Scullie notches 100-game milestone

Cricket is a game of partnerships, and after playing the sport for more than 40 years Peter Scullie has made plenty of them.The Upper Loddon cricketer played his 100th Bendigo Country Week match yesterday – 37 years after his first representative match at the carnival.Scullie is not bothered by statistics and places more importance on the team’s success and the friendships he has made through cricket.“It’s just a great week, playing this long you make a lot of friends,” he said.“If you ask most of the sides that travel, they just really enjoy it.”Scullie, 56, began playing cricket as an 11-year-old at Woodstock in the mid-1960s, an association that lasted until the club folded in 2007.He stopped playing cricket until this season, after Newbridge – where he played football – kept asking him to play and he was encouraged to reach the 100-game milestone at Country Week.Scullie agreed, but rather than focus on his 100th match, he used the week to help develop his younger teammates.“I’m just trying to give these kids some help and to teach them as much as I can,” Scullie said.“It’s about team success and teaching new kids the tricks of the trade.“I don’t think they realise how hard it is. They come here full of beans, but by the end of the week they have jelly in the legs.”Scullie’s first Country Week match was in 1975 when he was 19 and he began playing consistently from 1980 onwards – accompanied by his wife, Julie, who scored for Upper Loddon for 25R years.Each year Scullie celebrates his wedding anniversary on the day of the Country Week final.“We usually go out for tea – that’s if I can still walk by the end of the week,” he said.But after multiple seasons away from cricket, Scullie has been surprised by how well he has gotten through what he thinks will be his final Country Week.“I’ve wicket-kept the whole week and had nine dismissals – six stumpings and three catches – so it’s been pretty good,” Scullie said. “Surprisingly the legs have held up.”Scullie captained Upper Loddon from the late-1980s until the mid-2000s and played in four losing finals – he missed the only Country Week win through injury.“I tore a hammy on the Thursday. I suppose it wasn’t the be all and end all, but it would’ve been nice to play in,” he said. In Scullie’s last game yesterday Upper Loddon put up a brave chase of the Northern District Colts’ 225 all out, but fell 27 runs short.