“I gathered the ball off the ground about thirty yards out, looked up, and there were three big blokes bearing down on me, so, using my best 75 yard dash, I went straight for the sticks,” he reminisced. “About a foot from the line, with the patter of large feet behind me, I remembered that I really should kick the bloody ball, which was probably as a result of the crowd's extremely volatile advice. It made it through the opening, just as Brian France, Ray “The Big Bear” Gabelich, and Frank Margaria arrived on the scene.” That was Reg Cribb’s first goal in league football. It didn't get any easier, either. In ensuing appearances, Con Regan, John Watts, Mal Atwell, Laurie Kettlewell, Joe Lawson, Irwin Lewis, and Don Byfield shared the goalsquare with the five foot eleven Reg. Reg Cribb spent only two seasons at Perth, an ankle injury ending a promising career. When a young eleven year old student at Christian Brothers College, Cribb smashed a State record which had been in place for fifty years for the seventy five yard sprint, at the same time establishing an Australian record  of 9.2 seconds for the distance. (there are some who would say they have noticed glimpses of that form in more recent times when “last drinks” have been called). Later that same year, he won the State seventy five yard championship title. In his final year at school, Reg captained the first eighteen football team and was a member of the first cricket eleven. Transfers to the country in his employment with the Bank of New South Wales put paid to a career in athletics, but the trade off was the country life, which suited the young Cribb to a tee. As a seventeen year old at Carnamah, he kicked twelve goals in the club's 1958 grand final win over Three Springs to add to the ton he bagged for the season, in front of a gallery that included officials from South Fremantle, Swan Districts, Perth and Claremont Football Clubs. Having played juniors with Belmont, he was tied to Swan Districts, so to play for any other league club he had to stay in country football for another season. A lifelong Perth supporter who's idol was star full forward Ron Tucker,  Cribb lined up with Pinjarra the following season after another bank transfer, and experienced a second premiership. It was in 1960 that Reg ventured to Lathlain Park, and went straight into the league side at full forward.   Smashing an ankle early in his second league game, Cribb was off the scene for ten weeks, before being rushed back into the side. In his second game back, against East Fremantle at East Fremantle Oval, he started on Regan, but later noticed Norm Rogers sidling up to him. “Tommy Davis, who was in a forward pocket, said to me: “Watch this bloke Rogers.” Norm came up to me and congratulated me on my fourth game and wished me the best. I thought, “this bloke's alright.” “Next thing, Charlie Skehan broke out of defence with the ball and I started a lead, when “whack!” and down I went, as Rogers sailed past. “I told you to watch him,” shouted Davis.” With one bag of six goals and an average of three in 1960, a relapse of the lingering ankle injury was the catalyst for his exit from WANFL football the following year. Reg recalls the occasion the players received their pay for the 1960 season at the clubrooms. “My name was called, and as I walked back with my thirty four pounds, Roy Harper quipped, “You really should give that back to reimburse the club for sticking plaster.”      He regarded France and Atwell as his toughest opponents. Cribb later coached while at Pingelly, sending a couple of young players in Bob Page and Barry Chittleborough the way of the Demons.    It was during a stint at Bolgart that Reg Cribb took up bowls. “They didn't have a cricket team , and after a season playing at Calingiri, which is a fair drive, I wandered over to the Bowling Club,” he said. “As there were only about sixteen players, it wasn't difficult to get a pennant game.” Becoming treasurer of the club, he soon became proficient at the sport, and qualified to meet Frank Bradley in a semi final of the singles. “We were enjoying a few ambers the night before, and engaged in the usual pre match banter, which gathered in propensity as the night wore on,” he recalled. “When Frank went to the powder room, I hid his bowls and replaced them with four equal sized rocks from the garden. The joke was shared by about forty spectators next morning, as Frank opened his bag.” “The ultimate joke was on me, however, as he proceeded to stitch me up, and he could have done it with the rocks.” Reg toyed with a golfing career while at Bolgart. “I really wanted to become a golfer,” he said. “I practiced every night and got my handicap down from 36 to 19, but couldn't improve on that. A local coach, Ron Travers, who had the sweetest swing you'd ever see, told me he'd have a look on Tuesday. So there I was on Tuesday, and he got me on the fairway, swinging every club for three quarters of an hour, before he said: “stop.” “You do have a problem,” he said, “but you can improve to a 10 handicap in three months.” “Great,” I said. “What do I do?” “Start cheating,” was the stonefaced reply. Reg moved to Perth in later years, buying a house near the Maylands Bowling Club, and joined an old mate, Les Taylor, at Royal Park, where he skippered a rink in the pennant winning third division before playing in first red. With Jake Power he won a club pairs.         Formerly a keen devotee of the punt, Reg was involved in two racehorses during his younger years, Indian Rhythm and Strange Setup, which both won races. “We got Strange Setup at Brookton,” he explained. “In the syndicate there were two farmers, a mechanic, a banker, a store owner, and a bloke named Max Strange. Strange Setup was the result.” Cribb's association with the media began with the Western Mail.  “I wrote for them, they folded up, the Daily News signed me up, they went down, then I was contacted by the West Australian, but the offer was withdrawn, obviously they saw me as the kiss of death!” It was at the 1986 Bedford Bowl that Reg was approached by Mac Thompson, who was looking for help on his bowls show on community radio. When Mac left for Rockingham Radio, Cribb got together a panel of personalities in what was the original WA  on air bowls forum. Percy Gibbs, Joe Kennedy, Bruce Walter, and Brian Paddick formed the first group, the departures of Walter and Kennedy opening the door for Terry Sheridan and Mike Zusman..“It's terrific that the show has blossomed into the professional package it is today,” Reg said. “It's humbling to consider myself as part of it.”   After tragically losing son Allan at the age of thirty one to a drowning accident, Reg and Gwenda Cribb are the proud parents of Reg and Geoff, who are both doing well, Geoff Cribb being the main negotiator in Greg Norman's purchase of the $65 million luxury yacht which was named "Aussie Rules" from Austal, when based in America.  Reg Cribb junior is a playwright, whose plays have been performed both nationally and internationally. He has twice won the Patrick White Playwrights' Award and the W.A Premier's Literary award, and has also won the Queensland Premier's Literary Award. In 2006 he was nominated for an AFI and a Critics Circle Award for his screenplay of Last Train To Freo. His plays include: The Return, which has been produced all over Australia and internationally as far abroad as Japan and Romania; Last Cab to Darwin, directed by Jeremy Sims for Pork Chop Productions and starring Barry Otto; Gulpilil, a one-man show starring Aboriginal acting legend David Gulpilil, which was the main event at both the 2004 Adelaide International Arts Festival and the 2004 Brisbane International Arts Festival, as well as being produced at Belvoir Street Theatre in Sydney; Chatroom, which was nominated for numerous awards; Ruby’s Last Dollar, which was directed by Jeremy Sims, starred Jacki Weaver and had seasons at the Sydney Opera House and Octagon Theatre; and Bran Nue Dae, which Reg adapted for the screen from the play by Jimmy Chi. The film was directed by Rachel Perkins and starred Geoffrey Rush. A sporting raconteur, Reg Cribb was the life of every club he was part of. His repartee and love of the good times, along with his work in the early days of the Bowls Show on radio are legacies that have endeared him to all. A bag of six goals and an average of three against some of the best fullbacks Western Australian football has seen stamp him as a better than average footballer, and one that was lost to the game before realising the potential he showed as a seventeen year old.