LAST weekend’s Bendigo District Cricket Association grand final between Strathdale-Maristians and Strathfieldsaye encompassed all that the season has been.
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Entertaining, captivating, twists and turns and fittingly with the Suns winning with just two wickets and three balls to spare, went right down to the wire.
For when I look back on season 2014-15, that’s what stands out – the amount of close games that were contested.
Eight of the 10 teams were involved in at least one game decided by seven runs or less, with Kangaroo Flat and Sandhurst two teams, in particular, that provided plenty of value for money for their supporters.
The Roos played in three games decided by seven runs or less, but lost them all. What could have been.
And what about Sandhurst – in four consecutive matches from rounds five to eight the Dragons lost games by one wicket, one run, seven runs and one run.
The wooden spoon doesn’t do justice to how competitive the Dragons were, but there’s the challenge going forward – learning to win.
There was the tied game between Strathfieldsaye and Huntly-North Epsom in round nine that featured an extraordinary double from Jets captain Ben Devanny, who made 95 out of 158 and then took a club record 8-51. It seems unfair that such a performance still only warrants 3 votes in the Cricketer of the Year Award.
It was one of those tipsters nightmare seasons right from day one when Huntly-North Epsom upset Strathdale at All Seasons Oval, with the only constant being to expect the unexpected.
There was the emergence of the young guns of the competition.
Bendigo’s Nathan Fitzpatrick (115) and Kyle Chant (100); Kangaroo Flat’s Lachlan Shelton (102); Sandhurst’s Lucas Hutchinson (100); and White Hills Brayden Stepien (170) all made their maiden BDCA first XI tons.
And a not-quite-so-young-guy in Ben DeAraugo finally broke through for that first century in his 141st innings for Strathdale.
Golden Square youngsters Scott Woodman (22 wickets and missed four games); Sandhurst’s Liam Bowe (30); Strathfieldsaye’s Xavier Crone (20); and the Bendigo duo of Fitzpatrick (23) and Alex Pearson (23) showed their wares with the ball and all have bright futures ahead of them.
At the other end of the scale, the veterans of the competition also created their share of the headlines.
What an achievement by Kangaroo Flat captain Adam Burns (443 runs, 42 wickets) to win a third BDCA Cricketer of the Year, 11 years after taking it out for the first time, while Bendigo United’s Heath Behrens with 10,578 is now the all-time leading run-scorer in BDCA history, surpassing the late Leon Grose.
Sandhurst’s Craig Howard (392 runs, 28 wickets) showed he’s just as wily as ever with bat and ball; as did another old fox in Bendigo United’s Nick Crawford (34 wickets); Bendigo’s Glenn Franzi notched 300 first XI games in the BDCA; while Strathfieldsaye’s Ben Devanny (650 runs, 40 wickets) said “follow me boys” to his team-mates – and they did, all the way to the grand final.
The rise of the Jets from perennial battlers over the past decade to grand finalists was one of the stories of 2014-15, but the challenge is to back it up again next season and not just be one-hit wonders.
And what about the recruits into the competition – Eaglehawk’s Shaun Knott (38 wickets, 125 runs); Huntly-North Epsom’s Adam Ward (520 runs, 30 wickets); and White Hills’ Mitch Winter-Irving (402 runs, 18 wickets) all joined the BDCA and played for Victoria Country.
As did Eaglehawk’s Richard Tibbett, giving the BDCA four of the 13 members of the Vic Country team for the Australian Country Cricket Championships, which were superbly hosted in Bendigo during January.
There was innovation in the first ever two-day game played under lights at the QEO with a pink ball between Kangaroo Flat and White Hills in one of those games decided by seven runs or less; while four clubs celebrated flags – Strathdale (first XI); Golden Square (second XI); Strathfieldsaye (third XI); and Bendigo (Twenty20 and under-18).
Apart from the near-miss by 12 runs in the Melbourne Country Week final against Sale-Maffra last month, there wasn’t much else the BDCA could have asked from its 2014-15 season.
The gripping finish to the grand final last Sunday was just the icing on the cake.
