YOULDEN CRICKETER’S ALMANAC 2015-16 A STATISTICAL REVIEW OF YOULDEN PARKVILLE C.C. FOR THE SEASON 2015-16 FOREWORD After the successful 2014-15 season where both the 1st and 2nd X1’s made Grand Finals, expectations for the 2015-16 season were high. Some aggressive recruiting helped offset the loss of some key personal from last year’s campaign and also allowed the Club to field a 5th X1 for the first time in its history. All senior X1’s won at least as many games as they lost with the 3rd X1 finishing top of the ladder before unfortunately bowing out in the semi-final. The 1st and 2nd X1’s both finished 2nd on the ladder and were both unfortunately beaten Grand Finalists. Under the leadership of first time captain Matt Perkins, the 4th X1 finished 3rd on the ladder before destroying the opposition in three successive finals to claim the Clubs first senior flag since 2011-12! Four teams in the finals was the most of any club in the MCA. We were the only club to have three grand finalists! The Powerful Owls program continued to build on their success from the previous year to again feature in the finals. The Club once again fielded 10 junior teams for the season. The Club fielded its first “A” Grade junior team in any Junior age level. That under 12 team were narrowly defeated in the semi-finals. The Under 12D team won the premiership after a dominate season, and the Under 16C team lost on the last ball of the Grand Final after sitting bottom of the ladder at the half way point of the season. The breeding ground for the junior teams, the In2Cricket program for 5 to 8 year olds, moved to Wednesday nights this season and possible as a result of this had a significant drop off in numbers. Overall there were about 130 (down from about 140 last year) juniors involved in the Powerful Owls program, which is a great sign for the future of the Club. The interaction between the Junior and Senior sections of the Club continues to get better and suggests a great future lies ahead! There were 106 senior players who strutted their stuff for YPs (up from 83 from last season) and all of them are featured in this almanac. We had 35 players who made their YPCC debuts this season, including another 7 more from the junior program (Alex Avraam, James Blay, Henry Grist, Tyler McGregor, Eamon Pizzey, Alex Rusjan and Akshat Sehgal), making it 20 in the last three seasons. We also had 5 visitors from overseas (Charles Jones, Alex Kayser, Jason Matthews, Kyle Mitchell, and Sam Noss) who all contributed greatly to the Club. Some of the new players moved on immediately, however 24 of them played 4 games or more. Hopefully those remaining in Australia come back and build on this next year. Individual highlights were regular occurrences throughout the course of the season. Ashley Medell completed a unique treble in the 3rd X1 for the season with a hundred in round 2 before taking a 5 wicket haul, which included a hatrick, in round 19! Alex Rusjan also took a hatrick on his way to 6 wickets in the 4th X1 in round 14, before taking another 5 wicket haul in the 3rd X1 in round 17. Waddington Mwayenga returned to the Club and racked up an incredible 48 wickets for the season, including 4 five wicket hauls, two of which were in the finals. Brother of Boom, Kyle Mitchell, had it all over eventual premiers Flemington Colts picking up 5 wicket hauls in both the games he played against them. Jason Matthews, Nicholas Demelis, David Pizzey and Kavithrna Silva all tonned up at different stages of the season while Irfan Azam and Tyler McGregor both took 5 wicket hauls during the season. Finally, after 29 seasons at YPCC, Anthony Steward played his 301st game for the club, which equalled Brian O’Reilly’s record for the most games for YPCC. That 301st game also happened to be the 4th X1 Grand Final which gave Fooey his first flag at YPCC! Congratulations Fooey! Despite some health issues, president Paul Sinclair again led the Committee with aplomb. He was well supported by the Committee as we continue to push to sure-up our future both on and off the field. Unfortunately the experiment with David Alleyne as senior coach did not work out due to a change in family circumstances. Luckily the YPCC is blessed with some great senior players who lead the way at senior training sessions. Particular thanks needs to go to Elliott Miller and Charles Jones who went above and beyond to keep training sessions ticking along nicely. There are so many more stories to come out of 2015-16, so read on to refresh your memory. – Barney YOULDEN RISING STAR – Syed Rohail Akhtar The Justin J. O’Connor Memorial Trophy This is a trophy to uphold youthful exuberance and talent, and at the same time pay our respects to an old friend who was taken from us so young. On the advice of newly appointed Junior Co-ordinator Wayne Schultz, Ray Ray joined the Club at the start of the season after playing the last five seasons on hard wickets at South Morang. The only X1 he didn’t play in was the first X1 and he racked up a handy 343 runs at 22.87 and took a very tidy 23 wickets at 12.90. After playing in the 4th X1 pretty much exclusively as a batsman before the finals, Ray Ray toyed with the opposition batsmen in the finals taking 12 wickets across the 3 games. He was awarded the Man of The Match in the winning 4th X1 Grand Final team. Ray Ray continues the fine calibre of young player to win this award. Hopefully a long a successful playing career at YPCC is ahead of him. BEST CLUBPERSON – Elliott Miller The Tom Harrington Memorial Trophy After taking out the JOC and the Coaches award last year Elliott Miller has backed it up with another great season at the Club and has taken out this season’s Best Clubman Award. When appointed club coach David Alleyne was unable to fulfil his commitments a couple of months into the season, Funky stepped up in a big way to become the de facto coach for the remainder of the season. The energy and structure that he provided at training provided all those that attended a great environment to develop their skills. All his efforts are recognised with this award. Well done Funky, thanks for all your efforts. Well deserved. CLUB CHAMPION – 590 POINTS The George Moloney Jnr. Trophy Waddington Mwayenga Returning to YP after a season plying his trade in the subbies, Waddy has taken out his first Club Champion trophy after five top five finishes (including two runners up placings) in his six previous seasons at the club. During the home and away season Waddy racked up 198 runs, took 33 wickets, took 6 catches and affected 2 run outs. Of course he didn’t stop there taking a further 15 wickets during the finals series to be the leading wicket taker in MCA A Grade with 48 wickets! His match haul of 9-79 in the semi-final against South Yarra almost single handedly sent the 1st X1 into the Grand Final! Evergreen veteran Andy Skate took out 2nd place 113 points back, whilst second X1 skipper Nicholas Demelis rounded out the top three a solitary point further back. Congratulations Waddy. BATTING AND BOWLING WINNERS FIRST ELEVEN Brian O’Reilly Trophy Batting Jason Matthews 34.31 Max Nicholls Trophy Bowling Waddington Mwayenga 13.58 SECOND ELEVEN Armstrong Biggs & Co. Trophy Batting Nicholas Demelis 37.00 John Wood Memorial Trophy Bowling Kyle Mitchell 10.76 THIRD ELEVEN Bob Gration Snr. Trophy Batting John G. Pearce 16.46 Ken Spargo Trophy Bowling Max Diciero 11.80 FOURTH ELEVEN George Moloney Snr. Trophy Batting Sam Noss 48.80 Steven Carroll Trophy Bowling Tyler McGregor 11.73 FIFTH ELEVEN Gavin Down Snr. Trophy Batting David S Pizzey 30.85 Michael Stringer Trophy Bowling Kavirathna Silva 16.72 The JOHN T. RACKSTRAW MEDAL Voted by the Players for the Players Waddington Mwayenga – 174 votes Waddy has once again been awarded the John T. Rackstraw Medal as the Club’s most valuable player as voted by his teammates. Whilst Waddy may have won his first Club Champion award this season, he has been very efficient at collecting “Jacks” with this year’s award his fourth! Waddy polled in ten of the eleven games he played in where votes were awarded. Waddy won by a 34 votes from Andy Skate and a further 9 from equal club games record holder Anthony Steward. Congratulations Waddy. CLUB CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS - SEASON 2015-16 Last Last Rank Player Matches Points Season Rank Player Matches Points Season 1 Mwayenga, Waddington 12 590 re 54 Bonaddio, Patrick 16 100 43 2 Skate, Andrew N 14 477 12 55 Newing, Shaun 5 95 30 3 Demelis, Nicholas 15 476 16 56 Ross, Angus 14 89 67 4 Matthews, Jason 9 453 57 Perkins, Jack 14 88 73 5 Steward, Anthony J 19 427 47 58 Van Gerrevink, Aden 12 82 53 6 Miller, Elliott 12 403 7 59 Daniell, Wayne 6 80 6 7 Stringer, Michael A 11 402 20 60 Sehgal, Akshat 10 76 8 Perkins, Matthew J 18 369 48 61 Sadler, John 10 75 52 9 Pearce, John G 17 361 5 62 Chapman, Albert 18 73 62 10 Dewey, Derek J 12 349 28 63 Noss, Sam 8 69 11 Carey, Beau 8 342 64 Khan, Muneeb 4 64 re 12 Smith, Evan 11 338 65 Dexter, Oliver 5 60 35 13 Silva, Kavirathna D 16 337 29 66 Pizzey, Eamon 11 57 14 Proud, Blake 16 335 9 67 Pemmaraju, Saicharan 12 55 81 15 Pizzey, David S 19 313 8 68 Vance, Shaun D 2 49 57 16 Mitchell, Kyle 13 295 69 Schultz, Wayne 4 42 17 Azam, Irfan 12 290 4 70 Anderson, Corey B 3 41 40 18 Kayser, Alex 16 287 71 Thomas, Eugene 5 40 64 19 Akhtar, Syed Rohail 15 278 72 La Fontaine, Luke A 2 38 re 20 Herbert, Stuart G 18 262 23 73 Abbas, Haider 6 34 21 Phelps, Rohan J 17 260 22 74 Banova, Dean 5 34 22 Burley, David L 13 258 25 75 Ali, Amsan 1 34 23 Phillips, Andrew H 14 257 44 76 Magee, Thomas