By Russell Bennett
By his own admission, Ken Murphy wasn’t a star cricketer.
Still, he was part of one of the most important eras in the history of the Upper Beaconsfield Cricket Club – one that, in many ways, defines it and also what it means to be part of a small community.
This Saturday night at the Cardinia Beaconhills Golf Club, Ken will come together with Maroons new and old to celebrate just what their cricket club has meant to them.
It will be a key component of the night that celebrates the 125 years since the cricket club’s inception in 1893.
Ken played in the Maroons’ under-15 premiership side, then called C Grade, back in the 1967/68 season, winning the bowling average that year in the Berwick Pakenham Districts Cricket Association with a stunning 2.93.
He also played in the C Grade premiership team of 1984/85, the E Grade title-winning side of 1985/86, and the C Grade side again in 1986/87 – a three-peat.
But more crucially for the former right-arm medium pace bowler and hard-hitting lower-order bat, he was one of the first to support the re-formation of the club in the wake of the Ash Wednesday bushfires, which had a devastating impact on the local community.
“My memory goes back to the original ground, which was totally different to what we see today,” Ken remembered.
“A lot of the grounds were basic grounds back in those days.
“The ground has changed, and the worst part of this ground is that it was built into the side of a hill. There was no filling, and it had a fast outfield because the other side of it just went straight into the scrub.
“Any ball that got through the infield just kept gathering pace, and bowling here was tough. It was easy to bowl downhill because it was quite steep, but bowling uphill was torturous.”
But the ground carried a special significance.
“It was used as a tipping ground after the fires, just to allow people to clear their blocks quickly,” he said, boundary-side recently.
“Everyone just brought rubbish up here and the council cleaned it up when it was a mountain of rubbish. It was a universal spot to dump stuff, and I think their aim was just to help people get their blocks cleaned up and it helped them feel better.
“When you go through something like Ash Wednesday it’s a communal thing.”
And so was the reformation of the club, which helped give a lot of locals a real sense of pride and belonging.
“When you’re faced with those sorts of disasters it just brings you closer together again,” Ken said.
“It was horrific, and a lot of people stayed (in the town).
“You could write a book about it, and people have. It was horrific, but sometimes the change is good. It can bring people together.”
On February 24 at the Cardinia Beaconhills Golf Club, the Maroons will mark their 125th year and celebrate their long, rich history.
A range of famous, and not so famous, stories will be told – like that of the time English cricket captain Andrew Stoddart visited Upper Beaconsfield to play cricket.
But tales of past players, and favourite sons and daughters from the eras since, will be remembered just as fondly.
