Barooga - we made the playoffs

Moonee Valley's campaign in our 11th Barooga Over 35s tournament reached the playoffs on the final day, but we fell just short.
Defending our score of 4/151 off 30 overs, we had Castle Hill (from NSW) six down but they reached the total with 17 balls to go.
We played twice under lights at the magnificent Barooga No. 1 oval - on January 13 and 15, and the final day play-off on January 16 was also at Barooga No. 1.
Our team this year was captained by Moonee Valley premiership player Craig Pridham. Mark Gauci won the comp bowling award with 5 wickets @ 12.0.
Above: Our playoff team for Barooga 2025. L-R: Back - Glen Courts, Sean O'Kane, Jason Morris, Jason Ripa, Mark Gauci, Nate Wolland. Front - Dane Smith, Allan Cumming, Tony Gleeson, Craig Pridham, Peter Richardson.
We used 16 players across the three games.
Four of our players had tournament batting averages of 30 or more - Glen Courts, Craig Pridham, Peter Richardson and Dane Smith.
Moonee Valley is already planning our 2026 campaign.
Our tournament got off to a flying start on the first night, with a strong win over Beaconsfield.
As the reigning title holder, we dismissed Beaconsfield for 106 in the 27th over of the 40-over match, then racked up the runs three down in 17.4 overs.
Our Moonee Valley team for the first round consisted of past and present players - current players Mark Gauci, Allan Cumming, Glen Courts, Jason Ripa and Charlie Walker, past players Sean and Peter O'Kane, Craig Pridham, Barooga-based players Kale Watkins and Ben Lucas, Peter "Pirate" Richardson and Shepparton-based Cameron McGregor - the father of Moonee Valley senior coach Brayden.
We had more players drafted in for the second and third games.
Stats highlights from the Beaconsfield game were Ben Lucas 40no, Mark Gauci 28 and Cameron McGregor 12no. Our bowling stars were Kale Watkins 4/10, Mark Gauci 2/13, Sean O'Kane 2/14 and Cameron McGregor 2/22.
At left: Our Barooga team for Game 1: L-R. Back - Kale Watkins, Sean O'Kane, Peter O'Kane, Craig Pridham, Mark Gauci, Brendan Rhodes, Cameron McGregor. Front - Glen Courts, Jason Ripa, Ben Lewis, Charlie Walker, Peter Richardson and Allan Cumming.