grade cap no7), University v Glebe at Wentworth Park in October 1893. His intermittent appearances I 1st Grade, however, were not productive. Consistency eluded him. 26 innings spread over four seasons produced only 347 runs and he barely held his place.

These were not happy seasons for the Club. A series of faltering performances led to University’s withdrawal from the competition for the 1897-98 season and its readmission on humbling terms in 1898-99. The 1st XI, restricted to undergraduates only, played in the 2nd Grade competition but Delohery, nearing the end of his studies, had his best season: 462 runs at 46.2. Joined by a younger brother, Ernest who scored 393 runs and took 33 wickets, Henry seems to have found his level at last and the side won the 2nd Grade premiership.

After graduation, Henry played 1st Grade for Sydney in 1900-01 but the Boer War had been declared in South Africa and wounded and sick troops desperately needed doctors. Just after the season ended, Lieutenant Delohery, now a Medical Officer in the NSW Contingent of the Army Medical Corps, sailed on the SS Custodian and spent twelve months attached to Colonel Williams’ and Colonel Rimmington’s columns in West and East Transvaal.

Just after the peace treaty was signed, Delohery arrived back in Sydney in June 1902.

His life from there seems to defy much analysis. He seems to have played no more Electorate Cricket; he was married and had three children (the youngest of whom was only 12 months old when Dr Delohery died); he practised at Wallsend and Forbes and finally at Hunters Hill.

On Thursday 16 February 1928,  just after completing surgery, he collapsed suddenly at his home in Lane Cove. He was only 53 years old and any links with his first cricket club seemed to have been forgotten.

James Rodgers