News & Media

Celebrity cricket proves a big hit

Former Test cricketers Jason Gillespie and Dean Jones helped launch the redeveloped University Oval in style at a celebrity Twenty20 cricket match on 21 November.

The Town v Gown match, hosted by Vice-Chancellor Professor Gerard Sutton and UOW Ambassador and cricket great Adam Gilchrist, was part of UOW’s Stumping Serious Diseases weekend designed to raise funds for research into cancer and other diseases.

The teams competed for the Kerryn McCann Health and Medical Research Challenge in what will become an annual event. Other events over weekend included a gala dinner for 350 people; a junior cricket coaching clinic run by Gilchrist, which attracted almost 400 children aged between five and nine; a fund-raising lunch and a sports dinner.

Professor Sutton pledged that next year’s Twenty20 match would be open to the public after this year’s event was restricted to 350 enthusiastic invitees because of limited spectator facilities. “We’ll be looking at ways to provide facilities for more spectators, because the community deserves the opportunity to see this kind of event too,” Professor Sutton said.

Gillespie captained the Gown team while Jones led the Town. They were joined by fellow Australian representatives Jimmy Maher and Greg Campbell, female Australian representative cricketers Julia Price and Melanie Jones and a host of other celebrities, including Dragons rugby league stars Ben Creagh and the recently retired Wendell Sailor, Hawks basketballers Mat Campbell and Glen Saville, rock stars Tim Farriss (INXS) and Mark Callaghan (GANGgajang), former “Wiggle” Greg Page, UOW students and University cricketers.

Callaghan got the day off to a great start with a rendition of his band’s most famous song Sounds of Then (This Is Australia) and the National Anthem.

Out on the field Jones opened the batting for the Town side with Farriss, and got the scoreboard clicking by gliding a boundary through slips in the first over. Town eventually finished with 8-123, with Greg Campbell (21), Sailor (20) and Jones (17) the leading scorers. Mat Campbell led the Gown bowlers with 2-8.

But if Sailor showed some talent with the bat by smashing his 20 off just 14 balls, it was nothing compared with his bowling. He took two wickets with his first two balls, including dismissing Dragons team-mate Creagh, before Callaghan averted the hat-trick. Sailor finished with 3-8, including the prized scalp of fellow Queenslander Maher, to head the Town attack.

However, Melanie Jones (30) and Gillespie with a hard-hitting 47 not out – including three late sixes – guided the Gown side to victory with a few balls to spare.

Gillespie declared the day an outstanding success. “I didn’t know what to expect on my way here … but it is a wonderful facility, a wonderful occasion and a great cause raising money for cancer research. The University should be very proud,” he said.

Last reviewed: 23 November, 2009