Cricket Snicks
RUMOUR has it that the BEACONSFIELD Junior Football Club and the Board of Management at Holm Park Road are making things difficult for the BEACONSFIELD Cricket Club and the WGCA as they look to host this weekend’s Premier and Sub-District Division grand-finals at the venue. It appears the Tigers will have to set up marquees to sell their food from – even though the venue has fantastic canteen facilities – as they can’t get hold of a set of keys. The executive of the social facility has also demanded $1000 from the WGCA just to grant entry and has added other provisos to their agreement. The lack of cooperation seems a shame as the Tigers host their last event before heading to the DDCA.
PAKENHAM CRICKET CLUB president Phil ‘Mitsu’ Anning has a question to ask one of the club’s great players. Eddie Lewis – What has happened to you? Mitsu was absolutely astounded on Friday night when, in the company of his beautiful wife Julie, Eddie knocked back Mitsu’s offer of a cool refreshing beverage. “I’m not drinking before a final,” was Eddie’s excuse before Mitsu had his say. “This is a bloke, who back in the ‘80s would play the Saturday of a grand final then go down to Purves Hotel til 10pm, then go back to his house and drink VB King Brown bottles until 2am, and then go out and make a hundred on the Sunday… I just don’t know what’s happened to him.” But Eddie, nearly 65, had the final say, “I’m maturing,” he said with a grin.
SPEAKING of alcoholic beverages, it seems LANG LANG’s Bob Taylor wasn’t too impressed with the girls behind the jump at PAKENHAM on Sunday night after he made a specific request, 24 hours earlier, for one of his favourite beers, Cascade Light. Lang Lang Bob, who was at Toomuc umpiring a Sub-District semi-final on the weekend, was quick to point out the problem to Cricket Snicks before heading to his car with what seemed to be a bag-full of Carlton Mid-Strength. He promised to reload with his favourite ale as he drove through Kooweerup.
WHILE on Lang Lang Bob, the mad keen cricket lover will have to catch up on this weekend’s grand final scores from afar, as he’ll be out of town celebrating his 40th wedding anniversary. Maybe Bob should take some advice from PAKENHAM UPPER/TOOMUC president Vicky Downes, who has instilled into her players that there’ll be no babies being born, or engagements or weddings taking place at any stage during a cricket season. Vicky, we love your advice, that’s exactly why one of our Cricket Snicks correspondents was married on April 3, the only weekend available between the cricket and footy seasons.
GAZETTE Sports Editor Dave Nagel received a call from reception last week, “Dave, it’s Ralph Harrison on the phone, can I put him through?”
“Sure,” was the reply, even though we’d never heard of a Ralph Harrison before. Well it wasn’t Ralph Harrison but a very shifty little man called Rob Hansen in disguise on the other end of the line.
ADMINISTRATORS of any league or association always cop a bit of stick so we thought we should highlight one of the good things that they do behind the scenes. WGCA president Brett Armitage was quick to hop on the phone on Saturday night to congratulate PAKENHAM’s Brett Irvine on his WGCA best-of-the-day 105 not out against GEMBROOK. Irvine seemed genuinely chuffed by the call… so well done Mr Armitage on keeping that personal touch within the league.
CRICKET Snicks would like to wish WGCA life member and long-standing secretary of the association Jeff Wallace a speedy recovery from recent illness. It’s hard to imagine anyone having a bad word to say about Jeff, one of cricket’s real nice guys. Jeff, from the top of the WGCA down, we all wish you well.
WHILE the season is over for BUCKLEY RIDGES, there is one more important fixture left on the DDCA calendar. The Ridges, based out of Park Oval next to Dandenong’s Shepley Oval, will strap on the pads and charge in to bowl for one last time in season 2014/15 to raise funds for one of their own. Current DDCA Turf-3 player Nathan Munasinghe, 14, from Berwick, had his cricket season called to an abrupt end, diagnosed with a rare form of leukaemia. Nathan, the son of former SRI LANKAN international player Manjula Munasinghe, will be the man of honour at BUCKLEY RIDGES CRICKET CLUB on Saturday as the club hosts a Twenty20 charity cricket match from 11am to help fundraise for leukaemia research and to financially assist the Munasinghe family. For more information about the charity match or to donate prizes or funds to the Munasinghes, contact Buckley Ridges CC president Paul Rudd on 0417 329 320. Donations can also be made directly to BUCKLEY RIDGES CRICKET CLUB’S bank account, BSB: 814282, Account Number: 10429929 and description: Nathan.
TOORADIN is the first club to publicly come forward with a WGCA restructure idea for 2015/16. Under their proposal, the Sub-District division would be eliminated in favour of a re-structured Premier and District competition. There would be 12 clubs in each level (including the current seven from Premier, not including BEACONSFIELD, and the top-five teams in District) and they would play 11 games for a 21 week season. There would be 10 two-day games, with the 11th a one-dayer. Premier would play 80 overs with a four-piece red leather ball, while the District competition would become the bottom three (or two if ST FRANCIS XAVIER leave) of the current District division, eight clubs of Sub-District and the minor premier of B Grade (or the top two teams if St Francis Xavier go). District would also play 80 overs with a four-piece ball. B Grade would have six teams from the current B Grade tier (less Beaconsfield), and six from C Grade. Playing conditions from B Grade down would be 70 overs with a two-piece ball, with games commencing at 1.30pm. In a promotion/relegation system, the bottom two teams would be relegated, while the promoted teams are the minor premiers and runners-up from the lower grade (provided the club does not have a team in the higher grade). The Seagulls have also proposed a Sunday competition to replace the Kookaburra Cup T20. This would be open to all WGCA clubs but wouldn’t be compulsory. A four-game competition would be held with games scheduled as follows: October (one game), November (one game), December (one game), January (one game), and a finals’ game in February. The final would be between the four teams who finish first, second, third and fourth in the T20 competition. There would also be a review after the first two years to evaluate the success/involvement of clubs.
WHILE still on TOORADIN, Ricky ‘Dutchy’ Holland has put his name in the ring for weirdest dismissal of the year. The Seagulls’ Sub-District captain is officially in the scorebook as out for a diamond duck, “obstructed field”. While he wasn’t out for a diamond, he was in fact out for obstructing the field. Yet all isn’t quite as it seems… he walked. While he was standing at the non-strikers’ end, the batsman on strike hit a ball straight back in his – and the bowlers’ and umpires’ – vicinity. Dutchy fended the ball away and before the umpire reached a decision, walked off the ground. Great sportsmanship, Dutch.
WHEN you Google CATANI CRICKET CLUB – surprisingly it’s a different club that comes up first. NAR NAR GOON/MARYKNOLL. Looks like some silly business is happening in the Google system.
WIN number four is just as sweet for DDCA all-rounder Steve Spoljaric, as the CRANBOURNE captain took out his fourth Alan Wookey Medal last Wednesday. The Cranbourne dasher finished ahead of SPRINGVALE SOUTH’S Ruwantha Kellepotha and MORDIALLOC’S Monto Perera.
CAM Kelly is a bit of a food connoisseur it would seem, as only the finest will suffice for the CRANBOURNE strike bowler at the Alan Wookey Medal Count last Wednesday. Roast beef won’t do for Kelly, instead choosing to wait until four-time Wookey Medalist Steve Spoljaric traded him a chicken parma for the Dandenong Club’s finest roast. Then the salad was not up to his lofty standards, as the salad dodger awaited CRANBOURNE scorer Carol Toan to trade her potatoes for his salad. Hopefully next year the Dandenong Club raises its game to meet his unwavering scrutiny.
WHILE on the subject of the Wookey Medal, the enjoyable ‘Demetriou’ efforts of the DDCA umpires reading out votes was particularly insightful. It turns out “Gunawardanawanda” plays in the association as does “Wickaramararathana”. Needless to say, nicknames were soon used instead for the more tongue-tying of Turf-1 player names.
HALLAM KALORA PARK skipper Leigh Booth was stitched up for the ‘Benny Hill’ segment at the Wookey Medal as he strolled around the ground setting the field one day at Hallam. He certainly did a good job of meticulously making the placements as even in fast motion set to Yakety Sax, it still took a few minutes to watch.
