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OUR BIG DAY AT THE RACES

Our guests from the Carlton Cricket Club: L-R Prominent supporter Laurie High, Chairman of Selectors
Tony Gleeson, Treasurer Gary Schickerling and Board member Nick Kokkinos.

Our traditional Melbourne Cup Day this year again proved a highlight for the Moonee Valley Cricket Club.
Players, partners, family and supporters gathered at the bowling club rooms at Ormond Park to have a delightful meal, a punt with the bookies, a dash at the sweeps and the convivial atmosphere.
Thanks go again to Life Member Bob Sciacchitano for providing and cooking the spit roasts, and to Vice President Sandro Capocchi and partner Kim Richardson for organising and preparing the bulk of the salads.
Bob Sciacchitano was at the Club from 8am to start the spit, ably assisted by Pete Fenaughty.
Thanks also go to Mark Cini for running the book, with assistance from Jim Polonidis and Tien Ha, and to Danny Terzini for running the sweeps.
Thanks don't go to Life Member Jim McKenzie, who came away from the day quite satisfied with his returns, while "Junior" Cini wasn't quite so sure after Jimmy cleaned up on the punt.
We also had excellent support on the day from the Carlton Cricket Club, with treasurer Gary Schickerling, Chairman of Selectors Tony Gleeson, Board member Nick Kokkinos and prominent supporter Laurie High enjoying themselves with us throughout the afternoon.
For more photos from our Cup Day function, click here.  

Moonee Valley Cricket Club has been advised by the Moonee Valley Council that Debney Park has been withdrawn from service as a cricket ground until further notice.
Council advised the Club via email on Thursday, October 29 that the ground was closed following an inspection, and that unless measures were taken immediately to rejuvenate it the ground would continue to suffer.
We advised that in our view the Debney Park surface was considerably better than it has been in the previous two seasons.
Club President Charlie Walker (right) said that unfortunately the Council's decision leaves six of our teams without a home ground for the season - our senior Sevenths, Eighths and Ninths, our Women's White team and our Under 16 White and Gold teams.
Due to the severe disruption this will cause, our Committee has regretfully made the decision to withdraw our team from the MMVCA One Day Division 3 grade.
The captain of that team, Allan Cumming (left) will now skipper our NWCA One Day Black team.
Charlie said Moonee Valley regards Debney Park as one of our long-term grounds and an oval that is in the heartland of our demographic area.
"We will work closely with the Council to develop a long-term solution that ensures that this asset continues to be available to our Club and the local cricket community in a sustainable manner into the future," he said.

We're the ladder leader with 1sts & 2nds
Moonee Valley's Firsts and Seconds have both gone to the top of the ladder after the first two rounds this season, even though we won promotion to a higher grade.
Both teams have won two games out of two - and the Firsts won both matches emphatically, dispatching last year's Grand Finalist Avondale Heights in Round 1, and then passing the fancied St Albans just two wickets down in Round 2.
The Seconds have had closer games, but have still been in control throughout.
Coach Lou Raffaele (left) said it was pleasing that our players had shown they had the capacity to step up in the North A grade.
"While it's an achievement to be on top of the ladder, we have to remember that there will be plenty of challenges coming our way," Lou said.
"I'll be impressing on the players that good teams need to go the whole journey - and that winning two one-day games is just the first part of what our players need to do to take the next step.
"The players can take some satisfaction out of the first two rounds, but we need to immediately put them behind us and ensure we continue to focus on the games coming up."

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Hot stuff from Amit's kitchen
Moonee Valley First Eleven player Amit Chaudhary has often boasted to his team-mates about the quality of his curry - and at selection night on October 22 he was finally put to the test.

Amit's normal duties as Chairman of Selectors were pushed to one side as he set to work in the Club canteen, cooking up a storm.

After a couple of hours over the hot stove, and with a cooker of plain rice, the fruits of Amit's efforts were put to the test. And the verdict?

Sensational. We regularly have Thursday night meals at the Club under the watchful eye of canteen manager/chef Peter Fenaughty, but Amit's offering was certainly given the thumbs up.

Amit is shown above with Peter Fenaughty (left) and Eighths captain Allan Cumming. The vote from the rest of the guys at selection was that Amit has their full authority to take control of the canteen any time he likes!

Also prominent at selection were Lalith Buddhadasa (right) and his cousin Channa DeSilva - Channa in his first game for Moonee Valley and both elevated to the Second Eleven. Lalith graduated from being one of our Under 16 captains last season, while Channa is in his final year of juniors.

We're representing the North West in Twenty20
Moonee Valley will be representing the North West Cricket Association in the Kookaburra Twenty20 competition this season, as our reward for winning the NWCA flag in the short game in 2008/09.
The competition kicks off at the Airport West-St Christophers ground in Etzel St on Sunday, November 8.
Moonee Valley, as the NWCA's representative, will be taking on Airport West representing the VTCA and St Francis representing the MMVCA to determine the Twenty20 champion from Cricket Victoria's Region 10.
The winner will then take on the champions from other regions, and the final will be played on the MCG. We will be doing everything possible to ensure it's Moonee Valley.
And here's the team that won the NWCA flag last season.
For more details on the Kookaburra competition, go to our NEWS pages.

Brett's team goes Fourth

Tony Sherer's our women's coach
Tony Sherer is coach of our women's teams for season 2009/10.
Tony (right) said he was excited at the opportunity to play a major role in the development of our women's teams, which have shown solid improvement in our two seasons in the VTCA.
The Club still has spots for new players in our two teams.
Anyone wanting more information should ring Club President Charlie Walker on 0409 237 543.

Juniors can still sign up to play