Women - our first win

Moonee Valley racked up its inaugural first win in women’s cricket in a big first week for the Valleys in the 2008/09 season, when our White team took the first points of the season.
Four of our five teams which took the park on the October 4 & 5 weekend recorded strong wins, which carries great promise for the season ahead.
The winning team is shown above: (L-R) Back - team manager Danny Terzini, Bec Fitzgerald,
Tanya Intagliata, Jan Moore, Nicole McLachlan, coach Tony Gleeson. Front: Sharon Nicol,
Carolyn Tan, Clare Ardern and captain Sam Marr.
Our Moonee Valley White women’s team ventured up to Campbellfield on the Sunday, while our Moonee Valley Black team was at home at Ormond Park hosting Darebin.
Our White team included a number of our new recruits, and were up against a new VWCA team in Campbellfield – which is a representative team for the North West Cricket Association.
Led by captain Sam Marr, who came to Moonee Valley from higher grade club Essendon Maribyrnong Park, we restricted Campbellfield to 125, with the wickets shared around.
We chased down the total in 19 overs for the loss of just three wickets, with Sam Marr top-scoring with 45 not out.
Other encouraging performances came from Clare Ardern both as wicketkeeper and opening bat, and Tanya Intagliata with a couple of wickets and 18 runs.
Our Black team’s performance was a major improvement on our showing against Darebin – one of the power teams in the grade – last season.
We batted out 35 overs for our 70 runs, with opener Kim Johnston absorbing 22 overs to set the base for an increased run rate later in the innings.
Darebin chased down the total without losing a wicket. But it was a vastly improved performance on Round 14 last season, when Darebin bundled us out for 22 in around 10 overs.
Our three men’s teams which took to the field over the weekend also did well.
With the Firsts, Seconds and Thirds not able to get on the turf due to weather, we took the opportunity to give some of our players who’ve put in a solid pre-season a hit on matting.
Our Sixths was moved up two grades after making the finals in 2007/08, and came up against Kealba-Green Gully, also promoting two grades after winning the Premiership in our Division last season.
Moonee Valley showed its class by winning comfortably, with new player Kane Harding hitting 43 and Mark Madden taking three wickets.
Our Fourths were down at Maribyrnong Park, and posted 6/306 on the back of 72 runs from Matt Thomas, 54 from Josh Maginness, including two sixes, and a whirlwind middle-order 71 from Sean O’Kane off just 10 overs.
Maribyrnong Park made a game chase of it, getting to 8/250, but Bede Gannon put the stops on with 4/24.
And our Fifths played at home at Ormond Park, restricting St Mary’s to 170 from their 40 overs, with Jim Polonidis taking three wickets.
Coach Lou Raffaele withstood some unsportsman-like behaviour from the sidelines to hit 86 as an opening bat, while Jim Polonidis made a chanceless 81 not out as we ran down the total for the loss of two wickets in just 29 overs.
All in all, a good weekend for the Valleys.
Shown above are members of our two women's teams for 2008/09: (L-R) - Back - team manager Danny Terzini, Sam Lawson, Jenny O'Brien, Bec Fitzgerald, Adele Walker, Tanya Intagliata, Jan Moore, Victoria Thorneycroft, Nicole McLachlan, Bernadette Hobbs, Sally Rotunno, Lina Muratore and coach Tony Gleeson. Front: Tien Ha, Sharon Nicol, Carolyn Tan, Clare Ardern, Sam Marr and Kim Johnston.