The University of Queensland opened its doors to students in 1911 and the UQCC was formed soon after. The Club was ready to join the QCA ‘A’ Grade competition in 1912/13 under its first captain JA Robinson and secretary, BH Molesworth. The second and third seasons contained two important milestones, which are still UQCC records. FC Thompson made 242 not out in 1913/14, while AJ Marsden took 66 wickets in 1914/15.
From 1919 to 1939 the Club was dominated by TJ Bale as a player, captain, club and QCA official. During the 1930s came one of UQCC’s best batsmen Vic Honour, who then captained the ‘A’ grade to its first premiership in 1940/41. In season 1941/42 our permanent home at St. Lucia No.1 oval (recently named the WEP Harris Oval) was opened.
The period 1945/55 produced poor results except for our first Australian Test representative Ken Archer. He has since been followed by Tom Veivers, David Ogilvie, Peter Taylor, Michael Kasprowicz and Martin Love.
Since 1955 Club results have been extremely good, with many premierships won in all grades. Much of this can be put down to good administration, started by long-time ‘C’ Grade captain Clem Jones, and more recently, by the late WEP Harris.
Longer term Sheffield Shield players (apart for our Test players) have included Graham Bizzell, Bill Buckle, Lew Cooper, Andrew Courtice, Bob Crane, Les Dixon, Geoff Foley, Paul Jackson, Martin Love, Bob Mihell, Sandy Morgan, Craig Philipson, Wade Seccombe, Cecil Thompson and Boxer Wyeth, while John Buchanan has been a most successful coach of Queensland and Australia.
In 2003/04 the Club introduced women’s teams into the Queensland Premier Grade Competition and since 2009 we have included numerous junior teams in the Metropolitan South-West Competition.
In more recent times, UQCC has been represented by Peter Forrest, Chris Hartley, Nathan Reardon, Scott Walter and Dom Michael in the Queensland Bulls team and Jessica Jonassen and Holly Ferling in the Australian women’s team.
