There are two plaques attached to the extruded aluminium slats of this bench that faces the Oxley Oval; where MANY a cricket match has been held. There are three slats each for the back, and the seat of this bench. The bench is bolted to a concrete slab, and faces the oval, from the south side. There is a small amount of potential shade from tall pine trees.
The upper plaque (brushed stainless steel, black ink etched) has the following inscription:
Celebrating the Life and Service to Cricket of
Arthur Hollis
14.02.1930 ~ 21.07.2015
Player/Coach/Administrator/HRDCA Life Member
"Feared by bowlers, revered by those who knew him"
The lower plaque (cast bronze, almost square, with a depiction of a batter hitting a ball), also appears to have glued to the slat, and reads:
IN LOVING MEMORY OF
ARTHUR WILLIAM JAMES
HOLLIS
14.02.1935 - 21.07.2015
Lower plaque for a local cricketing 'legend'
From the local newspaper, "Port News", there is an article from 24 July, 2015 from which the following is taken; there are also testimonials as to the impact of his life, there!
"PORT Macquarie cricketers will sorely miss the man who used to sit on the hill and talk sport with them on a Saturday.
Arthur Hollis, a legend of cricket in the Hastings, passed away on Tuesday from illness.
The 85-year-old Hollis made an extraordinary contribution to the game he loved.
He amassed 137 hundreds and three double centuries in a fantastic contribution to the game.
Hollis finished his first grade career at age 50 before moving on to become an HRDCA administrator and North Coast selector. He was keen to give back to the game he loved even when he was no longer playing.
He lent his name to the medal which recognises the best player from first grade every season.
Tributes to Hollis flowed on the Hastings River District Cricket Association Facebook page, with many of its members keen to "raise a glass" to him. HRDCA president Shane Williams said Hollis would be sorely missed.
"He's a great loss to the Hastings cricket community," Williams said.
Long after his retirement, you could find Hollis on the hill at Oxley Oval, where he was always keen to pass on his wealth of knowledge to the current players.
He was also a regular at association presentation nights, where Hollis would present the award named after him.
Two years ago, Williams took a visiting Doug Walters to Hollis's house, where they chatted for an hour about playing against each other once many years ago.
"Doug still remembered the game," Williams said.
Williams said Hollis's career wouldn't come close to being matched in the modern game.
"There's no way anyone these days will ever come anywhere near these stats," he said.
"These days, you talk about two centuries as having a good year. He had 30-odd hundreds.
"To play first grade up until age 50, that's amazing." "
Visited: 1206, Sunday, 11 September, 2016 [From extensive overtime done the evening before, into this particular morning, I wasn't expecting to have to go back to work for a couple more hours, but unfortunately got called back to work before I was able to complete a particular challenging cache that was active at that stage - never completed as a result.]