Forgotten Shield players from the 90's

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Probably more the 2000's but Ashley Noffke is a name that you don't hear often. Terrrific medium fast bowler for Queensland for quite a number of years, was over for the 2001 Ashes tour as a young bloke and was apparently pretty impressive. Never really developed the pace or something that made him stand out from other candidates though so opportunities were limited. Was finally rewarded with a few ODI's and T20's around 2008, but never had a sustatined run in either side. Came over to WA for his twilight years and struggled which have hurt his overall record a bit.

Edit: Just checked the stats and he only played the one ODI and two T20I's... Going by memory thought he had a bit more of a go than that.
 

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Hellgood said:
Probably more the 2000's but Ashley Noffke is a name that you don't hear often. Terrrific medium fast bowler for Queensland for quite a number of years, was over for the 2001 Ashes tour as a young bloke and was apparently pretty impressive. Never really developed the pace or something that made him stand out from other candidates though so opportunities were limited. Was finally rewarded with a few ODI's and T20's around 2008, but never had a sustatined run in either side. Came over to WA for his twilight years and struggled which have hurt his overall record a bit.

Edit: Just checked the stats and he only played the one ODI and two T20I's... Going by memory thought he had a bit more of a go than that.
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Noffke was a gun bowler. Well over 200 Shield wickets. Average under 30 too.
 
Jason Arnberger fits this bill, he'd have a few thousand runs for Victoria yet I don't even remember anything more than he used to open up with Matt Eliott back in the day, may have been right handed.
 
Jo Angel played 4 tests for Australia and led the WA attack for over a decade, he wasn't exactly an obscure 90s shield player.

Duncan Spencer was an obscure 90s shield player for WA, he had big wraps on him as he was quick but he was also erratic and only lasted one season.
 
Plugger35 said:
Jo Angel played 4 tests for Australia and led the WA attack for over a decade, he wasn't exactly an obscure 90s shield player.

Duncan Spencer was an obscure 90s shield player for WA, he had big wraps on him as he was quick but he was also erratic and only lasted one season.
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I listed him already. Got done for taking steroids for recovery from an injury.

I remember watching him in a Merantile Mutual Cup (or whatever it was at the time) game back in the very early 2000s (2001 maybe? I think I was still at school) then he disappeared soon after.
 
Plugger35 said:
Duncan Spencer was an obscure 90s shield player for WA, he had big wraps on him as he was quick but he was also erratic and only lasted one season.
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Never heard of him, sounds like an interesting story though...
He might only have been short in stature but, by the time that Duncan Spencer first hit the domestic cricket scene in the early 1990s, few players in contemporary memory had been able to produce deliveries of such blistering pace. In his debut first-class season with Kent in 1993, the English-born right armer made a huge impression, prompting no less an authority than Sir Vivian Richards (then playing with Glamorgan) to rank him as possibly the quickest bowler he had ever faced in his illustrious career.

Sadly, Spencer's own career did not hit the heights that such a start might have promised. Persistent injury problems, headlined by chronic stress fractures in his back, have not only blunted his effectiveness but also ensured that he did not add to the tally of 14 first-class matches that he played with Kent in 1993 and 1994 and with Western Australia in 1993-94.

He continued to play grade cricket around his battles with injury but his ills were so severe that, at times, he was forced to participate solely as a batsman. The pattern of frustration was only broken in 2000-01 when a spectacular recovery led to his inclusion in six limited-overs matches for Western Australia - the state to which his family moved when he was five years old. While he did not bowl with quite as much pace as he had generated from his uncomplicated, slinging action in his first appearances in the Warriors' colours seven years earlier, he played an important role in helping the state reach a second Mercantile Mutual Cup Final in successive years.

Tragically, though, the effort which lay behind his comeback was also his undoing. Following the loss to New South Wales in the competition's deciding match, Spencer tested positive to the banned substance nandrolone - a substance he had used in an attempt to relieve his chronic pain. At the end of a much-publicised case in April 2001, he was banned from elite level cricket for a period of 18 months and thus inherited the unfortunate legacy of being the first player in Australian cricket to be found guilty of a drug-taking offence.

He reappeared again in 2006, playing twice for Sussex, and later in the summer helped Buckinghamshire to the Minor Counties final at Lord's.
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He was a bit of an enigma Duncan Spencer, if it wasn't for injuries he probably would've played test cricket.

If Viv Richards said he was one of the quickest bowlers he'd faced he must have been bloody quick considering what he would've faced against the West Indies fast bowlers in the nets and in county cricket.

He apparently terrorised a few Perth first grade cricket batting line ups back in his day.
 
In a thread where I have tragically recalled (or still actively known) 90% of the names bought up in this thread I've at least discovered two new things in the last few posts.

1 - Stuart MacGill only played 1 game for WA. I seriously thought he played 2 or 3 seasons for them before heading East.

2 - Duncan Spencer was quick. Seriously quick. I rememer his name but knew nothing of his story. That youtube clip is brilliant. I would be surprised if his quickest ball was below 155. Completely shocked if it was below 150. Shame there was no gun. I reckon his quickest ball would've been the one at about 3:40 where the left hander has a slash outside the off stump. That flew past the batsmen. That pitch also doesn't have the great carry you've ever seen. That doesn't effect bowling speeds, but a pitch without much carry doesn't encourage the bowler to bend their beck, yet he is still getting it through very quick.

And also Viv has balls of steel. 41 years of age, going out with no lid to face that. But we already knew he did anyway.
 
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Pretty sure I watched Duncan spencer bowl in a Willetton Presidents game a few months ago. Hogg was also playing (and still plays for them). Mark Lavender too, who still hits the ball very cleanly
 
The Passenger said:
And also Viv has balls of steel. 41 years of age, going out with no lid to face that. But we already knew he did anyway.
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Yeah amazing someone of his age going out to face someone that quick in just a cap, he'd get hit a few times but he never lost the arrogance and swagger even though it must've hurt like hell, he never showed the bowler that he was hurt.

Rodney Hogg told a great story in his book about clocking Viv in the head with a fast bouncer which rolled back down the pitch and he expected Viv to be rolling around in pain on the ground holding his head after he collected the ball but Viv was just standing there casually chewing his gum and waiting for the next ball.
 
QAFL_Fan said:
Barsby
Maher
Mott

Seccombe

Outside that, its a hard side to pick because so many of them played test cricket in that era.
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Trevor Barsby
Jerry Cassell (was tempting to pick Brendan Nash before remembering that I did see one of his test appearances)
Matthew Mott
Clinton Perren
Jimmy Maher
Geoff Foley
Wade Seccombe
Joe Dawes
Greg Rowell
Dirk Tazelaar
Paul Jackson


TAS side is about the same as it generally was...

Dene Hills
Nick Courtney
Jamie Cox
Michael Di Venuto
Rodney Tucker
Graeme Cunningham
Michael Farrell
Mark Atkinson
Damien Wright
Ali De Winter
Ben Targett


WA team a little harder
Mark Lavender
Scott Meuleman
Peter McPhee
Rob Baker
Wayne Andrews
Ryan Campbell
Luke Ronchi
Darren Wates
Kade Harvey
Mark Atkinson (not a typo, different person)
Peter Capes


VICS
Jason Arnberger
Graeme Vimpani
Laurie Harper
Shawn Craig
Brendon Ricci
Ian Harvey
Jason Bakker
Darren Berry
John Davison
Matthew Inness
Allan Wise

SA fairly easy
Paul Nobes
Martin Faull
Jamie Siddons
James Brayshaw
Darren Webber
Nathan Adcock
Tim Nielsen
Shane George
Peter Gladigau
Brett Swain
Mark Harrity


and finally NSW
Rodney Davison
Martin Hayward
Richard Chee Quee
Trevor Bayliss
Steve Small
Shane Lee
Neil Maxwell
Nathan Pilon
David Freedman
Wayne Holdsworth
Anthony Stuart (was thinking Simon Cook but he appeared twice against the kiwis in 97)
 
Solid effort. Qld team clear best on paper. And to think the quality of players they had who only played a handful of tests as well - Stuart Law, Martin Love, Adam Dale, Scott Muller.
 
stmookeyj said:
WA team a little harder
Mark Lavender
Scott Meuleman
Peter McPhee
Rob Baker
Wayne Andrews
Ryan Campbell
Luke Ronchi
Darren Wates
Kade Harvey
Mark Atkinson (not a typo, different person)
Peter Capes
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Solid, but wouldn't count the two keepers as Ronchi didn't play in the 90s and Ryan Campbell isn't really a forgotten player (not by me, anyway!).
 
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