Moonee Valley - Back to the beginning

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.
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.
Above: 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