Waddington confirmed as 5th grade skipper

After already securing 5 quality skippers for our top 4 grades and PG’s, it was left to 5th grade to be confirmed. After sifting through multiple CV’s and multiple discussions, we are pleased to announced that former NSW 2nd XI layers Simon Waddington has agreed to skipper 5th grade for the coming season.

A former player at ND’s, Simon moved to the Waratahs in the 1999-2000 season and proceeded to play 8 years with the club. He has scored 2,483 runs, including 2 centuries and a top score of 131. He has also taken 141 wickets, showing himself to be a top class all-rounder. At 43 his bowling pace is still up there with anything in 2nd grade, although it’s with his batting that he will add a huge amount of stability to the Waratahs 5th grade line-up.

Simon has been involved with the Waratahs off the field recently, being a sponsor as well as helping out with the new training complex being built at Graeme’s Reserve. He is a quality cricketer, but more importantly a quality man and will be a great leader for our 5th grade side.

“I’ve been thinking about playing again for a couple of years now, and I’m really good mates with all of the other skippers, so it was very enticing. In the end, it was too hard to resist the temptation of coming back and helping out the younger players. Having said that, we will still have a good mix of youth and experience in the side, and after last years Grand Final birth, I am confident of again having a top season.”

Simon was having a quiet beer last week with fellow skippers and good mates Warren Evans, Rowan and Hamman and Josh Petersen, and after a short think he quickly confirmed with Club President Andrew Fraser that he was keen for the job. Simon previously skippered 4th grade for 2 years and took them to a Grand Final in his first year, so he has plenty of captaincy experience to pass onto his younger chargers.

So we have now filled all of our senior captaincy positions, and we couldn’t have a better bunch of men to lead our teams this season. Good captain’s and good leader’s bread good culture, and we are confident that Simon’s announcement leading into the final stages of pre-season will ensure another successful season for the TravelSIM Waratahs.