Almanac Tribute: Four ‘encounters’ with Garry Sobers – RIP Garry Sobers

 

 

 

Four ‘encounters’ with Garry Sobers 

 

The first was watching Garry Sobers bat at Parkinson Oval, home to the Kensington District Cricket Club. It was probably in the mid-1970s. Sobers scored three, if I remember correctly. But there he was, close up, loose-limbed, wearing a short-sleeved jumper, strolling out to bat in the late-afternoon sun as spectators lined the boundary. The match was a fundraiser organised by former Australian wicketkeeper Barry Jarman for the family of a Kensington player recently diagnosed with terminal cancer.

 

I had hoped to watch Sobers bat a few years earlier. It was the summer of 1971/72 when my mother, Margaret, bought tickets for the final Australia v the Rest of the World ‘Test’ at the Adelaide Oval—day four. Having watched highlights of Sobers’ 254 for the ROW against Australia at the MCG, I wanted to see his mercurial skills in the flesh (he played for South Australia for three summers in the early 1960s, but I was too young). The ROW match was over early on day four. I caught a glimpse of Sobers from a distance. He was sitting in the dressing room, in civilian clothes, drinking a beer and smoking. As a consolation, Mum took me for a pie, a custard tart and a can of Coke at the café beneath the George Giffen grandstand, where we’d been sitting.

 

My next ‘encounter’ was actually meeting Sobers at a Kensington cricket club pie night during the first World Series Cricket summer, 1977/78, when I was 14. Sobers was standing with our under-16 coach, Barry Jarman, who introduced us. Sobers was casually standing at the bar, nuzzling a rum next to his chest. That night, I also met Richie Benaud and Neil Harvey, as well as the English author Irving Rosenwater, who tried to chat up my Mum. My parents had recently divorced, and my Dad later expressed regret for not going. He would have liked to have met Sobers.

 

My fourth ‘encounter’ took place in 2011. I was writing Jarman’s biography, and Sobers agreed to write the foreword. I spoke to Sobers in Barbados over a very crackly phone line. The connection was so poor that he agreed to call me back the next day. When he did, the call came through to the ABC, where I was working. One of my younger colleagues, Charlotte, answered because I hadn’t arrived yet. Charlotte had no idea who Gary Sobers was. She put Sobers on hold, then paged the office on speaker, “There’s Garry Sobers on the line for Barry. Does anyone know who Garry Sobers is?”

 

When I arrived at work, a gleeful young male colleague, Jamie, well-versed in cricket history, approached me with the ‘news’ of the call from Garry Sobers. Charlotte soon arrived.

 

“Ahem,” she began.

 

“There was a phone call for you.” Charlotte held a crumpled piece of paper with Sobers’ landline number on it.

 

“ From Garry Sobers,”

 

“Do you mean Sir Garfield Sobers?”

 

The incident, for a while, became part of the office folklore.

 

Charlotte, who took the ribbing in good spirits, later became a leading ABC TV newsreader, and Jamie a talented radio presenter on 6PR. My book on Barry Jarman, For Those Who Wait: The Barry Jarman Story, was published in November 2011, and Garry Sobers’ foreword sits proudly at the front of the book.

 

 

 

 

You can read more from Barry Nicholls Here

 

Barry Nicholls is a former A-grade district cricketer for Student Teachers, Kensington and Tea Tree Gully in Adelaide.  He has written about the sport for three decades. Barry was also a broadcaster on ABC Radio for nearly 20 years. His most recent book, Playing to Win: Australia and the 1972 Ashes was published by Wakefield Press.

 

Purchase details for Barry’s books can be obtained by contacting Barry at his email –   [email protected]  

 

 

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