| Roy Park | |||
|---|---|---|---|
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| Personal information | |||
| Full name | Roy Lindsay Park | ||
| Nickname(s) | Little Doc | ||
| Date of birth | (1892-07-30)30 July 1892 | ||
| Place of birth | Charlton, Victoria | ||
| Date of death | 23 January 1947(1947-01-23) (aged 54) | ||
| Place of death | Middle Park, Victoria | ||
| Original team(s) | Wesley College, Melbourne | ||
| Height | 165 cm (5 ft 5 in) | ||
| Weight | 56 kg (123 lb) | ||
| Position(s) | Forward | ||
| Playing career1 | |||
| Years | Club | Games (Goals) | |
| 1912–1914 | University | 44 (111) | |
| 1915 | Melbourne | 13(35) | |
| 1920–1921 | Footscray (VFA) | 28(72) | |
| Total | 85 (218) | ||
1 Playing statistics correct to the end of 1921. | |||
| Career highlights | |||
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| Sources:AFL Tables,AustralianFootball.com | |||
Roy Lindsay Park (30 July 1892 – 23 January 1947) was an Australian sportsman and doctor. The son of a Methodist minister, he playedcricket forAustralia and alsoAustralian rules football in theVictorian Football League (VFL). He was educated atWesley College, Melbourne. Park also served in theAustralian Imperial Force inWorld War I.
Park started his senior VFL career atUniversity, making his debut in1912. He had an immediate impact as the club's leading goal kicker with 22. Park's 53 goals in the1913 VFL season was bettered only byFitzroy'sJimmy Freake with 56.
Park had medical studying commitments at Melbourne University in1914, leaving him free for few games, but still managed to kick 36 goals for the season that was University's last in the VFL competition.
In1915 Park played with VFL clubMelbourne, where he kicked 35 goals in 13 games, but was suspended for four matches for strikingGerry Balme ofSt Kilda, despite three witnesses coming forward to say that Park had not hit the player at all.[2] Park refused to play football again after his suspension, ending his VFL career with 146 goals in 57 matches.[3] However, following the end of the war, Park returned to football, playing withFootscray—he was conducting his medical practice in Footscray at the time—who were then a member of theVictorian Football Association (VFA).[4] In the 1920 VFA second semi-final replay, Park won the match for Footscray againstNorth Melbourne with a dramatic kick that dribbled through for a goal with less than ten seconds left on the clock.[5]
A registered medical practitioner,[3] Park enrolled in theAustralian Army Medical Corps of theAustralian Imperial Force on 12 July 1917.[6] Upon enrolling, Park was given the rank ofcaptain and left Australia on 4 August 1917 aboardHMATThemistocles. He served with the 5th Field Ambulance Unit and was mentioned in dispatches in theLondon Gazette on 11 July 1919 and in theCommonwealth of Australia Gazette on 30 October 1919.[7] Park returned safely to Australia on 2 June 1919 after the conclusion of World War I.[6]
In May 1919 an unidentified former Melbourne footballer, wrote to the football correspondent ofThe Argus as follows:
| Cricket information | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Batting | Right-handed | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Bowling | Right-arm off-spin | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| International information | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| National side | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Only Test (cap 113) | 31 December 1920 v England | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Career statistics | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Source:CricInfo,8 August 2021 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Park was a cricket prodigy at Wesley College. His schoolmateRobert Menzies, future Prime Minister of Australia, recalled reading Shakespeare behind the school practice nets, "so that he could partake of the bard whilst watching Park bat."[9] Park played forSouth Melbourne Cricket Club in theVictorian Cricket Association (VCA), and starred as a right-handed opening batsman, including a 315-run opening partnership with futureAustralian Test captainBill Woodfull, for many years a club record.[10] He became the youngest man to lead the batting averages for Melbourne Cricket Club. He was chosen as part ofWarwick Armstrong's 1914/15 Australian team for a stillborn tour of South Africa:
At Melbourne, Park had been one of the youngsters sent to the "special net" for Armstrong's attention. Armstrong had been impressed, Park awestruck, later crediting Armstrong with "most of my cricket brains". They were an odd sight in partnership, like a planet and its satellite, but their simpatico was deep. During the match against South Australia, for example, Park joined his captain with an hour left of the second day and shared a thunderous stand. Over lunch on the third day, with Park 226 and himself 101, Armstrong recalled his own eight-year-old record score for Victoria: "Parky, you haven't far to go to beat my 250. I promise to do my best to stop there while you make them." Park did not make it, but always remembered the gesture.[9]
Park also notched up some fine performances forVictoria, and soon earned aTest call-up in the 1920–21 season. He was unsuccessful in his debut againstEngland at theMelbourne Cricket Ground (MCG), making a first-ballduck in his onlyinnings, andbowling a singleover ofoff-spinners which went for nineruns. He was said to have been called late during the night for medical duties, and not to have got any sleep before his debut. He never played Test cricket again. Legend has it that his wife, who was watching in the stands, dropped her knitting as he prepared to face his first ball, bent down to retrieve it at the moment of delivery, and thus missed his entire Test batting career.[11]
Atfirst-class level, he made 2514 runs at anaverage of just under 40, scoring ninecenturies, with a highest score of 228. Following his retirement from cricket, Park held numerous administrative positions, including theSouth Melbourne delegate to the VCA and Victorian selector.[10] In 1953 a memorial plaque honouring Park was unveiled in South Melbourne by the Mayor of South Melbourne.[10]
Park's son-in-law,Ian Johnson, who married his daughter, Lal, was a captain of theAustralian cricket team in the 1950s and a member ofThe 1948 Invincibles.[3]
