Creswick-raised Bell, who turned 103 last Saturday, was also a fine cricketer and recalled an association he had with Fairbairn, who started his cricket career with the Kyabram Cricket Club in the early 1930s.
After returning from Artillery Army duties in 1946 after World War II, Bell was invited to train with Melbourne Cricket Club, which Fairbairn captained.
Bell, a capable swing bowler and handy batsman, recalled his first training session with Melbourne in the Herald Sun article.
He remembers the first ball he bowled to Fairbairn at that first training session.
“He clipped me for four on the leg side and walked down and said ‘Do you bowl that ball very often?’” Bell said.
‘’I said ‘Yes, I do’ and he said ‘Don’t bowl it in this competition because you will be whacked for four every time.’“
Bell said later on in his spell he managed to clean bowl Fairbairn.
‘‘I took his leg stump out of the ground. That was with my favourite ball; I’d bowl them going away and then put it on the off stump and turn it back into the leg stump.
“He came down the wicket and said ‘I see what you mean,’” Bell said.
Bell played only three games of district cricket that season before being invited to try out with the Melbourne Football Club.
Bell’s football career with the Demons never reached any great heights, as he found it hard breaking into a Melbourne side that boasted footy greats in Norm Smith, Fred Fanning and Jack Mueller.
He related a story of a weekly bet with Fanning as to who would kick the most goals between the pair — Fanning in the seniors and Bell in the seconds (reserves).
“I kicked five goals one day and opened up the Sporting Globe and discovered Fanning had kicked 18 goals,” Bell said.
Bell spent three years with Melbourne Football Club and played seven senior games in that time.
Fairbairn, who died in 2110 and went by the nickname of ‘Fairy’, played one first-class cricket match for Victoria, in 1948.
He spent most seasons from 1936 to 1957 playing for the Melbourne Cricket Club after joining the club from Kyabram. He played 138 games for Melbourne between 1946 and 1958.
He went on to manage the Melbourne Cricket Club’s Dowling Shield Under 16 side for nearly 40 years.
He also made yearly visits to Kyabram to watch his former club in action and to keep an eye out for any local talent.
Former KDCA great Lawrie Casey was one of his recruits and played senior cricket for Melbourne in district cricket.
Fairbairn was awarded an honorary lifetime membership of the MCC.
During World War II Fairbairn served with Australian forces at Tobruk and El Alamein in North Africa, and in New Guinea and Borneo as part of the South-West Pacific campaign.
He once famously said when cricket helmets were being used for the first time that “We didn’t even use helmets in El Alamein, what’s the game coming to?”
Fairbairn was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia in 1990 for “service to the sport of cricket”.
Pastor faster than older rivals
The Goulburn Valley has another genuine trots star in Pastor Dunbar, who made a huge statement with his win at Melton last Saturday night.
The three-year-old son of Kyabram-based stallion Pastor Stephen, trained and driven by Byrneside’s Damian Wilson, beat the older trotters in a stunning win.
But Wilson has ruled out a Queensland trip for the talented three-year-old where he would have been chasing a $150,000 carrot in a feature event for three- and four-year-old trotters.
“I’m putting him in the paddock today for a brief spell before preparing him for the Sires Stakes and Victoria Trotters Derby,” he said last Sunday.
“It will give him a chance to mature more.”
Pastor Dunbar’s win at Melton came two weeks after he had claimed the $75,000 NSW Trotters Derby.
His latest win took his record to six starts, five wins and a second.
The only time he didn’t win was when he was checked and broke in his third start at Maryborough on April 10, but still ran second.
Pastor Dunbar was bred and is owned by Lancaster’s Kevin McCluskey, a longtime breeder and owner in the sport.
