By Mikayla van Loon
Every year for two weeks in early January some of the Ringwood and District Cricket Association’s (RDCA) best players represent the area competing against districts from across metropolitan Melbourne.
This year, the RDCA fielded 10 teams across all age groups in the Victorian Metropolitan Cricket Union Representative Carnival.
RDCA junior chairman Sean Flynn said overall, five teams were successful in making the semi finals on Thursday 12 January, while two went on to the grand finals.
The under 14 boys came out winners in the Russell Alan Shield against the South Eastern Cricket Association on Sunday with some great run partnerships seeing them finish 7/186.
In a dream left and right hand opening partnership between Yuvraj Sharma and captain Charlie Moore, the pair were able to hit 52 from 85 balls which included three boundaries and a six and 61 from only 54 balls, including 10 boundaries and a six, respectively.
Bowlers Taj Johnstone, Ezra Horneman and Xavier Noonan were unstoppable, bowling SECA out for 90 to win the day by 96 runs.
Moore walked away as player of the match, a great achievement for the captain having led the batting all throughout the tournament.
Unfortunately the under 17s girls weren’t able to hold on in the grand final on Friday with a five wicket loss after a slow start saw them 7 for 39 in the early stages.
“It’s been an excellent year for the RDCA in terms of getting five teams into the semifinals,” Flynn said.
“But it’s a bigger picture for us than that, it’s really about young boys and girls enjoying their cricket, making new friends and hopefully becoming lifelong cricketers ideally, but also just lifelong sports people.”
By bringing players together who would often compete against each other locally, Flynn said connections and friendships really start to develop outside of normal circles.
“Often each weekend they’re playing against one another but now in this scenario, they get to play with each other and especially in the girls’ space they do make a lot of really close friends,” he said.
“Our under 12 girls didn’t have a really successful Carnival in a win-loss perspective but the friendships some of those young girls made, they feel like they’ve made 10 new best friends, which is a really nice touch.
“Especially in that age group as boys and girls start to head off to begin their secondary school, the friends they make through a cricket carnival can sometimes become lifelong friends down the track.”
For those aiming higher, Flynn said the cricket carnival is a great stepping stone for perhaps representing Victoria and then Australia.
“The friendship and the camaraderie is the focus but it’s certainly a high level tournament and there’s many players who have played in these tournaments and then pushed on,” he said.
“The first calling point is to try to make the Victorian under 17 teams or the under 16 teams for the girls so we’ve got a nice little mix of representation in those carnivals this year, and hopefully then that can push on towards under 19 selections and then of course, trying to represent Victoria in open age levels.”
While players like Lily Osborn, Cooper Sticht, Alex Sheedy, Charlie Moore and Riley Foley had impressive appearances across the carnival, Flynn said it truly is a team effort to win cricket.
“Over the course of five or six games that they play, there’s so many different players who contribute to the success of the team.
“That’s a funny thing with cricket, some days, you can be a hero and the next day you’re a bit of a zero but it’s the strength of the team that shines.”
Flynn said not only does a summer carnival give players an opportunity to expand their cricket confidence and skill but takes them across the region to places outside their normal zone.
“It’s the opportunity for the boys and girls to play against and match themselves against the other elite players around metropolitan Melbourne.
“We travelled from Mornington to Werribee, down to Beaumaris and out to the Diamond Valley, so it really is a tournament for all of metropolitan Melbourne.
“For many players, it’s their first opportunity to really test themselves against the best players in Melbourne and it’s that stepping stone for them to hopefully pursue bigger and better things as they get older.”
