Vale Gus Gilmour

[Burgey]

Gary Gilmour, former Aussie Test all rounder has passed away at 62.

Was ill for a long time but I'm gutted at this news. Was my first favourite cricketer

It's worth including here arguably his finest performance:

Great display of swing bowling by a bloke who never really fulfilled his talent.

 

[adub]

Yeah Gus was an entertainer. Sad day.

 

[fredfertang]

I bunked off school to watch that semi-final, and Gilmour (never realised he was known as Gus) will doubtless remain in perpetuity the only cricketer I remember primarily for an ODI - shame he never kicked on - a clash between him and Sir Beefy on the international stage would have been worth watching

 

[the big bambino]

What a day. Just heard about Rik Mayall and now Gus.

 

[Flametree]

I'm pretty sure I watched him score a hundred in NZ in one of the first tests I ever watched (on tv). Very sad news. 15 tests looks too few just looking at his stats, but it was a tough Australian line-up to get into. With Walters and Chappell in the side, Australia didn't need an allrounder at 6, and getting picked ahead of Walker, Lillee, Thomson, then Dymock and Pascoe obviously wasn't easy.

 

[watson]

We shouldn't forget Gilmour's best Test series which obviously shows an allrounder of rare talent;

AUS v West indies 1975/76;
Tests = 5
Wickets = 20
Average = 20.30
Strike Rate = 39.10

Runs = 185
Average = 26.43
Top Score = 95

 

[Burgey]

I'm pretty sure I watched him score a hundred in NZ in one of the first tests I ever watched (on tv). Very sad news. 15 tests looks too few just looking at his stats, but it was a tough Australian line-up to get into. With Walters and Chappell in the side, Australia didn't need an allrounder at 6, and getting picked ahead of Walker, Lillee, Thomson, then Dymock and Pascoe obviously wasn't easy.

That was probably the same test Walters made 250 odd. IIRC the story goes they went out and got completely stonkered the night before they batted, or while they were not out overnight. Details escape me.

 

[the big bambino]

Probably relying on a deceitful memory but fitness and fluctuations in form were the reasons he didn't play more often. I'm guessing the first impacted on the latter. Otherwise he was good enough to be a regular even in that side.

 

[Burgey]

Yeah I think that's fair comment. He may have been injured for the Centenary Test, or possible just omitted. Then he signed for WSC and didn't play tests again.

I remember going to watch him play at one of those old Tooheys Country Cricket matches at Grahame Park Gosford (now Central Coast Stadium) just after WSC finished, but John Dyson stole the show by hitting three balls into Brisbane Water. Being only young, I didn't realise how cool it was that my grandfather got me to brush all the players and to go and have a chat with (and get the autograph of) an old mate of his instead. The old mate being a fella I'd not heard of before called Davo.

 

[Spikey]

Chloe Saltau ‏@chloejane32 1h
@RicFinlay Hi Ric, do you know if Gilmour still holds the record for most boundaries in a Test century?

Ric Finlay ‏@RicFinlay 54m
@chloejane32 Think you mean highest proportion of runs scored as boundaries in a completed century, yes, 86.15%, just ahead of HGibbs 84.35%

Chloe Saltau ‏@chloejane32 49m
@RicFinlay Yes that's it, thanks Ric

 

[The Sean]

RIP Gus.

I'm a little too young to have seen him play, but my old man always said he was one of the great natural talents. Supreme God-given ability, though never quite the temperament or dedication to go as far as he should have. When he was on though, what a player he must have been.

 

[social]

No exaggeration to say that he was one of the game's great talents

 

[stumpski]

I bunked off school to watch that semi-final, and Gilmour (never realised he was known as Gus) will doubtless remain in perpetuity the only cricketer I remember primarily for an ODI - shame he never kicked on - a clash between him and Sir Beefy on the international stage would have been worth watching

I'm not surprised you were keen to see that game Fred, with Barry Wood, Frank Hayes and Peter Lever all in the England side. Yes, Gillmour signed for WSC, but was never picked for the official side again - must have been one of very few Australians not to (even Mick Malone got a few ODIs). He did play in the Centenary Test, but was injured (IIRC it was revealed later that he had a broken bone in his foot). Would have been an interesting signing for a county in 1976 but I doubt if he would have enjoyed the grind of county cricket.

 

[wpdavid]

Gary Gilmour, former Aussie Test all rounder has passed away at 62.

Was ill for a long time but I'm gutted at this news. Was my first favourite cricketer

It's worth including here arguably his finest performance:

Great display of swing bowling by a bloke who never really fulfilled his talent.

I remember it well. Not content with bowling us out for 94, he then came in and rescued Aus with the bat after we'd reduced them to 39 for 6 in reply.
Quite a talent, and taken from us far too soon.
Condolences to his family.

 

[smash84]

The guy with the magical figures of 6/14 ......

 

[BoyBrumby]

Vale. Without question the greatest cricketer to share a name with an executed serial killer.

Pretty hard to look at him and not think that they really don't make 'em like that anymore. As stumps observes, I don't think the day in, day out quotidian yakka of the county circuit was his go. Had the build and complexion of a chap who his skipper had found asleep in the latrines and chucked him under a shower to sober up before helping him into his whites and handing him the ball.

That said, he also looked like one of those Aussies (like his near contemporary Massie and Reiffel a couple of decades later) who would've had a lot more wickets had he been a Pom. Cricinfo informs one he returned match figures 9/157 in the Headingley test following the WC of 75.

 

[maxbonnell]

What a wonderful cricketer.

It's shameful, though, that in all the tributes there isn't a single comment about the extent to whcih the drinking culture of the Australian team at the time harmed Gilmour's career. Had he joined a dressing room in whcih he was encouraged to care about his fitness rather than downing endless beers, who knows what he might have achieved?

Kerry O'Keeffe is good on this aspect of the period. He remembers being taken aside by Keith Stackpole, who told him he wasn't good enough to join the drinkers, and that he needed to take care of himself if he wanted a career in the game. But the team as a whole was still celebrating who could drink the most on a plane to England. Ashley Mallett, in recent days, has retold the story about how Gilmour spent all night in a bar with Doug Walters and hit a Test hundred the next day. But how many would he have hit if he hadn't spent his nights in the bar?

I don't, I should add, really blame Gilmour for this. He was a sublimely gifted young man from the Central Coast who was just having fun. The culture of the team, in my view, let him down.