Valley on tour at the Barooga Over-35s 
Moonee Valley again sent a team to the Barooga Over-35s cricket tournament this year, and conditions were again challenging for sport.
From the mid-40s temperatures for our inaugural team at the January 2014 tournament, we ventured up this year for torrential rains and one game played in an outfield covered by sheets of water.
The players did our Club proud, even if we didn't win any of our three games over the January 13-15 tourney.
Our Valley regulars in the team were Sean O'Kane (capt), Mark Gauci, Daniel Phillips, Adam Patchell, Dean Jukic, James Holt, Neil King, Allan Cumming, Charlie Walker and Shannon Hood. We topped off our squad with two mates of Daniel - Brian Furlong from the Donnybrook Cricket Club and Steve Smales from Romsey CC.
The tournament is played on excellent turf wickets. Our first game, at Barooga, was 40 overs. The second, at Cobram, was 30 overs a side and the third, at Tocumwal, was shortened to a Twenty20 so that we could complete our Barooga fixture from the Tuesday, which had been postponed at the lunch break due to the downpour.
Thanks again to Moonee Valley's current Lindsay Jones best clubman Sean O'Kane for organising the team, financing the entry fee and providing excellent hospitality in his home town.
Our team plays under the Moonee Valley name and wearing our club colors and logo, so the stats from the tournament go into our club records as official Moonee Valley games.
Above: Our Barooga team after the final match: L-R. Back - Neil King, Brian Furlong,
Mark Gauci, Adam Patchell, James Holt, Steve Smales and Daniel Phillips. Front - Dean
Jukic, Sean O'Kane, Allan Cumming and Charlie Walker.

Moonee Valley's 2015 Poker Night - it's on February 7

MVCC life member Joe Ansaldo has again organised a big poker night as a fundraiser for our Club. Tickets for the Saturday, February 7 night are $35, and include an initial allocation of playing chips.

Each Player will start off with $3000 in chips, with opportunities to buy in several times during the night. Finger food is supplied, with drinks available at standard prices.

Registration Times:

7:30-8pm, or pre-pay beforehand - be ready to play @ 8:15pm. Cash prizes  announced during the course of the night.

All players are asked to attend and to bring a friend or two to make this a good fundraiser for our Club.

We've had good attendance in past years from junior parents - so we're keen to get the word spread through the junior section again.  Enquiries: call Joe on 0404 878 264.

*****Copy off and hand around Joe's Flier for the night.

CHRISTMAS CHEER AT ORMOND PARK

There was action inside and outside the Ormond Park pavilion when our Club held its 2014 Christmas Party to mark the holiday break in the season.
The action inside comprised a well-stocked canteen, an even-better stocked Spud's Bar and some excellent food arranged by Dan Terzini.
And the action outside was the nailbiter played on the turf wicket by the Moonee Valley Fourths.

At right: Two warriors wind down
outside the Ormond Park pavilion
 after a hard weekend in the
middle - James Holt (left) and Kevin Gardiner.

Defending a total of 7/183, we took it down to the wire before Toorak-Prahran got its nose in front nine wickets down off the last over of the day.
And the Valley Sevenths had a nailbiter away from home, also going down in the last over - for 216 chasing a total of 218 posted by Royal Park Reds.
Senior and junior players, and parents, partners and supporters enjoyed the break-up.
Special thanks goes to Life Member Dan Terzini, who organised the raffle and the meal. Thanks also to Peter Golding, Peter Smith, Adele Walker and the others who helped prepare and serve up the food in a couple of separate shifts.
Thanks also to Simon Thornton and Adam Patchell for their excellent work in Spud's Bar, meeting the needs of the thirsty guests - especially the players who put on the entertainment in the Fourths and the Sevenths.
We had around two dozen prizes in the raffle, and the person who came away with the biggest smile was player Craig Pridham, who pocketed the $500 cash first prize.
The second cash prize of $250 went to past Second Eleven captain Daniel Phillips.
Thanks to the prize donors, including Phill King, Peter Smith, George Loh, Sandra and Alan Thomas and Matt Clare - our sponsor at the Reunion Bar.
For more photos from the Christmas Party, click on this link.

The Johnny and Joe Show - a memorable milestone match
Moonee Valley legends John Talone (left) and Joe Ansaldo (right) played their 300th games together on December 6, and it was fitting that they brought up their milestone at our Ormond Park home ground.

At right: Joe Ansaldo (left) and John Talone enter the field through an honor guard of past and present players for their 300th games.

They are both ornaments to the game and to our Club, and the milestone match against Sydenham Hillside in the North West Metropolitan Cricket Association's Barron Shield grade gave them a memorable opportunity to celebrate their milestone.

They're both Premiership players - Joe saluting for the first time only last season - and have made significant contributions to Moonee Valley both on and off the field.

John was Club Secretary for a record 14 seasons during our heyday, when the Valleys won flags at will, and is still contributing by running our Milo In2Cricket program to give youngsters their first step in our great sport of cricket.

Below right: John  Talone got his own personal banner for the match - holding it here with sons Luke (left) and Max and wife Jodie.

Joe is a past committee member, and famous as Riverboat Joe for his wonderful poker night fundraisers.

Only two other Valley players have reached the 300-game milestone - Darren "Spud" Nagle and Ian "Egbert" Denny.

We had a strong line-up of past and present players put their hands up for selection in the milestone match, so we had a hard time fitting everyone in.

We invited all past and present Moonee Valley players and supporters to come down and cheer on our legends in their milestone match, and weren't disappointed with the line-up.

Their Sixths teammates got with Joe and John in our changerooms along with the First Eleven players who were on the turf ground, and heard from Club legends Darren Nagle and Sandro Capocchi about their great contribution to Moonee Valley.

We also received plenty of messages of support to pass on to them, including from Club founder Ray Storey and 300-gamer Ian Denny.

The Sixths "did it" for the milestone players, rolling Sydenham Hillside for 108 in 33 overs. Joe Ansaldo took 1/34 off his seven overs, with several dropped catches harming his figures. John bowled one over for a miserly two runs.

John also had the honor of opening our innings with the great Mick Harvey, and carried his bat for an unbeaten 36 as we passed the score two wickets down after 17 overs. It was a fitting end to a memorable occasion.

**For more pictures from the remarkable day, click on this LINK.

 Main Club contact details:

* Charlie Walker - President 0409 237 543; 9370 1802
* Adam Patchell - Club Secretary 0407 552 141 
* Peter Golding - Club Treasurer 0419 009 721
* Simon Thornton - Vice President 0417 570 779
* Kevin Gardiner - Junior Co-ordinator 0417 536 896

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 16, 2015.

For more of our history, including our Premierships, click HERE