To all within the Boroondara Cricket Club community,
Be it Juniors, Seniors, Veterans, Male or Female, Players or Parents or Members, present & past – you are all important within this great Club.
On behalf of the Boroondara Cricket Club Committee, I hope this “Welcome to the Season” finds you and your family healthy & safe during these extremely rare & most unusual times.
Normally on this the first weekend in October ( just passed ) we would already know who the AFL Premiers are & our own cricket season would be commencing for both juniors & seniors. As Melburnians we have worked our way through 2 lockdowns with severe restrictions, right through winter there was no junior or senior sport participation for 6 months & the AFL through the support of the Queensland Government continued the AFL competition by most Victorian Clubs moving to Qld. No fans at the earlier AFL games this season & we will finish with the AFL Grand Final for the first time ever in the VFL/AFL history not being played in Melbourne. We are just under 3 weeks away from a “Gabba” Grand Final.
Last cricket season finished in a rush in mid- March, this meant our Club was unable to stage either the senior or junior presentation functions.
I’m not sure how many of you feel, but to me it doesn’t feel like just over 6 months ago that it all came to a halt, it feels like 2 years ago!! Finally however there are some rays of sunshine appearing.
With how last season finished I’d like to quickly remind you all by congratulating, in the seniors our 3rds won the “C” Grade Premiership, while in the juniors the Under 14A’s were Premiers along with our girls in the IECG Stage 2 “Stars – Summer” team who shared the Premiership with Richmond Union. Also during February both our Under 14A’s & Under 16A’s won the ECA Twenty 20 finals, it was wonderful to see two cups won out at Heathmont Reserve that day. There were many individual junior highlights for last season and I’d like to thank Joe Forrest for putting a very comprehensive Club Report for season 2019/20 on our website under the title “2019/20 Season – A Deep Dive”, if you get the time please have a read as Joe has done a fantastic job in recapturing last season.
Finally from a senior aspect I’d like to congratulate Nathan Douglas on winning the 1st XI Club Champion Award. I’d also like to congratulate both Nathan Douglas & Ben Douglas on their fine seasons with the bat, that saw both of them selected in the ECA’s MacGibbon Shield “Team of the Year”.
In the disjointed “off season” it was quite a wait until the Club’s AGM was set via a Zoom Meeting in early August and it is with great pleasure that I confirm our Club’s Committee for the upcoming season :
CLUB COMMITTEE :
President Michael Bingley
Vice President Mark Poustie
Secretary Matt Silk
Treasurer Steve Ford
Junior Manager Matt McCann
Assistant Junior Mgr Chris Hoyling
Girls Co-ordinators Samantha Carroll & Lisa Dobson
General Committee Chris Beach, Greg Smith, Scott White, Jason McAninly, Jonathan Power, Ben Thomson
I would like to thank Matt McCann for stepping up and taking on the role of Junior Manager. We are aware of the sad circumstances with Andrew Francis’s passing & he will be sorely missed by the Club.
Matt in the last couple of years has been running our excellent pre-season junior training program for the boys, as well over the last few seasons as a Coach or an Assistant coach for a number of teams. I have no doubt Matt will do a wonderful job, this is already very evident in how the junior section is preparing for this upcoming season. I’m aware all registered juniors for this upcoming season, have recently received on Friday night an email from Matt discussing junior matters. You will be continually informed of updates or changes as we get clarity on the upcoming season.
Helping Matt to run our great junior section are many wonderful volunteers, their contributions are extremely valuable and greatly appreciated. Not only do we have our Junior sub-committee but also the many wonderful parents who become involved by being either a coach, assistant coach or Team Manager, to you all on behalf of the Club, I thank you for being involved, it’s greatly appreciated. As a Club we continue to strive to give the children, boys or girls the best Junior cricket program that we can provide and it is with great pride that I can advise the ECA has confirmed that the Boroondara Cricket Club has again shown to be the biggest junior section in the ECA competition. The following members make up our hard working Junior Sub-Committee :
JUNIOR SUB-COMMITTEE
Junior Manager Matt McCann
Assistant Junior Mgr Chris Hoyling
Under 18 Co-ordinator Scott Chivers
Under 16 Co-ordinator Chris Hoyling
Under 14 Co-ordinator Geoff Steele
Under 12 Co-ordinator Travis O’Brien
Under 10 Co-ordinator Joe Forrest
Girls Co-ordinators Samantha Carroll & Lisa Dobson
Communication Ant Croaker
General Committee Michael Bingley, Mark Poustie
Social Committee To be advised
Finally there “appears to be light at the end of the tunnel ” and hopefully the good news continues so that there will be more easing of restrictions by the Premier coming up on 18th October.
CURRENT TIMEFRAME FOR SENIORS
The ECA Executive have advised Clubs of their proposed timeline & for any contingencies moving forward dependent on the easing of restrictions.
The ECA are currently aiming for the SENIOR season to commence on Saturday 14th November, with ALL games this season to be played as one day games. The intention is to play 14 games meaning 2 games against each of the other 7 teams in the grade, the first seven games are to be played in coloured clothing & using a white ball. The following seven games will be played in whites & using a red ball.
It’s with pleasure I can confirm Ben Thomson has agreed to continue as the 1st XI Captain. The remaining team captains shall be formalised soon & will be advised as soon as possible.
***** JUNIOR SEASON – NEW UPDATE *****
The ECA Executive have advised Clubs that the starting date for the season is for the Under 14’s, 16’s & 18’s to be Friday evening on 6th November, the Under 12’s commence the morning of Saturday 7th November with the Under 10’s on Sunday morning 8th November. You will be advised of training & squad sessions as they are known & dependent on continual lifting of restrictions.
At this stage the GIRLS COMPETITION is scheduled to commence the week beginning 16th November. We will advise if there is any change to the date.
COVID COMPLIANCE COMMITTEE
Obviously this upcoming cricket season will look different to any other that we’ve had before, especially for the normal two day grades. Not only will things be different on game day both on & off the field, but also with training. There will be differences between senior & junior cricket with restrictions and as we move closer to the season everyone will be kept up to date with the Club’s & players requirements to abide by the compliance guidelines. Everyone should be confident in knowing that the Boroondara Cricket Club takes seriously the safety & wellbeing of all its playing members & the family members who attend as spectators as we endeavour to be fully COVID compliant.
I’m pleased to announce the Club’s COVID Compliance Committee is headed by Geoff Steele and assisted by members Andrew Oppy, Cheryl McLeod & Matt McCann. The Club greatly appreciates the effort of these four people in making themselves available to help steer the Club in the right direction for COVID compliance.
VICTORIA ROAD HOME CLUBROOMS
Over the last couple of years I’ve been involved in meetings with Council for the projected refurbishment of our home clubrooms. As we share with our winter tenant, Hawthorn Citizens Junior Football Club, you all see that female participation in football & cricket is booming. Council are progressively looking at making more of their clubrooms with the changerooms & umpires rooms to have unisex functionality. We are lucky to be an early club receiving this refurbishment as it was only 15 years ago that our new Clubrooms were actually built. Thankfully we have come a long way from the terrible old red brick clubrooms!
So if you drive by our home clubrooms you will see fencing around it, it was only a couple of weeks ago when we were officially advised that works were to proceed. Both Clubs have moved their storage into shipping containers & I’d like to thank David Stanford, President of Hawthorn Citizens JFC for allowing us extra storage in their container.
We are currently working with council to provide the best off ground facility as possible, but with current COVID restrictions losing use of our major Clubroom won’t be such a big loss when looking at the current “roadmap” & information coming to us from the Council, the ECA & Cricket Victoria.
The GOOD news is that the contractor is aiming on finishing by end of February ‘21 & the Council have agreed if all is well we can use the Clubrooms in March. There are no promises of course & with the uncertainty of COVID we can just hope that the construction moves forward as planned. Of course we will keep you all informed of any developments, one thing I do know having seen the plans, is that you will all be happy with the new Clubrooms that we will be able to call home for years to come.
UPCOMING SEASON
Finally, I would like to wish all our players a rewarding season where they strive to improve & get great enjoyment out of playing cricket with your friends at the Boroondara Cricket Club.
To all SENIOR players, with what is going to be a limited preparation going into the season, attending training as soon as we are permitted will be very important to help us start the season well. Please make every effort to be there, fit & ready to go.
To our JUNIOR players, as the Club continues to prepare for your season if you haven’t registered yet after playing last season with us, can you please register as spots are filling up & we want everyone who wishes to be a “Cobra” to be able to play in our “Cobra” blues. If you wish to bring a friend or know of someone not happy or enjoying their cricket at another Club, please feel free to bring them along so they can experience the “Cobra” way of playing & enjoying cricket. Please let someone know & we will make them feel very welcomed.
A big shout out to all the girls out there, the Club is very keen to grow the girls section of the Club. If you, or you have friends, interested in trying cricket as a sport, I’m sure you will enjoy it, give it a go. To the parents & brothers, be supportive, try & get your daughter or sister to play the wonderful game of cricket, there are no longer any boundaries, cricket is for all.
We currently provide girls competition cricket, also NEW for this season we will be running a “girls only” Blasters Program on a Monday night to support girls trying cricket. Blasters cricket is available for girls aged 5-8.
Today female participation in cricket is exploding, I hope you can remember in March the Australian Women’s team won the World Cup at the MCG. Australia is ranked Number 1 in the World in all forms of cricket, be it Test Cricket, One Day games or Twenty/20. If you dream to get to that level, then start your career at the Boroondara Cricket Club.
We are committed to giving girls the opportunity to play this great game, it’s a great way to make new friends. With your assistance it will help our girls section to grow.
All the best to everyone & I look forward to seeing you through the season, be it at training or at a game.
GO COBRAS
Regards
Michael Bingley
PRESIDENT
BOROONDARA CRICKET CLUB