On Friday the 1^st of February we hosted the 2019 Presidents Lunch. Judging by the comments of many guests (even after the event, on Saturday) everyone enjoyed the event and that made it a really great day. It was also an opportunity to showcase our Club and of course thank our many sponsors – without their support it would be difficult to fund our cricket program.

Matthew Campbell hosted as our MC and we gained some valuable insight on the world of AFL Coaches from Mark Brayshaw and an insight into Australian Boxing from Barry Michael. Des Dowling our comedian had the room laughing and the day was rounded off by Julie Haig with some after function music.

The catering was the highlight of the day with the Club using Ben Luckman catering for the first time and I had many guests comment on the quality of the food.

As part of my Presidents speech I spoke about the need to diversify our Club and the need to ensure we have a strong junior program if we are to be around in another 100 years. A copy of my speech is available for you below to read in full.

Of course these events don’t just happen, and I would like to thank John Wheeler for his endless work, Rosemary Wray for helping set up, Anne Marie Butterworth for her tireless work and the senior players who provided the bar/ table service, led by Declan O’ Brien.

And I would like to thank Melissa my partner for her support on the room design, posters/ tickets design and as our official photographer on the day.

Yours in cricket
Peter Young

 

President’s Address, by Peter Young

Good afternoon and thanks Matt for the introduction.

Welcome to the 2019 Spotswood Cricket Club Presidents Lunch.

We’ve got an exciting line up for you today and it’s great to see so many regular attendees and of course some new faces into our club.  Welcome to all.

I would like to take this opportunity to recognise our Club Life Members, our Club Patron (Roy Picone), Coterie Members, players and past players, friends and guests.

This event is not possible without the generous support of our Club Sponsors and I would like to recognise our function sponsor Canadian Solar who is represented here today by Hayden Fletcher, a past President and player of our Club.

I would also like to welcome our long term sponsors who are also here today, Compton and Green Real Estate represented today by Managing Director Adrian Butera and his team, Burson Auto Parts, Midas and Autobarn represented here today by Darren Hodgson from Midas Yarraville and Bill Roccella from Autobarn Altona.

I do thank our sponsors, and it is a genuine and sincere thank you, because without your support our ability to fund a sustainable cricket program would not possible.

On field, our senior teams are all vying for contention in this year’s finals series, with our T20 team in the semi-final stage of the VTCA T20 Competition.

But our future truly lies in our Junior Program and we see our greatest opportunity to develop our future junior players through programs such as the cricket academy that we are aiming to set up for the 2019/20 season.

I am also pleased to announce that we are embracing our community and have engaged with Cricket Victoria to offer a social sixes program for women and girls which is aimed at offering a pathway to our sport while also offering a fitness program as well.  We also held our first Westgate Shield competition involving boys and girls teams from local primary schools.

We can also no longer rely on our traditional base of male only players and we therefore must diversify if we are to be around in another 100 years’ time.

As an example we have partnered with the EqualPlay program, which is supported by Hobsons Bay City Council. EqualPlay encourages traditional male dominated sports to open their clubs up for all to join (in particular females).

We see the success of these programs as helping to secure the long term viability of our great club.

I’d like to make a special presentation to a long-serving member of our Club.  Joining our committee for the first time as President this year I was surprised to learn that we had a member of our committee that had served the club in a variety of roles (including club captain) for over 50 years!

It’s important to recognise our history and the people who have helped make our club great.  I would like to present our club patron, Roy Picone with a 2018/19 club shirt as recognition for his devotion to our club.

Once again, welcome to the Spotswood Cricket Club and I hope you enjoy your day.