Our thanks to Daphne Benaud for allowing us to publish this article on our website.
Hartley Anderson
Michael Tonkin Hand Surgeon
Professor Michael Tonkin, a former Sydney University Cricket Club Player, was awarded a Member of the Order (AM) in yesterdays King’s Birthday Honours, for services to medicine as a hand surgeon, and to professional associations.
The entire SUCC community sends their congratulations.
The Club is delighted to hear that Geoffrey Lovell has been appointed Chair of Council at Cranbrook from 2024.
Geoff, a Bradman Scholar, was a distinguished player with SUCC and with Oxford University in England and has had strong connections with the governance of Shore School and of St Paul’s College.
James Rodgers
Brian Booth died 19th May 2023 at the Calvary Hospital, Kogarah. He had been in the palliative care unit for six weeks and two days. During that time, he was visited by family, cricket, and hockey friends, which he and Judy greatly appreciated.
Many of you know Brian’s story. Born in Perthville, near Bathurst on 19 October 1933. He was educated at Perthville Infants and Primary School, then Bathurst High. He was a gifted sportsman, with cricket, hockey and tennis filling in his days, outside of his studies. He then moved to Sydney where he attended Sydney Teachers College, graduated as a PE teacher, and taught at schools including Hurlstone Agricultural College and Narwee Boys’ High before becoming a lecturer in the School of Human Movement at Sydney University. He retired early and worked with the Christian Businessmen’s Association and the Bible Society of Australia. He was a regular speaker at sports events, dinners, presentation nights, and Churches.
He commenced playing cricket for the St George DCC, his only club, in the 1952-53 season retiring at the end of the 1976-77 season. Not only was he a player, but a mentor, coach, President of the Club and finally a Patron. He was referred to by many as Mr Booth, out of respect. His cricket career with NSW and Australia was memorable on many counts, but this note is not the place to highlight or discuss them. He was both a vice captain and subsequently captain of the Australian team
He enjoyed his hockey, playing for St George and represented NSW and Australia. In 1956 he was selected as a member of the Australian Olympic Hockey team for the Melbourne Olympics. Each year a highlight for Brian and Judy was attending Sydney hockey dinners. He felt it took him back to his early days in Bathurst where he learnt the rudiments of the game.
Brian was quiet and sometimes reserved but always wise. He had great recall of cricket and hockey moments and was a wonderful raconteur when the occasion called for a story. His Christian faith set him apart and he played all sport with the right spirit and attitude. The essay he wrote for Wisden Australia in the early years of its existence exemplified his outlook on life and cricket and how it should be played. He was a friend to many and always made you feel welcome.
Mr Booth, as I called him up until 1978 certainly encouraged me when I founded the Australian Cricket Society in Sydney in 1973. He regularly attended meetings and 31 years ago became our Patron. He enjoyed the meetings, special functions, and the Annual Dinners. Mixing with members and their guests was something that he looked forward to when anything was organised.
Our thoughts at this time are with the family wife Judy, Jan, Lyn and Ian, Alison, Jenny and Jim.
I am sure we are all better people for having known Brian Booth. I know I am.
Ronald Cardwell,
The Australian Cricket Society – NSW Branch
Dr E.J. ‘Ted’ Yarad
21.05.1937- 10.05.2023
The Sydney anaesthetist and former Club Member Ted Yarad died on 10th May, aged 85.
Ted came to SUCC from North Sydney High and played several years in lower grades, with modest success.
He was more successful in baseball and played first grade for the University Club. He captained the SUBC Intervarsity Team in Adelaide in 1960, his last student year.
After graduation he played as a wicket keeper and batsman for Northbridge in the Northern Suburbs Cricket Association competition for a number of years, probably to the age of fifty years..
Ted maintained a lifelong interest in the game and the Sydney University Club.
He was sighted watching the Club play at North Sydney Oval only last season despite the onset of some health issues which slowed him down. He was a member of the SUCC Foundation
He also attended Test Matches in Sydney and Adelaide over many years.
We send our sympathy to Ted’s wife Helen and the broader Yarad family.
Hartley Anderson
In 1918-19, an undergraduate, simply named 'Verbuiggen', is listed as playing lower grades for SUCC.
In all likelihood, this is ADRIEN HENRI PIERRE EUGENE VERBRUGGHEN (1899-1985), MB 1921, ChM 1922.
No statistics survive from the 1918-19 season and the names, especially those which have been misspelled, have been long forgotten.
His real surname ought to have been known at the time.
He was descended from Pieter Verbrugghen (1615-1686) and Hendrik Frans Verbrugghen (1654-1724), both Flemish sculptors, whose works adorned Flemish churches.
Adrien's father was Henri Adrien Marie Verbrugghen (1873-1934), born in Belgium, the founding Head of the Sydney Conservatorium in 1915 who had won first prize at the Royal Conservatoire of Music in Brussels in 1889. He was an orchestral violinist and a conductor who toured Scotland and Wales (where Adrien was born in 1899, followed by Marcel (Max) 1904-85 and Phillippe). He was professor at the Glasgow Athenaeum and was chosen over 173 applicants to be the first Director of the NSW State Conservatorium of Music from 1915 until 1923. After that, he conducted in USA where he died in 1934 and where his family continued to live. He was a distinguished presence with an elegant waxed moustache and dark eyes.
After graduation, Doctor Adrien specialized in neurological surgery and spent the rest of his life in USA. His connection with SUCC had been long broken.
He might be forgotten but the surname, correctly spelled, has survived.
In the Sydney Conservatorium, a Hall is named after Henri Verbrugghen. In the Canberra suburb of Melba, there is a street named Verbrugghen Street
Adrien's mother was Alice Emma Beatrice (Beaumont), a singer who married Henri in 1898.
James Rodgers