Obituary for Peter Gardiner

 PG’s career in Black and White

It is with great sadness that the Moonee Valley Cricket Club advises of the passing of our life member, Peter ‘PG’ Gardiner.

He died at home on October 9. 

Peter joined our Club in the early days after its formation in the 1971/72 season, and has been an enduring presence around Ormond Park ever since. 

A four-time premiership player, PG played 244 games for Moonee Valley – the eighth-most in our Club’s history. 

He took 323 wickets – the fifth-highest tally – and was no slouch with the bat, scoring 2593 runs – 25^th on our all-time list. 

He was a true all-rounder. 

PG had the pride and pleasure at this year’s Presentation Night of seeing his younger brother Kevin inducted as a Life Member of our Club, and they became the first brothers to achieve that honor.
PG at far left is pictured here at our 2013 Presentation Night with fellow life members Jim McKenzie (centre) and Club co-founder Ray Storey. 

Peter acted in a junior co-ordinator role for a season in the early years after Moonee Valley formed its junior section in 1996, and had the honor of being stand-in coach when the Under 12 team coached all year by Kevin won its premiership in 2005/06. 

Peter was proud of Kevin’s contribution to our Club, and also proud that brother David played a handful of games. He was exceptionally proud that Kevin and Virginia’s sons Terry, John and Leo played their junior cricket careers at Moonee Valley and also experienced senior cricket with our Club. 

PG in recent years has devoted most of his attention and energy to the Moonee Valley Bowls Club, but still always found the time to call over at the cricket pavilion and socialise with our players – both the older hands that he’d played with, and the newer recruits. 

He was one of the first Moonee Valley members to welcome Rex Bennett back to our Club upon his reappointment as coach for this season, and to congratulate our committee on its wise choice in the selection. 

Peter is the first of our 22 Life Members to pull stumps. It’s perhaps fitting that he played an important role in organising the wake and commemorative gathering earlier this year for our pioneer Ken McLeod, who was a member of Moonee Valley’s first-ever team to take the field in 1971. Peter was one of the few members still regularly around the Club to have played with Ken. 

Ken was the first member of our first-ever team to pass on, and now PG is our first life member to do so. 

PG was a keen student of the history of the Moonee Valley Cricket Club, and of the importance of recording and preserving it. 

When Moonee Valley won both the First and Second Eleven flags in 2009/10, Peter was quick to congratulate coach/Seconds captain Lou Raffaele and point out that he was handing over the mantle as the most recent Second Eleven premiership winner. PG skippered the Twos to the flag in 1983/84. 

Peter skippered the Twos in the 1977/78 and 1983/84 Premierships. He played in the Firsts flag in 1978/79 and the Fourths flag in 1984/85. 

As recently as this pre-season he was considering the practicality and feasibility of playing half a dozen matches in the one-day grades to reach the 250-game milestone. And he was hatching a plan to create a Life Members Club to enable the esteemed and revered members from our past to come together in a convivial setting and support the present-day heroes. 

Peter won the Second Eleven bowling award three years in a row from 1981/82. He won the Fourth Eleven batting award in 1987/88 and the bowling award in 1990/91 and 1993/94.

It’s a Grand Old Flag!