BULLDOGS

CLUB HISTORY

It all began in 1992 when the number of foreigners to Osaka started to increase and the talk in the pubs turned to the lack of cricket.

So, there and then I decided to start the Osaka Cricket Team. The nickname “The Bulldogs” actually came from one of the first members Alan Gardiner who was a fan of the Australian Bulldogs team. But, I thought that the Bulldogs name was very apt. It had images of tenacity, loyalty and friendliness....and we have been the Bulldogs ever since.

Our first games were played in Kobe’s Gakuentoshi. For me it took two and a half hours there and back and I was usually exhausted at the end of it. Our first opponents were the K.R.A.C, and The Kansai Indians and a mixed team of Kobe players. The first thing we did was order new equipment from Australia and I remember ordering a pair of batting gloves and being very surprised when a large package arrived at my house containing........a pair of pads. Gradually, the news spread and we started going on tours to Nagoya and Shizuoka. We were very lucky in those days to have a fine squad of players. Apart from myself, there was Chris Kaye, Alan Gardiner and Brian Slater plus a host of other athletic young guys in their twenties. Brian Slater has gone on record as saying they were the best fielding side he had ever seen. Certainly, we went the first season unbeaten and were known as “The Dream Team”

But all good things fade in time. One by one the players fell by the wayside and no new players were coming in. Grounds were extremely difficult to come by and it became harder to persuade players to join.

Around this time Lawrence Taylor entered the team and started to revitalize it in his own quiet way and giving it more depth and structure. New teams appeared, The Kansai Indians, The Kansai Pakistanis and The Kansai Sri Lankans plus Nova, Doshisha University and Fukuoka joined the scene. Tours became the norm rather than the exception. We travelled to Hong Kong, Thailand, Australia as well as regular home tours to Fuji, Shizuoka and Kyushu.

The Kansai League was formed but after a season or two it became apparent that national pride was starting to tear the fabric apart culminating in the disgraceful scenes witnessed during the Osaka V Kansai Pakistani game in which the umpires were attacked and the game was abandoned in chaos.

This was probably the low point of cricket in the Kansai Area.

What was probably the strongest team, The Kansai Sri Lankans disolved due to internal problems whilst The aging Kansai Indians and the ineffectual Doshisha became side-lined. However, Nova and the new revamped KRAC arose to take their places and as I write, cricket is still alive and kicking in the Kansai area.

Last season was perhaps the worst one for the Bulldogs regarding results, I think we won two and lost nine and we were almost never able to field a full team, but this season seems to have stopped the rot and we now have enough players to field full teams once more.

Of the original members there are only Chris Kaye and myself still actively playing and with my retirement at the end of the season it will leave Chris Kaye as the longest serving Bulldog.

Here are a few of my own memories of playing in nearly every Bulldogs game since the very start.

Best Batsman.........Without a doubt it has to be Sumudu Chamikara who made every other player look like a child.

Best Bowler........This is more difficult. I suppose over time it would be Doug Walker, but the actual best bowling performance was surely by Jim Dobson who took 6 for 17 against a strong Shizuoka team in 1994. Also nobody could ever forget Brennan Edwardes all bowled hatrick in the gloom of a cold Hong Kong spring a few years ago.

Best Catch..........again difficult, but my own favourite one has to be Phil Sarbutt’s miraculous slip catch which was Test cricket standard against Fuji a few years ago. He looked like a salmon leaping out of water and what made it more remarkable was he was such a huge guy.

Best Game.......although we lost I think it was the Ashes Game against Australia three years ago.I have never played in such a hard fought, commmited game in which both teams attacked and tried their best. Two centuries by each team were scored and it had to be the best advertisment for the introduction of 50 over rather than forty overs that I have ever seen. Another great game was the very first floodlit game against Kobe played at the KRAC ten years ago in which the Bulldogs won by 10 wickets. Abd finally the game four years ago played in Sydney when the Bulldogs went on tour and played on the beautiful grass and huge playing surface, won, and had a lovely time at the barbecue afterwards. And Fukuoka a few years back when we again played on grass, won, and carroused well into the night.

Best Wicketkeeper.......there is only one......the simply irreplacable....Alan(Billy the Finger)Gardiner.

One of the best things about the team is the number of friends I have made through my association with the Osaka Bulldogs and there must have been over one hundred players from all over the world who have played for the team. Mostly Australians, but a sizable amount of Englishmen, Sri Lankans, New Zealanders, Indians and Japanese.

We have enjoyed winning and losing, rain and sunshine, good times and bad, home games and tours. Long may it continue:

Richard Downing

28th April 2003