FOR UPPER BEACONSFIELD’s Premier side Saturday ended with a brutal outright loss at the hands of CARDINIA, but the day started just as badly for the club with someone driving into the clubrooms during the Maroons’ under-17s home game causing thousands of dollars worth of damage. Those at the ground for the junior game reported a loud ‘bang’ but the damage wasn’t discovered until an hour later. The driver, still unknown to the club, swiftly took off. Emerald police’s Richard Murphy – himself a former MERINDA PARK player – came to check out the scene, with Cardinia Shire now getting the rooms repaired. The cricket links don’t end there though. Former BERWICK player Rohan Nancarrow is said to be doing the repairs, while Paul Gramc – brother of PAKENHAM Premier player Sean – secured the site on Saturday until repairs could be arranged. Anyone who saw the incident is urged to contact the Upper Beaconsfield Cricket Club.
THE Gazette has it on good, no, great authority that TOORADIN star Cal O’Hare and Seagulls newcomer Ross ‘Bushy’ Douglas have taken quite a shining to each other. The boys now have a game in which when quiet (or not so quiet) beverages are being consumed, no drink can be the same as the last. The pair put on quite a clinic on the weekend from all reports, with beverages ranging from ‘VB, raspberry and milk’ to ‘tomato juice, Tobasco sauce and Sambuca’, with red and white wines, beers, spirits and other disgusting mixers all in between. With solid sessions happening on a fairly regular basis, and Bushy being from the Mornington Peninsula, he has laid claim to a room at Cal’s place while also using the rooms and their massage tables as a place to rest – this is all before he gets up to go to the gym at 6.30 on a Sunday morning.
RUMOUR has it that CARDINIA top-order batsman Alex Nooy not only died his moustache in an attempt to win the Movember competition that he, himself organised, but he did a rather average job of it – with one side a noticeably darker shade than the other.
WHILE on the topic of hair – let’s talk about TOORADIN’S Premier clash with KOOWEERUP on Saturday. Gun Seagulls all-rounder Aaron Avery, by his own admission, looked like Britney Spears during her darkest moments. He was forced to shave his head after falling victim to the same dice game – ‘Cat’s Craps’, named in honour of its founder Chris Brennan – as youngster Dylan Sutton did just a couple of weeks ago when he said goodbye to much of his body hair.
THIS season’s Twenty20 Kookaburra Cup isn’t even a round old but it’s already delivering plenty, with B-Grade outfit GEMBROOK (3/173) rolling District’s LYNDHURST VIKINGS (153) on Tuesday last week. Ryan Scott (64 not out) was brilliant for the Brookers, less than a week before signing on as a goal-keeper with FFA Cup fairytale-makers Bentleigh Greens. Steve McRae (27 and 3/29) also shone, despite copping one to the plums during his batting innings. Elsewhere in the opening round so far, NAR NAR GOON/MARYKNOLL (2/113) defeated CRANBOURNE MEADOWS (107), UPPER BEACONSFIELD (4/110) beat PAKENHAM (8/109), PAKENHAM UPPER-TOOMUC (3/135) beat ST FRANCIS XAVIER OLD COLLEGIANS (6/131) and reigning T20 champions KOOWEERUP (2/142) stormed past TOORADIN (9/139). In games still to come as we go to print, CLYDE will face off against CARDINIA and their marquee signing – former MERINDA PARK speedster Jarrod Armitage – EMERALD will battle BEACONSFIELD, and DEVON MEADOWS will host MERINDA PARK with former Test fast bowler Darren Pattinson lining up for the Panthers.
CRICKET Snicks spotted a proppy looking Nic Close on Saturday, the CATANI premiership star from 2007/08 looking a little worse for wear after having three hernias removed last week. Now playing with PAKENHAM, it’s believed the source of the hernias stems back to last season, where the gifted run-machine almost single-handedly carried the Lions’ C-Grade team into a grand final. His shoulder operations are yet to come.
IF THE West Gippsland Cricket Association is serious about its Kookaburra Cup Twenty20 competition then it needs to address a few issues. While some clubs take the responsibility of hosting these games seriously, some just don’t seem to care with umpires not provided and the inner rings – which play such a huge part in the shortened version of the game – non-existent in some cases. If the authorities want the premier Twenty20 competition in our region to resemble park cricket, we’re going the right way about it, if we want to fix it, make the offending clubs accountable… no matter who they may be!
WHILE on the Kookaburra Cup, is it meant to be a League Cup type raffle or should the premier clubs in the region be seeded and separated in the draw? At the moment, names are basically pulled out of a hat, with last Wednesday’s game between TOORADIN and KOOWEERUP seeing a potential… more likely… grand final match up nipped in the bud. Sure it’s great to see the District, Sub-District and even lower grades sides compete, but if you want the right to play the big boys in the cup… earn it by causing an upset in the early rounds.
WE can’t announce it yet, but one club in the WGCA has struck it rich after landing a lucrative funding deal by winning a voting competition on line. It’s reported that the club has also scored some government funding and its punters club is in red-hot form of late.
CONGRATULATIONS go out to GEMBROOK favourite-son Jeremy Everett, who celebrated his 29th birthday on Saturday by guiding the Brookers’ B-Grade team to victory over Kooweerup. The Brookers were in all sorts of trouble at 7/125, chasing the Demons’ 177, before Everett (37 not out) and Josh ‘Berries’ Newman (19) came to the rescue with a 58-run partnership for the eighth wicket. The big fella certainly earned a celebratory drink after hitting the winning runs.
FORMER PAKENHAM skipper Ben ‘Budgie’ Maroney may have had a lean start to his 2014/15 DDCA campaign with CRANBOURNE, but his undoubted class came to the fore in difficult conditions on the weekend. The Eagles’ are undefeated after three rounds, but Budgie’s contributions of 0, 0 and 18 have hardly been awe-inspiring. On Saturday, chasing Lyndale’s mediocre score of 108, the Eagles slumped to 6/62 on a lively pitch, with Maroney’s 57 not out the standout feature of an innings that now rests on 6/93. The jobs not done yet, but well done Budge on a terrific knock to date.
THERE is nothing more glorious than a quality moustache, especially through this of all auspicious months and HEINZ SOUTHERN DISTRICTS Chad Van Estrop is holding his own with a resplendid effort. And it seems to help his bowling as the Cobras’ spearhead rattled off 4/38 on the weekend against BUCKLEY RIDGES.
TOORADIN bowling dynamo Ricky Holland has been named the WGCA’s Girls Cricket Junior Manager, with the aim of forming a girls’ interleague side to take on the MPCA and others around the south east. Best of luck to the big Dutch and his charges.
