Smith cleared the Brewongle roof … but was it the biggest six at the SCG?

It says something of the frequency with which we see mind-blowing shots in modern cricket that Steve Smith hitting a six onto the roof of the Brewongle Stand at the SCG was forgotten within a day or two.

To be fair, Smith parked nine balls over the ropes on the night for the appropriately named Sydney Sixers, in a manic 42-ball century last week. He took one Sydney Thunder bowler for 32 in an over, a BBL record.

But once the replays had been algorithmically washed away, so too was the deserved and lasting appreciation for Smith’s monster six.

To repeat, the bloke put a ball on top of the Brewongle Stand. As the visiting John McEnroe might say: you cannot be serious.

Smith’s huge six was, according to most veteran SCG types, the first time anyone has ever cleared the 24-metre high roof of the Brewongle Stand since it was re-built and re-opened in 1980. The roof was an 85-metre carry from where Smith hit it, on the SCG’s pitch 7.

Had the stand not been there, Smith’s shot would have landed 107m from where he launched it, according to the modern measuring devices now used by the BBL broadcasters - which use multiple Hawkeye cameras to instantly and accurately calculate speeds, angles and forecast the shot’s likely “unimpeded” distance. How far it would roll after landing is not included.

In layman’s terms, Smith’s six would have landed on Driver Avenue.

It was dubbed one of the biggest sixes ever struck at the SCG, but where exactly did it stand? Was it, in fact, the biggest six seen at the famous old ground?

JUNIOR’S GIANT

Given the accurate measuring systems mentioned above have only been in use for about five years, the biggest sixes debate (in Sydney and in global cricket) is cloudy and mostly reliant on people’s fuzzy memories, grainy TV replays, Google Earth and the hoary tales told around bars and internet forums.

For starters, the question about Smith’s six being the biggest can immediately be shut down, given his Sixers teammate Ben Dwarshuis hit a similar monster that landed onto the roof of the O’Reilly Stand in 2024 - and was measured as having gone 108m. Like Smith’s six being hit from one of the SCG’s most westerly pitches, Dwarshuis connected with his left-handed railway sleeper in a game against the Renegades on one of the most easterly strips.

But was that the biggest?

That question will likely remain unanswered, with many strong but unverifiable claims put forward for the biggest six ever seen at the SCG.

NSW and Australian legend Geoff Lawson, who has spent more at the SCG than most as player, coach, selector and commentator, thinks not.

“It’d be the “Junior” [Mark] Waugh one,” Lawson said. “That gets the nod for most people as the biggest. I was batting at the other end.”

In a Sheffield Shield game against Victoria in 1990, Waugh danced down the wicket and hit spinner Paul Jackson onto the roof of the Members’ Stand.

“It went next to the clock tower, just to the right-hand side of it. It went on the back of the roof of the Members’. It didn’t come back. It was over. I have a feeling they found the ball out the back there somewhere,” Lawson said. “It was an incredible shot. It wasn’t a slog sweep or anything. He came down and struck it beautifully.”

Rough estimates of a ball landing on the back of the Members would see the ball land 110-115m away, and Waugh has that form. He would later hit a six that landed on the roof at the WACA and was estimated to have travelled 120m.

THE ROOF BRIGADE

Landing on the famous green roof of the Members’ Stand, or the adjacent Ladies Stand, is a feat rare enough to be memorable - even if distances are lost to time.

In 1964, 19-year-old Pakistani Farooq Hameed belted a six in a tour game that landed on the roof. As relayed by author and SCG historian Geoff Armstrong, long-time Herald cricket writer Tom Goodman wrote: “A tremendous six by Pakistani tailender Farooq Hameed at the SCG yesterday ranks as one of the biggest hits ever made at the ground. Farooq’s ferocious swing over midwicket off NSW spinner Johnny Martin landed three parts of the way up the high roof of the two-decker Ladies Stand. I have never previously known of a six being hit onto the roof.”

Armstrong said giant sixes by Charlie Bannerman, Percy McDonald, Tom Garrett, Joe Darling, Bill Howell and Victor Trumper were all the stuff of legend at the SCG in the early years, and there were reports of rugby league pioneer Dally Messenger even putting a six on the Members Stand roof in a social match.

Alan Davidson’s massive six onto the roof of the old Brewongle in 1954 is also remembered.

Video evidence exists of others who landed balls on the green corrugated iron of the Members and Ladies stand roofs, including a young Saeed Anwar in a one-day match between Australia and Pakistan in 1990 off the bowling of Terry Alderman, and a mighty swing by West Indies’ pace legend Joel Garner off Peter Taylor in a one-dayer in 1987. Garner did it again in 1990.

Sixers wicketkeeper Josh Philippe thumped one onto the Members roof in 2021, and Brisbane batter Jimmy Peirson also achieved the feat in 2016.

Allowing for differences in which pitch was being used, rough measurements of the sixes that landed on the SCG Members roof would fall into the 100m-110m territory.

DOUGIE’S FISHING TRIP

One of the most famous sixes hit at the SCG didn’t, in fact, occur at the SCG.

In 1962, a 16-year-old Doug Walters was playing for the NSW Colts at the old SCG no.2 ground, which used to sit directly to the north of the current ground, and between the SCG and the Sydney Sports Ground.

In a knock of 140 not out, Armstrong says Walters hit 22 fours and slugged one mighty six that cleared the brick fence (which still exists), landed on Driver Avenue and rolled on and on. The ball was subsequently fished out of Kippax Lake, 140 metres away.

“Play was held up for several minutes while one of his teammates retrieved it,” a report in the Herald said.

O’DONNELL POWER

Prior to Smith putting a ball onto the roof, the biggest six put into the Brewongle was pounded by all-rounder Simon O’Donnell, who landed a ball into the back of the top deck.

O’Donnell remembers the ball landing in his spot and hitting it sweetly with a slog-sweep.

“It felt very different in the ’80s, because we used tree branches (as bats). The red gum tree branch I used was a very nice piece of wood,” O’Donnell joked.

“I find it amazing how far the guys can hit the ball now. That all goes with the equipment, the athlete, the power these days, but it is extraordinary how far they can hit the ball now on a very regular basis.

“They can hit boundaries and sixes in every part of the oval. It’s almost incomparable. It is fantastic what they do, it’s brilliant.

“People have shown me clips every now and then. Again, you might do that 10 times and three of them go somewhere near the Brewongle and the others will go straight up in the air. They’re a bit better these days.”

O’Donnell owns one of the biggest sixes recorded in Australian cricket history, with a 122m effort at the MCG for Victoria in a Shield clash. The ball landed in the third tier at the giant ground, and a single red seat marks where it landed.

“That was a Shield game and it was a tight one. And Greg Matthews was the bowler, so it made it just a little bit sweeter,” O’Donnell said.

“You have shots you like to play and you have shots that are high risk, and there are ones you like playing. Generally the ones that you hit well, once you’re in and the balls are pitched in the spot you like, well, it’s then having the capacity to say ‘here we go’, and then you hope it works. That’s the key point.”

Like O’Donnell, Dwarshuis got one in the slot for his six onto the roof of the Bill O’Reilly stand, and the Strikers’ Jono Wells also cleared the roof of the O’Reilly in 2017.

But some of the biggest hits that are still talked about in SCG folklore were massive straight blows, said Lawson.

He recalls Garner landing a six into the top deck of the old MA Noble Stand while playing for South Australia. “And I was talking to Richie Benaud shortly after that, and he reckoned Keith Miller hit a couple up there as well,” Lawson said.

“Trust me, that’s a very, very big hit.”

Click here to read article