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Christmas came early for Valley cricket
Christmas came early for Moonee Valley when we held our big break-up function down
 at Ormond Park on December 20.
We had strong wins over the weekend for our Seconds, Thirds, Fourths, Sixths and Ninths, some good wins in the junior grades - including our Under 16 A and Under 14 A teams both beating Doutta Stars - and teams well-placed on the ladder - including our Firsts well established in second spot.
And the break-up and monster Christmas raffle was a raging success.
Moonee Valley certainly puts on a function like no other club.
We had 25 prizes in our raffle - with the $500 first prize won by 100-gamer Geoff McKeown, and the $300 won by Steven Ball.
We had a live band - Dave & Friends - who played all night, and a well-catered meal.
The oval lights were on for the kids, and the music and the atmosphere suited players, parents, partners and supporters down to the ground.
We may have had a number of our teams still having to play on the Sunday - but that was a minor inconvenience.
When you're a Club with 25 teams, sometimes you can't find a date that fits with every side.
Celebrating here on the night are (L-R) Back - Matt Thomas, Amit Chaudhary, Arosha Perera, Dean Jukic and Aberfeldie Park friend Mohan Wickramasinghe. Front - Evan Blythe, 100-gamer Geoff McKeown and Josh Maginness.
For more photos from our big night, go to the "New" section on the bar at the top of the page. 

Our "Carlton Connection" was well to the fore at the Moonee Valley Cricket Club Melbourne Cup day function.

Left to right: Tony Gleeson, Gary Schickerling and Phil "Gerry" Horner are part of the administrative group at Carlton - and also have links to Moonee Valley.

Tony is team manager of the Carlton Second Eleven. A Moonee Valley senior premiership coach, he has played around 80 games with us. Even though he's in his third season at Carlton he's still a regular visitor at Ormond Park, and played two games with us last season. Tony also coaches our Women's teams.

Phil is team manager of the Carlton Firsts. He's a past team-mate of Tony Gleeson and Paul Comino at the now-defunct Princes Hill Cricket Club, and came out of retirement last season when he joined Tony and Paul for a nostalgia game together, playing in the Moonee Valley Ninths. He's primed to add to his Valley tally this season.

Gary, a past president, secretary and committee member at Carlton and current Second Eleven scorer, takes a keen interest in what's happening at Ormond Park as he travels to and from Princes Park - and he makes sure his Premier club knows what we're doing right.

Moonee Valley is proud to have the friendship and involvement of these influential three.

Sixths set the mark with new Club record score
Moonee Valley's Mighty Fighting Sixths - previously the Mighty Fighting Eighths - have posted the highest score in the 37-year history of the Club.

The record-breaking team is shown here: (L-R) Back - Frankie Reitano, Tony Villani, Norm Wright, Antony Sherer, Chris Micallef, Paul Hobbs. Middle - Dean Lawson, skipper Brett Curran, Alan Harry and Mark Madden. Front - Steven Ball and 12th man Ashley Harry.
 
Playing against Buckley Park Fourths on November 1 on the first day of a two-day game, the MFS posted an incredible 3/475 off 70 overs to set a new mark for the Club across all grades. The opening partnership of 212 between Steven Ball (77) and Dean Lawson fell just short of the Club record 231 by Peter Boulouxis and Ian Sutherland in the Seconds in 1992/93.
And Deano joins the small but illustrious band of players at Moonee Valley to hit centuries in consecutive innings. His big knock of 157 followed on from his maiden ton the previous match against Sydenham-Hillside, when he clubbed 124. And Alan Harry matched Deano ball for ball, making 155 not out.
The opening stand was pushing on towards our record stand across all wickets - the 300 posted by Darren Nagle and Pat Felmingham last season - which in turn eclipsed the previous all-wickets record of 271, which was for the second wicket by Glen Courts and David Jolley in the Firsts in 1999/00.
The Mighty Fighting Sixths beat a relatively short-lived record with their 3/475.
The previous mark was set by our Seconds against Tullamarine in 2006/07, when the Valleys piled on 6/453. The highest score for our First Eleven is 439.
In reply on Day 2 - November 8 - Buckley Park made 166 off 52 overs, with Mark Madden taking 4/9 off eight overs and Antony Sherer taking 3/56.
It's been an incredible rise for the Sixths, who played in the North West Cricket Association One Day grades two seasons ago, before moving up to the NWCA Seventh grade last season. This season we got "promoted" two grades to the NWCA Fifth grade, but still the guys are carrying all before them.

It's been an incredible rise for the Sixths, who played in the North West Cricket Association One Day grades two seasons ago, before moving up to the NWCA Seventh grade last season. This season we got "promoted" two grades to the NWCA Fifth grade, but still the guys are carrying all before them.

 Big numbers for a big cricket weekend

Moonee Valley made a big impact on the November 1 & 2 weekend, with some BIG numbers with both bat and ball.

An incredible three of our players took seven wickets in an innings, and we had two players from the one match each hit up 150 runs.

While we can't state categorically that these occurrences are records, there are plenty of old heads around the Club who are confident that we've chalked up firsts on both occasions.

Our stats stars with the bat were Dean Lawson with 157 and Alan Harry with 155 not out in the Sixths, against Buckley Park.

With the ball, Evan Blythe took 7/29 as Moonee Valley's First Eleven routed Hoppers Crossing for 52. For our Second Eleven, Pat Felmingham was thrown the ball and promptly took 7/69 off 27 overs.

And our Fourth Eleven ventured to Barkly Street, where Nigel Walker took 7/49 off 20 unchanged overs - and considered himself lucky to still be on after going for 0/20 off his first three.

Nigel is shown here with the ball he used to do all the damage (and a mighty Hawks poster behind him).

The Sixth Eleven score of 3/475 was a Moonee Valley record score across all grades - and the opening partnership of 212 between Steven Ball (77) and Dean Lawson fell just short of the Club record 231 by Peter Boulouxis and Ian Sutherland in the Seconds in 1992/93.

All in all, it was a bright and encouraging weekend for Moonee Valley.  *** For more information, turn to our News pages.

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Derbies - One-all for Ninths v Tenths
Moonee Valley carved its own piece of history on October 19, when we put a Tenth Eleven on to the field - and they played a Derby with our Ninths in the North West Cricket Association's One Day Red grade.

The Tenths prevailed in the historic first match, but the Ninths turned the tables and won in the return match at Fairbairn Park on December 21.

The squads from the first game 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.
For more details on the first match, turn to the News pages. 

The Moonee Valley Cricket Club is a section of the Moonee Valley Sporting Club .

Last updated: December 24, 2008

For more history on our Cricket Club, including Premiership match reports, click here