Valleys go Ten out of Ten!

Moonee Valley made its own piece of history on October 19 when an unprecedented 10th Eleven took to the field.

Fresh from a win by forfeit in the first round of the North West Cricket Association One Day Red grade, our Tenths – Moonee Valley White – found itself in a derby with our Ninths – Moonee Valley Black.

The squads are shown here: L-R: Standing - Andrew Pegg, Joe Van Loon, Chris Sutherland, Shaun Rayment,
Steve Malone, Nick Taylor, Wayne Nicol, David Hutchison, Phil Coote, Lachlan Perussich, Mick Intagliata,
Con Koulouris, Luke Malone, Glenn Perussich, Russell Stubbs, John Martiniello, Kevin Memery.
Front - Shane Comino, Paul Comino, Chris Micallef, Joe Carroll, Allan Cumming, Beau Velona, Lalith
Buddhadasa, Alex Coote, Nathan Koulouris, Benn Martiniello, Grant Stubbs and Thomas Memery.

The match was played at Fairbairn Park – we’ve run out of Saturday and Sunday space at Ormond Park and Debney Park – and we got a good crowd of spectators who came down to see the action.

We’ve promoted our Tenths as a team where fathers and sons can play together, and we put together an excellent squad accordingly for their first hitout in their whites.

Watching the action are MVCC players (L-R) Greg Nicol, Tanya Intagliata, Joe Ansaldo, Firsts captain Mark Gauci, Wayne McDonald, Pat Taylor and Peter Golding.

The teams were:

Moonee Valley White: John Martiniello (captain), Benn Martiniello, Glenn & Lachlan Perussich, Phil and Alex Coote, Con and Nathan Koulouris, Russell and Grant Stubbs, Wayne Nicol, Mick Intagliata and Shane Comino.

Moonee Valley Black: Paul Comino (captain), Joe Carroll, Joe Van Loon, David Hutchison, Andrew Pegg, Nick Taylor, Chris Sutherland, Beau Velona, Allan Cumming, Shaun Rayment, Chris Micallef, Lalith Buddhadasa and Peter Gardiner.

The sides were a mix of old and new, young and more mature. Peter Gardiner and Mick Intagliata are legends of the Club. The match was PG’s 243rd for Moonee Valley, while Mick donned the whites for the first time in a decade to bring up game 183 for the club.

There were lots of juniors – Benn Martiniello, Lachlan Perussich, Alex Coote, Nathan Koulouris, Russell Stubbs, Beau Velona and Lalith Buddhadasa.

As well as our dads, we had new players in Andrew Pegg, Nick Taylor, Chris Sutherland and Chris Micallef.

Paul Comino won the toss and batted, and Allan Cumming (16) and Joe Carroll (70) put on 76 for the first wicket. Joe Van Loon made 50, as Black got to 9/193 off its 35 overs. Con Koulouris 3/9, Wayne Nicol 2/20 and Glenn Perussich 2/24 were among the wickets.

Again there was a bit of falling away, but Wayne Nicol (23) and acting skipper John Martiniello (17) got the Whites up there with a chance.

Joe Van Loon and Chris Sutherland each took two wickets, and three runouts did not help the White team’s cause.

The crowd of spectators included First Eleven captain Mark Gauci, Chairman of Selectors Mark Cini, President Charlie Walker and a good selection of other players from Moonee Valley – including the injured Peter Golding, who dropped by for half an hour while trying to fix up his hamstring injury with an extended bike ride.

Any Club which can put 10 senior teams on the ground – plus our two women’s teams – has to be doing something right in the community.