February 23, 2007 – the day that after more than 200 games since its last success, Bendigo finally ended 54 years without a coveted Melbourne Country Week Provincial Group title.

But not before the weather gods had threatened to conspire against Bendigo in the dying stages in what would have been the most cruelest of circumstances at Seymour’s Kings Park.

Kings Park in Seymour?

It was a Melbourne Country Week carnival with a difference in 2007.

It was hosted by Seymour after Melbourne was deemed unsuitable because of water restrictions and the poor state of metropolitan grounds due to the drought.

Which makes it all the more ironic that the rare sight of rain in early 2007 almost brought Bendigo – which had lost its previous eight Provincial Group finals – undone against Mornington-Peninsula.

With 9-167 on the board after captain Heath Behrens won the toss and batted, Bendigo looked to be closing in on a long-awaited victory when Mornington-Peninsula had crashed from 3-114 to 8-135 after 44 overs.

But then – after it had been threatening for the previous hour – rain started to fall and at 5.02pm with Bendigo just two wickets from victory, players were forced from the ground.

As the rain tumbled down heavier, tension among the Bendigo players and support staff grew as a washed out draw would have resulted in victory to Mornington-Peninsula after the purple caps finished on top of the ladder.

The drama as the rain fell was superbly captured by former Bendigo Advertiser photographer Brendan McCarthy.

There’s a shot of a despondent coach Wayne Walsh on his own, head bowed sitting on the bench; captain Heath Behrens with his left hand clasped across his face pondering perhaps a lost opportunity; plus a shot of Matt Pinniger, Daniel Schmidt, Behrens and Nic Balic looking on helplessly.

However, after a 20-minute delay the rain cleared, the covers were whisked off and what had loomed as a gut-wrenching end to the week turned into elation for Bendigo as Ben DeAraugo took just five balls to claim the last two wickets to bowl Mornington-Peninsula out for 136 and rid Bendigo of a chokers tag that had plagued it for five decades.

In what was a sign of things to come on the grand final stage in later years for Strathdale-Maristians, DeAraugo produced a man-of-the-match performance

He snared 5-14 off 6.5 overs, with his match-winning wicket the dismissal of Mornington-Peninsula No.11 Lyle House (0).

“I hadn’t won a premiership in any senior sport, so this is just fantastic, especially to break such a big drought,” DeAraugo – who also took 5-15 against Kyabram the previous day – said after the match. 

The 31-run win was the first Provincial Group crown for Bendigo since Bill Lienhop’s team beat Leongatha-Stony Creek by five wickets in 1953.

With the star-studded team Bendigo assembled, if it couldn’t win the title in 2007 with the likes of Behrens, Pinniger, Tony Taig, Phil Hetherington, Andrew Smith, Craig Howard, Balic and DeAraugo, you had to wonder if it ever would again.

Bendigo ended the carnival undefeated. In all five games Bendigo had a bowler take at least five wickets, starting with Balic’s superb 7-13 on a day one rout of Sale-Maffra by 160 runs.

Taig (101) also made a ton on day one, while two days later Hayden Polgalse scored an unbeaten 100 in a hard-fought nine-run win over arch-rivals Ballarat.

The victorious squad included Grant Connelly, who had family lineage back to the 1953 squad. His second uncle, Jack Connelly, had been a member of Lienhop’s winning team.

The grand final featured a knock of 61 from Hetherington and 34 from Behrens, with the pair adding a steadying 51 for the third wicket after Bendigo had been on the ropes early at 2-9.

“We came here on a mission this week and to the boys’ credit we have just played exceptional cricket all week,” Behrens – Bendigo’s greatest Melbourne Country Week run-scorer with 1637 – said amid the euphoria.

“We knew it was a good side we brought over here, and that if we applied ourselves the right way, which we did, we knew we could go the whole journey.”

An emotional coach Walsh in his fifth year at the helm dedicated the victory to the memory of the late BDCA great John Turner, who had been a strong advocate of Country Week cricket up until his death in 2005.

“I know the great man upstairs Jock Turner will be proud of me and all the boys,” Walsh said.

“Something I promised myself when he passed away was that I wouldn’t let this go until I achieved it and now I have.”

The memorable 2007 triumph is among five Provincial Group titles Bendigo has won, along with 1925, 1952, 1953 and three years later in 2010.

• BDCA’s winning 2007 squad:

Heath Behrens © – 133 runs.

Hayden Polglase – 160 runs, 2 wickets.

Matt Pinniger – 153 runs.

Tony Taig – 152 runs.

Phil Hetherington – 119 runs.

Grant Connelly – 88 runs.

Andrew Hosking – 79 runs.

Andrew Smith – 63 runs, 3 wickets.

Craig Howard – 23 runs, 7 wickets.

Ben DeAraugo – 20 runs, 12 wickets.

Daniel Schmidt – 3 runs, 9 wickets.

Anthony Walshe – 1 run, 1 wicket.

Marcus Smalley.

• 2007 results:

Monday  – 7-216 (T. Taig 101) d Sale-Maffra 56 (N. Balic 7-13).

Tuesday – 175 (H. Behrens 30) d Warrnambool 123 (D. Schmidt 5-25).

Wednesday –  3-241 (H. Polglase 100*) d Ballarat 232 (C. Howard 5-49). 

Thursday – 9-221 (G. Connelly 47) d Kyabram 9-164 (B. DeAraugo 5-15).

Friday, grand final – 9-167 (P. Hetherington 61) d Mornington-Peninsula 136 (B. DeAraugo 5-14).