Peter Golding's golden moment

Above: Peter Golding and his milestone team: L-R Sunil Bhandari, Daniel Phillips, Matthew Esmore, Sohail Hussain, Domenic Gibaldi, Dean Jukic, Peter Golding, Ian Denny, Joshua Norsetter, Stephen Esmore and Sagar Bhatia.
Thirds captain Peter Golding has joined a select group at Moonee Valley, bringing up his 200^th game on January 19.

Peter has been an integral part of Moonee Valley since 2007/08, when we lured him out of retirement with a call to junior parents for conscripts to bolster our one-day teams. Son Sam was playing juniors at the time, and Peter thought he might give it a go. He hasn’t looked back.

Peter’s one of our finest glovemen, having won our Wicketkeeper of the Year award four times since 2012/13.

He’s also made a telling contribution off the field, as our treasurer for the past six years and as secretary for four years before that.

Peter’s played everywhere from the First Eleven down, and is a two-time Premiership keeper – in the Seconds flags in 2009/10 and 2014/15.

He’s a dour and gritty batsman, and has been known to offer advice to the opposition fielders and bowlers as they try in vain to blast him out. Peter’s happy to play the waiting game at the crease, and has time and again frustrated the opposition as he accumulates a total against all odds.

Peter’s 200^th game will elevate him to Life Membership at the end of this season, and it was fitting that his milestone game was played with two revered Life Members – Ian Denny and Dean Jukic – in the team.

There’s nothing much at Ormond Park that Pete doesn’t know about – he’s a regular down there with his morning walks with his two dogs, wearing his familiar bucket hat. If you want a pitch report on Saturday morning, phone Peter – he’s invariably down there with the dogs, or has already had an inspection.