That, however, is not what the headline was reporting. It was about a game of cricket between the Queensland and New South Wales Bars in which Justice Callinan playing for Queensland took 4 wickets at a cost of 39 runs.
Research, which our reporter says is ongoing, has failed to locate another occasion in the history of the High Court when a sitting member of the Court took 4 wickets in a cricket match.
One might expect that if there were a Bench v Bar cricket game the judges could be expected to take a brace of easy wickets, counsel hopeful of gaining a forensic advantage for the future. Short of that situation, the odds against having one of the crusty benchers rolling his/her arm over so successfully are very long. Perhaps with Kiefel J in office the odds may shorten, she having been a prominent finger spinner in inter-bar games back in the 1980s. Prophetically, the team she played for was “Callinan’s Clones”.
Mr Philip Ayres reports in his biography of Sir Owen Dixon that Dixon “showed little interest in sport”.1 Mr Ayres does report however that the judge was a good rifle shot. In any event it is unlikely that he achieved the feat. The present Chief Justice was a nice batsman at school but Gleeson CJ’s sports appear to be tennis and skiing so cricket is not on his agenda. Finally he came to the High Court as he was entering his 60s so he can probably be ruled out, although it must be conceded that Callinan J performed the feat within 6 months of his 70th birthday.
Sir Edward McTiernan was a fine sport. He remained on the Court until his 80s but there is no report of a cricket match triumph in the many pieces about him and his time on the Court.
One might hold some suspicions about Justice Kirby. In the speaking circuit he has had a go at almost everything. He is probably proficient at a host of sports but reports of his prowess on the sporting field are not numerous. Certainly one would not want to back his tip at the races — he has been on so many losers.
The Honourable Michael McHugh was a promising sportsman. His activities at Townsville Christian Brothers College included cricket but contemporaries disclose that he lost some interest in it when Manus Boyce (later Boyce QC DCJ) with a fierce inswinger relieved him of a fingernail. During his career at the Bar he was so busy as the President of this and the Vice President of that, he would not have had time for practice. Whilst on the High Court he was so diverted as the acting Chief Justice between 1999-2000 and 2001-2004 he would not have had the time, unlike Callinan, who was out on the wings and had tons of time for extra curricular activities practising cricket, writing novels , attending conferences, strolling in Florence, etc.
Justice Hayne was Queensland born, a promising start to a cricketing career, but it was all down hill from there. His recreation is “reading” so he probably does not even watch the Tests and thinks Ricky Ponting is a young counsel from Western Australia.
Sir Gerard Brennan’s cricketing skills were unremarkable, so there is no likelihood of a bag of wickets from that direction. Sir William Deane’s time would surely have been fully devoted to those unfathomable judgments2 and Toohey J’s to “agreeing”, so no joy there.
Sir Edmond Barton was a very fine cricketer in his youth, up to State standard. In 1879 he umpired a game between NSW and the visiting English team led by Lord Harris. It erupted in a riot as a result of sum dodgy umpiring at the other end by one Coulthard a red blooded Victorian, imported by Lord Harris. He impressed his Lordship with his inter-colonial bias. He refused to give Lord Harris out caught and later he gave a NSW batsman “run out”.3 By the time Barton joined the High Court he had had enough of cricket, and in any event, his cricketing days were well behind him.
Sir William Owen may have been an early candidate although he was elevated at age 60 in 1961. In 1967 an aneurism took his right leg so one way or another he was hardly a contestant. Sir Isaac Isaacs was not the type and Sir Frank Gavin Duffy’s “lovely smile”4 probably disqualifies him (not sufficiently hungry).
Future Attorneys-General would be wise to add a sporting dimension to the qualities needed for elevation. The Honourable Geoff Davies QC a recognised authority on judicial appointments, would probably agree, he being in his youth, a promising sprinter. It would make the candidate teres atque rotundus,5 as is the case with Callinan. Whether or not this idea is adopted, only time will tell. If it does occur, Traves SC (Qld), Gyles SC (NSW) and Judge Felicity Hampel SC (Vic) will all come into the frame.
It is a noble feat. Our reporter has not yet exhausted the possibilities. If further relevant material comes to hand it will be reported.
Our Roving Reporter
Endnotes
- “Owen Dixon” by Philip Ayres p 7.
- For example: Commonwealth v Verwayen (1990) 170 CLR 394; Walton Stores v Maher (1987) 164 CLR 387; and March v Strathmare Pty Limited (1990) 171 CLR 506
- Piesse, K. 2007. “The Ashes: An Illustrated History of Cricket’s Greatest Rivalry”. Australia. Penguin.
- per Dixon CJ, obiter.
- Horace “Satires II” (well turned and polished , rounded off)
