Gympie Cricket Legend Number 8 - TROY ROWLANDS

Troy 'DJ' 'Roly' Rowlands

                                                   

Back in the late 70's and early 80's McDonnell Park Southside bubbled with enthusiastic young cricketers who had primed their games in back yard 'Test Matches' prior to taking on the greater challenge of competing against other neighbourhood hopefuls on the parks more expansive boundaries. Troy 'DJ' 'Roly' Rowlands was one of these young starry eyed cricketers who fell in love with the game competing in the highly competitive environment these contests demanded. Thus the seed was planted for his long 25 year association with Gympie Cricket.

Much was achieved during Roly's involvement with Gympie Cricket. He represented both Colts and Harlequins Clubs with distinction, Captained Colts, Captained Gympie and represented Gympie Cricket as President of the Association, a true sign of the respect for which he is held.

    

A stylish wicket-keeper batsman, he is rated by many as the best keeper batsman produced by Gympie in the last 40 years and for those who played with or against him very few could argue this point. Good enough to hold his place in any team as a top order batsman he scored 2 Gympie A-Grade centuries, but I am sure he would of scored many more if not for his hiatus with Sunshine Coast Cricket. Troy's highest representative honours included selection in the Sunshine Coast Gympie team but advancing further was probably suppressed because of his innovative decision to wear shin guards rather then wicket-keeping pads long before this was an accepted practice. Like many of Gympie's better Cricketers prior to the formation of the Gympie Gold X1, 'Roly' wanted to challenge himself further and made the decision to compete in the Sunshine Coast 1st Division Competition with Tewantin Noosa where he played a lot of his best cricket. Thankfully, he returned to Captain his foundation club Colts and was rewarded with his 1st Gympie Premiership in his retirement year after implementing a more serious approach to skills based training and fitness. The highlight of his representative career was beating Bundaberg ( who had Australian and Qld Country players in their team ) in a Goodchild Rep game with only 10 guys and then having only 9 guys after one was sent to hospital with a split webbing. Gympie had to chase a huge total that day and Mitch O'Hara and 'Roly' steered the team home for a most memorable win.

The Colts team of the late 80's featuring players of the calibre of Ian 'Chubby' O'Brien, Steve O'Brien, Glyn 'Wally' Brook and Col Steinke to name a few was rated by 'Roly' as the best club team he played in.  During his early years in A-Grade he learnt a lot about playing competitive cricket from this bunch of guys.

Roly's thoughts on Gympie Cricket:

Favourite Club team mate - Josh Seaniger

Most annoying team mate - Mitch O'Hara 

Most annoying opposition player - Gary Smith

Best friend made playing cricket - Shaun Savage

Most respected player - Ian 'Chubby' O'Brien 

Best cricketer played against in Gympie - Brad Petersen

Best Batsmen - Shane Kropp

Fastest Bowler - Kev Goatham 

Best Spinner - Darren Page

Best Allrounder - Ken 'KJ' Johnston

Best Wicketkeeper - Mitch O'Hara 

Best Fielder - Dean Long 

Best Captain - Ian 'Chubby' O'Brien

Best Sledger  - Danny Mahoney 

Gympie team nemesis -Valleys

Troy's funniest Story features Jim Geiger who he recollects used to tell some of the funniest stories ever on the rep bus trips. One that stands out was about him playing in the early days at Albert Park. He was batting and he was facing a fast bowler. Well the bowler had bounced him 3 balls in a row and on the fourth ball he caught the bouncer that was flying over his head. Nonchalantly he chucked it back to the bowler and said, "now pitch the bloody thing up so I can hit something".  Other notable stories would include Jim's famous bandicoot stew and the odd nudie run around the servo's on the bus trips always provided plenty of laughter with Mr  Ian 'Gossy' Gosschalk.

Reflecting on his involvement in Gympie Cricket, Troy enjoyed giving back to the game during his 10 year tenure on the committee in the roles of Vice President and President. He still loves the game that bought him so much enjoyment over many many years and cherishes the friendships that result from playing a team sport.

Finally he would like to remembered as someone that had a little bit of talent, someone who gave their all for his club and town , was a determined player and never gave his wicket away easy. Rest assured Troy we can all agree with that.