A nickname dispute has caused a rift in a Brisbane winter cricket team.
The WinterPies – the winter cricket side of the Morningside Magpies Sub-District cricket club – have just started their season, with a new member causing the problems.
Gavin McRae is a right-arm leg spinner and handy middle-order bat and has started well in his first season for the WinterPies. Until it came to the nickname.
“Our opening batter is Adam MacInerney. He’s a Magpies legend, having played 20 seasons, every grade in the club, and won three premierships, as well as a recent life member,” said the WinterPies captain Peter. “So obviously he’s been ‘Macca’ from the minute he walked into the club.”
After one WinterPies game resulted a comfortable win over the Bulimba Bullants, the players went to the local pub, where they got to know McRae. It went well, until it came to the nickname question.
“When Gavin said he was known as ‘Macca’ at his previous club, our ‘Macca’ (Adam) started getting cranky. He loves that nickname with a passion and refused to share it with someone else,” said Peter, “I haven’t felt this awkward with the boys since that former grade cricketer came to the Magpies and demanded every side below B Grade be folded because – in his words – they play ‘s**t wheelie bin garbage and don’t deserve to play cricket!” Luckily, old mate didn’t last long, because his constant stories about being this close to playing Shield for the Queensland Bulls was pissing everyone off.”
While the boys calmed down by watching the start of the NRL game in the pub, McRae came up with a solution.
“I’ve been called ‘Macca’ all my life, so I’d like something new,” said McRae. “My name’s Gavin, so how about ‘Party’? As in ‘Gavin/Having a party?’ A bit of rhyming slang?”
The boys agreed that the new nickname was better and ‘Macca’ gave ‘Party’ a huge hug to apologise for getting cranky at him.
“It was a lot nicer ending than old mate the grade cricketer. He cracked the s***s and left when he was forced to play third grade because of a bunch of injuries. He drove off in a huff and kept repeating that ‘Wheelie bin cricket is beneath me!’ and we haven’t seen him since,” said Peter. “At least ‘Party’ will never do that. He seems like a good bloke.”
The Gurgler presents stories of the Park Cricketer, where we explore the lower reaches of the great game of cricket from the suburban ovals and rural grounds across Australia.
