BLEWETT, Brayshaw, Chappell, Gillespie, Hookes and Lehmann.
They are names synonymous with South Australian domestic cricket.
But, there was one South Australian son who forged a closer bond to fellow state batsman – acknowledged as the greatest batsman of all time – Sir Donald Bradman.
He was Paul Nobes, 52, considered unlucky by cricket commentators to never have donned a Baggy Green.
The father-of-two recently bid farewell to the state that put his name on colossal scoreboards to head the Swan Hill Automotive Group.
Nobes won the prestigious individual Bradman Medal in the 1987/88 season, a medal given to a first grade cricketer who polls the highest number of votes cast by each umpire in club cricket.
“When I walked onto the stage Bradman said to me, ‘I’ve been watching you lad. You are from the country like me’,” Nobes said.
“I was just flabbergasted, then something happened where he was told that I was in the automotive industry toward the end of my domestic cricket career. He rang me out of the blue about getting a service on his rebadged 80s model Holden Nova.
“This service would happen every six months. I would collect his car from Holden Street, Kensington, and his payment in return for me was signing my autographed bats.”
Bradman was “astute, to the point and direct”, according to Nobes, and there wasn’t “fluff and bubble” about it.
“To me he felt like the old Australian English,” Nobes said.
“Not really making jokes. He was very straight to the point and would say it as it was.”
Nobes, a right-handed top order batsman, debuted with South Australia in the 1988/89 season. After just one game he found himself facing the touring West Indian side and performed with distinction, making 95 in his second innings.
“During primary school I played in Adelaide for Gaza Sports and Community Club and sometimes at Wilpena Pound in the Flinders Ranges where my parents owned a caravan park,” he said.
“I was lucky enough as a school kid to make four 100s in four games and the headmaster at Hawker, also in the Outback Ranges, wrote a letter to Barry Jarman, who was the head coach at the Kensington Cricket Club.”
Read more about Nobes’ career in the Wednesday, July 20 edition of The Guardian.
