Slick Shick gets his trick

Moonee Valley stalwart Bob Sciacchitano achieved a hat-trick on January 21, playing at home at Ormond Park in the Sevenths.

Bob, a life member, brought up the achievement in his 249th game with the Club, against Barkly Street United.

He finished the game with 4/28, but unfortunately it wasn't enough to get the Sevenths over the line.

Bob got the hat-trick in his sixth over. The first ball went for a single, then Bob got a wicket, caught by Shaun Rayment. The next wicket fell to a catch from Dean Lawson, then there was some controversy off the next ball, when keeper Peter Fenaughty took a catch behind off the Barkly Street captain. It was initially given not out, but then the umpires conferred and the catch was upheld.

Bob brought up his 150th wicket earlier in the season - not a bad effort, considering he has played a fair part of his career as a wicketkeeper.

It shows there's life in the old legs yet!

And in the First Eleven, Craig Pridham took his best Valley figures of 7/11 as we routed Aberfeldie Park for 51 in their second dig.

As former Valleys coach Tony Gleeson opined, it was probably the best-ever haul of unassisted wickets by anyone in the history of our Club. But we wouldn't know unless we pored over the old books.

The haul comprised three LBWs, three wickets out bowled and a caught-and-bowled.

Craig's effort gave him nine wickets for the match, and followed on from the 5/35 taken by second-gamer Nasir Ahmed in the first innings.

Round 8 was a good round for our turf teams, with the Thirds winning outright over Avondale Heights - Dean Jukic taking 6/13.

The Fifths completed a good win over Keilor, with Darren Nagle making 85.

The Seconds went down, but were twice in with a chance - the first time when we had Aberfeldie Park 6/65 but were unable to get the next wicket, eventually being passed by 15 runs - and the second when we went in blazing and set a competitive declaration, failing to get an outright by just three wickets.