A long time coming for Neil

Neil King brought up his 50th game for Moonee Valley in the season opener in our winter comp team on April 18.

While a half century of games in itself is not remarkable, the time lapse between Neil's first and 50th games is.

Neil first pulled on the whites for Moonee Valley in 1974/75, when he accumulated six games and then faded from the scene.

But he kept an eye on the Valleys, and made his return with a modest three games in the 2010/11 season.

But since then he's blossomed, and the following 41 games have included matches from the Seconds down to the lower grades, double-up games and our past two January tournaments in Barooga.

Neil also racks up matches in the Essendon Over 60s team, and to prove that Age Does Not Weary Them, he's off to England in June with our coach Rex Bennett as part of the Australian Over 60s team, after both playing for Victoria in the winning national championships side.

While Neil is a regular on match days and at training, his old dog Queenie is always beside him - although Queenie seems more interested in the afternoon tea than the cricket.

Neil will be taking some solid form to England, as he won our Sevenths batting award for 2014/15 with 197 runs @ 98.5.

Let's hope there's not so long between drinks with his second 50 games at Moonee Valley.