FACING UP TO THOMMO'S FURY

AS WARWICK gears up for the colour and spectacle of the annual Australia Day Cricket Carnival, one of the main players behind its organisation reflects on a time when he rubbed shoulders with some of the game's greats.

Local cricket umpire and current secretary of the Warwick Cricket Association Greg Payne once had a shot at state cricket for Queensland, after a stellar showing in Brisbane A-grade competition.

"It was the early 80s, I was 28 and blokes like Jeff Thompson, Greg Chappell, Alan Border and Greg Ritchie were all playing for the state team,” he said.

"I got a call up to go to the state trials and found myself in the nets facing Thommo.

"I didn't hit too many and certainly had the helmet on.”

Mr Payne said one moment stuck in his mind from his brush with first class cricket.

"During the state trial, I was sitting on a bench next to Greg Chappell, former Australian captain and generally regarded as one of the classiest batsmen the game has seen,” he said.

"He'd just scored 130 in that trial game.

"Some kids came up and asked me for my autograph, I said, 'you don't want mine, you want the guy sitting next to me'.

"Greg looked at me and said 'mate, sign it, it could be the first and last time you get asked' and not a truer word was spoken.”

Mr Payne didn't make the state quad but played 100 senior games and scored seven hundreds for Toombul in a career that spanned from junior cricket.

In 2007 Mr Payne took a job in Warwick as an admin officer with Queensland Transport and Main Roads, moving to the area with wife Kay and twins Caitlyn and Travis.

"We bought 23 acres and for the first seven years I spent my weekends setting that up to cater for my wife and daughters' love of dressage horses,” he said.

"When there were no large jobs left to do, I poked my head in at the Warwick Cricket Association and started umpiring.

"The co-ordination of the cricket carnival has been a big job, very time consuming - coordinating 30 squads with between 400-500 players, playing at 11 grounds around Warwick with a volunteer squad of 18 umpires officiating.”

Mr Payne said the carnival was a boost for the town.

"It's a wonderful get together for a lot of the teams and I think Warwick as a town benefits a great deal from the carnival,” he said.

"All that money spent on accommodation, food and drink and petrol.

"This year the winner's trophy will be presented by Debbie Rutledge, wife of Rob "Bear” Rutledge, the man who the carnival honour board is named for.”