Norman Ogilvie Street

A country player, Norman Street was born in Bathurst, went to All Saint’s College and played for Bathurst and Orange. His first contact with a touring team was playing for Western Districts against the touring New Zealand team in 1897. He played in the forwards, as did his brother. It was almost a classic upset, as New Zealand struggled for a 16 to 15 victory. Howell, et al, reported in They Came To Conquer that Street was among the best of a spirited home team. Street’s performance in the match merited his selection in the NSW team to play New Zealand. Howell, et al , wrote:”Street had forced his way into the team with a storming game on Tuesday, taking advantage of the fact that one of the NSW selection committee, James McManamey, was refereeing and had the best possible vantage point for observing his display. In fact, George Outram of the Zealandia Club had been named the previous Saturday as one of the replacements but the selection was overturned when Street played so well.” New Zealand won the match 22 to 8 and Howell, et al, noted that :”All the home team played well with none better than Street, Henlan, Fraser and Curley in the pack.” Street was also selected in the return match for NSW against New Zealand, lost by 3 to 26.

When the 1899 Mullineux-led British team came to Australia, Street was selected in the first NSW match against the visitors, which Britain won by 4 to 3. He was not selected in the historic first Test but was selected for the second, in Queensland, won 11 to 0 by the British. This would prove to be his only Test for Australia. He seemed to fall out of favour as he was also not selected for NSW against the tourists. He did, however, represent Bathurst in the match NSW Western Districts versus New Zealand, easily won by the tourists 19 to 0. The Australian team on 22 July 1899 at the Bowen Park Exhibition Ground, Brisbane, against Great Britain was Bob McCowan (capt.), Tom Ward, Alex Henry, Lonnie Spragg, Peter Ward, Poley Evans, Ernie Currie, Arthur Corfe, Bob Challoner, Norm Street, Patrick Carew, Hyam Marks, Charlie Ellis, Bill Tanner and Charlie Graham.

A real rugby man. Norm Street kept playing in Bathurst and though he was not selected to play against the 1903 New Zealand team, he did play for Western NSW against Britain in 1904. He would have been 27 or 28 by this time. This ended his representative career and he was credited with 18 matches for NSW between 1897 and 1901. It was not easy to represent Australia from the country in those days, and he would record a single Test. A miner, he worked for a time in Lucknow, India.