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Front Page - up to March 26, 2023

Go Fourths, and Multiply (your flags)!

Moonee Valley Fourths fought back strongly from a precarious position to win the 2022/23 Mercantile C Sunday Premiership on March 19.
The Premiership winning Fourths with their flag and shield. L-R. Back - Maks Rahman, Jim Polonidis, Manu Singh and Vinnie Singh. Front - Sunny Singh, Mitch Britton, Jay Patel, Cullan Morrissy, Sam Carbone, Chand Shrestha, Sagar Bhatia and Prashant Hirani. Jay Patel and Vinnie Singh put up a strong rearguard action after we slumped to 8/65 batting first. Their 79-run ninth-wicket partnership helped us set a competitive target of 154, and Jay was unlucky to miss his 50. It was our best ninth wicket partnership in any grade this season - and came at the right time.
Despite a few flutters Power House was unable to reach our target.
At right: The Premiership winning Fourths with their flag and shield. L-R. Back - Maks Rahman, Jim Polonidis, Manu Singh and Vinnie Singh. Front - Sunny Singh, Mitch Britton, Jay Patel, Cullan Morrissy, Sam Carbone, Chand Shrestha, Sagar Bhatia and Prashant Hirani.
The chief destroyer was Jay Patel with 6/22 – bringing up his 50^th wicket for Moonee Valley in the process. Prashant Hirani claimed the other four wickets.
The match was played at Brens Oval in Parkville. Our Fourths had finished top of the ladder and earned a home final, but Ormond Park was occupied by our Firsts Grand Final.
It was two Premierships in two seasons for skipper Manu Singh – he led our Fourths to a flag in 2020/21, then had a year off due to work commitments. But he was back on deck this season, and resumed where he left off.
It was premiership No. 5 for club legend Jim Polonidis, and No. 4 for Sam Carbone.
**Click HERE for more Premiership photos.

Above: Members of our greatest-ever team: L-R Greg Meyers, Terry Nagle, Bill Nagel, Ian Denny, captain Greg Peters, Amit Chaudhary, Glen
Courts, Mick Harvey, Warwick Nolan, Arosha Perera and Darren Nagle.

MOONEE VALLEY - BACK TO THE BEGINNING

Where we’ve come from over the past 50 years

More than 140 past and current players, partners and supporters gathered at our Ormond Park pavilion on February 25 for our Golden Jubilee celebration.
We honored Teams of the Decade for each of our five decades, and topped it off with a Team of the 50 Years to celebrate Moonee Valley’s greatest players.
Where it all began: From our first decade - the Team of the 70s. L-R: Kevin Gardiner representing his late brother Peter; John Lopes, Neil Henderson, Rod McLeod, Ray Storey, Mick Harvey, Bill Nagel and Gary Irons. And the proceedings also saw the elevation of Moonee Valley Cricket Club’s first official Legend – the co-founder of our great club, Ray Storey.
Incredibly, six of the men who played with Ray in the 1970s and who made our first Team of the Decade were there to celebrate the occasion with him, as Ray gave a heart-felt response to the honor on behalf of wife Heather and himself.
We had past players from far and wide come to the function – many seeing our magnificent pavilion for the first time.
At right: Where it all began: From our first decade - the Team of the 70s. L-R: Kevin Gardiner representing his late brother Peter; John Lopes, Neil Henderson, Rod McLeod, Ray Storey, Mick Harvey, Bill Nagel and Gary Irons.
There was plenty of fond reminiscing about the old Dungeon – the first rooms for the club, and some not-so-fond remembrances of the glass-fronted rooms which replaced it, which were never fit for purpose.
Graeme Cornwill came across from Western Australia, and Shiwantha Kumara came up from Warrnambool for the night.
Our pavilion looked a treat, decked out under the watchful eye of Agatha Jukic, while the past players group played a big role in the organisation of the function and the catering. It had been three years in the planning – postponed across the two previous years because of the coronavirus pandemic – and the organising committee had worked tirelessly over the past few months to turn the celebration into reality.
Sandro Capocchi took control of the catering and engaged a company which provided an excellent meal, and Kevin Gardiner helped pull together as much memorabilia as he could. Sandro also did a masterful job as Master of Ceremonies, and kept the night ticking over.
The night saw 30 of our 37 Life Members in attendance – the biggest single gathering of LMs ever.
We’ve only had 10 Presidents across our 52-year history, and all eight living Presidents were at the celebration.
Our magnificent Team of the 50 Years, in batting order, is: Michael Harvey, Glen Courts, Warwick Nolan, Arosha Perera, Robert Lamberti, Greg Peters (capt), Ian Denny, Bill Nagel, Darren Nagle, Greg Meyers (wk), Terry Nagle. Amit Chaudhary 12^th.
****For more photos and detail from the night, click HERE

Clearing up misinformation on our Seconds appeal
The VTCA has chosen to send an email to members of the Moonee Valley Cricket Club executive and to other parties after a private phone conversation between our President Charlie Walker (right) and the VTCA president Zoran Havranek on March 16.
Charlie says his position on our protest in the Second Eleven semi final v Gellibrand was misrepresented in the document, and the only recourse is to make public the details of our expanded appeal - which outlines our concerns over lack of due process and rules being ignored. Despite the evidence, our protest was not upheld. Our document is attached here .

A NIGHT TO SHINE FOR OUR JUNIOR STARS
Moonee Valley’s stars of the future – and some who have already arrived – were celebrated at our Junior Presentation Night at the Ormond Park pavilion on March 15.
Under 16s captain Zac Nilsson won the Sherer Family Trophy as Junior Club Champion – winning for the second season in a row.
At left: Trophies for our Under 16s: L-R: Back - Assistant Coach Tom Morrissy, Miles Needham, Silas Bell, Cullan Morrissy, Harper Eason, Jordy Walsh, coach Wasim Abbas, Hayagreev Bashyam and scorer Charlie Walker. Front - Mark Lubansky, Zac Nilsson, Eden Del Citto.
And Under 10s prodigy Augustus Rogers received a trophy for a feat only achieved once before in our 52-year history – a double hat-trick.
Our only other player to get a double hat-trick is Jesse Felle, who took his for the Thirds in 2016/17. And there’s a further connection to our juniors, as Jesse came all the way through our junior ranks.
MVCC Junior Co-ordinator Paul Simon noted that all our eligible junior teams made finals this season (Under 10s do not play finals) and every senior team also saw finals action – many of them including either current junior players or past juniors.
So our junior program is in good hands.
***For more pictures and full details of the trophy winners, click HERE

Our MVP winners take to the Field

Our worthy winners from our Women's Premiership team: Coach Darren Nagle with MVP Tara Newman (left) and fielding award winner Sarah Fenn.

Moonee Valley’s annual Most Valuable Player/Fieldlow vote count was held on March 11.
Club Treasurer Peter Golding conducted the count for each senior grade, and much of the polling was close and contested.
At left: Our worthy winners from our Women's Premiership team: Coach Darren Nagle with MVP Tara Newman (left) and fielding award winner Sarah Fenn.
Pizzas and beer was the fare for the night, as we recovered from the intensity of our Semi Final struggles in the Firsts, Seconds and Fourths.
Our Most Valuable Player winners were Salman Afridi (Firsts), Tara Newman (Women), Jason Walsh (Seconds), Chand Shrestha (Fourths), Dean Jukic (Fifths) and David Lubansky (Sixths).
Our fielding award winners were Jack Newman/Sam Younghusband (Firsts), Sarah Fenn (Women), Zac Nilsson (Seconds), Chand Shrestha (Fourths), Eamon O’Toole (Fifths) and David Lubansky (Sixths).
***For the full voting in each grade and more pictures, click HERE .

THREE-PEAT FOR THE VALLEY GIRLS

Moonee Valley's Women' team completed a Hawthorn-like feat when they won their third premiership in a row. Going in to the March 5 game as the underdogs after finishing fourth, we won the match that counts, 3/183 to Preston Druids 4/172. Our girls knocked off the top team in the semi and travelled to Preston to play Druids.
At left: Our Premiership-winning women's team: L-R. Back - Sandra Verschoor, Sridevi Thoppe, scorer Charlie Walker, Sarah Fenn, Jane Greenshields, Tara Newman, coach Darren Nagle. Front - Katherine Baker, Kelsie Armstrong, Sarah Gooden and Yasmin King.
In all three flags we’ve gone in as the underdogs and batted first. They have all been nail-biters, but we’ve held our nerve and won. Interestingly, today’s 11-run margin was the biggest in the three deciders.
So it’s obvious that our girls stand up under pressure. Three of our players – captain Tara Newman, Kelsie Armstrong and Yasmin King – have played in all three premierships.
After winning our first two flags in the NWMCA Women’s Division 5, we were promoted to Division 3 this season – and under coach Darren “Spud” Nagle had the determination to improve and develop. And we sure did! Congratulations girls – we’re proud of you.

Moonee Valley cricket - recruiting now

Moonee Valley is open to new senior and junior players leading in to 2023/24, and for the 2023 winter season.
We field men's teams on both turf and hard wicket, and both Saturday and Sunday grades, and Winter Comp on Saturdays.
Our 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 President Charlie Walker on 0411 705 381.

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
* Peter Golding - Treasurer 0419 009 721
* Michael Ozbun - Secretary 0448 548 860
* Mark Gauci - Vice President 0457 778 335
* Paul Simon - Junior Co-ordinator - 0400 946 117 mooneev@club.cricketvictoria.com.au

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 24, 2023.
For more of our history, including our Premierships, click HERE