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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

Past players cook up a pre-Christmas treat

The rain on December 2 may have washed out the day's cricket at Ormond Park, but it didn't dampen the enthusiasm for the pre-Christmas function organised by the Moonee Valley Cricket Club Past & Present Players & Supporters group.
Led by John Talone, Dean Lawson and Tony Nilsson, the group put on an excellent meal and day of enjoyment at the clubrooms.
Moonee Valley greats: L-R Mick Harvey, Ian Sutherland and Betty and Rod McLeod.
It had been planned to coincide with Day 1 of the First Eleven's last home game before the Christmas break, but with the rain it wasn't to be.
Special thanks to Dean Lawson for the magnificent pulled pork and roast meats. More than two dozen people attended including 12 life members. We're planning the event as an annual occasion to coincide with the First Eleven's December home games.
***For more photos from the event, click HERE

Moonee Valley's first-up win in T20 turf

Moonee Valley recorded a strong victory in our opening match in the VTCA Twenty20 competition, beating Royal Park Brunswick on their home turf.
RPB are two grades higher than us in the VTCA this season, but we were in control all match in the December 5 opener.
At right: Our first-up winners: L-R. Back - Mitch Higgs, Sam Younghusband, Tain Piercy, Will Blair, Ruwan Jayaweera, Luke Brock and Brayden McGregor. Front - Suraj Weerasinghe, Jack Newman, Zac Nilsson and Luca Nimorakiotakis.
We saw a strong game from our "guest" player Will Blair, who plays with Premier club Northcote. Will is o stranger to Moonee Valley, as he played 90 junior games with us and is often found training in the Ormond Park nets.
Our bowlers stifled RPB to restrict them to 9/98 off their 20 overs, and Moonee Valley was always in control with the bat as we built up a score of 2/101 off 15.3.
Ruwan Jayaweera took a miserly 3/8 from his four overs, while Will Blair (2/18) and Mitch Higgs (2/17) were both impossible to get away off their four overs.
We only needed the four bats, and Sam Younghusband, Luke Brock, Luca Nimorakiotakis and Brayden McGregor all made double figures.
This is our first time in the VTCA T20 since 2019/20. We are also playing in the NWMCA Twenty20 competition this year - a comp we played since 2008, when we were one of the inaugural clubs.

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 : December 26, 2023.
For more of our history, including our Premierships, click HERE