The story goes that Keith Miller, arguably Australia’s greatest all-rounder, was scheduled to christen and launch the Macksville/Scotts Head Surf Life Saving Club’s surf boat and clubhouse in 1954.

Miller was a friend of Alf Collins, owner of North Coast Hardwoods, who had said he would get him to open the club house.

“We all thought it would be great,” John Beaney, then secretary of the surf club, told the Guardian.

“We’d decided we needed to build a club house, so we held dances across the Valley to raise money for the build.

“We also received a loan and grant from the Sydney Morning Herald – who were running a program for surf clubs at the time.”

However, when Miller realised he couldn’t make the engagement, he suggested he send a young up-and-comer, who he claimed “ would one day be a very famous cricketer”, in his place to do the honours.

The young man obliged.

“It was Richie Benaud,” John said.

“He was a great young bloke, very friendly, got on well with everyone ... and all the girls fell in love with him.

“It was a marvellous day out at Scotts Head, the whole village was there.

“Festivities went on well into the night, it was a very memorable day.”

According to some club members, clubhouse facilities were “much more primitive” in those days, with no electricity.

And when offered a drink, after his speech and the opening, Richie asked for a cup of tea instead of the expected cool refreshment kept on ice. 

For members, that meant a dash to find a billy that could be boiled for a cuppa.

Many years later, Benaud said he still remembered the opening of the surf club and his time in the area.

n Benaud was a legendary cricket commentator and much-feted 

cricket all-rounder. 

He was a crafty leg-spinner who captured 248 wickets in 63 Tests, an attacking lower-order batsman who hit one of the fastest Test centuries ever, a brilliant gully fielder with amazing reflexes and a crowd puller wherever he played.

He was also a courageous and 

victorious leader who never lost a Test series. He was the first cricketer to achieve the Test double of 2000 runs and 200 wickets and, as an all-rounder, ranks as one of the greatest.

Richie died peacefully in his sleep on April 10 in a Sydney hospice at the age of 84.