Multi-award winning sportsman Chris Hendry, a person with disabilities who lives in Ballina, discusses his achievements with GP Speak’s Robin Osborne.
The first remarkable thing when meeting Chris Hendry is his powerful handshake, which could hold dangers for the unwary. However, there is no attempted dominance about Chris’s grip - it is simply the way he is: straightforward, self confident and as fit as a fiddle. Despite all, one might perhaps add.
After learning of his multiple achievements in the sporting world, from athletics to cricket and even ten-pin bowling and snooker, I was keen to see him in action. Unfortunately the cricket season was ending by this time, so all on offer was a sampling of Chris in action at the Ballina nets, and even then it was case of light-duties as he had recently damaged his shoulder bowling in a representative state game.
“I strained the AC (acromioclavicular) joint in my shoulder,” Chris said, “so I can only show you some spin.” Chris Hendry bowling spin is like a district cricketer sending them down as fast as he can, and I was glad not to be at the receiving end with bat in hand.
Also in attendance was family friend and local sport coach Peter Stephenson.
“Chris is an inspiration for everyone,” said Peter who had helped prepare him to contest a spot in the Australian team for the Shanghai Special Olympics World Summer Games in 2007.
“When I first met him in 1998 I could see he had the potential to be a great achiever. I told him that if you do everything I say, and train hard, in seven years you’ll qualify for the Special Olympics.”
Chris accepted his offer and rewarded Peter’s confidence by being selected in Australia’s team for the 100m, 200m and the 4x100m relay. In China, he came in second in the world, out of 7000 Special Athletes, and the medals he won are among the 160 awards in his trophy cabinet. These include gongs for track and field from the Special Olympics in Sydney, golds for ten-pin and snooker, and a host of cricketing awards, local, statewide and national. He is a proud member of the NSW/ACT representative team for disabled players, opening the bowling, and at times, the batting as well.
Chris, aged 37, has an intellectual disability and epilepsy, explained his mother and prime carer, Maryellen, the second leg of ‘Team Hendry’, who accompanies him to local and away matches, ensuring he lives healthily and maintains his medications. Maryellen is intensely proud that Chris is also engaged in regular paid work: “He is employed with Ballina Shire Council’s disability section in Alstonville, doing horticultural work (he holds a certificate), greenhouse and potting duties, and so on.”
However, the future is likely to present more challenges, as she is now 62 and knows she will not be able to care for Chris for the rest of his life.
“The introduction of the National Disability Insurance Scheme has certainly put my mind more at ease about the future,” she admits candidly.
Chris’s physical circumstances are now starting to have more of an impact on his sporting activities.
“The risk of having further grand mal seizures on the cricket field has made it difficult for him to continue his cricket in open competition,” Maryellen said.
“He was playing for Ballina Bears in the district comp, but health issues are now restricting his participation in able-bodied sport.”
Chris understands the problem, and nods his assent, clearly with some regret.
The third member of ‘Team Hendry’ is an unusual charity whose roots lie deep in the world of cricket, indeed in its heartland, the Lord’s cricket ground in England.
The organisation was formed in 1952 when some cricket loving actors enjoying a tipple at the Lord’s ground tavern wondered how the group might be able to help less advantaged people.
By 1986 the so-called Lord’s Taverners had spread to Australia where today it has eleven branches, including one of the most active, Northern NSW, based in Lismore and with an eye on the broader region.
To its great benefit, the local club’s inaugural and long-serving chair was Stan Gilchrist, the father of Australian Test cricket star Adam Gilchrist. (His successor is local businessman Graeme Hoskins).
The former wicket-keeper and big hitting batsman has spoken at fundraisers and taken a keen interest in the sporting career of Chris Hendry.
“Chris came to our attention through the local media around 2011,” Stan Gilchrist told GP Speak.
“There was an application to our grants committee to help support his activities in ten-pin bowling, athletics, indoor and then outdoor cricket. Maryellen told us he was a big fan of Adam, and that’s been a really good connection as well. Adam’s shown a close interest in his activities.”
Stressing that Lords Taverners “don’t believe in the limitations of disability or disadvantage,” Stan Gilchrist said the body assists young sportspeople to meet travel costs and buy uniforms, with an emphasis, but not exclusively so, on cricket.
It also helps fund university studies for people of disadvantaged backgrounds, or who intend to work with disadvantaged youth.
Previous sporting beneficiaries have been helped to go to England to play club or even county cricket, honing their skills before returning home to potentially compete at a high level.
One notable success is NSW-turned-Tasmanian professional Georgia Redmayne.
Wrote Gideon Haigh in The Australian this year, the former Astonville resident “largely stood out of cricket in her final year at high school, searching for the marks that would guarantee a university place; succeeding at that, she deferred her medical degree in order to play a season in Worcestershire, with financial support from the north NSW branch of the Lord’s Taverners.
“A century in her first innings on ¬English soil justified earlier sacri¬fices, and made her new friends.”
The Lord’s Taverners’ commitment to offering diverse and deserving competitors a sporting chance is testament to both the club membership and the efforts of young local sportspeople and their families.
Let’s shake on that, Chris!
* The next Lord’s Taverners fundraiser is on Wed, 3 May and will feature ‘A Night with William McInnes’, the well-known Australian actor and author. The venue is Lismore Workers Club, 6pm for 6.30pm
