30/08/2026
TRACING THE RICH HISTORY OF OUR CLUB | PART 30 | BY BARRY LEABOURN
Greerton Cricket Club, is extremely proud of the exclusive list of players that have played international cricket on their passage through the GCC playing ranks, during their career. The names of GP Howarth, RO Collinge, BP Bracewell, GJ Hopkins and JA Raval are read with reverence on the GCC Honours Board.
While all have represented New Zealand in test cricket - there is a further player who had an International cricket CV.
The late Roger Robert Andrew Francis Bradley, who wore the Greerton uniform through the 1980's, would go on to play for the Netherlands after he moved to Europe in the 1990's.
Examination of the Greerton honours board, reveals that Roger was an attacking top order batsman, whose bowling was just as vigorous as use of his willow weapon.
Roger won arguably the GCC biggest prize each season, of the Cameron Cup, awarded to the premier batsman who posts the most runs in a season on two occasions. A powerful performance in the 1986/87 season produced a mighty 750 runs, followed by 612 runs the following year.
He seemed to make a habit of providing his big feats in pairs. In 1986/87, he grabbed two six wickets bags. The first was a remarkable six wickets at a cost of just 8 runs followed by 7/25 later in the season. Five years later, he blasted 107no and 102no to add the icing to his honours board bowling achievements.
Five decades ago, the Bay of Plenty daily newspapers of the Bay of Plenty Times and the Rotorua Daily Post, would devote lot of inches of copy to Bay of Plenty Cricket representative cricket. On many occasions the match reviews were accompanied by full score-cards. Roger Bradley featured in many Monday cricket stories with his batting feats and occasional bowling honours.
RRAF Bradley, was allocated BOPCA Player Number 347 when he debuted for the Bay against Midlands at Te Awamutu, in a two-day fixture on 8/9th November 1981.
Roger would play for 49 games in the Bay of Plenty Cricket strip, which places him in 20th place on the all-time list of BOPCA appearances which date back to 1932. His Bay games were spread over nine seasons from 1981 up till 1991. The RRAF Bradley name was missing from the 1984/85 list of matches, which may have been the start of his overseas journeys.
Some 1103 runs at a career average of 23.98 were accompanied a best of 116 and three fifties. Remarkably, his 1103 runs sits in 23rd place on the all-time total, from the 587 Bay of Plenty players selected to the start of the 2026/27 season.
While his Bay statistics say that he was only an occasional bowler he was credited with a five wickets bag of 5/74 in the 1982/83 season.
Sadly Roger passed away on the 24th March 2017 at just 54 years young.
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