Welcome Cootamundra Times readers to Local Legends.
We hope you enjoy some excerpts from Mark Elia’s story (Part 1) out this Thursday May 7.
………Mark had already achieved some amazing feats in his sporting career which included his love of Rugby League and his love of Cricket. He is a self described Cricket tragic. Mark may not have ever made it to Coota, had he not been flicking through the pages of Rugby League Week. The ‘bible’ for the sport, founded in 1970 and which had its final issue in 2017. A square advertisement placed amongst its pages was looking to attract players to the Coota Bulldogs.
The advert reminded him of a conversation he had with a bloke from Mudgee called ‘Peachey’ in England, who said that Mark should head to the bush to finish his playing days. Mark had played against Les Boyd in England and knew of Coota, the famous club in the bush which had produced the ‘Coota kid’ and which had taken part in Maher Cup Rugby League for decades, as well as the Group 9 competition in more recent times.
Mark said, “I always wanted to come out bush. I was a city boy who pretty much got by on my footy and cricket talent, I was in some money, out of some money. That conversation with Peachey always stuck with me.”………..
………….Mark headed for New York to play some more cricket and followed his friend Stan, where they shared an apartment in the Bronx. Stan wanted to be an actor and learn method acting at the same school that Al Pacino went to in Manhattan. “I found out there was cricket in New York in the Bronx. Our home ground was Van Cortland Park.”………
………… Mark found himself umpiring a fair-dinkum One Day international between Australia and Pakistan. He said, “Tubby Taylor and all those guys game over, It was called the North American Cup. A Pakistani with a lot of money got the Australians to call in on the way home from a tour. I was playing local Cricket on matting, all ex-pat Pakistanis and political types of people. The guy who ran our side, The Wanderers in New York, came up to me and said ‘We have the Australian and Pakistani sides coming over for a One Dayer, would you like to Umpire?’……..
………..I called over David Boon and Imran Kahn. Someone had to grab it and get it going, I said hey guys we have a few people in here, we know it’s raining, it’s only matting but lets get it going and make it 20 or 30 overs. The game happened and the Pakistanis won, they were dead serious and the Aussies weren’t that serious about it.”
For the full story check out The Cootamundra Times, in print, on Thursday May 7.
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