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It's official: Valley's the biggest cricket club in Victoria!
Moonee Valley is officially Victoria's biggest cricket club. Our North West Region's Cricket Victoria Cricket Manager, Stuart Clark has advised that with the 26 teams we fielded in 2008/09, we're officially the State's biggest.

Stuart advised that the club census carried out by Cricket Victoria earlier in the season established us as the team on top.

MVCC president said it was a big feather in the cap for our Club, given our phenomenal growth over the past eight years.

"In 2007/08 Cricket Victoria advised that we were one of the four biggest clubs going around," Charlie said.

"Now, with an extra two teams added last season, we're the biggest club. Each week during the season we put some 300 men, women and juniors on the park.

"In 2008/09 we fielded 10 men's teams, two women's teams and 14 junior teams. It's a fantastic result for a fantastic Club. We retain our commitment to ensuring we have teams and spots available for anyone who wants to play for the Moonee Valley Cricket Club.

"We're already looking towards an exciting 2009/10 season, and having the honor of being Victoria's biggest club gives us extra impetus.

"We're officially the biggest Club. We want to make sure we do everything to enable us to also call ourselves the best Club," Charlie said.

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Big John wins the Association bowling award

 Moonee Valley teen John O'Brien trounced the field to win the Moreland Moonee Valley Cricket Association's C Turf bowling award.

John trounced the field all season in our Thirds, and with the benefit of Peter Golding behind the stumps his off-breaks returned him 24 wickets @ 12.13 during the home and away season to easily win the award.

John attended the MMVCA presentations on April 25 with a group of his team-mates to receive the award. ****For more details, turn to our News Pages.

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 Gary Schickerling honored with Moonee Valley award
Carlton Cricket Club legend Gary Schickerling's connection with Moonee Valley has been honored with our Under 16 Gold Best Player Award being named after him.

Gary was at hand at our Under 16 presentations on April 24 to present the inaugural Gary Schickerling Trophy, which was won by Kam Kenny-Jones.

Gary has taken a keen interest in what's going on at the Valley, and has attended a number of our functions with Tony Gleeson, the 2008/09 MVCC women's coach, past Moonee Valley senior coach and now team manager of Carlton's Seconds.

Gary's incredible career with Carlton spans 57 years, and includes an unbroken 20-year stretch when he held the position of either president, secretary or treasurer of the Premier Club.

**Pictured here are Under 16 Gold coach John Brelis, Kam Kenny-Jones and Carlton legend Gary Schickerling.

To read more of Gary and the award, click here.

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 The stars came out for Valley's Night of Nights

Moonee Valley's 2008/09 Senior Presentation Night packed the North Suburban Club to the rafters as we staged our biggest-ever awards.

We had more than 120 players, partners and supporters at the April 18 Moonee Valley Cricket Club night of nights, and it was action from go to whoa as we worked our way through the presentations for our 12 senior teams.

We were honored with the presence of Moonee Valley founder Ray Storey, down from Leitchville with wife Heather for our awards, and junior section founder Chris Ayers, with his wife Vicki.

The crowd was our biggest-ever presentation night, our trophy count - at 92 awards - was our biggest-ever, and there was a lot to celebrate.

And celebrating on the night were our First Eleven batting award winner Arosha Perera and his beautiful fiancee Ishani Kalatuwage, pictured here.

Arosha recently announced his engagement to his team-mates, and the official ceremony is being held on April 23.

For a report and more pictures of our presentation night, go to the "New" tag at the top of this page or click on this link.

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Beaten but not bowed: Our senior finalists hold their heads high
Moonee Valley's Firsts and Thirds came up short in their respective Grand Finals, but our season still left us with plenty to be proud of.

We still won a flag - Glenn Perussich's Under 14 White team snatched a win with nine wickets down and just two balls to go.

While our season ended just short for our seniors, players still got together to let their hair down on the night of the final day of the Grand Finals.

On Sunday (March 22) we were across at the bowling club rooms. Shown here are Firsts players (L-R) Matt Thomas, skipper Mark Gauci, Arosha Perera, Raj Aiyappan and Geoff McKeown.

**More pictures and a report: Click HERE