Illawarra's best cricketers and Hall of Fame inductees to be celebrated

So on Friday, April 5 at the Fraternity Club in Fairy Meadow, CI will add its second batch of inductees which includes four Illawarra players who have played for at least one Australian state in the Sheffield Shield competition plus one outstanding Illawarra administrator/umpire.

They are Colin Pinch, Ivor Ewin, Barry Bates, Mike Hendricks and Trent Johnston.

Colin Pinch: Pinch was born in Brownsville in 1921 and as a teenager played with the Glebe and Coniston clubs, before being selected for New South Wales and later South Australia.

Pinch was the first Illawarra cricketer to play Sheffield Shield cricket and the first to represent two states.

He is to be inducted by Ron Johnston.

Ivor Ewin OAM: Ewin lived a long life in cricket, the game he knew well and loved deeply. He caught the cricketing bug early and had a lengthy plying career before focusing on administration and umpiring.

Ewin became a highly respected figure in Illawarra, NSW and Australian cricketing circles in which he made many substantial contributions.

His career in cricket was recognised by the award of no fewer than six life memberships - of the IDCA (1961), the Western Suburbs DCC (1962), the Illawarra Cricket Council (1975), Country Cricket NSW (1991, )the NSWCA (1997) and the Illawarra Cricket Umpires' Association (1999).

Ewin is to be inducted by Ian Hogg.

Barry Bates: Bates was one of the fastest and most successful bowlers from Illawarra, an excellent fieldsman and more than capable batsman.

In November 1960 Bates produced arguably his finest bowling spell against top class opposition.

At Stuart Park playing for Illawarra against a NSW team Bates, in a devastating spell of express pace bowling, dismissed all the top six batsmen, Ian Craig, Ray Flockton, Neil Harvey, Norm O'Neill, Graham Thomas and Alan Davidson. All those batsmen, except Flockton were test batsmen.

He finished with figures of 6-65 from 17 overs and then took another three wickets in the second innings.

Bates is to be inducted by Garry Boyall.

Mike Hendricks: Hendricks and his twin brother Geoffrey were born on December 21, 1942.

The boys came from a sporting family with father Gus having played first grade rugby league with Corrimal and their mother Mary played cricket with Bellambi while older sister Pat was an A-grade hockey player. Both parents were keen members of Bellambi Surf Lifesaving Club.

The Hendricks family lived only 22 metres from Cawley Park, and it was a great playground for the neighbourhood children to pick up games of football and cricket.

Hendricks played as wicket-keeper for both NSW and South Australia.

Both Colin Pinch and Mike Hendricks were named in Adelaide Cricket Club's Team of the Century.

Hendricks is to be inducted by Ray Tolhurst.

Trent Johnston: The Dapto Cricket Club product performed especially well as an all-rounder during his illustrious career.

Johnston became the captain of Ireland in several first-class matches against other national teams below Test level and in the 2007 World Cup tournament in the West Indies.

As the Ireland captain Johnston led the country to two wins over Test-playing nations, Pakistan and Bangladesh, and a tie against Zimbabwe.

As a result, Ireland reached the "Super Eight" stage of the competition, one of the few non-Test countries to progress beyond the initial stages of a World Cup tournament.

These inductees join the inaugural five who were inducted by Cricket Illawarra last year. They are Dave Gregory, Tom Garrett Jr, Ruby Monaghan, Brian Taber and Phil Jaques.

CI will also announce its award winners in the male and female competition.