SENIOR TRAINING - WE'RE BACK ON DECK

Senior training resumed on January 2, so we're back into the second part of the season. Our sessions start at 5.30pm, but coach Lou Raffaele is at training from 4.30, so anyone who wants to come early and get some more intensive work is welcome to join him.
Our four turf teams are back in action on the January 6/7 weekend.
The Seconds are at home on the Saturday, with the Firsts away at Aberfeldie Park - both one-day games. Both matches are starting by agreement at 10am, to try and beat the heat forecast.
The Thirds and Fourths are playing on the Sunday - the Thirds away v Indigos in Flemington Rd, and the Fourths at home v Parkville District.
Our Fifths, Sixths and Sevenths resume the following weekend.
Our juniors are back on the first weekend in February.

Our January promotion - with Grill'd Moonee Ponds

Moonee Valley Cricket Club has a promotion going throughout February with the Grill'd Moonee Ponds restaurant.
As part of the company's Local Matters promotion, our club and two other local organisations are vying for a $300 cash main prize. The more our members participate, the greater our chance of picking up the handy addition to our budget bottom line.
For more details on what you can do to kick this along, go to our "Latest News" bar on the right side of this page.

A Christmas welcome for our Freddie


                    

Above: Welcoming back the Prodigal son. L-R Mark Gauci, Jack Newman, Freddie Priestley, Matt Thomas,
Benjamin Pearson and Michael Ozbun. Front - Bede Gannon, Ben Thomas and Daniel Comande.

Moonee Valley welcomed back a favorite son when Freddie Priestley breezed in to Melbourne on Christmas Day.

Freddie played a season at the Valley as a teenager in 2014/15, before returning home to England. But he came back to Australia earlier this month to follow the fortunes of his country in the Ashes, and came to Melbourne for a week for the Boxing Day Test.

At left: Freddie's Australian family: Back - Benjamin Pearson and Charlie Walker. Front - Caroline, Adele and Nigel Walker and Freddie Priestley.

He brought UK teammate Benjamin Pearson across from the west, where he's playing for Fremantle. With the Christmas break, it was perfect time for the two mates to come across to the Fourth Test.

Freddie and Benjamin were lined up to stay with the Walker family, where Freddie lived in his season across here.

They also found time to go down to the Ormond Park pavilion in the late afternoon of Christmas Day, to catch up with past teammates and to have one last look at the old pavilion before our redevelopment takes place.

While we didn't get a chance to get Freddie into the whites on his short trip to Melbourne, he's assessing his future options after a planned university course back home. And while we had the opportunity we also put a bit of work into Benjamin as a future Valleys player.

Nate Wolland's incredible

knock

Nate Wolland wrote himself into the Moonee Valley record books with his magnificent innings of 210 not out to steer the Thirds home to an important victory on December 16.
It was even more incredible in that Nate wasn't even meant to play that weekend, but stepped in and helped out to ensure the Thirds had a full complement.
Our First Eleven captain in 2015/16 and 2015/17, Nate has been opening the bowling in the Ones all season, but pulled out of the last round before Christmas because of an ankle injury.
At right - Nate still had a spring in his step when he came off at the end of his 210 not out.
Even though he has only batted once this season, for 3 not out at No. 11, Nate was happy to step in to help out the thirds as a batsman - and stand-in skipper Ben Skok gave him the responsibility of opening.
And Nate didn't let him down, steering the side to victory over Barnawartha North in the Mercantile Cricket Association with an over to spare.
Nate's innings was the third-highest in the history of the Moonee Valley Cricket Club, behind only Peter Brear's 218 in 1994/95 and Matt Gauci's 211 not out against Coolaroo - ironically also a December 16 one-day fixture, in 2006.
Our only other 200-plus score was Dean Lawson's 205 not out in 2014/15.
Nate hadn't given any prior indication of a latent batting talent, scoring on 113 runs in his Moonee Valley career, which started in 2014/15. Nate's highest previous summer score was just 16, while he excelled with a high of 28 in winter comp.
His knock was reminiscent of Australian fast bowler Jason Gillespie, who scored a double century against Bangladesh in 2006 - ironically his last Test. Hopefully Nate's got a few more games left in him!
Wags at our club have told Nate that his double ton is the highest score by a Kiwi in Australia since Ross Taylor hit 290 in the Perth Test in 2015/16.

                                      
Above: Nate is mobbed by his winning teammates. L-R: Back - Ben Skok, Jacob De Niese, Peter Golding, Daniel Ayers, Azhar Mohammed Khan, Justin Trowell, Ian Denny. Front - Nam Nguyen, Joshua Norsetter, Nate Wolland and Brendan Rhodes.

OUR

CHRISTMAS

BREAK-UP

Moonee Valley Cricket Club marked the half-way mark of the season with our annual Christmas party on Saturday, December 16.

While our afternoon entertainers - the Firsts and the Sixths - didn't perform up to expectations, we will enter the Christmas break fairly well placed on the ladders of all seven senior grades.

At right: Enjoying the Christmas meal: Mark and Vanessa Gauci with Marley.

More than 50 players, family, friends and supporters gathered at the Ormond Park clubrooms for what could well be the last hurrah for the old pavilion before we vacate for the $2 million redevelopment.

The pavilion has seen some pretty wild celebrations over the two decades it has been around, so we were pleased to see that the revellers treated it reverently and gently for the Christmas bash.

Simon Thornton won the $500 cash prize in the big raffle, while Daniel Comande took second prize of $250.

Our thanks go to the members who worked so hard on organising the Christmas party and helping it run smoothly through the afternoon and night, including Danny Terzini, Michael Ozbun, Jesse Nankivell-Sandor, Kevin Gardiner, Simon Thornton, Matt Thomas, Channa DeSilva and Andreas Skiotis.

At left: After a hard day... L-R Allan Cumming, Doug Cumming, Michael Cumbo, Shane Chalmers and Dominic Rettino.

Thanks to the members and players who sold raffle tickets, and we're happy that the ticket sales and bar and canteen proceeds will provide a good boost to our budget.


**FOR MORE PICTURES, CLICK HERE

THE  LATEST  NEWS  ON  OUR  NEW  PAVILION

The latest advice on the Ormond Park pavilion redevelopment is that works will commence at the end of January. Most of our members will be now be aware that both Moonee Valley Cricket Club and the football club will need to vacate.
This is despite the initial assurances from Council officers that we could continue to occupy the old pavilion while the $2 million works were done in two stages.
But they did not include the staging requirements in their tendering, and so we were forced to accept the alternative - vacating into temporary premises.
                                     
                                  Above: The redesigned pavilion plan - looking in from the oval
We have been advised that the portables which will be home to both us and the football club for probably a bit over a year are due to arrive on January 29, so we will need to be ready to vacate the pavilion fairly quickly after that.
The Council is picking up the tab for the hire of the portables, and for the connection of power, water and sewerage. They will be placed in the north-west corner of the park, beside the playground near the entrance and in and around the saplings in that area.
There is a joint bar/canteen portable, as well as three changerooms - one for our home team, another for away teams and a third for umpires. We expect to use the third one as a social area.
There are also two toilet/shower portables, and our expectation is one will be for males and the other for females.
The Council did some tweaking of the designs of our new pavilion some months ago after the tenders came in over budget. However, we have been assured that the size has not altered, nor the functional areas, and that everything we pushed for is still in the plans.
                                    
                             Above: The redesigned pavilion plan - the front door - on the north side opening into the carpark.
We have also been assured that the works will not impact on our playing or training, and all the works areas are outside the boundaries of our two Ormond Park grounds.
Our Club will also continue to utilise our shipping container for storage.
So while it will be inconvenient to us for a what we expect to be part of this season and a good part of 2018/19, we expect that the end result will be worth it - a big, modern pavilion where we have the flexibility to hold good functions, and where we can be proud to showcase Ormond Park and the Moonee Valley Cricket Club.
Charlie Walker.
President, Moonee Valley Cricket Club.

Our Calendar of events: To see training sessions, events and other key activities, click this link --

     

    Main Club contact details:

* Charlie Walker - President 0411 705 381; 0409 237 543; 9370 1802
* Peter Golding -   Treasurer 0419 009 721
* Simon Thornton - Vice President 0417 570 779
* Peter Pickering - Junior Co-ordinator 0414 800 145  pjp@vicbar.com.au 
* Channa DeSilva - Director of Junior Cricket 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: January 4, 2018.
For more of our history, including our Premierships, click HERE