Tribute by Rodney Cavalier VALE RON MULOCK 1930-2014
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Tribute by Rodney Cavalier VALE RON MULOCK 1930-2014 Officer of the Order of Australia Captain De La Salle (Marrickville) First XI St George CC, Waverley CC and Cumberland CC Alderman Penrith City Council 1965-71 Mayor of Penrith 1968-71 Member of the Parliament of New South Wales 1971-88 Minister in the Wran and Unsworth Governments 1976-88 Admirers of cricket and sportsmanship, Ron Mulock passed from our midst peacefully in his sleep during Thursday night 04-09-2014 (Australian time). Ron was an opening bowler with a demonic speed. His ability was apparent early. He was Captain of the De La Salle First XI, First XIII and Senior Athletics Champion. Ron played first grade cricket 1949-62 in the Sydney competition. He was opening bowler for St. George, Waverley and Cumberland. In 1959-60 he took 49 wickets which made him the highest wicket-taker for the season. Ron was conscientious, hardworking, kept on top of the paper, and was well regarded by his public servants. Around him was not a whiff of scandal. Cricket and the SCG brought us together. We found ourselves conversing at games and enjoying the conversation. Such civilities we had avoided during our time in parliament. When the people running Cricket NSW took the governance corporate, they decided they had no places at lunch during the Test for their former vice presidents. Places were going to the more important, like sponsors and potential sponsors. The excluded were some distinguished stalwarts of the game, a bracket that included Stan Sismey (Australian Services wicket-keeper) and Maurie Lilienthal, probably the last witness to Stan McCabe's epic 187 not out against Bodyline.. Plus Roger Wotton (former MP and exceptional batsman) and Ron Mulock. The exclusion of those four was a reprehensible episode in the history of the NSW Cricket Association, one incident of many at the time, one wholly representative of a management that abandoned respect for the history and traditions of the game. The same minds worked assiduously to take cricket from the Sydney Cricket Ground to a place that was not a cricket ground. Those people are gone, all gone. I am fairly certain it was Roger who approached me about the exclusion. He doubted Ron would do so. Could I do anything? The answer was of the instant: yes and it will be an honour. How could I overlook players of that quality, men to whom the game owed so much? Their presence honoured the Trustees Reserve. Ron and Roger and Stan and Maurie came thereafter to lunches at every Test while they lived. Now they are all gone. Doing the right thing by cricketers was one part of the mission of the Sydney Cricket Ground Trust. That was the culture of the Trust I inherited from Sir Nicholas Shehadie, a principle we applied to those who had worn the colours of NSW and Australia in all sports played at the grounds. I met Ron in 1978 after the first Wranslide. I gathered something of his prowess when NSW and Australian cricketers from my youth asked me about Ron Mulock. Alan Davidson, a hero for the ages, told me that Ron was a better bowler than him when they were young. In typical modesty, Ron refuted that. The Parliament used to play an annual match against the Press Gallery. One day in the early 1980s Ron opened the bowling. I saw for myself how good he must have been. Ron was past fifty, not match fit. Ron opened the bowling and gave it his all. We are talking lightning quick, rocketing down and jumping off the pitch. Terrifying stuff. I think he managed six demonic deliveries in his first over and took several wickets. The Press was properly terrified. In his second over he bowled another two bolts, knew he was done and completed the over with lollypops - he could barely roll his arm over for those four balls. Ron retreated to the deep and soon after left the field. Not long after that he left the ground, we suspected for attention. The Press was shell-shocked and did not recover. Back at the House in days following he told us that was definitely his last game. Suggesting he could play with an awareness of his limitations, I might have said: "you don't have to give it your all". Ron replied with something like: "then what's the point?" Ron was in a race against death to complete his contribution to memoirs edited by his friend, David Clune. Last week he rang to advise me his health was grim. He sounded frail. This week he approved the text of the final chapter. Accuracy mattered. He asked me to check dates in my diary. The 1979 Rules change crisis loomed large. We spoke back and forth. Contemporary notes are so valuable compared to memory. Let us hope they find a publisher. They will make for good reading. His funeral next week will be huge. His reputation grew and grew during his retirement. A Labor man who came from below, won a preselection, won a seat off the Libs, held it, was elected by his peers to the ministry and offered faithful service to a party that kept breaking his heart as it dishonoured the imperatives that had once made it great. Ron follows Neville Wran by a matter of months. Like Neville, he may be missing but he is not absent. Rodney An extract from his memoirs. St George and Arthur Morris Ron was chosen in October 1950 to play First Grade with St George District Cricket Club in the 1950/51 season. His initial First Grade game was at Hurstville Oval against the Gordon Cricket Club. Gordon had two very experienced opening batsmen in Sid Carroll and Jack Potter. Mulock’s captain was Arthur Morris, one of St George’s two representatives in the Australian cricket team of the time: The other Australian representative was my idol from way back, Ray Lindwall, and I was to open the bowling attack from the other end to Ray. When he completed his over Arthur Morris took the ball and walked towards me. He said: “Now, lad, whatever you do, don’t bowl anything short to either of these two, do you understand?” I said yes. I didn’t know what to call him – I hadn’t even been introduced to him – but I certainly knew who he was. After about the fifth ball something inside me as a fast bowler said I’d better give Sid Carroll a short one. So I did and, as I should have anticipated, Sid hooked the ball. It lobbed just inside the bike track at Hurstville Oval, on the grass, and then skidded onto the concrete surface which took a piece of leather out of the ball. The fieldsman returned the ball to Arthur Morris. He quietly walked over to me and said: “Lad, another one of those and it will be a long time in the field for you”. I certainly got the message. I didn’t bowl any more short balls and, as luck would have it, Sid Carroll became my first wicket in First Grade when he played me into the covers and Arthur Dews took a shin high catch. It’s worth recording that many of the players and writers of that era deemed that Sid Carroll was the best batsman up to that time never to have played for Australia. .