READ MORE - Bendigo Cricket Club pads up for 125th year celebrations

FOR Royce Nuttall, December 30, 1946, is a day he'll never forget.

It was that day more than 70 years ago that Nuttall was a member of a Victoria Country XI that played the touring England cricket side in a one-day match at Bendigo's Queen Elizabeth Oval - back then still known as the Upper Reserve.

Nuttall scored eight with the bat that day, but what he remembers most fondly of the match was the catch he took to dismiss England captain Walter Hammond.

"There were eight Bendigo cricketers and another four from elsewhere who made up the Victoria Country team for that game," Nuttall recalled this week.

"England was out here for the first Ashes Series after the war. The game was played on a public holiday in Bendigo with about 7000 people there, which was great for cricket.

"I remember the ball before I caught Hammond he hit the ball straight over the grandstand from the centre wicket and it landed on the tram track in View Street.

"He tried to do the same again next ball and hit it to me and I held onto it. For years after I was known as the bloke from Bendigo who caught Wally Hammond, which I suppose wasn't a bad thing to have."

It is indeed a feather in the cap for Nuttall given Hammond is known as one the greatest batsman in cricket history with more than 50,000 First Class runs and a Test average of 58.4.

Nuttall - then 20 - was playing for Bendigo at the time of his call-up for the Victoria Country team.

Now 92 and living in Warragul, Nuttall has returned to Bendigo this week for the Goers' 125^th anniversary celebrations to be held on Saturday night at the Bendigo Stadium.

According to BDCA historian Darren Rodda, Nuttall played 115 A Grade games for Bendigo across two stints - 1943-44 to 1949-50 and 1963-64 to 1971-72.

In between Nuttall's job as a Postmaster General took him to plenty of towns across Victoria - and with that a host of different cricket clubs.

Nuttall is a two-time premiership player at Bendigo, winning flags in both phases of his career at the Goers - 1948-49 against Golden Square and 1964-65 against Eaglehawk.

1949 was a year of double success for Nuttall on the sporting field - he was also part of Sandhurst's winning Bendigo Football League grand final team that year coached by Reg Ford, which completed a hat-trick of Dragons' premierships.

"I was 19^th man in that grand final for Sandhurst… I was the best 19^th man they had because I had the job so often," Nuttall quipped.

On the cricket field Nuttall scored 2488 runs with a top of 107 and took 15 wickets for the Goers, but he believes it was his fielding that earned him his place in the Victoria Country side for the 1946 game against England.

"I had played down at Essendon and the coach had told me that when I come down here there will be 30 batsmen better than you and 20 bowlers better, so make sure you concentrate on your fielding as well," Nuttall said.

"Most of the players in that game across both sides were in their 30s… I think our side needed someone young to do a bit of the rabbit work in the field and that's why I got the job."

The team was captained by Sandhurst's Howard Day, with Golden Square's Ken Knight his vice-captain.

The program described Nuttall as a "classy left-handed batsman possessing a good array of shots."

Although, Nuttall still cringes at the shot he played that day in which he was caught Jack Ikin bowled Joe Hardstaff for eight.

"The shot I went out on was the worst one played for the day… my head was up in the air and I tried to hit it into the Baths next door," Nuttall said.

"But that's cricket… I had a lot of fun with it over the years, the same as football."

The match between Victoria Country and England was played in between the Second Test in Sydney and Third Test in Melbourne of an Ashes Series which Australia won 3-0.

Throughout his time in Bendigo, Nuttall rates team-mate Ken "Toby" Francis the best bowler he saw in action - and the numbers back it up.

Francis - a left-arm medium-pacer - is the BDCA's all-time leading wicket-taker with 776.

"I remember playing Eaglehawk in a semi-final at the south end of the QEO on a beautiful day. We bowled them out for 32 and Toby Francis got 8-8," Nuttall said.

"He was the most wonderful of bowlers; they talk these days about reverse swing, but old Toby was doing that back in the 1940s and '50s. He wasn't quick, but he had beautiful control and 750-odd wickets speaks for itself."

Among Nuttall's team-mates in the Victoria Country side was Golden Square's Les Harris, who Nuttall considers the best all-rounder of his time in the BDCA.

"One of the Poms said to me that had Les been from England he would have been playing County Cricket," Nuttall said.

"He'd bowl his eight balls in an over as they were back then and every one would be different."

Harris, a left-hand batsman and right-hand bowler, is one of only four players in BDCA history to have made more than 150 in a grand final - and he did so against Nuttall's Bendigo in 1946-47 when he smashed 156 in Square's 8-514.

"As for the best batsman, I'd probably go with Sandhurst's Dougy Keck as the most devastating batsman through that time… he'd cut you to pieces in a short time," Nuttall said. 

"I'm really looking forward to the reunion this weekend. I've played in a lot of different associations, but I've always considered Bendigo the best club."

For the record, England was victorious that day in Bendigo in 1946, with its score of 4-200 proving out of reach of Victoria Country, which was all out for 156.

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