Historian’s Report 2012/13

In a season in which three premierships were won, and the First XI were defeated in the Semi-Final there were some notable individual performances.

Troy Lamb overtook his own record for the most runs made in a season in the 1^st XI on turf, increasing his total of 680 set in 2010/11 to 760. The figure also eclipsed Jeff Graham’s 701 for the most runs made in a season on turf, dating back to 1966/67 when Jeff started the season in the 2nds and finished up with a 1^st XI premiership cap. Troy’s 760 almost reached Jack McAlister’s 773 as the most runs scored in a season in a single team, across both turf and matting cricket.

Troy completed two centuries this season, 151 scored against Cheltenham made in the session before tea, and an equally spectacular 102 against Mentone, with his 100 coming up in just 63 balls, and reached off the last ball of the twentieth over of the innings. He has now scored nine centuries for the First XI, moving clear of Jeff Graham and Leigh Hardham, both with seven.

Leigh Hardham has now passed 12,000 runs for the club in all senior elevens; he will need to play for another couple of seasons to reach that figure on turf.  Andrew Paton played just one game in the First XI this season, which allowed him to increase his figure for the most number of wickets taken in that team, on turf.

We had the very unusual situation, possibly unique, of a father and two sons taking the most wickets for their respective teams. Priyanka Paranagama took 13 for the Fourth XI, unfortunately missing out by two wickets on reaching the qualification standard for the bowling average; in the U15 Maroon team Praveen took an outstanding 25 wickets and won the bowling average in the premiership team; and Naveen took 9 wickets for the U13 Maroon XI - equal best, and won the bowling award for that team.

Looking at milestones achieved during the season, David Hardham (500), Peter Hay (200) and Zane Goold (100) reached game milestones for matches played on turf, while if junior games are included Peter (250), Zane (200), Matt Goold (250) and Jarrod Martin (200) featured.

With the ball Andy Paton passed 25,000 balls bowled on turf during the season; he still has another 1500 or so to overtake David Wilkinson, who leads that tally. David Hardham reached 400 turf wickets.

It was a quiet year for batting milestones, although David Rea (2000), Ray Phillips, Veeral Mehta, James Lockhart, Peter Gyi and Damien Hay (1000) might disagree, reaching milestones for runs on turf. Including every game played for the club (including juniors) Leigh Hardham passed 13,000 runs, and Troy Lamb 6000.

In the Juniors, Alex Ross and Praveen Paranagama each reached the 1,000 run mark.

One unwanted record which occurred during the year was in the First XI match against Port Melbourne, when our first innings 262 became the highest score we have failed to defend. The previous highest was 259, against Brighton District only last season, indicative of the Peter Robertson Oval wicket in recent seasons, where high scoring games have become the norm.