It's a Grand Old Flag for the Valley Sixths 

The Premiers: Moonee Valley Sixths L-R: Back - scorer Peter Smith, Pat Taylor, Jesse Felle, Joe Ansaldo, Michael Cumbo, Murray Walker and Shaun Rayment. Front - 12th man Grahame McCulloch, Sam Carbone, Dino Sapuppo, captain Danny Terzini, Mark Cini and Alex Gorham. PICTURE: ROD GORHAM

Moonee Valley Sixths played a heart-stopper over the March 15/16 weekend, but it just made it sweeter when Pat Taylor hit the winning runs to deliver us the 2013/14 Ralph Barron Shield premiership.
Craigieburn batted first and set us a challenge, after we had them in trouble early. But we restricted them to 170 on the back of Murray Walker's second successive five-wicket haul in the finals, and the race was on.
We lost wickets with enough frequency to leave Craigieburn thinking it was always in the hunt, and when we lost our seventh wicket to a dodgy caught-behind decision we still had a 42-run deficit.
But Jesse Felle opened his shoulders and Pat Taylor supported him, and we came home with a rattle to secure the flag.
It's the first time we have won a flag with our Sixth Eleven, playing in the North West Metropolitan Cricket Association.
And it was a first-time experience of a senior Valley premiership for the whole Eleven. Sam Carbone had previously won a flag with Buckley Park and Alex Gorham had won a premiership with the Valley Under 14s, but for the rest of our guys it was a new experience.
Our players had 1425 games of cricket for Moonee Valley without a premiership to show for it - until now!
The drought was led by Joe Ansaldo, who was playing his 291st game in the Grand Final, and skipper Danny Terzini with 248.
But they've all got medals around their necks now - and we intend ensuring that the drought turns into a deluge in years to come!
The Valley Boys are here to stay, the Valley boys are here to stay!

**For more PICTURES and words from the flag win, click HERE.

Moonee Valley's dress rehearsal
When our guys haven't got cricket to occupy themselves on the weekend - watch out!
Moonee Valley players whose seasons had finished the previous week congregated at Ormond Park over the Labor Day long weekend to watch and cheer on their team-mates.
But they were no ordinary spectators. Fancy dress got to them, and we had some weird and wonderful characters frequenting the clubrooms and scaring the children of the opposition teams.
Among them were our UK import Kris Garland dressed as Mitchell Johnson, and Firsts skipper Matt Thomas dressed as the Pom we love to hate, Kevin Pietersen. But it was all in good fun, and the guys certainly cheered on the Sixths to a Grand Final berth, and gave good voice to the Fifths as they wrapped up another win to go into the finals on top of the ladder.
Above: Just like the Village People - only worse! Moonee Valley players whose season had finished got together at Ormond Park on the long weekend, as the Sixths played their way into a grand final. L-R Dan Comande, Kris Garland as 'Mitchell Johnson', Steven Ward, Bede Gannon (front), Matt Thomas as 'Kevin Pietersen', Jake de Niese, Ben Thomas as 'Bede Gannon' and Michael Ozbun.

Our MVP night action
The Moonee Valley Most Valuable Player vote count was held at the Reunion Bar in Ascot Vale on Sunday, March 9. and our Valley boys turned out in force.

It was a noisy and racous count, as we were celebrating a good win by the Sixths to go into their Grand Final, and commiserating with our Fourths, who couldn't getover the line.


*Voting details and more info and pictures to come.... 

MOONEE VALLEY COACHING JOB NOW BEING ADVERTISED
Moonee Valley Cricket Club is now advertising for the role of senior coach for the 2014/15 season.
Our bylaws require the coach position to be advertised each season.
Applications close on March 20.
Our 2013/14 senior coach, Rex Bennett, has advised the Committee that he intends to renominate for the position.
For the position description and details, click HERE.  

100 games is a Walk in the park
Congratulations to Murray Walker for playing his 100th senior game for Moonee Valley.
Playing in the Sixths on February 15, Murray took 3/34 as Moonee Valley rolled County West just four wickets down, taking over from them as top of the ladder.
Murray's now the eighth player to come through our junior program and play 100 senior games.
He's also taken 135 wickets and made 950 runs.
Murray was a co-captain in our Under 16s and also had the honor of captaining our Sevenths in its first-ever game during our expansion phase.
He was the inaugural winner of our junior Chris Ayers Trophy for best player in the Under 16s, named after the parent who had the foresight to start our junior program in 1996.
Murray also won the Terry Scott Medal for best junior umpire, having umpired junior matches for three seasons.
He missed two seasons while living in Canberra, and his availability for matches is still a bit iffy at the moment due to weekend work commitments.
But Murray's a hard trainer - when he comes down to training - and so congratulations on your milestone, Muz!

Picture: A Walk in the park - Murray Walker at Ormond Park for his 100th
senior game, with captain Dan Terzini and team-mate Jesse Felle behind him.

200 up - Gauch reaches the magical Mark

One of Moonee Valley Cricket Club's true leaders, Mark Gauci, joined rarified company when he played his 200th Club game on February 9.
Only 16 other players in the 42-year history of our Club have reached the milestone before him, and four of them were in the Fifth Eleven with him when he played the landmark match - which Moonee Valley won easily to hold our spot on the top of the Mercantile Sunday one-day ladder.
The milestone ensures that Mark will be inducted as a Life Member at the end of this season - and to see him join that elite company were no fewer than 12 Life Members either playing or watching his milestone game during the course of the afternoon.
Gauch ensured it was a milestone match by hitting a whirlwind 45 - one single, one two and the rest in fours and sixes - before he was curiously adjusted LBW to a shot that had almost the full face of the bat. Fittingly, he took a catch to snare the last wicket and finish off the game.
Mark Gauci is a true leader of our Club, and captained our most recent First Eleven premiership, in 2009/10. He captained our Firsts for eight seasons before stepping down as skipper at the start of 2013/14. He's held his place in the Ones though, but played Fifths this round to help manage a niggling hamstring injury.
He told of things to come almost 10 years ago when asked about his future: "I love the game and the club I play for. I will play 200 games or more - trust me!" How true!
Mark has made more than 4000 runs, is approaching 150 wickets and was our first play to hit a ton in each of our top four grades.
He's a three-time Moonee Valley Wisden Cricketer of the Year, and in 2010/11 was captain of our Moonee Valley Team of the Year.
Above: The victorious team to bring home the bacon in Mark Gauci's 200th game. L-R: Sandro Capocchi, James Holt, Lou Raffaele, Mark Gauci, Michael Harvey, Craig Pridham, Sean O'Kane, Darren Nagle, Ian Denny and Daniel Phillips. Front: Luke Brock and Jack Newman.
To see a photo of Mark celebrating with clubmates in the rooms at the end of the match, click HERE.

 Main Club contact details:

Charlie Walker - President 0409 237 543; 9370 1802
Peter Golding - Club Secretary 0419 009 721
Simon Thornton - Vice President 0417 570 779

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 17, 2014.

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