In Volume 1 “Long Island Cricket Club - A History”, we covered the Seasons from 1974/75 - when the Club was formed - to 1992/93 - the Club’s 19th Season. We knew at that point in time that the next few years were going to be the most successful in the Club’s existence. We had retained Brian McCue as Coach and had, prior to the start of Season 1993/94, secured two players whose reputations and abilities could do nothing but put Long Island near the top of the table in the MPCA. Robert Bedford was appointed as Captain of the 1st XI and was responsible for the top two teams, and Stephen Johnson passed on his vast knowledge throughout the Club. Just prior to the start of the Season, Peter Bedford joined his younger brother and during the Season Paul Hartle and Phil D’Agostino came over from Seaford. But I’m getting a little ahead of myself...

Season 1993/94 - A Season of Victories

To lead the Club through the Season, Alan Splatt was reappointed as President, Peter Worland was Vice President , Gordon McLeod continued as Secretary and Wayne Ross remained as Treasurer. The other members of the Committee were Bob Hough, Dale McCurdy, Jeff Roach, Roy Watts, Peter Watson, Doug Van Raay, Brian Chapman, Adam Chubb, Daniel Watts, Steve Wisniewski, Clarrie Swan, Matthew Parkinson and Mal Ritchie.

Plans for the Club’s 20th Season had commenced soon after the completion of the 1992/93 Season with the Executive meeting with Cuey to talk about the possibility of new players coming to the Club and the Club’s policy relating to newcomers - it being resolved that anybody was welcome but no guarantees were to be given. The first announcement of the Club was to effect the appointments of Brian McCue as Coach of the Club and Robert Bedford as Captain. Cuey’s feats were well known to us - we’d heard them more often than not - and he’d been our most successful leader to date with a Sub-District Premiership in 91/92, Semi-Finalists (District 1sts) in 92/93, District 2nds Premiership in 92/93 and MPCA Club Championship winners in 91/92 and 92/93. Robert was the Association’s premier batsman - touted to be the best player never to have tried District (VCA, not MPCA) Cricket, had been Captain/Coach of the Karingal Cricket Club and had led them to two Provincial Premierships and was the current MPCA Country Week captain.

In addition, Stephen Johnson - former Pines, Mornington and Rosebud Captain/Coach (He tries to keep the last one quiet!) and former MPCA Country Week captain, declared his intentions to also play with the Club. The momentum continued - training started in July - and Peter Bedford - Country Week wicketkeeper/batsman and former Karingal Captain/Coach - began training with us. There were a number of others who were rumoured to be coming but there were no appearances, Your Honour! The Season however couldn’t start quickly enough as the long and hard work and toil which had already been put in by Cuey, Rob and many senior players was starting to show that a big Season lay ahead.

New players at the Club for the 93/94 Season were -
Paul Barton, Peter Bedford (Karingal), Robert Bedford (Karingal), John Brown, Phil D’Agostino (Seaford), Ty Hanley, Paul Hartle (Seaford), Stephen Johnson (Pines), Stuart Kahle, James Khan, Ryan Lee (former Junior), Barry Mills (Chelsea RSL), Gerard Rabot (Langwarrin) and Craig Ryan (former Junior). Junior players who graduated to the seniors in 93/94 were Sam Cooper, Paul Henderson, Nathan Swan and Chris Traynor.

In addition, Junior players Leigh Batey, Matthew Burr, Dale Chubb, Ben Coates, David Collins, John Forrest, Michael Godfrey, Tom Griffiths, Grant Jefferies, Trevor Johnston, Baden McWilliams, Josh Murphy, Joel Newman, Luke Ritchie, David Smith, Joel Stevenson, Stuart Swift, Jonathon Tait, Luke Van Raay, Patrick Van Raay, Peter Wilkinson, Michael Wilson and David Wisniewski represented seniors during the Season. Season 1993/94 also saw a number of players return to the fold - Lindsay Bish Batey, Andrew Gilroy-Scott, Antony Griffin, Grant Hateley, Armin Otto, Dave Tex Phillips, Michael Mouse Scott and Bob Smith.
At the start of the Season we had seven senior teams and had no problem in filling them although a number of faces were missing from the previous Season -

Sean Bicknell, Gary Buckley (90 games, 1376 runs [HS : 130] at 22.93% & 128 wickets at 20.36%), John Denton (101 games & 152 wickets at 16.63%), Steve Fishwick (78 games & 1756 runs [HS : 107} at 25.45%), Ray Harley (136 games & 1245 runs), Dave Postie Hastings (37 games, 909 runs [HS : 104] at 34.96% & 16 wickets), Doug Heller, Grant Kellerman, Bob Martin (52 games & 1151 runs [HS : 170] at 26.77%), Ivan Meddings, Shane Oxley, Wayne Ross (206 games, 1853 runs & 299 wickets at 19.33%), Paul Colonel Rudd (43 games & 820 runs [HS : 121] at 21.50%, David Simpkin and David Splatt (533 runs at 23.17%).

The named captains were Rob Bedford (1sts), Craig Small (2nds), Kevin Ryan (3rds), Trevor Ryan (4ths), Jim Chubb (5ths), Roy Watts (6ths) and Clarrie Swan (7ths). Things didn’t pan out the way we thought and during the Season several changes were made to this line-up.

In addition to the senior teams, we fielded two Under 16 teams, three Under 14’s and two Under 12’s. Steve Wisniewski was appointed as Colts Co-ordinator and he immediately appointed Gordon McLeod in charge of the Under 16 East team, Cameron Park and Neil Kent shared the responsibilities with the 16 Central side, Doug Slug Van Raay did the Under 14 East team, Marty Kelly and Dave Simons led the 14 Centrals and Jeff Boag and Nathan Ross controlled the 14 Wests. The brothers Worland had charge of one Under 12 team and the ever-reliable Graham Cox supervised and pampered the other team.

With all that in place, let the Season begin...

Round 1

Round 2

KOOKABURRA Knockout Cup - Round 1
Long Island 9/230 (D.Van Raay 34, C.Park 38, S.Meddings 33, R.Bedford 52no) defeated Sorrento 9/146 (N.Kent 3/53)

Melbourne Cup Weekend 1993 celebrated the launch of Volume 1 of this Club’s History with a number of former players returning to the Club to the various functions organised - the book being officially launched by the Mayor of Frankston - Cr Maryanne Meehan. Former players who attended during the weekend were co-founders Colin Munro and Andy Gilroy-Scott, former Coach Rob Dean, former President Rob Kent, former Secretaries Russell Wealands and Steve Reynolds, former Treasurer “Nobby” Brown, Life Members Ray Vivian and Les Thomas and ex-players Bish Batey, Max Burrows, Wayne & Richard Carter, David Dodson, Steve Fishwick, Antony & Trevor Griffin (with Adrian), Justin Groves, Les Munro, Ron Murphy, Armin Otto, Ross Penberthy, Tex Phillips, Lucky Phil Pollard, Danny Quinn, Geoff & Mark Ridgway, Roger Vivian and Mark Webb.

Round 3

Round 4

KOOKABURRA Knockout Cup - Round 2
Long Island 8/231 (C.Park 85, N.Kent 53) defeated Mornington 7/230

Round 5

KOOKABURRA Knockout Cup - Round 3
Long Island 1/113 (C.Park 47, P.Conell 36no) defeated Rye 109 (P.Hartle 3/32)

In December 1993 the MPCA hosted the Victorian Secondary Schools Sports Association’s Under 16 Cricket Championships. Teams came from all areas of the State and played during the first week of December. The Long Island Cricket Club should be extremely proud of its efforts during these Championships - Club members went almost to extremes to ensure that these Championships succeeded - Wayne Ross was the Co-ordinator, the Club hosted Team Officials on the first night and a magnificent spread was put on by Helen Van Raay and Rhonda Smith, the Club put on a Barbecue for all players who were being billetted by Club members (Gordon ensured that Equal Oppotunity Requirements were met by having the Mornington Peninsula players in attendance) and again Helen and Rhonda were to the fore, Roy Watts and Theo Van Raay spent a great week at a Frankston Motel with 30 lads and Brian McCue and Jenny Williams hosted teams each night where the menu never seemed to change - a spa with pizza!
On the playing side the Long Island Club provided four representatives - John Forrest, Ben Coates, Trevor Johnston and David Wisniewski. The team won the Championships and all LICC players did well. Around the same time Baden McWilliams, Stuart Swift, Luke Van Raay, Leigh Batey, Peter Wilkinson and Joel Stevenson played in Under 16 & Under 14 games against West Gippsland. In addition Steve Meddings, Gary Measham and Kieran Worland played for the Mornington Peninsula Zone in the Coca-Cola Under 21 Championships and while they were given very little to do, they gained experience, even if it was an insight into Colin Bowes!

Round 6

Round 7

Round 8

KOOKABURRA Knockout Cup - Semi-Final
After the first try at playing this game was washed out we came back a week later when far better conditions prevailed. Baxter won the toss and batted. The wickets were shared and at no time did Baxter get on top - Arnie and Dagga started things off well then Park, Johnson and Cuey kept the pressure on.

While it wasn’t a formaility, particularly after the loss of Park and Slug , Potto, Arnie, Doc and the Bedfords made sure that there were no hiccups and that our Grand Final berth was secure - it certainly was and we couldn’t wait!

Long Island 5/186 (P.Conell 30, P.Hartle 46, G.Vose 39no, R.Bedford 31no) defeated Baxter 184 (P.Hartle 2/30, P.D’Agostino 2/31, S.Johnson 2/47, B.McCue 2/39)

KOOKABURRA Knockout Cup - Grand Final
Playing in our first Grand Final of the MPCA’s Knockout Cup, we met Karingal at the picturesque R.M.Hooper Oval. Craig Symons (Karingal) won the toss and sent us in on a magnificent, but hot day. Park and Conell put on 57 in pretty quick time and the Bedfords and Kent hit out to give us the very competitive total of 219. Our bowlers made a pretty ordinary start but a change of ends put a differnt complexion on the game. Karingal looked good at times but the bowlers and fielders continued to put the lid, then the sealer, on and at the end of the day they were 32 runs short.

Round 9

U13 Twilight Competition

1	U13 Twilight	Long Island 3/84 J.DeZilva 20rtno, C.Prince 20rtno v Karingal 7/66 S.Coates 2/1
2	U13 Twilight	Long Island 3/144 S.Coates 23rtno, C.Prince 22rtno, L.Van Raay 20rtno, J.DeZilva 20rtno, B.Cordner 20rtno v Mt Eliza 3/97
3	U13 Twilight	Long Island 4/108 M.Law 22rtno, B.Coates 20rtno v Baxter 7/114 C.Prince 2/7

Round 10

Round 11

Long Island had all Junior Teams in the Finals - unfortunately it poured lions and dingos (much heavier than cats and dogs) and there was no play whatsoever in the Semi-Finals. This meant that the Under 16 Centrals, the Under 14 Centrals and the Under 14 Wests were all eliminated from the Finals race without a ball being delivered in anger, as each of these teams had finished below their opponents at the end of the Home and Home Rounds. The Under 16 and Under 14 East teams however went straight into the Grand Final.

Under 16 East Grand Final
We played Pearcedale which batted first, and while we found it difficult to break through initially, when we did it was like a procession. Paddy was simply great and never let up for the entire innings. Their score of 156 was gettable, but it was also defendable. We got off to a good start with Wizza and Sam doing nicely but we seemed to get “stage fright” towards the end and at one stage we were in deep trouble, but Mike Godfrey and David Smith were excellent and we won it without the need of Chubby’s batting prowess.

The Under 14’s met the strong Delacombe Park team and batted first but lost our top 3 bats pretty cheaply. Leigh Batey, Sam Coates and Joel Stevenson were terrific - we managed 168 but knew that the lightning surface would make it difficult to defend. The Delacombe Park team batted sensibly and took the game with 6 wickets in hand.

The Under 16 East team remained undefeated for the Season and was well looked after by Steve Wisniewski and Gordon McLeod. That four players were selected for the Schoolboys team and also for the Frankston Peninsula Cricket Club in the Dowling Shield competition showed the strength of this team. Cameron Park and Neil Kent looked after the Central team - there were occasions that the team played with less than 11 players and to the credit of the Managers they were always philosophical (even though they may have been fuming inside). The team’s top player was Jon Tait but unfortunately we won’t see any more of him as the family has moved interstate.

Good performers for the Season were -

Runs
Dave Wisniewski (466 at 66.57), John Forrest (287 at 41.00%), Jon Tait (267 at 38.14%), Ben Coates (234 at 47.20%), Craig Hill (192 at 48.00%) and Baden McWilliams (169 at 21.13%).
Wickets
Baden McWilliams (14 at 10.21), John Forrest (14 at 10.79%), Michael Wilson (14 at 16.14%), Patrick Van Raay (12 at 11.83%), Luke Ritchie (11 at 12.82%), Stuart Swift (11 at 15.45%), David Smith (10 at 10.00%) and Jon Tait (10 at 13.70%).

The three Under 14 teams performed excellently with the East team being undefeated until the Grand Final. Doug Van Raay was in charge, originally helped by Lindsay Batey, but for most of the Season by Gerard Rabot. Of the players Josh Murphy had an exceptional Season averaging 119.33% with the bat and Luke Van Raay, David Collins and Leigh Batey were all good. The Central team unearthed some talent and many of the players will remain in Under 14’s next Season. Dave Simons and Marty Kelly did a great job. The Wests were added to the competition filling a BYE in that Grade, struggled early but in Mark Heller they were very competitive. Jeff Boag and Nathan Ross performed their task with good humour.

Good performers were -

Runs
Josh Murphy (358 at 119.33%), Mark Heller (261 at 26.10), Luke Van Raay (234 at 26.00%), David Collins (226 at 32.29%), Shane McDonald (182 at 18.20%), Adam Collins (165 at 27.50%) and Leigh Batey (162 at 23.14%).
Wickets
Chad Wilson (16 at 7.69%), Leigh Batey (15 at 9.00%), Brad Jenkins (15 at 9.00%), Luke Van Raay (15 at 9.93%), Mark Heller (13 at 10.38%), Jarrod De Zilva (13 at 10.85%), Baron Grant (12 at 9.83%), Marcus Law (11 at 10.73%), Peter Wilkinson (11 at 14.91%) and Joel Stevenson (10 at 17.30%).

Forty-six players represented the Club in the Under 12’s and this Grade is used to teach the players all about the game. The teams were looked after by the Worland brothers - David and Kieran - and Graham Cox.

Top efforts were produced by Chris Buddha Hocking (192 runs), Adam Poole (110 runs & 13 wickets) and Mark Tyas (11 wickets). Buddha and Adam also did well in the field with 10 and 9 catches for the Season.

Senior Semi-Finals
The 1sts having finished in second position played Langwarrin and the game went to the wire. We batted first and after a slow start the score accelerated briskly with Rob Bedford, Arnie, Cam Park and Striker Kent pushing the total along. Langwarrin’s chase didn’t start too well and at 7/147 we were in the box seat however like our middle to late order Langy decided that there was an urgent need to attack, and attack they did - in fact a Long Island win looked bleak however the experience of Cuey and the pace of Arnie saw us into the Grand Final.

Long Island 9/226 (R.Bedford 57, P.Hartle 42, N.Kent 27, C.Park 29) defeated Langwarrin 215 (B.McCue 2/99, P.Hartle 6/54)

The 2nds met Hastings and after the first day’s play in which we scored 279 things were looking good for an early finish, however the Hastings players fought the game right out and the game was just what we needed before the showdown against Seaford in the Grand Final.

Long Island 9/279 (A.Wright 70, G.Lamb 30, S.McLeod 57, P.Conell 57) defeated Hastings 247 (D.Watts 4/49, G.Lamb 3/70)

The 3rds batted first against Langwarrin and with our top bats struggling we desperately needed a few players to stand-up - Stuart Doolan, Gordon McLeod, Gerard Rabot and Adrian Rodrigues did and we reached 195. Nuggett and Jeff Boag had the Langy bats on the back foot early but at 4/115 they had recovered enough to make it an up-hill struggle. Trees and John Forrest then combined to collect the last 6 wickets for 32 runs and a place in the Grand Final.

Long Island 195 (S.Doolan 37, G.McLeod 39, G.Rabot 23, A.Rodrigues 26)
defeated Langwarrin 147 (K.McCluskey 2/34, G.Palmer 3/41, J.Forrest 4/30)

The 4ths met Balnarring and for once our openers were not able to make an impression. Nathan Ross was introduced and immediately restricted the runs and with wickets falling we soon had them 6/112 and although they recovered to 199 it was a gettable total. Unfortunately we only had the Wisniewski clan capable to get runs and we went down by 62 runs.

Long Island 137 (G.Measham 22, D.Wisniewski 33, S.Wisniewski 22) lost to Balnarring 199 (K.Worland 2/32, N.Ross 4/63)

Our 6ths just scrambled into the Finals but met the top team Mt Martha. Our bats struggled and it looked like an early finish at 9/76 however Paddy and Nathan Swan had other ideas and we ended up scoring 143. Mt Martha slumped to 4/44 with Peter Worland at his menacing best but they got away from us and at 6/130 it looked a formality - ENTER Paddy Van Raay and all of a sudden they’re 9/142. Unfortunately they got the 2 runs just prior to the 10th wicket falling.

Long Island 143 (P.Van Raay 26, N.Swan 40) lost to Mt Martha 144 (P.Worland 5/34, B.McWilliams 2/54, P.Van Raay 3/1)

The 7ths also had a hard one playing a pretty handy Carrum Downs unit. We batted first and struggled to 8/138 aided by 39 extras. We didn’t have a lot to defend but the bowlers were superb - Chappie taking 2/39 off 27 overs and the skipper putting himself forward and doing well. Our score wasn’t quite enough.

Long Island 8/138 (G.Strong 22) lost to Carrum Downs 8/140 (B.Chapman 2/39, D.Collins 2/17, C.Swan 3/60)

With three senior teams in the Grand Finals - 1sts, 2nds and 3rds - the Long Island Cricket Club had the opportunity to make MPCA history - no Club had won each of the first 3 Grades. Added to this our wins in the KOOKABURRA Knockout Cup and the Under 16 and 14 East Premierships . To win three senior Premierships would mean Bill Foley’s statement following the Knockout Cup would have indeed been prophetic : “You bastards have won everything”.

GRAND FINALS
Our record in the 3rd XI Grade over the past few Seasons has been sensational - after struggling for a number of Seasons without a victory Alan Splatt took over the captaincy and a couple of experienced (and brilliant) players teamed together with a number of up-and-comers and we finished fourth in 89/90 (after tieing in the Semi-Final with the eventual Premiers), winning the Flag in 90/91 and being runner-up in 91/92 & 92/93.
In this game we played Mt Martha and with Nuggett and Trees in form we only had to chase 126 and this was made relatively simple after Stuart and “Wizza” put on 84 for the 1st wicket. They called a halt when we had reached 6/184.

Our 2nd XI had won three Premierships in the past six Seasons, the first two in Sub-District. During the Season we lost only one game and we had beaten Seaford quite comfortably. Seaford batted first and scored 191 after being 4/32 and in all sorts against Digger and while they recovered we were always confident that we could get the runs required, and certainly after Aaron and Greg put on 66 for the 1st wicket. At 5/142 there was a little concern but the skipper and Digger were terrific and we reached the total with 5 wickets in hand. Surprisingly they gave it away with another day’s play to come - still we didn’t argue.

The 3rd XI Grand Final scores were -

Scores of the 2nd XI Grand Final were -

This was the third time that we were to play off for a chance to be promoted to the Provincial Grade of the MPCA. The first time was in 77/78 when we met Flinders, batted first to be soon in desperate trouble only to have Colin Munro and George Griffiths get us out of the mire and in fact put us in a winning position. When we bowled we had them 5/45 chasing 195 but Bruce Commons and John Dignan both scored centuries and that first dream was shattered. In 1984/85 we played Baden Powell and thanks to a brilliant century by Nobby Brown and a fighting 44 by Potto we ran up 224. They passed us with 1 wicket in hand, and Mark Ridgway bowled brilliantly for 6 wickets, not including John Pearson - 1st ball caught in slip but given “not out” - in the middle of their innings, from whence we would have been cruising - Pearson incidentally scored a half-century. That was the second time that our dream failed to come to fruition. On this occasion we were playing Mt Martha - a very good combination confident of victory. We reckoned however that we had the side capable of making our 20th year one to remember, and remember fondly.

Mt Martha batted first and throughout the first day struggled for runs, and it was only late in the day when Wayne Bowes and Bill Saker got on top of the bowling and the runs flowed at a fair rate. At stumps on the first day they were 4/171 with 33 overs still to be faced. Dagga and Steve Johnson had opened the attack and Cam Park and Cuey had stemmed the run flow - Cuey in fact had kept the lid right on to the extent that none of their bats were prepared to raise the ball above ground level. Dagga and Arnie opened the attack on Day 2 and in 13 overs the innings was completed - D’Agostino 3/51 and Hartle 6/50. We started disastrously with Matt Parkinson being removed by a brute ball from Wilson but Cam Park and Slug, the Doc and Rob Bedford put us well into contention. With their removal and then Arnie copping a dubious one we struggled for the last 30 minutes in “survival mode”. The final day was a beauty, resuming at 6/158 and the score crept through the 160’s, 170’s and the 180’s without mishap. At 192 Peter Bedford departed and 4 runs later Johnno took two steps down the wicket and was invited by the Umpire to retire to the pavilion. The very next ball Dagga set off for a leg bye only to see the finger pointed skywards and the score was a precarious 9/196 - 4 runs to win. Cuey strode to the wicket with all of the confidence of a number 11 batsman who knows that the last man was dismissed on the last ball of the over. Striker was facing Wilson who was at his menacing best - during the over he struck the ball to point and set off for a run - Cuey sent him back - the ball was thrown at the stumps - it missed - no-one at square leg, an easy run, maybe two - the keeper (Pallas) chased it and in one movement threw at the stumps to which Cuey was running (wonder why?)- missed again - by at least 5 metres and raced to the boundary. Striker had hit a six to win the Grand Final!

 

So Long Island had made MPCA history - its first three teams winning Premierships, a feat never before achieved by a MPCA Club, and to a lesser extent Bill Foley’s words had become true. Our ambition when we first started the Club 20 years ago - to play Provincial Cricket - was to be fulfilled in the 1994/95 Season.

At the end of the Season Life Membership was awarded to Helen Van Raay - a true tower of strength at the Club ever since young Slug joined the Club, and while her spirit seems to sag at times (usually following helpful "suggestions" from me!) she is always good for an argument (only joking), and never ceases to amaze with her capacity to work and organise.

Player of the Season was Rob Bedford, Brian McCue won the President’s Trophy, Mal Ritchie was Best Clubman, David Collins and Steve Griffin shared the Gordon McLeod Medal and Greg Lamb took out the Peter Worland Award as the Best Under 21 player in the Club.

During the Season the Club’s leading performers were -

Runs
Robert Bedford 770
Peter Bedford 500
Kevin Ryan 455
Greg Lamb 433
Aaron Wright 421
Peter Conell 397
Peter Addicoat 394
Stuart Doolan 392
Stuart McLeod 381
Roy Watts 365
Richard Hall 339
Barry Mills 317
Geoff Palmer 296
Ben Coates 279
Jim Chubb 276
Doug Van Raay 271
Craig Small 266
Bob Hough 262
Gordon McLeod 259
Paul Hartle 257
Matthew Parkinson 244
Chris Burke 235
Bob Smith 225
Daniel Watts 219
Steve Nennstiel 208
Joel Newman 207

Wickets
Steve Griffin 41
Paul Hartle 37
Dave Simons 34
Kieran Worland 33
Geoff Palmer 32
Adrian Rodrigues 29
Jeff Boag 25
Peter Worland 25
Dale McCurdy 25
Phil D’Agostino 23
Cameron Park 21
Paul Roach 21
Brian Chapman 20
Grant Hateley 20
Brian McCue 20
Stuart Swift 20

Catches/Run Outs
Kevin Ryan 35
Peter Bedford 29
Gerard Rabot 20
David Worland 15
Trevor Johnston 14
Mark Sargant 13
Neil Kent 11
Robert Bedford 10
Bob Bowden 10
David Collins 10
Marty Kelly 10
Stuart McLeod 10
Steve Meddings 10

No doubt the highlight of this magnificent Season was the Club’s unprecedent performances throughout the Season, culminating in the District 1st XI Premiership, the District 2nd XI Premiership, the Premiership in the “A” Grade and victory in the KOOKABURRA Knockout Cup. A highlight which I won’t forget however is the sight of the Club’s “father figures” on the Melbourne Cup weekend.