Avondale thrash Brunswick in the the Grand Final

Under 16's beat Brunswick inside one day to win the 2007-08 Premiership. Congratulations to Leigh Shellie and all the players on this fantastic Achievement.

Having won through to the Grand Final after beating premiership favourite Roxburgh Park in the Semi Final, the boys were full of confidence taking on the other giant killer, Brunswick in the Grand Final.

Apart from Tom Cummings who had played in 2 winning grand finals at East Keilor, none of the boys had been in a cricket grand final.

Mitchell Shellie won the toss and had no hesitation in sending Brunswick in to bat. A good decision to allow any nerves in the team to settle down. They didn't have long to wait as Tom bowling the first ball of the match took a wicket. The confidence in the boys zoomed and any nerves that were there soon went away. As Tom bowled the 6th ball of the first over he took a second wicket to have them 2/0. The nerves went straight to Brunswick.

Aaron Shellie backed up Tom with some good tight bowling and it wasn't long before he had a wicket. Two more wickets to Aaron and another to Tom had Brunswick reeling at 6 for 32 after 12 overs. The pressure didn't let up. Zac Owen and Cameron Harris then came on and cleaned up the lower order. Cameron took his season best figures of 3 for 8 and Zac 1 for 17 to dismiss Brunswick for 57 in 21.3 overs.

They say that catches win matches and the boys were on the way to proving this. Great slip fielding by Zac Owen taking 2 catches, Mitchell Shellie took 3 catches as keeper and Aaron Shellie took two catches including a great catch in the deep to dismiss Brunswick's most dangerous bat all contributed to the great effort in the field. In fact all boys fielded well by chasing and running in pairs.

Having had problems chasing down low scores this year, the boys set about trying to bat out the remaining overs of the match. Once settled our batting order can rip an attack apart and Aaron and Tom didn't let us down. When Aaron was dismissed to a classic catch at fine leg, we were 1 for 50 needing another 8 runs for a first inning lead. When Cameron came to join Tom, Tom kept the momentum striking 59 runs before being caught with the score on 94. The question was whether Brunswick would call it off or try to minimise the score and have another crack on Sunday. Josh Fedele and Cameron put paid to that thought by putting on another 37 runs in quick time. When both were out playing attacking shots we had extended the lead past 70. Jake McBean and Mitchell then joined forces and took the lead past 100 for the loss of only 4 wickets before Brunswick conceded the game.

The boys had achieved what they set out to do at the start of the year and win the Premiership. The second junior pennant in two years and the clubs 24th premiership. A great effort to the Coach Leigh Shellie for molding these boys into a great team.

Thanks to Frank Breskvar for scoring during the season and to all the other parents for coming along and supporting the boys during the season. Congratulations and Well done. The club is so proud of your achievements.

Avondale Heights		Runs	4	6
A Shellie	c J McGee b S Robertson	26	4
T Cummings	c & b L Oakley	59	11	1
C Harris	c H Borland b JP Bullen	21	1
J Fedele	c L Oakley b JP Bullen	18	4
*+M Shellie	not out	14	3
J McBean	not out	10	2
W Cunningham		dnb
D Petrevski		dnb
Z Owen		dnb
B Spera		dnb
M Cunningham		dnb
Extras	(4nb,4w,2b,0lb)	10
Total		4/158
Overs		26
FOW:50(A Shellie) 94(T Cummings) 131(J Fedele) 132(C Harris)
12th Man:  JJ Gilmartin
Brunswick
Total		57
Overs		21.3
Bowling:		O	M	W	R
T Cummings		6	2	3	22
A Shellie		6	1	3	9
Z Owen		5	1	1	17
C Harris		4.3	1	3	8
Fielding:					c
Z Owen					3
M Shellie					2
A Shellie					2
J Fedele					1

 

*captain +wicketkeeper

 

From Left to Right: Tom Cummings, Mitchell Shellie, Ben Spera, Mark Cunningham, Leigh Shellie, Zac Owen, Will Cunningham, Daniel Petrevski, Aaron Shellie, Jake McBean, Jonathon Gilmartin, Josh Fedele, Cameron Harris.

Semi Final

Roxburgh Park won the toss and batted first. Our boys rotated the bowling very well and didn't let Roxburgh Park settle in. Aaron Shellie and Tom Cummings bowled well and Roxburgh Park were waiting for these boys to finish their spells before they began to launch an attack. What they didn't count on was the depth of bowling talent in the Heights team. When Tom and Aaron were rested, Cameron Harris and Zac Owen came on. Both of these boys have played 1st XI cricket this year and they bowled well. Zac took 2 wickets and Cameron 1 as Roxburgh Park got well behind their desired target. Then came Ben Spera and Josh Fedele who also provided the team with good accurate bowling. Josh took a wicket and they could only manage 30 odd runs from the 10 overs bowled by these two. We then gave Jake McBean and Mark Cunningham a bowl and they kept up the pressure. By the time Roxburgh Park had faced their 50 overs, they had only scored 183. A great result and a good indication of the bowling depth in the team.

We then turned up the next day and needed a solid start to get the innings underway. Aaron and Tom opened the batting an pummeled the Roxburgh Park bowlers (helped by some dropped catches) to be 133 before Tom was dismissed for 54. Aaron had rolled his ankle and needed Tom to run with him, while he and Cameron Harris set about getting the required runs. Aaron eventually retired not out on 102 - his second ton in 3 matches and his 3rd overall. This meant Josh Fedele and Cameron needed to take us home. When we passed the target in the 32nd over Cameron was not out 11 and Josh not out 5. An emphatic win for the boys who earned the right to play Brunswick in the Grand Final next week.

Full Match details click here.

Under 12's win 2006-07 NWCA Premiership

Under 12's Finish off a Great Year

Match Report

Following the frustration of having the Saturday washed out, the team returned to Fairbairn Park to take on 2nd placed Strathmore in the Grand Final on Sunday. The opposition had lost only 3 games during the year and each time they had batted first. It was no surprise that when Strathmore won the toss they sent Avondale Heights in to bat.

This was the coaching staff's preference, although the team did want to bowl first. We used the same batting order as for the semi final except for Rohit Allada and Eric Whatmough who swapped places. Dean Pavlovic and Danko Bzenic got the team off to another solid start with both retiring on 6 and 4 respectively.

Stefan Zivanic and Rohit Allada then came together and Rohit, in the unfamiliar role of aggressor, pummeled 12 quick runs. Luke Rainone and Petar Pavlovic then joined forces and kept the run rate up to around 4 an over. The team was about building partnerships Michael Galluccio went for a duck after his fine innings of 23 last week but Matthew Dougherty and Victor Chu then kept the scoreboard ticking.

Zoli Kowalczewski and Eric Whatmough did likewise and when Travis Whatmough and John Mc Hardy got a few runs we bought the retirees back for a final fling.

Luke proceeded to smash his form slump with a retired 26, Petar was out for 14 trying to push the run rate and we finished with Victor run out stealing a run on the last ball and Rohit not out on 10 and 15 respectively.

At the end of 28 overs the side had scored a massive 138 on the huge ground.

All they needed to do was bowl tightly and the premiership was theirs.

Victor opened with a fast over. Stefan showed why he won the clubs bowling average taking a wicket in his first over. Petar then followed up with another and when Eric and Michael each took a wicket. Strathmore were on the ropes. The boys continued to bowl tightly and Stefan Petar and Michael took another wicket each. Danko effected a run out and Luke chipped in with a wicket.

At the end of the 28 overs, Strathmore had been restricted to a score of 9/74. Again great fielding was the key with all players fielding well with Special mention to Michael for 3 catches and Dean 2 catches including a classic catch at short wicket.

Well done team on your premiership. You were undefeated after the grading games and you fully deserve the success you had this season. Concentration and basic understanding and execution of the skills made you a cut above the rest for the entire season. Congratulations.

For Full Match Details Click Here

 

 

40th Anniversary Night

A great night was held be all attending the 40th Anniversary night at Melrose Receptions on 10 February 2007.

We were honoured with the presence of players from the first team to represent Avondale Heights including Mr Ash. Past players and current players all mingled to reminisce about the old days and marvel at the future of the cricket club when the President Richard Phillips advised that the club is fielding a junior team in each age group for the first time in its history. The club is strong and vibrant and we look forward to the next 40 years.

A big thanks must go to the organisers of the night with a huge thanks to Dean Campbell. It is members like him that makes this club such a great club. Thanks also to Richard Phillips and Peter Markham for their speeches.

More Premierships

 

G'day fella's, just found your great site and it brought back a few old memories. I've been playing ,coaching and administering cricket up in Mildura for 27 years now but going back a few years before that I played under Jack Dinsdale, Mr Miller in the Churches comp way back, Ian and Peter Lally, and a young Johnny Wood in the WSC days when Ray Bright was kicking around the FCA and Doyle St was an icon. You had some good juniors back in those days too...the Lally boys, Barry Denner, Simon Joyce, Mick Dollard to name a few and we played against Tony and Warren Dodemaide (Bucks IOOF?) In fact, I'm pretty sure it was John Wood that coached the Under 16 side to back to back flags in 76-77 and 77-78. I was 15 and 16 then and I remember them well as I played in 12 losing Grand Finals after those two U16 premierships and I always thought they'd be my last. They were definitely 2 in a row in definitely those two seasons. I've still got the little medals they gave us somewhere. I cant remember the opposition although I'm guessing Tony Dodemaide's mob were in one of them. Both GF's were played on the old Footscray Park wickets behind Flemington. Surely there's someone at the Heights that remembers them. Finally cracked the champers again as a 38 year old at the club I've played over 350 games within Mildura, landing back to back Firsts flags up at the Nichols Point CC in Sunraysia. It seemed a good way to bookend thirty odd years of playing for only two great clubs. (In response to a question about photos) I FOUND A COUPLE, ONE STANDING NEXT TO A LOVELY BLOKE BY THE NAME OF BERT MILLER. HIS SON ANDREW ALWAYS LOOKED LIKE HE WAS GOING TO BE ABLE TO PLAY AND I RECKON HE SPENT A LOT OF YEARS AT ESSENDON. I HAD A HALF A SEASON THERE AFTER U16S BEFORE I MOVED UP HERE TO DRIVE TRAINS. IN ONE OF THE PICS, I'M WEARING THE OLD AHCC V CAP. BACK IN THE OLD FOOTSCRAY CRICKET ASSOCIATION. THE GUY WITH ME IS COLIN CLOHESY. HE PLAYED ABOUT 180 GAMES OF FOOTY FOR THE HEIGHTS AND A FEW SEASONS OF MATTING CRICKET BACK IN THE DAY, CAPTAINED THE B MATTS ONE SEASON THERE.