Presidential Reports

The 2023/24 season marked a wonderful milestone for Burwood Cricket Club (BCC) – 150 years of history and what a fantastic year it was.
This season we engaged over 250 members across our club in the following programs:
• Woolworths Blast Mainstream Program
• Woolworths Blast All Abilities Program
• Junior Cricket Program: 7 male, 2 female teams
• Senior Cricket Program: 4 male, 2 female teams
• Veterans Cricket Program: 2 male teams
• Social Sixes Female Program
After another successful winter academy run by Rick Cullinan, our players were engaged and ready for the season to get underway.
In September BCC was awarded the City of Boroondara Collaborative Club of the Year Award, recognising our strong community partnerships. Mal Fielden, at the same event, was awarded a Boroondara Lifetime Achievement award for his contribution to cricket in Boroondara. Congratulations, Mal, on this outstanding achievement.
Then, the first weekend of October, our flagpoles proudly raised the Australian and Aboriginal flags for the first time and our 150th season had begun. At our season launch we acknowledged our newest Club Legend John Edgar, alongside our newest Life Members Stu Getley and James Wilson. These members received their awards at the AGM last year.

At the start of October, BCC welcomed Modester (Mode) Mupachikwa into the family. Mode a female international cricketer from Zimbabwe instantly became a hit. Playing in our senior women’s 1st XI, senior men’s teams and coaching one of our junior girls teams, Mode’s smiling face combined with outstanding cricketing skills and relentless training ethic were inspirational across the board. Mode’s season was nothing short of outstanding, winning three Association awards including T20 Player of the Tournament. A heartfelt thanks goes to Carol and Roger Pearce for hosting Mode all summer.

That same month saw us host a ‘Fix the Mix’ event, designed to tackle gender inequity within many community cricket clubs. Over 50 clubs attended the evening, where a panel discussed how to effectively engage females at all levels within clubs including as players, coaches, umpires, executives and government. The Club received Cricket Victoria Runners Up Collaborative Club of the Year for this initiative.

In November, we engaged Sports & Life Training (SALT) and ran a session on ‘Wellbeing’ as a part of our Wellbeing Round. John Coote from our Veterans also addressed our senior playing group and spoke about Movember and on the importance of openly discussing men’s health issues so we can better support each other. I would like to thank Dr Matt McGregor for addressing this player group again this season in continuing the dialogue around being there for each other as teammates and friends.

Just before Christmas, James Edgar facilitated a visit by a visiting Malaysian U/16 cricket side from Royal Selangor Club. Our U/16’s played a friendly T20 game against the visiting side, played in great competitive spirit, a wonderful for all involved. During the Boxing Day Test, Barb Edgar was proudly awarded a 35-year Service Award by Cricket Australia, for her outstanding contribution to our Club. Congratulations Barb!
In January, we came together with the Zimbabwe community of Victoria to collaborate on a Joint Healthy Living event, in honour of Mode. This magnificent day saw Mode run cricket activities for young children who hadn’t been exposed to the sport before and we all got to enjoy Zimbabwean music, song and food. The Ambassador of Zimbabwe Mr. Joe Tapera Mhishi attended this event, along with the Mayor of Boroondara Lisa Hollingsworth, Boroondara Councillor Garry Thompson, the State Member for Ashwood Matt Fregon, the President of the ECA Neil Dalrymple and Chair of SALT Layne Stretton. This event showcased our Club’s rich and welcoming culture and how important the role of community sport can play in bringing people or all cultures and backgrounds together.

The season’s highlight came in February with our 150th Gala event held at Riversdale Golf Club. Keats Brydon, Kath Grainger and Frank Tovenati brought together the most magnificent of evenings. With Lisa Leong as MC and Damien Fleming as our keynote speaker, the Gala saw past & present players, life members, club legends, partners and friends come together to celebrate who we are and where we’ve come from. Dr Stella Barber, professional historian, who with the help of John Edgar and Mal Fielden over many months of blood, sweat and paper cuts (with a few tears) presented our written history book ‘Community at the Crease’. A simply outstanding tribute to our Club with the three of them going through some of the highlights of the book on the night. A very special thanks to Charles Kiefel AM for his generous support in helping the Club get this project to print as well as Bendigo Bank. Darcy Yuille also receives our thanks for producing a digital history which was enjoyed by all on the night.

In February I was very fortunate to be invited to Parliament House in Canberra where, on behalf of BCC, I accepted the Good Sports State Club of the Year Award for Victoria as well as receiving the Runners Up National Club of the Year Award. An outstanding achievement, noting that this award was for open to all sporting codes. This award showcases our

inclusive culture, innovative programs and considerations we give to member safety and wellbeing.
At the end of February, for the first time in BCC’s history, we welcomed Indigenous elder Uncle Colin Hunter, a proud Wurundjeri man who launched our Indigenous round by performing an official ‘Welcome to Country’ and smoking ceremony. We thank Inner East Community Bank (Bendigo Bank) who gave us this opportunity. Uncle Colin shared with our members his powerful story and history. He presented our Club with a eucalyptus branch filled with leaves and invited each member to take a leaf to signify that we’ve been welcomed onto country. I presented Uncle Colin with a BCC cap, which he proudly wore when he joined us for a Barefoot Circle ceremony.

Our Junior Blast was again just that this season, an absolute Blast. I would like to thank Jason Agars and Dave Horn for their continued work developing these programs. I would also like to thank Priya Rajendra from North Balwyn CC who helps with our All-Abilities program, not because she’s affiliated with BCC in anyway, she simply loves that this program offers kids with a disability the chance to experience cricket.
Thomas Reeh our Junior Coordinator worked hard to ensure all our junior teams were offered opportunities to play, having to work tirelessly, especially in our junior female program to be creative in order to get teams viable. With reducing numbers across many clubs, BCC partnered with Glen Iris Cricket Club (GICC) to create two teams. One of these, won the Stage 2 Stars Premiership under the mighty team manager Wendy Fleming. I would like to particularly thank Nigel Suckling from GICC for partnering in this initiative, one which the girls thoroughly enjoyed.

Our other juniors had some really engaging experiences, wins and losses all showing major growth in their skills and love for the Club. Our U/10’s especially deserve a mention, going winless in the previous year to dominating this season. Our U/12’s, U/14C’s, U/16B’s & U/18B’s all made semi- finals with U/14C’s and U/16B’s Premiers. Josh Melville played in our U/14C premiership, with his grandfather Eric Melville playing in our 1968/69 senior Premiership. A wonderful BCC family! Many of our U/16’s and U/18’s also played senior cricket, a testament to their ongoing development and enthusiasm for the Club and the game. I would like to thank all our junior coaches, team managers, scorers and helpers for allowing our juniors have such a fun summer.

Our senior player cohort had a season which started slowly then began to gain the momentum of a freight train which resulted in semi-finals for our 1st & 2nd XI. There were many individual highlights during the season including centuries, 5, 6 and 7 wicket hauls and even a hat-trick to Harry Cullinan. This season also saw a father and his son win the senior bowling

averages for the 4th XI and the 2nd XI (Simon & Jake Miller). The group enjoyed some special guest coaches popping in to provide specialist sessions this year including WBBL Renegades coach Simon Helmot and Brian Harper from Cricket Australia. These fresh eyes and enthusiasm were enjoyed by the players, with these sessions offering them something unique this season. From a Club perspective, I’m very appreciative of and would like to praise the culture of this group. With support, enthusiasm and shared drive, I’m excited by and can’t wait to witness what is in store for this cohort next season and beyond.

The Div 2 Vets provided one of the best Grand Finals you could ever witness in a come from behind, steady as she goes, Jon Kerr, Chris Gillard and of course Matt Davies masterclass in timing an innings to perfection. Every man, woman and child enjoyed this wonderful Premiership, so very well deserved by a wonderful group of men made up of life members, coaches, mentors and dads. A true reflection of all that is good at our Club.

Our senior women’s team became our Senior Women’s 1st XI when our second senior women’s team was launched. From the success of our Social Sixes program, our Senior Social Women’s team launched with an immediate impact on the Club. These women, led by the mighty Nicola Reed, the majority of whom had never played cricket before, took to the field, practising with our full senior cohort on Thursdays and involving themselves as well as enriching the Club off-field. Our Social Sixes program was again hugely successful, now a fixed calendar event!

To finish the season off, we held our junior presentations at the Club and our senior presentations at one of our newest sponsors, Tricky Wicket. At these awards, we acknowledged three people for their outstanding contribution to our Club.
• The Ron Mills President’s Award was given to Carol Pearce for her tireless dedication to our Club. Carol, our Club Secretary helped BCC navigate through to the new PlayHQ system, was at the Club almost every day scoring, team managing, supporting or playing and was simply an invaluable part of our team. Congratulations Carol.
• The Eric Melville Best Club Person Award was given to Adam Kenny. Adam’s dedication, drive and enthusiasm was a pleasure to see this season. No job was too big and he was the first to volunteer and jump in to help. Congratulations Adam.
• The Dave Price Award Best U/21 Player and Club Champion was awarded to Siddharth (Sid) Neelakantan. Sid had an outstanding season with an incredibly consistent performance. He was a unanimous choice for this award and we look forward to watching Sid continue to grow and develop into the future. Congratulations Sid – the first player in the club’s history to win the 2nds batting, best U/21 & Club Champion awards all in the same season!

We finished the season by attending the ECA senior presentations, where BCC was awarded the Dick Menting Best Administered Club award (for the third time in 6 years). This award is a testament to how hard we are working at the club to offer a wonderful cricketing experience to both our internal and external stakeholders. I’m also excited to let you all know that we have been nominated by Cricket Victoria and have been named as one of the four finalists in the Victorian Sports Awards Community Club of the Year Award, with the event being held in June.

I would like to sincerely thank our key Principal Partners who again this year allowed us to all be the very best we can be:
• McArthur & Associates – Pete McArthur
• Jellis Craig Glen Iris – Michael Wood
• Inner East Community Bank (Bendigo Bank) Ashburton – Phil Tan
I would also like to thank our team and community partners who again ensured that we were able to offer our members a wonderful cricketing experience:
• Ashburton Pool & Rec Centre
• Official Memorabilia
• Remedy Drinks
• Finn Financial
• Tricky Wicket
• Ashburton Meats
• Thymes Five Cafe
• PMD Financials
• Riversdale Optical
• Camberwell Sports & Spinal
• JON Investments
• Frenkel Partners
I would like to thank Councillor Garry Thompson and the sports and recreation team at Boroondara Council, in particular Sam Taylor, Luke Casey and Chloe Cook for their valued support.
To our BCC committee, John Edgar, Thomas Reeh, Carol Pearce, Dave Horn, Richard Trembath and Ellie Campbell, thank you for allowing us to pull it all off this season! Thanks also to all our hard-working sub-committee members and volunteers who provided such fantastic service to our Club, in particular Mal Fielden and Stu Getley.
It takes a village to pull off a season like we’ve just had. A magnificent achievement from a wonderful group of dedicated, hardworking and fantastic people. I’m very proud to lead such an inclusive and innovative

club and I would like to thank you all for your continued and ongoing support.

Our club, established in 1891, has seen many interesting times and I hope whilst in isolation and keeping a social distance, that you are all keeping safe and well.

The fabric of our club is built on the support given by so many of our volunteers who give their time to all sorts of tasks from our hard working committees (including the general, female, junior, cricket and selection) coaching, captaining, scoring, training, Thursday dinners, serving in the canteen & bar, merchandise, transportation, association meetings, putting out (or taking in) the stumps and boundary markers through to washing whites and like. We take this opportunity to thank all our volunteers for their tireless efforts.

Our club also enjoys valuable contributions from sponsors who assist our on and off field aims and aspirations. Thanks to major partners Jellis Craig, Glen Iris (our club cap and female shirt sponsor) (Damien Davis), Bendigo Bank, Ashburton (Kathy Koulouris) & Camberwell Sports & Spinal Medicine (Travis Bateman) and to club sponsors Jefferson Automotive (Brett Jefferson), Riversdale Optical (Colin Haig), Athletikan (Joe Tamburrino), StoneField Construction (Ben Stone), Sport Entertainment Products (Matt Davies), Remedy Kombucha (Chris Gillard), Frenkel Partners Lawyers (James Edgar) and PMD Financial Advisors. We are also grateful to several private donors Nita Cherry and Anne Marie Warner who offer valuable and tangible support to our club. This has enabled us to purchase live streaming equipment which puts our club out the front with a technology advantage.

Thanks also to those who have helped our club:

the team at Cricket Victoria (Steve Box, Clinton Kennon & Sharon Lynas);
our local Lynden ward councillor, Lisa Hollingsworth;
to the City of Boroondara, particularly the Sports liaison personnel who look after the day to day club requirements; and
to our co-tenant Ashy Redbacks for use of the scoreboard and defibrillator.

Weather intervened during the season with heat, smoke, rain, hail, wind, and cool temperatures variously visiting matches, causing interference to playing time and results. Whilst the 2019/20 cricket season ended abruptly, the club managed to squeeze out a great finish.

I can confidently say (by drawing on over 50 Burwood cricket seasons), this was the best season that our club has enjoyed for many reasons. Two of four senior men’s teams, one of two female teams, one of two vet’s teams, and two of four junior teams (who can play finals) all participated in finals.

At the pointy end of the season, we can look back and celebrate premierships in our senior men’s 3rds (D Synthetic), our female East One Day competition (well coached by Ric Cullinan) and U14 B’s (well coached by James Ritchie). In addition, the U12 B’s (Frampton) (well coached by Jake Miller) won the pennant for finishing on top (there being no finals).

Two outstanding individual club performances are worth noting, namely 16 year old Max Getley making 212 off 110 balls (3rds D Synthetic) and 12 year old Zoe Samuel making 110 off 86 balls (East one day competition). During the season there were many other wonderful team and individual performances; too many to list here.

We welcomed a new female team, first time coaches Jake Miller (under 12’Bs), Jim Mounas (under 14C) and Jackson Reed (under 18’s), new senior captains in James de Lacy (3rds) & Matt Small (LOC), a new Chairman of Selectors in Anthony Grace and we welcomed back club coach David Majtlis for a second year.

Our junior committee under the guidance of Chris Gillard (well assisted by Scott Blackman, Barb Zvirbulis, Paula Adams & Nic Pietsch) hummed along looking after the junior section comprising of U10s x 1, U12’s x 2, U14s x 2, U16s x 2 and U18s x 1. Our primary focus for all our juniors is enjoyment and development and, this was plain to see in our matches, team results and individual performances.

The female section was efficiently managed by Kate Bellamy and expanded from our community team (again well coached by Adam Coghlan & Jack Rider) to also include a new team participating in the East T20 & One Day Competitions. Thanks to coach Ric Cullinan. Indeed, apart from a premiership, Vaish Munukutla was selected in the T20 Team of the Season and Jemma Gilleron in the One-Day Team of the Season and Burwood cc was awarded the best administered club for the season. Excellent work to Vaish, Jemma, & our administrator, Carol Pearce.

We also had 3 players Ruby Cullinan, Heidi Pearce, and Zoe Samuel all represent Victoria at the CA U15 National Championships in March this year. Whilst on the Big V, Lachlan Stonehouse played in the winning team for Victoria in the national over 50’s Division 1 Veterans Cricket Association Championships. All outstanding!

During the year we were accredited as a Level 3 Good Sports Club and this comes with responsibilities around the way the club is managed and run.

Our club coach has for family reasons following the arrival of son (and 2030 recruit Levi) stepped back. We thank David for his significant contribution over the last 2 seasons highlighted by a marked increase in attendance at training on Thursday evening (topping 55 players on a night!) and look forward to his ongoing participation as a player. Our overseas player Josh Thurwell returned for another season and made a great contribution to our club on and off the field and we hope to see Josh back at Burwood soon.

On sad note, we lost 3 valued life members namely Peter Sunderland, George Mitchell & Hugh Luff (Hugh was also our only living club legend). Peter, George, and Hugh all made special and valuable contributions to our club over the journey.

We are extremely pleased to announce the nomination of Jon Kerr as our next life member. Jon has been a wonderful contributor to the club over many seasons in 2 broad stints as a junior and senior player, premiership player, captain/coach, captain, and coach (separately) and chairman of selectors, amongst other roles.

I am also similarly very pleased to announce the elevation of current life members Ron Luff & Malcolm Fielden to Club Legends. With a combined total of nearly 670 senior matches, 9 senior premierships, 14,000 + runs (including one double century and in a grand final), 620+ wickets (including a handy 9 for 21) and 50 stumpings (none to Ron) and 1,000’s of training sessions they both easily qualify!

Where to from here?
Firstly, a big shout out and thanks (again) to all our volunteers in whatever roles and tasks you undertook for our club and in particular to life member, recently retired player and past president Steve Kish for your contributions over many seasons.

The club set a new course two seasons ago underpinned by six club-wide ‘non negotiables’ and a goal for our men’s first X1 to be a Dunstan team in 3 to 5 years. That remains the focus, target and challenge for the men’s playing group. We will during the off season develop goals for our female division. We want our juniors to continue to grow and develop as cricketers.

We have nearly 200 members and from our juniors (starting with under 10s), females, seniors and veterans, we should aim to springboard into this decade by enjoying our cricket and seeking to improve to be the very best we can as cricketers and club members, on and off field. The club needs to be ready to meet any challenges that may arise post COVID-19. I commend the reports from all our valuable contributors which follow in this report.

I am delighted to present 3 important awards:

The first is the best club person named after life member, Eric Melville – Kate Bellamy. Well done and thanks Kate!
The second award is the Dave Price Shield to our best U21 player - Jackson Reed. Congratulations Jacko.
The third is the Ron Mills President’s award - Dave Majtlis. Thanks, Dave, for your contribution to our club as coach.

I am very much looking forward to the next season.

Keep safe and well,

John Edgar (President)
19 May 2020

As I sit down to write my first President’s report I can’t help do so without great admiration and pride at who our Club is and what we stand for. We are diverse, inclusive and provide opportunities for everyone in our community to play the game we all know and love. Regardless of your age, experience or gender, you will always be welcome and find your cricket home with us at Burwood Cricket Club.

This season we engaged with 250 members across our:

Woolworths Blast Mainstream Program
Woolworths Blast All Abilities Program
Junior Cricket Program: 8 male, 2 female teams
Senior Cricket Program: 4 male, 1 female teams
Veterans Cricket Program: 2 male teams
Social Sixes Female Program

Our season began for many mid-year when some of our members participated in the Burwood Cricket Academy organised and run by Rick Cullinan and Jon Kerr. This academy saw the participants greatly improve their cricketing skills, knowledge and confidence in a most profound way. Thank you to both Rick and Jon for their dedication to the continued development of our young players.

We began our season with a whole Club launch, a wonderful way to reconnect after what had been a very tough couple of years for us all. It was great to see both young and more experienced back socialising at the Club and who didn’t love those fabulous Ashburton Meat Trays in the raffle!!

In October we recognised and celebrated ‘Wellbeing Round’. Players wore a green bow sticker representing positive mental health which reflected our deep commitment for always looking out for and checking in on each other both on and off the field. We spoke during this week about being connected and how important it is to let others know that you’re there for them should they ever need it. To extend on this Dr Matt McGregor graciously visited our Club and spoke to our senior cohort about the importance of maintaining connections over the Christmas break.

Our All Abilities Blast participants were acknowledged and given a wonderful opportunity by Cricket Victoria with a group of six, led by our All Abilities Blast Coordinator Dave Horn playing a mini game on the MCG on the 3 rd day of the Boxing Day Test – an amazing moment for them and their families.

In the New Year we saw the arrival of Sharveen Surendran from Malaysia. Graciously hosted by Steve & Kate de Lacy Sharveen slotted straight into our Men’s 1 st XI. I would like to thank the entire senior group for making Sharveen feel welcome and at home at Burwood Cricket Club and pass on my heartfelt
thanks to James Edgar for providing this opportunity to Sharveen and Burwood Cricket Club. Thanks also to the de Lacy family for allowing Sharveen to feel so at home with us during his stay.

We again this season came together for our Indigenous Recognition Round, borrowing a First Nations silk from Cricket Victoria to conduct a ‘Barefoot Circle’ ceremony for all home games. As a Club we acknowledged the strong connection our First Nations people have to the land on which we play and paid our respects to their Elders and to our own Indigenous players both past and present.

Sports & Life Training (SALT) is a not-for-profit sporting educational institution and we again utilised one of their training modules this season. Our senior males were present for a session titled ‘Healthy Masculinity’. We pride ourselves at BCC on ensuring that our behaviour and our choices are within the best interests of everyone at the Club. This program helped redefine thoughts around some key
characteristics about what it means to be a man and how members at the Club can work together to ensure that our culture remains strong and reflective of our community.

Our Social Sixes program has gone from strength to strength this season, with our Club organising and hosting a T10 tournament in February. This brought 4 Clubs together, Nunawading, Kerrimuir, Northcote United, and BCC, and allowed many mature aged women to play their first-ever competitive game of cricket. More than sixty women were there and enjoyed supper afterward. In fact, this event was so successful that next season will see the first-ever BCC Women’s Social Team competing in the ECA competition!!

Our end-of-season event was run in conjunction with International Women’s Day. We ran a Colour Blast Spectacular which saw juniors, seniors, boys, girls, men and women join together as a whole Club, celebrating the season together. With the theme #EmbraceEquity we can be proud that we at BCC live and breathe this premise, the idea that everyone deserves the chance to play cricket and I thank you all for embracing this, believing in it and actively engaging with the Club to illustrate it.

Our Club is continuing to be recognised as an ‘Exemplar Club’ as SALT now refers to us as when they speak about ‘Best Practice’ in their education sessions. We have been officially recognised/rewarded by:

Cricket Victoria: WCCC Jill Crowther Award Best Administered Club
Good Sports: Gold Accreditation (highest possible level)
Boroondara Council: Gold Accreditation (only one other sports Club given this status)
Boroondara Sports Award: Collaborative Club of the Year
Cricket Victoria: Runners Up Community Partnership of the Year
Special Olympics Affiliate

Our Club couldn’t run our diverse programs without the help of all of you. Thank you to our wonderful coaches, team managers and scorers who tirelessly each week help our members enjoy their cricket and develop their skills. A special thank you to our Junior Coordinator Thomas Reeh who did an amazing job first year in! I would like to acknowledge our Senior Coaches Rick Cullinan and Dasun Mabogodage for their contribution this season and to our Senior Captains for their guidance during the season.

I would like to acknowledge and thank our wonderful corporate partners this season. Each season your support allows us to offer our members additional resources and education to further enhance our strong culture. Details of all partners can be found on our website and I urge you all to support the businesses that are supporting us. This season we had three major partners:

McArthur & Associates – thanks to Pete McArthur and his team
Jellis Craig – thanks to Michael Wood Glen Iris
Ashburton Community Bank – thanks to Kathy Koulouris and her team

Every senior and junior team also had a team corporate partner and I would like to thank each and every one of you for your ongoing support of our Club:

Solway Ward Cr. Garry Thompson and the sports & recreation team at Boroondara Council have been wonderful supports to our Club again this season and I would like to particularly thank Sam Taylor, Luke Casey and Dominique Bebbington for their guidance.

Call me old-fashioned, but I don’t equate Premiership flags to having a successful season. For me it comes down to answering a simple question: ‘Would I want to be anywhere else but this cricket Club?’ If the answer is no, then we’ve been successful. A positive and inclusive culture creates lasting memories and experiences. It’s these our members will look back on and if these include a Premiership win, that’s a bonus.

I would like to congratulate our Finn Financial Under 14 Gold team for winning the one and only Premiership this season, in great spirit and with humility and pride. I would also like to recognise all those teams who made finals, in particular our U/18 males. In what was extremely challenging circumstances, this group showed me that they are the future leaders at our Club and I’m excited to see these young men grow and develop in the coming years.

The Ron Mills President’s award is always special and even more so this year, after Ron’s sad passing during the season. Josh Stacey was awarded this for a season of outstanding leadership, coaching both a junior male & female side, and for his hard work and dedication to be the best that he can be, working hard on his own skills to finish in our Men’s 1 st XI. Josh was always the first to help out at the Club with whatever was needed and I am proud to have his name on our honour board at the Club forever more. Congratulations Josh.

The Eric Melville best Club person award had joint recipients this year, Carol & Roger Pearce. Carol took over the role of Club Secretary this season as well as being the Senior Women’s Team Manager and scoring literally all weekend for whoever needed it. She is a living gem and we are so very lucky to have her at our Club. Congratulations and thank you Carol! Roger is our Livestreaming and Frogbox guru and ensures that wherever possible games are livestreamed to give those that can’t be at the game the ability to still feel connected and engaged. Roger also literally lived at the Club doing whatever we asked – always saying yes and happy to be involved. Such worthy winners of the BCC 2022/23 Eric Melville Award - congratulations to you both.

The Dave Price Award for the best U/21 player this season has been awarded to Jake Miller. Jake’s improvement this season has been outstanding but it’s also Jake’s commitment to helping with off-field activities that sets him apart. Jake’s quiet demeanor and respectful manner has been appreciated and I look forward to seeing Jake continue to lead our Club into the future. Congratulations Jake.

I would like to congratulate Stu Getley and James Wilson for being awarded Life Membership to Burwood Cricket Club at our recent AGM. Their ongoing contribution, leadership and passion for our Club, over many years well and truly surpassed the Life Membership criteria and they will both now forever be etched into our history.

John Edgar at our AGM has been unanimously endorsed by the Committee as a ‘Club Legend’. This highest honour has been the culmination of over 50 years of service to the Club across a multitude of roles. John’s passion for this Club is infectious and his vision of continuous improvement ensures that our Club, in it’s 150 th year, is in the best position it’s ever been in. Congratulations John and on behalf of the Club thank you for being the heart and soul of Burwood Cricket Club.

The Clubrooms at Burwood Reserve this season saw the addition of the memorabilia cabinet – thanks to John Edgar and Roger Pearce as well as new Honour Boards – special thanks to Matt Davies for your exceptional contribution to these. It’s important to look back at history, to learn from it, reflect on it and then project forward to what our future might look like. As we head into our 150 th year, I ask you all to think about how you might like to be involved in this and I welcome discussions with you all.

I would like to thank past President John Edgar and the rest of the Committee for their valued and tireless support this season. I would like to acknowledge and thank three committee members who are stepping off the Committee, Stu Getley (Treasurer), James de Lacy (Committee Member) and James Edgar (Committee Member) for their wonderful efforts over many years.

I hope you all have a wonderful offseason and look forward to seeing what magic we can make happen in
our 150th year.

Warm Wishes,

Kate Bellamy
2023

Camberwell Sports & Spinal
Riversdale Optical
Jon Investments
Official Memorabilia
Sturdy Sports
Finn Financial Planning
Dr Nita Cherry (Community)

PMD Financial Advisors
Frenkel Partners Lawyers
Ashburton Pool & Recreation
Thymes Five Café
Remedy Drinks
Ashburton Meats
Apricot Consulting (Wellbeing Round)

So, here we are at the end of the cricket season. Overall, I think our Club has enjoyed and can and should celebrate another good season.

We’ve been able, again, to safely navigate around Covid interruptions and our Burwood cricket family has variously experienced the usual emotions associated with our sport including excitement, frustration, happiness, and disappointment.

With over 220 members across 16 teams this season playing over 175 matches, there are, accordingly, many moving parts to our Club.

We are a proud member of Inclusive Clubs, a Level 3 Good Sport and an affiliate of Special Olympics Australia. These are 3 very special acknowledgements for our Club. We were awarded for the second time in 3 seasons the best administered Club in the entire ECA competition. Well done to all our volunteers who contribute to this award. We also received from Cricket Victoria the community cricket Club award for the Inclusive and Diversity initiative of the Year and our very own Ellie Campbell also won the CV Young Leader of the Year. Ellie is now one of two nominees for this award to be presented by Cricket Australia. Congratulations Ellie.

We participated in SALT ‘Clubs with Heart’ program and our Club was prominently showcased amongst over 50 other participating sporting Clubs. We do recognise and thank SALT (a not-for-profit mental health and wellbeing organisation that delivers high quality education sessions into sporting clubs) for running that excellent program.

Matt & Robyn Cronin visited our Club and sensitively presented the very important message of the Pat Cronin Foundation. Thanks Matt & Robyn.

We had an Indigenous Round recognising our First nations people with a special Indigenous silk being available to hold in our barefoot circles with our whole Club from Blasters, juniors through to seniors involved. We also had a pink stumps (Ladies) day supporting the McGrath foundation.

We also celebrated the return of Woolworths Juniors Blasters (winning a Club Smoothie Machine from Woolworths and we had visit from BBL Melbourne Stars mascot Starman along the way!) and introduced this season our wonderful All Abilities Blast Program for children with special needs. Social Sixes also returned for a special and limited Monday night series.

Our Club also donated some spare cricket gear to Cavendish Primary School and cricket clubs in surrounding greater Hamilton area for their use. All outstanding!

We as a Club also need to thank our valuable partners & sponsors for whom we are extremely grateful, in particular:

McArthur & Associates;
Jellis Craig, Glen Iris;
Ashburton Community Bank Branch of Bendigo Bank; and
Camberwell Sports & Spinal Medicine.

But also, with a host of other sponsors including – PMD Financial Advisors, Riversdale Optical, Frenkel Partners Lawyers, Nita Cherry & Jon Investments.

It is important that our Club members fully and practically support our partners & sponsors, as local businesses in our wider community. Thanks also to our local Solway Ward Councillor Garry Thompson and to the City of Boroondara, particularly the Sportsclub Liaison personnel at Boroondara Council (Luke Casey, Sean Buncle, Carl Jones & Domenique Bebbington) who look after the day to day Club requirements.

We also have received tangible assistance and support from our:

Federal MP, Dr Katie Allen who assisted in securing Federal Government funding for Mental Health & Wellbeing Education Training and the Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Flags to help us celebrate our Indigenous Round. Thanks Kate; and
Local State MP, Will Fowles who assisted in donating funds to enable the purchase of our All Abilities Blasters kit. Thanks, Will.

A big shout out to all our valuable hard-working volunteers, coaches, captains, team managers, Covid officers, parents and everyone who helps in some way to our Club being a destination to enjoy.

In terms of capital works and with the assistance of our council, we have been able to enjoy new synthetic centre wicket and training runups, both on the bottom oval and we are pleased to report that a safety net is soon to be installed in front of the playground on the eastern side of the top oval.

We have also ourselves invested in concreting and a new gate in the designated bin area which during the season we use to store our covers and covers machine. This will be much more convenient.

So, how do you measure our cricket season?

As I’ve said before, our 3 whole Club measures of success are firstly, if we are enjoying our cricket, teammates, and our Club, secondly if we are generally improving as cricketers individually and collectively and, thirdly, the opportunity to participate and test ourselves in finals.

Some team highlights (there were some outstanding individual performances also):

Our senior men’s firsts seconds & thirds along with our 2 vets teams all played finals.
Fathers & sons playing together in our fourths
Our senior female team knocked off (this) and last year’s premiers in the home & away.
Our u 16 B boys and Stage 2 girls won the premiership (Stage 1 finished on top of the table (with no finals), so that’s a win too).
Our 14 B & C teams both made the grand final.

The challenge is set for next season for all our teams to play competitive brand in the spirit of cricket. I’m really pleased to see our players and supporters do not lose sight of the importance of how we present as cricketers, competitors and as a Club, not just focusing on the results.

To all of our players, you should aim to seek to improve and be the best you can. We’ll be full steam ahead in the off season getting prepared for next season. Our senior men’s firsts should do whatever is required and aim to get out of division 3; we’re working on pathway for our high achieving senior females to be able to stay involved in Burwood cricket, we’re organising specialist skills training and always looking for opportunities to improve our standards.

We’re delighted to appoint Dasun Mabogodage (Dash) as our senior men’s coach and continuing as a first’s player.

The thank you list is long:

Again, to all our Club volunteers
To our hard working committee who devote much time to the running of our Club including the junior division expertly managed by Chris Gillard.
Our Senior coaches and captains;
To Laura Shaw for outstanding work in again putting the annual report together

So to some awards (the first 2 named after life members):

The Dave Price award for our Club’s best under 21 player - Heidi Pearce 515 runs @ 37 (highest score 112) 11 wickets @ 13 (best 4 for 5).
The Ron Mills President’s award – Matt Davies – an outstanding contribution as the amount of work Matt puts into this Club is quite incredible – Matt coaches not 1 but 2 junior teams and also kindly donated our juniors honour board recognising our 35 or more junior premierships, now proudly permanently installed in the clubrooms. Thanks Matt.
The Eric Melville Best Club member is an award is jointly shared this season between our Juniors Blasters and All Abilities Blasters coordinators, Jason Agars and David Horn respectively. Saturday morning at Burwood to run these programmes is a wonderful contribution to our Club. Thanks Jason & David

Get involved. Keep safe and well,

John Edgar (President)
7 July 2022

In his post grand final speech, our 3rd XI captain, James de Lacy reminded us about the importance of all our Club volunteers and the valuable contribution that they all make to the operation and success of our Club. The list is long, so I would like to thank all our volunteers including our General Committee, our COVID and Junior Committees, our Coaches, Team Managers, Scorers, and all our Burwood family who put something back into Club. We enjoy over 220 members variously involved through Woolies Blasters, male & female juniors, and male & female seniors, our Veterans, and the new Social Sixes program.

We as a Club also need to thank our valuable partners & sponsors for whom we are extremely grateful, in particular McArthur & Associates, Jellis Craig Glen Iris, Ashburton Community Bank Branch of Bendigo Bank & Camberwell Sports & Spinal Medicine. But also, with a host of other sponsors including – Riversdale Optical, PMD Financial Advisors, Frenkel Partners Lawyers, Stonefield Constructions, Nita Cherry & JON Investments, Jefferson Automotive Group.

It is important that our Club members fully and practically support our partners & sponsors, as local businesses in our wider community.

Thanks also to our new local Solway Ward Councillor and current Boroondara Mayor Garry Thompson and to the City of Boroondara, particularly the Sportsclub Liaison personnel at Boroondara Council (Sean Buncle) who look after the day to day Club requirements.

We have been delighted during the season to separately host the Mayor Garry Thompson, our local State MP, Will Fowles and Federal MP, Dr Katie Allen.

This season exceeded our expectations in many ways. In July last year, during Covid lockdown, we had no idea whether we would get to play a game of cricket, let alone complete a season. We eventually got in a great season. On any measure, this season has been the ‘best season ever’ for our Club ‘across the board’, with all our 7 senior and 6 (of a possible 7) junior teams participating in the finals and although our 2 under 10 teams do not play finals, I am reliably informed both teams remained undefeated!

Our 3 whole Club measures of success as a community Club are firstly, if we are generally enjoying our cricket, secondly, if we are improving as cricketers individually and collectively and thirdly the opportunity to participate in finals. Premierships are difficult to win, but are savoured, nonetheless.

This season our Club added 2 missing jigsaw pieces which now make us a more whole Club – with our Vice President (female) Kate Bellamy’s assistance we reintroduced Woolies Blasters for our 5 to 7 year olds (thanks to coaches Lucy Ollerenshaw & Connor Beadman) and also with Kate’s further assistance, we have initiated in conjunction with Cricket Victoria, a Social Sixes program focussing on participation of our more mature females to show our mums, partners and sisters as sporting role models.

Also, under the guidance of Jon Kerr, we remodelled our 4ths/LOC team, and this was an outstanding success involving the participation of 26 players drawn from our juniors/u 16s, veterans, and other players. We also watched our senior female team being promoted into Shield division after last year’s premiership and they pushed their way into a semi-final.

Our first XI had a good season finishing clear on top of the ladder, but had a bad semi final. We will be looking to put that right next season! Our second XI played a one day grand final (over 3 days) and along with our third XI had narrow grand final losses. Our Division 2 veteran’s team were undefeated until the grand final and our mighty division 5 veterans had a great grand final win (with the celebrations continuing!).

Thanks to our senior coaches Matt Garrett (male) and Rick Cullinan (female). Trying to get coaching plans in place preseason in isolation was no easy task!

The female section was again well supervised by Kate Bellamy our 2 community teams (one coached by Adam Coghlan & Jack Rider and the other by Heidi Pearce & Sachi Perera) We had 5 players Ruby Cullinan, Heidi Pearce, Zoe Samuel, Vaish Munukulta and Minnie O’Sullivan all representing Victoria.

Congratulations must also go to Heidi Pearce who won the U18 Most Valuable Player Award for the Shield Division at Cricket Victoria’s Women’s Community Cricket Competition Presentation Night.

Our “ONE CLUB” inclusiveness was further enhanced when 2 of our female cricketers were selected in our Senior Men’s teams. Congratulations to Heidi Pearce (2nd X1) and Laura Shaw (LOC X1). Both acquitted themselves very well.

Our Junior Committee again under the guidance of Vice President (juniors) Chris Gillard (well assisted by Scott Blackman, Barb Zvirbulis and Paula Adams) oversaw our large junior section comprising U10s x 2, U12’s x 2, U14s x 2, U16s x 2 and U18s x 1. Our primary focus for all our juniors is on enjoyment and development and, this was plain to see in our matches, team results and individual performances.

Our under 14 C FJ Dobelli team under the guidance of Gav Corcoran and under 12 B Garry Male team (a life member at Burwood) steered by Jake Miller each won premierships. Outstanding!

There are couple of special performances to note – under 10s player Liam Noonan taking 2 hattricks (all bowled) in one season; IEGC Stage 1 Spirit player Caitlyn Trieu-Nguyen taking 5 for 5 (off 3 overs); under 16s player Pat Jones taking a double hattrick within 7 for 16 to win the match and under 14s player James Orton with an aggregate total of 338 runs at an average of 169!

At our presentation night we were able to welcome Life Member Des de Kretser and his family and elevate Des to Club Legend Status. Des had an outstanding career having arrived at our Club in 1964. He played 278 games (4th all time), making 6,794 runs (3rd all time, highest score 110) and taking 442 wickets (4th all time, best bowling of 8/33). Des was also a Premiership Captain in 1975/76. Congratulations Des.

We are extremely pleased to announce the nomination of Scott Blackman and James Edgar as our next life members. Both Scott and James meet our Life Membership Criteria through their input over many seasons.

Scott has been a wonderful contributor to the Club as a Junior and Senior player, Senior and Veteran’s premiership player and as a Junior coach and Team Manager and an integral part of our Junior Committee as the Junior Operations Manager.
James has also been a wonderful contributor to the Club as a Junior and Senior player, Senior premiership player and Committee Member. James’s work at Committee level has been outstanding and covers many different roles including player liaison, Senior Cricket subcommittee, Merchandise, Fund Raising to name a few.

So, in our 130th season, we can draw on many positives to build on and we must embrace the challenge to exceed the benchmark of this season and improve on our measures of success as a community Club.

I commend the reports from all our valuable contributors which follow in this report.

I am delighted to present 2 awards:

The first is the best Club Person named after life member, Eric Melville – congratulations to James de Lacy. James coordinated our COVID protocols which was so important in allowing us to commence training and meeting all Council safety requirements. He also Captains our 3rd XI and is a hard working member of our committee.
The second award is to our best U21 player Dave Price Shield. Tom Sheehan. Congratulations Tom. Tom is developing into an excellent all-round cricketer with the bat, ball and wicketkeeping gloves.

I am looking forward to the next season. Keep safe and well.

John Edgar (President)
17 May 2021

The Best Administered Club from all the of the cricket clubs in the Eastern Cricket Association (ECA) last season needed to change up' some aspects for this season. We set about and put together a fantastic new junior committee headed by Chris Gillard supported by a team of excellent assistants.

We recruited our awesome coach David Majtlis to the club. David has been a wonderful inclusion and influence on our Club's aims and direction. And I'm very pleased to announce that David has agreed to coach us next season!

We set a new course in the 'off season' and designed and implemented 6 'non negotiables' and set a goal to be a Dunstan team in 3 to 5 years' time.

This year entailed:

The 1sts playing in the grand final and very narrowly missing out on winning the premiership;
The thirds playing finals for the first time in 5 years and being given the opportunity to play their away games on Turf;
Our 2 x 165 each winning flags (u 16B TR Bellis Shield with the ECA best player medal to Harris Carlin and the ECA bowling average to Josh Stacey and u 16B AR Tongue Shield with the ECA best player to Max Getley and both teams defeating previously undefeated teams!);
Our girls' team winning a premiership in December (Inner East Stage 2 Spirit Shield) and narrowly losing another, by 2 runs in March (with the Association batting average to Sarah Bellamy);
Both our 2 vets teams making the semi-finals;
Our u 14Bs playing in a semi-final;
One of the u 12Bs winning the ER Frampton Shield for finishing on top;
Our 2 undefeated under 10 teams;
And 6 players from our club representing ECA in the u 21s (5 in the grand final) - Harman Hundel; Will Stonehouse; Henry Swift; James Ritchie, Jackson Reed and Cooper McNamara

With all this happening in our first year of our strategic goal, our Club is well placed to take the next step. It's in the air. I can't wait for next season. There is still much more hard work ahead for us on and off field from all our members if we are to develop and achieve our goals.

Congratulations to all our players and our award winners. There is however no better award or reward than all members working really hard to improve themselves as players, aiming to win a flag and making a valuable contribution to your Club. We are on the way.

This is the first of a 1, 3- or 5-year plan? Embrace the challenge! Step up!

Special thanks to all our hard working volunteers without whose valuable contributions, the club would grind to a halt:

Our committee: Graeme Anderson, Stu Getley, Mal Fielden, James Edgar, David Cooper, Kieran Basoor & Julian Tovenati.
Our senior captains: Matthew, Jon, Graeme, James De Lacy & Joey Tamborino
Our junior committee: Chris Gillard, Barb Zvirbulis, Scott Blackman and Paula Adams
Our girls' team co ordinator Kate Bellamy and coach David Cooper
Our Senior selection panel chaired by Lachlan Stonehouse
And each and every coach, team manager, parent and supporter.

I'm delighted to present 2 awards.

The first is the Eric Melville best club person - I'm delighted to award this to the 'S' team - Simon & Sara Ritchie, Sylvia Cooper & Sue Sheehan for all our Thursday dinners.
The second award is to our best under 21's player - She also was awarded the medal for the best player in their March grand final. Congratulations to Sarah Bellamy.

Thanks to Reone, Dale and her team for her assistance at afternoon teas and cleaning the Club through the season and for cooking on Presentation night.

Get involved or you'll miss out

John Edgar (President)
13 April 2019

With the start of the winter season sports, I've had the opportunity to reflect on the cricket season just concluded and we should all be extremely proud of our Club achievements and long history in the Burwood and wider community.

I would like to thank all our many Club volunteers, and there are too many to name, from the committee, parents, juniors/seniors, captains, coaches, team managers, through to our vets and all of those in between, who give endless hours to "get the show on the road" and whom without the Club could not survive.

This season we can reflect on some great Club and team achievements:

The participation of 200 + cricket players and putting 8 junior, one (new) girls, an under 18s, 4 senior and 2 vets' teams "on the park";
Our inaugural girls' team;
Tthe finals participation of our under 14B's, under 18's, our girls; the 2nds, and a premiership to our LOC 1 team;
The introduction of "1891" into our merchandise celebrating the year that Burwood defeated Box Hill for the Prestigious “Challenge Cup", which remains in our possession.;
The purchase of our "cover's machine" to enable an easier removal of the pitch covers;
The establishment of our "Presidents' trust" overseen by select past Presidents with objectives to foster the development of a cricketer or cricketers playing at Burwood.
3 grand social occasions from the Season Opener, the Quiz nite and the Curry night.
Updating and installing our Club "Honour Boards".
Welcoming into our senior teams 2 young English cricketers James Wilkes-Green & Tom Pickerill to gain experience in Australian cricket conditions.

On field we had some positives, with an overall "mixed bag":

Our under 10s and under 12s, who do not play finals, had good home & away results, including an equal top finish for under 12C’s and one of the under 10’s, if ladders were kept!
Under 14B’s backing up from last year's flag to again play in the grand final, narrowly losing with our other under 14’B out of finals, but on a learning curve.
Under 16A’s promoted to top grade who along with our under 16C’s finished just out of finals.
Our girls and under 18s both storming into the grand final, each with spectacular semi-final wins for the ages. {please read Dave Reed’s report for further details om our junior section}
The newly promoted 1st XI being relegated, but blooding 5 new junior players into that team.
The 2nds making the semi-finals;
The 3rds enjoying a roller coaster of home & away wins & losses
LOC1 after being promoted just prior to the start of the season, winning the premiership
In a weather shortened season, both Div 1 & Div 5 vets teams missed finals

Looking to next season, the Club has an exciting list and future. I've set out our aims and outcomes:

"The Club has an all and one Club approach to provide pathways for junior and senior players and aims to have the 1st XI team playing and maintaining a position in ECA Dunstan Shield within 3-5 years (‘Club aims’).

The Club has an exciting number of junior and younger cricketers that along with existing or new senior players require coaching and development into the best players they can be (‘BCC outcomes')".

So put your seat belts on!

Specific thanks to the retiring Dave & Nicola Reed for the smooth running of our junior section for the last 4 seasons and to treasurer Tony Raikes who has re-engineered our Club members' financial responsibilities.

The President's Trophy was awarded to Jon Kerr who won this award easily for his selfless "team first" approach and for his all round contribution this season on and off the field.

John Edgar (President)
25 April 2018