Our Most Valuable Player and Fieldlow results

The Valley seniors held our MVP and fielding award vote counts at the Moonee Valley Bowls Club on March 10, and the call of the card brought plenty of excitement with each vote.
The count was hosted by Jonty Rhodes giving a brief account of every round of every game, while Peter Golding showed his skill with computers by adding the votes instantly to the big screen, along with the leader board after every round.
While it was the senior presentation night, some of our younger players who played a lot of senior cricket got into the action.
Junior Joshua Norsetter was prominent among them, winning the fielding awards for both the Thirds and Fourths, as well as the Fourths MVP.
And one of our gun fielders, Shaun Rayment, won the Sixths Fieldlow award as well as finishing runner-up in the Thirds. Shaun played and polled votes in every grade from the Seconds to the Sixths. He was also selected as 12th man for the Firsts for one game until a late replacement came through - and surely would have earned fielding votes there as well.
At right: Some of our MVP and Fieldlow winners from the night: L-R Mark Gauci, Paddy Shelton, Daniel Comande, Jim Polonidis, Cassidy Box and Jack Newman.
Our winners and runners-up in each grade are:
Firsts Fieldlow: Daniel Comande 19 votes, Channa DeSilva 15 votes
Firsts MVP: Jack Newman 39 votes, Shiwantha Kumara 32
Seconds Fieldlow: Damien Clarke 12, Nate Wolland 9
Seconds MVP: Jim Polonidis 107 (different voting system), Stephen Ward 83
Thirds Fieldlow: Josh Norsetter 11, Shaun Rayment 7
Thirds MVP: Dean Lawson 21. Mark Gauci 21 (equal winners), Jesse Felle 20
Fourths Fieldlow: Josh Norsetter 14, Ben Skok 7, Akshay Kapadia 7
Fourths MVP: Joshua Norsetter 31, Stephen Esmore 29
Fifths Fieldlow: Paddy Shelton 11, Elliott Hughes 10
Fifths MVP: Cassidy Box 24, Jesse O’Grady 22
Sixths Fieldlow: Shaun Rayment 8, Nick Taylor 7
Sixths MVP: Sam Carbone 14, Danny Terzini 13

Thanks to Frosty Simmons and the bowls club for hosting the night, and to our sponsors Florentine's for the hearty meal. 

So close: Under 16s go down in a thriller

Moonee Valley's Under 16s fell an agonising 17 runs short in our Grand Final, in the unusual position of having plenty of wickets in hand but not enough overs to haul in the total.
At left: Our GF team. L-R: Back - coach Stephen Ward, Jack Drew, Tomas Morrissy, Krish Kanchan, Charlie Crook, Bevan Holder, Luca Nimorakiotakis, Jamie Akhurst, Noah Wallwork, Jack Cumming and Dylan Pleban. Front - Max Pickering, Caoimhin Corcoran and Felix Fischer.
The March 8 and 15 game - played on two consecutive Friday evenings at home at Ormond Park - was a see-sawing affair, with the Valleys having the ascendancy after Day 1 but the opposition getting off the hook and hitting out a bit to freely in the first half of Day 2.
We had excellent efforts with the bat - Bevan Holder (21) and Noah Wallwork (32) on Day 1, and then Luca Nimorakiotakis (19), Felix Fischer (22) and Krish Kanchan (104no) taking up the fight, but sometimes things don't always go to plan. We only lost the four wickets.
It was an excellent season to finish on top with our first Under 16 team since 2014/15. Most of our players came up from the Under 14s last season, so they were in the first year in the higher age group. And two of our players - Tomas Morrissy and Krish Kanchan - were still Under 14-eligible so we've got a lot to look forward to next season.
Ten members of the team played senior cricket at Moonee Valley during the course of the season, so we've got a lot of talent on the horizon for years to come - and some of the young guys have already arrived as senior cricketers.
At right: Under 16 Grand Final centurion Krish Kanchan with his father Venks - and Krish was still eligible for Under 14s!
Krish brought up his maiden century in the last over, with a powerful flat-batted six, and had to retire when victory was still a faint hope.

GET READY FOR PRESENTATION NIGHT - APRIL 13

The Moonee Valley Cricket Club 2018/19 presentation night is being held at the Moonee Ponds Club on Saturday, April 13.
We encourage all our players and members to bring their partners and/or parents, as Presentation Night is one of our key social functions which enable us all to interact as a club and family. 
We will have the announcement of the Club Champion for 2018/19, the winner of the Moonee Valley Award (best player all other grades), batting, bowling and fielding award presentations and plenty of milestone awards. 
There will be plenty of other highlights on the night.
Captains of each grade will be ringing players who were regulars in their team. 
Players can also confirm by emailing charlie.walker@optusnet.com.au or phoning on 0411 705 381. If you're confirming, please also advise on the number of tickets - yourself, partner, others - and any special dietary requirements. 
We've already liaised with the Moonee Ponds Club - a proud sponsor of our club for well over a decade now - and they are again putting on an excellent spread for us, including a choice of main course.
The club is at 622 Mt Alexander Rd, Moonee Ponds and the night starts at 6.30.
Tickets are $55 per head, and $45 for juniors and Life Members. The cost of a ticket is covered for all players who have paid their senior membership this season. This is in lieu of the training uniform which was promoted as being part of the membership fee, and which will now be held over to next season.  
Please let us know your availability asap, as it's handy to have this information to hand in planning the night. Details of the night will also be posted on our Facebook page.

SO CLOSE AGAIN FOR THE FIFTHS

It was close, but not close enough again for the crew which made up our Fifth Eleven this season.
The team, which was captained in 2018/19 by Dominic Rettino after being skippered by Paddy Shelton for the previous four seasons, got passed in the final over of the Preliminary Final by Haig Fawkner seven wickets down.
They had made the previous PF, a Grand Final the season before that and the Semi Final before that, but are  yet to salute in the big one.
Skipper Dom tried to get the team over the line in the Prelim with his score of 80, backed up by a 37 from Jesse O'Grady and a 36-run unbeaten stand by Jesse Nankivell-Sandor and Nathan Deery, but our score of 7/225 wasn't quite enough.
Jesse O'Grady with three wickets and three catches, and Dom Rettino with two wickets kept us in the hunt, but we missed out in the final over of the March 2 game.
The guys are keen to back up next season and take it one better - a flag. Well done fellas, we're proud of you.
Above: The Fifths who almost got us over the line. L-R. Back - Cassidy Box, Paddy Shelton, Liam Farrell, Jesse Nankivell-Sandor, Samuel Gunther, Justin Trowell and Charlie Jackson. Middle - Manu Poulose, Dominic Rettino and Elliott Hughes. Front - Shane Chalmers.



Postcode Pete brings up his 50

Moonee Valley stalwart Peter "Postcode" Smith registered what we think is his first half-century on March 9 - but you won't find it in the scorebook.
Posty brought up his 50 in the Book of Life - his 50th birthday.
Around two dozen players and partners gathered at the Laurel Hotel to mark the occasion, and Pete enjoyed holding centre stage.
A look through the Moonee Valley annals shows scores of 28, 30 and 31, but the closest Pete has got with the bat to the half-century was his 35 in the Fifths in 2014/15.
Our latest Wisden credits him with 746 runs and 303 wickets in a career dating back to 2001/02.
Pete's immensely proud of the contribution he makes to Moonee Valley, and has made either all or some of the afternoon teas week in, week out for more than a decade.
Posty, we congratulate you.
Above: So all the cracks had gathered for the fray: L-R. Back - Sandro Capocchi, Charlie Walker, Ian Denny, Joe Ansaldo, Peter Smith, Daniel Phillips, Jim Polonidis, John Talone, Dean Jukic and Michael Ozbun. Front - Brendan Rhodes, Ben Thomas, Bede Gannon and Danny Terzini.
***For more pictures from the night, click HERE

Three out of four players in this picture are wearing these shirts to win a bad-taste bet. Can you guess the odd man out?

Moonee Valley's First Eleven held their Mad Monday wind-up at the Seconds Semi Final on March 10, and cheered on our guys as they tried to get across the line.
In honor of their skipper Jack Newman, they wore replicas of his favored black-and-white striped shirt.
No, Jack's not a Collingwood supporter, although his taste in shirts shortfall in judgment and taste.
He tries to tell us it's because he supports Newcastle in the English Premier League, but we're not that gullible, Jack!

At left: At least they're the Moonee Valley colors. Modelling the latest in fashion shirts are L-R Matt Thomas, Jack Newman, Ben Thomas and Channa DeSilva.

    Main Club contact details:

* Charlie Walker - President/Secretary 0411 705 381; 9370 1802
* Peter Golding - Treasurer 0419 009 721
* Mark Gauci - Vice President 0457 778 335
* Peter Pickering - Junior Co-ordinator 0414 800 145  pjp@vicbar.com.au 
* Channa DeSilva - Membership Co-ordinator 0402 833 592

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: March 20, 2019.
For more of our history, including our Premierships, click HERE