The Hawker Eleven Cricket Match, Good Friday April 2014

It was Good Friday afternoon and the Sydney to London Classic Marathon service crews were fobbing around waiting for our cars to arrive; once again, this time on the side of the Hawker to Wilpena Pound highway, when one of Pat Coles service crew found this lump of wood, then another crew dragged a tennis ball out of there “kit“ and a bucket was produced from someone’s Service Trailer.


The Hawker 11 on a fast pitch



And so it started – a Test Match series with the Aussies Services Crews v the Poms & Welsh Crews - and then travelled west across the Nullarbor to Perth over the next 7 days or so.  Even a few other European teams joined in here and there to assist the Tourists.



The Test Series continued across the Nullabour, here a Welsh batsman 

attempts to hit the ball all the way from Kimba to Cardiff.

 Anyway, back to the first pic, this road was becoming rather busy the longer it went on as many Adelaideans were travelling to the Flinders Ranges and Wilpena Pound for the Easter holidays and Stumps – the bucket you can see in the picture - had to be pulled up a few times to let cars through.

 Then, with a Service Crew Gnome standing on the verge of the road with bucket Stumps in hand, a northbound car pulls up beside him and throws a gold coin into the bucket. 

The motorist thought we were doing a tin rattle for the Melbourne Royal Children’s Hospital Good Friday Appeal!

 The Hawker Eleven all fell off the highway with laughter.

Then those pesky rally cars bound for Perth then London turned up and demanded service anyway ...

The bat was auctioned off in Perth at the end of the Australian leg of the Marathon with funds going to the Royal Flying Doctor Service.  The successful bidder was Hilary Evans.

This was a topic of discussion here on the HRA Facebook page at the time.

Hilary Evans posted ...

I paid $1000 for that bloody cricket bat as a donation the Royal Flying Doctor Service.  A unique piece of Australian rally history as it was made out a piece of timber from a Shit sheep shearing shed.  A quote from Matt De Vaus at the time.

And Hilary, you are quite correct. You did make a generous Auction Bid of $1000 for the Team Bat at the Perth Australian Leg Presentation which went to the Royal Doctor Flying Service. But that was because it had the autographs of the Hawker Eleven on it wasn't it !


Man on Road - on the Road to Windsor Castle, May 2014

 

 

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