Club history
The club was formed in January 1857 as the Illawarra Club. One of the founding clubs of the local competition. The name was eventually changed to the Wollongong District Cricket Club.
The 2006/2007 Season was the 150th Year for WDCC. Past & Present Players played a match and then celebrated this marvellous milestone with a dinner that included Bob Simpson & Graham Thorpe.
Home ground was the picturesque Stuart Park (located next to North Wollongong beach). Owing to the close proximity to the lighthouse for the Wollongong harbour, the nickname for the club of the "lighthouse keepers" was born.
In 1994, the club relocated to the North Dalton Park complex which was to become the home of Illawarra Cricket, and one of the best cricket facilities outside of Sydney.
The trophy cupboard hadn't had any new silverware for some time until our 4th Grade won the Premiership in 2007-08. Before that, we had to go back to 1971 when the 1st Grade last won the premiership, although a run of Club Championship success' in the late 70's reflected the depth at that time. Since 2017/18, there has been much success throughout the Grades, including our Women. Since 2018/18, Cricket Illawarra have run a Women's T20 competition on Friday nights, which Wollongong won in each of the first three Seasons.
We have teams in Cricket Illawarra's Junior competition, as well as 6-10 year old Blaster Sessions each week.
Club Championship
1969/70, 1972/73, 1973/74, 1976/77, 1977/78, 1978/79, 1979/80, 2018/19, 2020/21
1st Grade
Womens T20
Premiers:
1902/03, 1905/06, 1909/10, 1910/11, 1920/21, 1924/25, 1928/29, 1951/52, 1953/54, 1955/56, 1956/57, 1957/58, 1970/71
One-Day Competition:
1979/80, 1984/85, 1988/89
CI T20 Winners:
2011/12, 2018/19, 2023/24
GICZ T20 Winners: 2021/22
Cricket NSW Community Cup T20 Winners:
2023/24, 2024/25
Womens T20 Winners:
2018/19, 2019/20, 2020/21
2nd Grade
Premiers:
1949/50, 1952/53, 1955/56, 1966/67, 1972/73, 1973/74, 1974/75, 1975/76, 1977/78, 1978/79, 1980/81, 1981/82, 2017/18, 2018/19
One-Day Competition:
2018/19
3rd Grade
Premiers:
1970/71, 1976/77, 1978/79, 1980/81, 1981/82, 2019/20, 2020/21, 2021/22, 2022/23
T20 Winners:
2022/23
4th Grade
Premiers:
2007/08, 2017/18, 2018/19, 2023/24
T20 Winners:
2019/20, 2023/24
Records
Individual Player Records
1994-2024 all grades combine
1994 - 2024 1st grade
1994 - 2024 2nd grade
1994 - 2024 3rd grade
1994 - 2025 4th grade
T20 player numbers
Since we began playing Twenty-20 Cricket in 2006/07, the following players have been capped in 1st Grade. It started as a combined Twenty-20 with the South Coast clubs, before we went our separate ways. We have played in a Cricket Illawarra T20 Competiton since then. In 2021/22, the Greater Illawarra Cricket Zone introduced a separate T20 competition that allowed us to play other local Clubs. The GICZ T20 Competition stopped in 2023/24 when Cricket NSW started the NSW Community Cup T20 Competition (across all of NSW). Wollongong DCC - 1st Grade T20 2006/07 - 2024/25 1. Smith, Scott 2006/07 2. Welsh, Jason 2006/07 3. Lewis, Chris 2006/07 4 Johnson, Cameron 2006/07 5. Day, Adam 2006/07 6. Marmont, Reagan 2006/07 7. Pahek, Daniel 2006/07 8. Fanning, Shane 2006/07 9. Balgi, Amit 2006/07 10. Sartori, Chris 2006/07 11. Long, Tim 2006/07 12. Dufty, Nathan 2006/07 13. Blissenden, Steven 2006/07 14. Felgate, Malcolm 2006/07 15. McCarthy, Rod 2006/07 16. Woolford, Simon 2006/07 17. McCarten, Aiden 2007/08 18. Mutch, Samuel 2007/08 19. Studholme, David 2007/08 20. Majoor, Kurt 2008/09 21. Rosser, Matt 2008/09 22. Badger, William 2008/09 23. Kirkland, Justin 2008/09 24. Cameron, Sam 2008/09 25. Chrostowski, Paul 2008/09 26. Cameron, Dirk 2009/10 27. Pickard, Andrew 2009/10 28. Maitland, Scott 2009/10 29. Shah, Muhammad Iqbal 2009/10 30. Green, Aidan 2009/10 31. Evans, Corey 2009/10 32. Rajat, Rai 2010/11 33. Turnor, James 2010/11 34. Dawson, Brent 2011/12 35. Hicks, Andrew 2011/12 36. Lardner, Xavier 2011/12 37. Vincent, Ross 2011/12 38. Cooke, Michael 2011/12 39. Johnson, Adam 2011/12 40. Flynn-Duncombe, Kain 2012/13 41. Nicoll, Troy 2012/13 42. Yabsley, Dane 2012/13 43. Yabsley, Murray 2012/13 44. Yabsley, Troy 2012/13 45. Wright, Saxon 2012/13 46. Dodds, Toby 2012/13 47. Flynn-Duncombe, Toby 2012/13 48. Golding, Geoff 2012/13 49. Owen, Blake 2013/14 50. Vanapalli, Srinath 2013/14 51. Augustus, Darren 2013/14 52. Henderson, Nicholas 2014/15 53. Hancox, Steve 2014/15 54. Lewis, Blake 2014/15 55. Noakes, Sam 2014/15 56. Zybrands, Peter 2014/15 57. Clancy, Jarryd 2014/15 58. Murthy, Sameer 2014/15 59. D'Arcy, Colin 2015/16 60. Laws, Tim 2015/16 61. Laus, Daniel 2015/16 62. Treadwell, Dylan 2015/16 63. Wood, David 2015/16 64. Wasson, Jarryd 2015/16 65. Davison, Adam 2015/16 66. Aziz, Sufian 2016/17 67. Loveday, Nathan 2016/17 68. Rastpogi, Arpit 2016/17 69. Gray, Joel 2017/18 70. Gray, Kieran 2017/18 71. Maddinson, Duncan 2017/18 72. Maddinson, Lachlan 2017/18 73. Lee, Michael 2017/18 74. Larkin, Jack 2017/18 75. Whitehouse, William 2017/18 76. Arblaster, Michael 2017/18 77. Maddinson, Cooper 2018/19 78. Pepperall, Bailden 2018/19 79. Sharma, Rohit 2018/19 80. Singh, Pushpinder 2018/19 81. Blattner, Zac 2018/19 82. Sheikh, Muhammad Wahaj 2018/19 83. Blattner, Kealan 2018/19 84. Crouch, Matthew 2019/20 85. Day, Luke 2019/20 86. Johns, Tyler 2019/20 87. Kohen, Ethan 2019/20 88. Murphy, Lachlan 2019/20 89. Driscoll, Truman 2019/20 90. Sherman, Tyler 2019/20 91. Buckley, Steve 2020/21 92. Egerton, Cian 2020/21 93. Grealy, Matthew 2020/21 94. Fogarty, Corey 2020/21 95. Abdul Haseeb Afridi 2021/22 96. Chris Armstrong/Flanagan 2021/22 97. Karthik Velkuru 2021/22 98. Kobe Ross 2021/22 99. Matt Harivel 2021/22 100. Josh Yeaman 2021/22 101. Aman Sharma 2021/22 102. Trae Liddell 2021/22 103. Andrew McRae 2021/22 104. Travis Di Genni 2021/22 105. Ayden Brown 2022/23 106. Ethan Debono 2022/23 107. Callum Dodds 2022/23 108. Kyle Jarrett 2022/23 109. Ryan Smyth 2022/23 110. Jayden Zahra-Smith 2022/23 111. Cooper Bramley 2022/23 112. Jasmeet Singh 2022/23 113. Cameron Tokley 2022/23 114. Jay Sharma 2022/23 115. Jeremy Lackenby 2022/23 116. Josh Cambell 2023/24 117. Lachlan Weine 2023/24 118. Darcy Norris 2023/24 119. Fred Skelton 2023/24 120. Riley Broadhead 2024/25 121. James Chappell 2024/25 122. Kasey Barton 2024/25 123. Lucas Kay 2024/25 124. Peter Head 2024/25 125. James Goldston-Morris 2024/25
Life members
Ron Ring*, Colin Challenger, Peter Ennever, Graeme Smith, Bill James*, Clive Kingsford*, Stewart Potter, Stuart Murrell, John Guy, Ian Hogg, Claude Rafin, Stuart Smith, Daphne Ring*, Jason Welsh, Andrew Maher, Bernard Luby, David Studholme
* Deceased
9 Greats of Wollongong CC
Bayley, Claude
A former Captain of Wollongong. Renowned opening batsman of 1920s-1930s. One of the first players to score a double century in Illawarra. Was awarded Life Membership of IDCA and was instrumental in forming a junior cricket competition in Illawarra.
Beetson, Archie
An outstanding batsman in the early 1900 period. He held the local Illawarra score of 199 for many years. Was selected for NSW on 2 occasions, but declined for personal reasons
Heiler, John
Started as a Wollongong junior. A left-arm orthodox spin bowler. His accurate slow bowling claimed 6-49 for Illawarra vs. Sydney Metropolitan. John represented NSW Colts on 4 occasions and had an outstanding career in Sydney Grade Cricket with Balmain for 11 seasons, taking 441 wickets, including 59 in 1971-72.
Hopper, Ron (W.K)
A local junior, outstanding wicket-keeper and useful lower-order right-handed batsman. Ron played in Wollongong Premiership winning sides of 1955-56, 1956-57 and 1957-58. Ron was selected as the wicket-keeper for NSW Colts playing with distinction in a number of matches. He played for NSW Second XI for a number of seasons and only missed Sheffield Shield Selection because of the incumbent WK, Doug Ford, never was inured and played on forever. I feel this may have shortened Ron’s cricket life. He made a decision to concentrate on a successful and lengthy career in Rugby League where he continued to smile at many opposing hookers!!
McDonald, Jack
Very highly regarded right-arm medium fast bowler over a long career – rated equal to the best bowlers in his era. Represented Illawarra on many occasions, particularly visiting teams of first class players organised by State Selector, Jack Chegwyn. Jack’s bowling had a deceptive out-swing. In life, Jack MacDonald was a “wonderful person.”
Murray, Warwick
Son of Harry Murray, who was a former outstanding Captain of Wollongong. A local Wollongong junior who was a classy right-hand batsman in the top order. REP. CRICKET – Warwick scored 76 against a strong Newcastle side in 1954. Played for NSW Colts in 1957-58 and 1958-59. He later had a long career in Sydney grade cricket with Gordon.
Murrell, Stuart
Came to Wollongong from Newcastle coalfields as a young man. Played for Hunter Valley in 1963 against the full NSW side at Maitland Showground (included Berand, Simpson, O’Neill, Thomas, Mission, Yorke and debut of Doug Walters) celebrating the centenary of Maitland City. Stuart was a genuinely fast right-arm bowler who could swing the ball very effectively – maybe the fastest bowler in Illawarra’s history. Stuart was a member of Wollongong’s last Premiership side in 1970-71 and is a Life Member of our club. He represented Illawarra on many occasions with success, including 6-61 in 1966 and 4-62 in 1968, both against strong Newcastle Batting. Gained selection in NSW Combined Countryside. Stuart played all his local cricket with Wollongong.
Ring, Ron (Captain)
Without a doubt, was Wollongong Cricket Club’s outstanding cricketer. A batsman of immense talent and an outstanding leg-spin bowler, Ron played in five Illawarra Premiership teams for Wollongong (1952-53, 1955-56, 1956-57, 1957-58, 1970-71). He Captained our club from 1955 to 1969, was our Patron, as was his mother Anne. His wife Daphne is a current Patron. He regularly averaged 30-35 wickets per season as well as 250 runs. Ron was a Life Member of our club and was also President of IDCA for 13 years. He won the district bowling average three times and the Illawarra batting average once. Was Illawarra’s Cricketer of the Year in 1967-68 season at age 48. Ron Captained Illawarra rep teams many times. Outstanding performances included: 9-22 & 4-36 v. Newcastle 1957, 4-41 & 3-39 & 78 runs v. Sydney Metropolitan 1958, and he was honoured to play for NSW Country v. England at Newcastle in 1963, having bowling figures of 4-105 including the wicket of Ted Dexter
Russell, Gordon
Very hard-hitting batsman and first class wicket keeper – he scored 169 for Wollongong at Balgownie (a record that stood a long while). Scored a Double Century for Wollongong – a rarity in local cricket. REP. CRICKET – Gordon played for Country NSW Southern v. India in 1947-48 season. Also played successfully in Sydney with Randwick.