Laurie Nash

Infobox Historic Cricketer


nationality = Australian
country = Australia
country abbrev = AUS
name = Laurie Nash
picture = Laurie Nash.jpg
batting style = Right-hand bat
bowling style = Right-arm fast
tests = 2
test runs = 30
test bat avg = 15.00
test 100s/50s = 0/0
test top score = 17
test balls = 311
test wickets = 10
test bowl avg = 12.60
test 5s = 0
test 10s = 0
test best bowling = 4/18
test catches/stumpings = 6/0
FCs = 22
FC runs = 953
FC bat avg = 28.02
FC 100s/50s = 1/5
FC top score = 110
FC balls = 3741
FC wickets = 69
FC bowl avg = 28.33
FC 5s = 3
FC 10s = 0
FC best bowling = 7/50
FC catches/stumpings = 19/0
debut date = 12 February
debut year = 1932
last date = 26 February
last year = 1937
source = http://www.cricketarchive.com/Archive/Players/0/587/587.html CricketArchive

Laurence John (Laurie) Nash (2 May 1910 - 24 July 1986) was a Test cricketer and leading Australian rules footballer. He was inducted into the Australian Football Hall of Fame and was a member of South Melbourne's 1933 premiership team.

Early life

Born in Fitzroy, Victoria, Nash was the son of former Collingwood Football Club captain Robert Nash, who, after his dismissal from the police force following strike action moved his family to Tasmania to run the hotel at Parattah. Robert Nash initially preferred Laurie to become a cricketer and forbid his son from playing senior football until he was 20. Although short and stocky (he was only 175cm tall), Nash excelled in cricket and Australian rules football from a young age and made his first-class cricket debut for Tasmania as a fast bowler against Victoria at Launceston on 31 December 1929, taking 2/97 and scoring one and 48 ["Cricket Archive" Scorecard, Tasmania v Victoria in 1929/30 http://www.cricketarchive.co.uk/Archive/Scorecards/13/13334.html Accessed 6 May 2008.] . Four months later, he made his senior football debut for the Roy Cazaly coached City side in the Northern Tasmania Football Association, immediately standing out on account of his skills, blond hair and confidence in his abilities. Nash made the Tasmanian side for the national carnival in Adelaide where he won the medal for Best Tasmanian player of the carnival.

Following a lively bowling performance for Tasmania against the touring South Africans in 1931-32, taking 9/137, including two wickets in two balls and breaking Eric Dalton's jaw with a vicious bouncer, ["Cricket Archive", Scorecard, Tasmania v South Africans in 1931/32 http://www.cricketarchive.co.uk/Archive/Scorecards/14/14148.html Accessed 30 April 2008] Nash made his Test debut for Australia against South Africa at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on 12 February 1932, taking 4 wickets for 18 and 1 for 4 as South Africa were routed for 36 and 45. ["Cricket Archive" Scorecard Australia v South Africa Fifth Test http://www.cricketarchive.co.uk/Archive/Scorecards/14/14160.html Accessed 7 May 2008] A long Test career seemed assured.

The 1932/33 cricket season saw the Douglas Jardine led England side tour Australia and Nash was expected by many to open the bowling. Instead, he was surprisingly left out of what became known as the Bodyline series. While there was never an official reason given for his omission, it is thought the Australian selectors decided that the inclusion of the fiery Nash would only aggravate the already controversial series.

Move to Victoria

Infobox afl player | firstname =
lastname =




birthdate = birth date|1910|5|2|df=y
birthplace = Fitzroy, Victoria
originalteam = City, Launceston
dead = dead
deathdate = death date|1986|7|24|df=y
deathplace = Heidelberg, Victoria
debutdate = Round 1, 1933
debutteam = South Melbourne
debutopponent = Carlton
debutstadium = Princes Park
playingteams = South Melbourne (1933-1937, 1945) 99 games, 246 goals
coach = coach
coachingteams = South Melbourne (1953)
statsend = 1953
careerhighlights =

* Captain, South Melbourne: 1937
* Leading Goalkicker, South Melbourne: 1937 (37 goals), 1945 (56) Nash's football career continued to soar however as leading Victorian Football League club South Melbourne offered Nash an unprecedented £3 per match for the 1933 season. Nash moved to Melbourne and immediately became one of the League's top players, helping South Melbourne win the 1933 premiership. Additionally, while playing for Victoria in an interstate match against South Australia, he kicked a record 18 goals.

Still on a high from the premiership win, any thought of Nash's inclusion in the Australian cricket team disappeared when, a week after the grand final, he opened the bowling for his district club South Melbourne against Australian captain Bill Woodfull's team, Carlton, continually bouncing Woodfull and eventually hitting him in the heart. He was not chosen for the subsequent tour of England.

After a few years away from the cricketing spotlight (although he dominated Melbourne district cricket, the Victorian selectors refused to select him and he never played a Sheffield Shield match), Nash was chosen for Victoria against the touring 1936/37 English team and, after having the tourists ducking and weaving, was picked for the deciding Fifth Test, with the sides locked at 2-2. His selection invoked complaints from the touring English side, who objected to the number of bouncers Nash had bowled at them during the Victorian match. [Pollard p. 776.] It has been suggested that the Australian Cricket Board of Control wanted to veto Nash's selection but were forced to relent when the selectors threatened to resign if Nash was not included in the Australian side.

Nash claimed 4 for 70 and 1 for 34 as Australia clinched the series ["Cricket Archive", Australia v England in 1936/37 Fifth Test http://www.cricketarchive.co.uk/Archive/Scorecards/16/16097.html Accessed 8 May 2008] . When later asked about his inclusion, Nash replied "They knew where to come when they stood 2-all in the rubber." With that, Nash's Test career ended and Nash never played another first-class match, although he continued to terrorise batsmen in district cricket. His 10 wickets at 12.60 places him at the head of the list of averages for bowlers to have taken 10 or more Test wickets and his 22 first-class matches reaped 69 wickets at 28.33 and 953 runs at 28.02.

Keith Miller, also a VFL footballer who played interstate football for Victoria in 1946 [ [http://stats.rleague.com/afl/stats/players/K/Keith_Miller0.html AFL Tables - Keith Miller - Statistics ] ] , later declared that the non-selection of Laurie Nash as a regular Test player was "the greatest waste of talent in Australian cricket history", adding that Australian captain Don Bradman wanted Nash in the side to tour England in 1938 but that Nash "suffered injustices at the hands of high-level cricket administration", who refused to countenance his selectionWallish E.A. (1998) "The Great Laurie Nash", Ryan Publishing, Melbourne. ISBN 0-9587059-6-8.] .

The reasons given for the apparent poor attitude towards Nash include his reputation for calling a spade a spade, his abrasive personality, which included sledging and even the fact that he wore cut off sleeves, which was considered a serious faux pas in the 1930s. Nash himself believed that he was a victim of the anti-Catholic and working class bias of the Protestant cricket establishment.

Nash continued to star in Australian rules football, captaining South Melbourne in 1937, when he won the club goalkicking award with 37 goals before causing a sensation the next season when he transferred to Victorian Football Association side Camberwell without a clearance. In four seasons at Camberwell, Nash played 74 games, kicking 418 goalsDevaney, J. "Laurie Nash (City-Launceston, South Melbourne, Camberwell)", "Full Points Footy" http://www.fullpointsfooty.net/n-o.htm#Laurie%20Nash%20(City-South,%20South%20Melbourne,%20Camberwell) Accessed 30 April 2008] and won the club Best and Fairest in 1939.

War service

Nash's sporting career went into hiatus following the outbreak of World War II. Nash enlisted in the Australian Army in 1942, [WWII Nominal Roll http://www.ww2roll.gov.au/script/veteran.asp?ServiceID=A&VeteranID=478579 Accessed 5 May 2008] serving as a trooper in New GuineaCoverdale, B. (2007) "Australia's Winter Allrounders: XI Test Cricketers who played Australian Rules football at the highest level", "Cricinfo" http://content-www.cricinfo.com/magazine/content/story/296109.html Accessed 6 May 2008.] and, following his return to Australia and discharge on 18 November 1944, sold War Bonds. ["The Argus" "Laurie Nash", 26 September 1945, p. 11.]

porting comeback

Nash returned to football for the 1945 season, and following offers from Camberwell and South Melbourne, returned to South Melbourne for his final season.

Nash played 17 games for South in 1945, including the famous "Bloodbath" Grand Final, kicking 56 goals before retiring from VFL football after 99 matches and 246 goals for South Melbourne.

Nash's great sporting success can be partly contributed to his self-confidence (when once asked who was the greatest footballer he had ever seen, Nash replied: "I see him in the mirror every morning when I shave")Reed, R. (2000) "Nash's cap comes home", "Melbourne Herald Sun", 15 December 2000] , Nash was a superbly fit athlete who never smoked or drank and dedicated himself to a punishing exercise regime, something rare in 1930s sports circles.

Coaching career

In 1946 he transferred to Wangaratta to act as captain coach the Wangaratta Magpies, which he led to flag. Never one to do things by halves, Nash also coached country sides Greta and Casterton, leading Greta to a premiership in the Ovens and King league, becoming one of the few people to have coached two different teams to a premiership in the same season [Anderson, J. (1997) "Maybe Laurie's Right, After All", "Melbourne Herald-Sun", p. 91, 28 July 1997.] .

Nash continued to coach country sides successfully and eventually returned to coach South Melbourne in 1953.

Cricketing style

Nash's bowling action has been described as letting "the ball go with a furious arm action, as if a fortune depended on every ball." [Pollard p. 776.]

He "made the ball fizz as he charged through the crease at a speed that always appeared likely to topple him over." [Pollardp. 776.]

Post retirement

In old age, Nash had become bloated, "like an old, red balloon that had been slightly let down".Flanagan, M. (1998) "Laurie Nash - The Genius", "The Melbourne Age", p. 8, 5 May 1998.] . Nash died in hospital in Heidelberg, Victoria. Following his death Nash was made a foundation member of the Tasmanian Sporting Hall of Fame and named at Centre Half Back in the Tasmanian Australian rules "Team of the Century" ["For the Record", "The Australian", 26 June 2004] . When he was named in the Australian Football Hall of Fame, the summary commented " One of the most gifted players ever, his career was half as long as many but it shone twice as brightly as most. Considered by many judges (himself included) the best player in the land..."

See also

*List of cricketers called for throwing in major cricket matches in Australia
*List of Australian rules football and cricket players

References

* Anderson, J. (1998) "Nash a Wasted Talent", "Herald-Sun", 25 June 1998.
* Kieza, G. (2005) "The last time our Swans triumphed" "Sydney Daily Telegraph", p. 1, 25 September 2005
* CricInfo Profile of Laurie Nash [http://content-aus.cricinfo.com/ci/content/player/6915.html] . Accessed on 2 July 2006.
* Pollard, J. (1988) "Australian Cricket: The Game and its Players", Angus & Robertson Publishers, Sydney.

External links

* [http://stats.rleague.com/afl/stats/players/L/Laurie_Nash.html AFL Statistics: Laurie Nash]
* [http://www.fullpointsfooty.net/n-o.htm#Laurie%20Nash%20(City-South,%20South%20Melbourne,%20Camberwell) Full Points Footy Biography: Laurie Nash]
* [http://content-www.cricinfo.com/australia/content/player/6915.html CricInfo Profile: Laurie Nash]