Ken McLeod: We celebrate a fine innings

Past greats from Moonee Valley Cricket Club gathered at the bowls rooms recently for a memorial to celebrate the life of Ken McLeod, who was one of our Club's inaugural players.
Ken was one of the Eleven to take to the field in our first game in the 1971/72 season, and is sadly the first of those pioneers to end his innings.
Kenneth Alexander McLeod, 65, was killed in a farm accident on June 2.
He was the brother of Rod McLeod, who founded our Great Club with Ray Storey, and the son of Alex McLeod, who was our first President.
Four of the players who took to the field for Moonee Valley on that first Saturday in 1971 were at the memorial - Rod McLeod, Ray Storey, Colin Netherclift and Peter Dawkins.
In our foundation year we had a single team playing under the name of Moonee Ponds, and from these beginnings came the club that would grow into the Moonee Valley Cricket Club.
Others who played with Ken in those early years - Peter and Kevin Gardiner, and Brian Moore were also at the June 14 memorial at the Moonee Valley Bowls Club, along with past players Brian O'Reilly, Warwick Knill, Scott McLeod and Stewart Storey, and Life Member present players Darren Nagle, John Talone and Charlie Walker.
Ken McLeod 70 games for Moonee Valley for 1122 runs @ 14.38, and took 92 wickets @ 17.53. He was an important player in our first two Premierships.

We join winter cricket with a real bang

 Moonee Valley made a stunning debut in the Mid Year Cricket Association when we walloped a massive 7/333 off the hapless Pascoe Vale Central attack in our first outing in the winter whites.

And that wasn't the end of the story, as we bundled Pascoe Vale out for 128 in 19 overs in our debut game, at our Fairbairn Park No. 8 home ground on April 27.

The Pascoe Vale players didn't know what hit them when the mild-looking Jake de Niese let fly as an opening bat.

Left: The keeper doesn't know where the ball is, but just look at the eyes of our batsman Jake de Niese and the slip fieldsman - the massive pull shot cleared the boundary for six.

The first over he faced netted 14 runs and the second 26 as Jake flayed the ball to all parts of the boundary. He was caught for 42 off probably no more than a dozen balls - and the shot he went out on was hit flat and hard, and would have also cleared the rope had the fielder not been there.

But Jake was just part of our debut juggernaut. Matt Thomas made 75 not out, Muhammad Maaz 52 not out and Amit Chaudhary welcomed his return to the Moonee Valley colors with 52. Even Umar Farooq looked an accomplished bat, flicking the opening bowler off his hip for six.

We made short work of denying Pascoe Vale's run chase, with Saeed Akram and Amit Chaudhary each taking three wickets, and skipper Stephen Ward and Muhammad Maaz taking two.

Amit's first wicket for the day brought up a milestone, as he was stranded on 99 club wickets when he departed Moonee Valley at the start of the summer season. Welcome back!

Above right: Our debut winter comp team: L-R: Jake de Niese, Ben Thomas, David Leece, Michael Ozbun, Matt Thomas, skipper Stephen Ward, Bede Gannon, Muhammad Maaz, Amit Chaudhary, Saeed Akram and Umar Farooq.


At right: Amit Chaudhary was quickly onto the front foot in his return for Moonee Valley, hitting some brutal shots.

At left: Ben Thomas showed some fine touch early.

Kevin and Phill get their right reward

Club stalwarts Phill King and Kevin Gardiner received the highest honors when the Moonee Valley Cricket Club held its Senior Presentation Night on Saturday, April 20.
Phill was awarded the coveted Lindsay Jones Best Clubman award, while Kevin was blind-sided with an unflagged presentation of Life Membership.
Both Kevin and Phill have had long involvement with our juniors, and have also been important players in their own right.
Our Night of Nights was held at the venue of major MVCC sponsor the North Suburban Sports Club, where we enjoyed an excellent buffet meal and the hospitality of a well-stocked bar.
Our Club Champion award for the best player in the First Eleven was won by Ihtisham Uddin, while Jesse Felle won the Moonee Valley Award for points allocated in all grades other than the Firsts.
**Watch here for more information to come.

Appy to go - Moonee Valley's smartphone app
 
Moonee Valley's members and supporters can get their own free smartphone app, to keep in touch with everything that's happening around our Club.

The app, designed and built by Brendan Wright - brother of Fourths stalwart Norm - can be downloaded free through either the Apple Store or the Android Play Store. Simply go into the store and search for "Moonee Valley" and you'll find it.

Brendan's company, website and app developer CommunityToGo has scored some major contracts with their apps, so Moonee Valley Cricket Club is grateful and honored that the company has developed and launched our app.

Smartphone users can check all the Club information - they're notified when something new comes up on the website or our Facebook page, and will be able to instantly look and see whenever we update scores on game day via our Twitter account.

Our members can check every upcoming game on the fixture and get GPS directions to every ground our teams play on - seniors or juniors.

Already more than three dozen of our members have downloaded the app. All members should download and use it - and make sure you let players and supporters of opposing clubs know what a great app we have - and that it's courtesy of Brendan Wright and CommunityToGo.

Main Club contact details:

Charlie Walker - President 0409 237 543; 9370 1802
Peter Golding - Club Secretary 0419 009 721
Simon Thornton - Vice President 0417 570 779
Email: mooneev@club.cricketvictoria.com.au


For more contacts, see " Office bearers & Officials " under "Club News & Info" at the top of the page

Last updated: June 18, 2013.