OUR AL JUST KEEPS ON COMING

Allan Cumming has become just the 15th player in Moonee Valley's history to play 250 games.
Our popular club treasurer has played just about everywhere across the club since first pulling on the whites as a junior parent in 2002 - and is showing no signs of slowing down.
At right: The team which celebrated Allan Cumming's 250th game with a win - playing at the Cobram showgrounds. L-R: Back - Leigh Adkins, Vaib Deshpande, Daniel Phillips, Amit Chaudhary, Sean O'Kane, Dean Lawson and scorer Brendan Rhodes. Front - Charlie Walker, Peter O'Kane, Allan Cumming, Tony Gleeson and Craig Pridham.
Allan reached his milestone at Barooga on January 11, playing in Moonee Valley's team in the Over 35s tournament - a competition he has played in for most of the past 10 years. Al was the organisational guru behind our entry in the Barooga tournament this time around.
A wicketkeeper and aggressive bat, Al has played and captained across the grades, including leading the Fifths in the 2022/23 season and captaining our Fourths into turf finals in a previous season.
Congratulations Allan on a wonderful career - and it's not over yet!


Valleys win the Barooga title - our 10th year

Moonee Valley celebrated its 10th year at the Barooga Over 35s cricket competition by winning the tournament - a feat we also achieved in 2019.
The Valley was represented by a group of past and present players and we won all three of our games - all played on excellent turf wickets for the January 8-11 tournament.
At left: Our team for the big win in Round 1: L-R. Back - Vaib Deshpande, Amit Chaudhary, Mark Gauci, Brendan Rhodes, Daniel Phillips and Dean Lawson. Front - Sean O'Kane, Allan Cumming, Peter O'Kane, Tony Gleeson and Charlie Walker.
We had a big win in our first match - the feature game under lights at the Barooga No. 1 oval on the Tuesday, compiling an imposing 3/304 from our 40 overs batting first before rolling the opposition for just 174.
Our next matches were day games at Barooga and Cobram and we also finished them strongly.
At right: Moonee Valley's Brendan "Jonty" Rhodes (left) receives the Barooga trophy and a signed bat from organiser Tony Tranter.
Another team, Castle Hill also won three games, but Moonee Valley took out the trophy due to a superior net run rate.
Our Vaib Deshpande won the batting award for the trophy, batting in all three games for 157 runs without losing his wicket.
Our squad was Mark Gauci, Allan Cumming, Daniel Phillips, Vaib Deshpande, Amit Chaudhary, Sean O'Kane, Peter O'Kane, Craig Pridham, Dean Lawson, Tony Gleeson, Brendan Rhodes, Charlie Walker and Leigh Adkins - representing six MVCC Life Members and eight Premiership players.
Mark Gauci sat out the final game of our fixture due to general soreness - the only match he has missed in our 10 years at Barooga.
As well as Vaib's award, our star performers with the bat were Amit Chaudary with 105 runs @ 105, Sean O'Kane with 70 @ 70 and Peter O'Kane with 64 @ 64.
Amit and Shaun each took 5 wickets - Amit at 7.8 and Sean at 8.4, while Dean Lawson took four catches behind the stumps in our third game.



MARK GAUCI: 400 GREAT GAMES FOR THE VALLEY

Club legend Mark Gauci became the first Moonee Valley player to 400 games when he took to the field in our Second Eleven on December 16, and his teammates honored him with a big win.
Our Seconds and our Fifths on the adjoining oval honored the Gauch with a guard of honor as he walked out to open the innings.
He made 14 in his typical cavalier style as we made 6/196 from our 36 overs, and bowled a couple of overs as we bundled East Coburg out for 98.

At left: Club immortal Mark Gauci walks through an honor guard of teammates and clubmates as he sets off to open the innings in his 400th game.
As well as the teammates, Gauch was joined by family and clubmates who watched the match and celebrated with him well into the night.
Ian Denny delivered a moving speech in the rooms before the game, and Gauch gave a heart-felt and warm response on his life and times at Moonee Valley.
The gathering across the day and evening included 18 Moonee Valley Life Members who came to honor Mark Gauci - probably our most influential person of the 21st century with his massive impact on our club, which has included roles as First Eleven premiership captain, coach, vice-president, chairman of selectors and confidante to so many players.
Mark's time as First Eleven captain included a Premiership in 2009/10, breaking a decade-long drought of senior flags at any level.
He was honored with Life Membership in 2013/14 and was the recipient of our greatest honor, the Lindsay Jones Best Clubman award in 2018/19.
Gauch was Club Champion in 2005/06 and has won our best player award for all other grades four times, including in 2018/19, the year is was renamed the Sean O'Kane Award to acknowledge one of his best mates.
He's scored more than 9000 runs - the second-highest in our 53 year history and at season start had 312 wickets - 12th-highest at the club.
Gauch, who started his career at Moonee Valley in 1998/99, has won batting awards in the Seconds and the Fourths and a bowling award in the Thirds.
He's scored 13 centuries, equal with the great Warwick Nolan, and a high score of 155.
Gauch has been selected in the Moonee Valley Wisden Team of the Year five times and has also been one of our Wisden Players of the Year five times.
Gauch also led from the front with the introduction of the new concept of Twenty20 earlier this century, and played in both our T20 Competition premierships. He has a high score of 150 in the format. He has played 36 games - second-most of all time, and is our leading run-scorer and second-highest wicket taker.
He's a friend to just about everyone at Moonee Valley and a credit to our great club. Here's a video of the guard of honor  .
*For more pictures from the day, click  HERE  and  HERE






Charlie chalks up a milestone

It might have taken 21 seasons, but Moonee Valley President Graeme "Charlie" Walker has finally ticked over 150 games.
A specialist at being the last man picked in the lowest team and a designated No. 12 bat/bowling at 13th change Charlie hasn't exactly set the records tumbling over his career.
You're more likely to find him off the field than on the field - scoring for the Firsts, and ensuring that the admin and processes are in place to give our onfield teams the best support and the best chance each week.
But the first week back after the Christmas break was Charlie's chance to grab some of the spotlight. Captained for the day by Allan Cumming, the Fifths, playing at home, chased down a solid target set by East Coburg and won the January 6 match in Charlie's honor.
Above: Charlie Walker walks through the guard of honor of his clubmates from the Fifths and the Seconds.
He brought his own cheer squad of "Charlie's Angels" led by wife Adele - who was celebrating a double milestone as the match day was also her 69th birthday.
We wish them both many more - games for Charlie and birthdays for Adele.
***For more pictures, click HERE


Senior training - Tuesday/Thursday

Senior training is held on Tuesday and Thursday evenings, starting 6pm.
Moonee Valley is open to new senior and junior players as the season progresses.
Our senior training sessions are at our home ground at Ormond Park, Pattison St, Moonee Ponds.
We field men's teams on both turf and hard wicket, and both Saturday and Sunday grades.
Our premiership-winning women's cricket team plays in a Twenty20 competition on Sundays.
We have juniors at Under 16, Under 14, Under 12 and Under 10 level, and these teams play Friday evenings.
Anyone interested in playing for Moonee Valley - seniors, juniors or our women's team - can phone or text Coach Mark Gauci on 0457 778 335 , Junior Co-ordinator Paul Sevenson on 0407 556 950 or President Charlie Walker on  0411 705 381.
* Players now have to self-register through a new cricket registration system, PlayHQ. Here is the link to get into the system. Only register for one association - not all the associations we play in.  

Buy club clothing, pay your membership, buy tickets to club functions - do it all at www.mooneevalleycricketstore.com.au

Junior Registration - link here - https://play.cricket.com.au/club/moonee-valley-cricket-club/147223ea-86d8-eb11-a7ad-2818780da0cc

     Main Club contact details:

* Charlie Walker - President 0411 705 381; 9370 1802
* Allan Cumming - Treasurer 0438 380 990
* Brendan "Jonty" Rhodes - Secretary 0419 491 174
* Mark Gauci - Vice President 0457 778 335 
* Paul Sevenson - Junior Co-ordinator - 0407 556 950   

Emails: mooneevalleycricket@gmail.com
        charlie.walker@optusnet.com.au 

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

Last updated : January 13, 2024.
For more of our history, including our Premierships, click HERE