Tanya & Tien - history-makers among 153 players

Tanya Intagliata and Tien Ha made history for the Moonee Valley Cricket Club on February 24 when they stepped out in the Seventh Eleven, playing against East Coburg.

It was the first time that two women had played for Moonee Valley seniors, and only the second time that a woman had represented the Club at senior level.

Club members can recall a niece of one of our players playing a game in the past, but don't remember a name or any other details.

Tien and Tanya were two of a record 153 players to take to the field in Moonee Valley's eight senior teams this season, and two among 51 debutants for the Club.

Tanya, who plays with the young men in our Under 16s and is the daughter of Club legend Mick Intagliata, has played more junior games than anyone else in our Club's history. Tien is the partner of vice-president Jim Polonidis.

Tien and Tanya had acted as substitute fielders for a game at Ormond Park earlier in the season, and had made a pact that if the chance arose they would make their debut together.

That chance arose in the final round of the season in One Day Division 2. Tanya and Tien weren't daunted by the occasion, and the team went on to record one of its best wins of the season.

Tien and Tanya will have their names in Wisden for reasons other than their personal stats - East Coburg's score of 103 was the lowest recorded by an opposition team playing against our Sevenths, and our 176 was our best-defended score.

The debuts of Tien and Tanya just underline the strength and commitment of our Club.

Week in, week out, we select 90 players to take to the field for Moonee Valley - 11 players in each of the first seven teams, and 13 in the Mighty Fighting Eighths.

And on the weekend of February 24/25, we selected 101 players - as the Sixths had an extra Sunday fixture to play the Round 12 game which was initially given to us as a walkover.

Unfortunately our second opponent for the match, Barkly St Uniting, also gave a last-minute walkover, and we had guys who were ready, willing and able to play for Moonee Valley who missed out on a match.

And this must be someting of a record as well - a match which was twice forfeited. Haig Amateurs gave a walkover to us on Feburary 3 and then pulled its team from the competition, and then MMVCA then redrew the last three rounds of the competition and reconstituted the match against the team which had the bye that weekend - Barkly St. The rematch was then forfeited by them!

If the match hadn't been forfeited, our number of Club debutants would have been even higher!

Cam Scott, who moved into West Brunswick just a week earlier, was picked to play in the team. Cam, a media and communications expert, is well familiar with the Moonee Valley Cricket Club. He did all the back-room organisation for Health Minister Bronwyn Pike to visit Ormond Park on October 1 to launch a key phase of the State Government's Go For Your Life campaign.

The visit was a big success, with plenty of our junior and senior players and parents in attendance, and featured on the Channel 10 news that night. 

26/2/07