David HookesPrint Page 
A brass and bronze memorial commemorates cricketer David Hookes. It features three stumps, a bat and baggy green cap configured in the trademark style Hookes would leave during breaks of play. The original memorial was stolen before it was to be unveiled on April 29th 2012. A replacement sculpture was dedicated in October 2012.
The West Torrens Council commissioned the sculpture in honour of Hookes, who forged a successful international career and holds a decorated domestic record with South Australia.
Hookes, who started his cricket at Thebarton Oval, was killed outside a Melbourne hotel in 2004 during his time as coach of Victoria. Zdravco Mićević who punched Hookes, was charged with manslaughter but was acquitted. Mićević claimed that Hookes had punched him first, without provocation.
Location
| Address: | South Road & Ashwin Parade, Torrensville, 5031 |
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| State: | SA |
| Area: | AUS |
| GPS Coordinates: | Lat: -34.914849 Long: 138.565605 Note: GPS Coordinates are approximate. |
Details
| Monument Type: | Monument |
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| Monument Theme: | People |
| Sub-Theme: | Sport |
Dedication
| Actual Monument Dedication Date: | Sunday 28th October, 2012 |
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David Hookes
David "Hookesy" Hookes
was born in Mile End at the Thebarton Community Hospital on 3 May 1955.
David Hookes played more tests (23) and first class matches (178) than any other locally reared son and was arguably the most talented cricketer produced in the West Torrens area.
David played his first A grade cricket game at age seventeen, went on to State cricket at twenty years old and test cricket at twenty one. For West Torrens he scored 4107 runs with a highest score of 173 and took 167 wickets. His best bowling performance was a sensational 8/35 and 7/46 in 1965 to make him one of only four people to have taken fifteen wickets in a match since SACA club cricket was introduced in 1873. In addition he scored 12671 runs in first-class cricket with a top score of 306 n.o. from 330 balls v. Tasmania.
In 1976-77 Sheffield Season he played consecutive innings of 163, 9, 185, 101, 135 and 156, which included four centuries in eleven days, and became only the second player in cricket history to score a century in each innings in consecutive first-class matches. This led to his selection in the Centenary Test and then the 1977 England tour with the Australian team when he was second on the Test and first-class averages to Greg Chappell.
The boy from Clifford St, Torrensville was suddenly a name of every cricket fan`s lips when he became the youngest of Kerry Packer`s World Series Cricketers during 1977-78 and 1978-79. He hit 116 in a WSC Super Test v. West Indians at VFL Park, Waverley in 1978-79 and later 143 n.o. in a Test for Australia v. Sri Lanka at Kandy in 1983.
David was always renowed for his fast scoring, reasoning that a hundred in two hours rather than four gave the team extra time in which to dismiss the opposition. In the Centenary Test at the MCG he thumped five consecutive fours from a Tony Greig over and only a diving save prevented a sixth.
His century in 43 minutes off 34 balls with eighteen fours and three sixes against Victoria at Adelaide Oval in October 1982, was the fastest first-class century ever recorded in terms of number of balls faced. A bold and imaginative leader he captained South Australia 90 times including the 1981-82 victorious Sheffield Shield combination, rising to become Australia`s vice-captain at the 1983 World Cup. As a captain he was incisive, attacking and positive, approaching every game as though it was a Test match.
David Hookes` cricket was always aggressive and attractive and the spectator was never sure when it would become explosive, he was a brilliant player, at times inconsistent, but always conscious of the fact that the spectator or the viewer deserved value for money.
