BLACKBURN SOUTH CRICKET CLUB HISTORY

1966/1967 Club formed by Ross Knight, Senior Master at Blackburn South High School. U14 & U16 sides entered in BHRDCA. Ron Fyfe was the first president. First Game was on 1 October 1966.

1969/1970 First senior team entered into D Grade. 1st XI lost in the Grand Final of C2.

1970/1971 1st XI was promoted to C2 grade, 2 senior and 2 junior teams. 1st XI lost in the Grand Final of C2

1971/1972 1st XI Premiers in the C2 grade. 

1972/1973 3 senior teams entered

1979/1980 Bob Dingle appointed as Playing Coach.  B Grade premiers. Home is ground at Halliday Park in Mitcham due to re-construction works at Blackburn South High School.

1983/1984 Exclusive use of 3 ovals at Mirrabooka. E. Zareba appointed Playing Coach. Premiers in A2 & B2 grades. A1 & C grade runners-up.

1984/1985 “New” temporary clubrooms delivered. 8 senior sides entered, 4 make the finals. A1 grade loses Grand Final after making 407.

1985/1986 A1 & B2 sides are premiers, 7 senior sides entered, 5 play in finals.

118 players used. First “Sportsman’s Night” & Cup Day functions held. First X1 promoted to Shield Grade.

1986/1987 D1 grade premiers, 8 senior teams, 126 players used.

“Sportsman’s Night No.2” held.

1987/1988 No senior teams make finals.  U16’s runners-up.

7 senior teams, 116 players. Last “Sportsman’s Night No.3” held.

1988/1989 6 senior teams, 97 players used. Only 1 team in finals.

1989/1990 5 senior teams. A2 premiers. 71 players used. First XI finish 5th for the 5th year in a row.

1991/1992 W. Ibbot appointed Coach. 5 senior sides, 3 make the finals. 63 players used.

2000/2001 A. Duncan appointed Playing Coach. Junior teams resurrected after a 9-year absence. 3 senior teams. 47 senior players used.

2001/2002 1st XI lost Grand Final to Eley Park. 3 senior teams, 56 players used. Merger talks mooted with Eley Park.

2005/2006 1st XI lost Grand Final to Koonung Heights. 4 senior teams, 70 players used. C. Harper appointed as Captain/Coach of 1st XI. 5 junior teams entered plus Under 10’s and Milo Cricket squad were formed.

2006/2007 1st XI again lost the Grand Final this time to Burwood District. 4 senior teams, 3 made the Grand Final, all lost. C. Harper continued as Captain/Coach of the 1st XI. 6 junior teams, 3 made semi-finals.  U10 & Milo continued. C. Harper & J De Haas win Competition averages.

2007/2008 C. Harper continues as Captain/Coach. No senior teams make the finals. 3 junior teams make finals with U16A’s and U12C’s reaching the Grand Final.

2008/2009 M. Webb appointed Captain/Coach. 8 out of 9 teams make the Finals with 4 reaching the Grand Final (A1, U18, U16b, and U12c). Seniors lose the GF by 7 runs, U18’s by 20 runs, U16’s by 1 wicket and the U12’s tie. Rebecca Magee becomes the first female senior player at BSCC.

2009/2010 C. Harper re-appointed as Captain/Coach. Senior 1st XI win the flag in a canter losing only 1 wicket in passing Kerrimuir United. 2 of the 3 remaining senior teams make the finals but lose in the semis. 4 junior teams out of 6 also lose in the semis. 70 players used in seniors.

2010/2011 1st XI were promoted to the McIntosh Shield Grade after winning the Wilson Shield the year previously and finish the season with 4 wins to retain their place in McIntosh Shield for another year, C2 (3rd XI) lose semi-final, other senior teams fail to flatter. P. Black appointed non-playing Coach. U14 & U16 sides win their respective Grand Finals.

2011/2012 1st XI become first BSCC team to make the Shield finals before losing to Vermont in the Semi Finals. A. Hone appointed Coach. 3rd XI (c2 side) loses also at the semi-final stage. No junior teams make Finals.  First 20/20 side entered into the newly created Tuesday Night 20/20 competition in the BHRDCA. 

2012/2013 1st XI make the McIntosh Shield finals for the second year running, after getting even with Vermont from last year’s Semi-Finals loss thanks to 155 from Scott Edwards, they can’t get the job done in the Shield Final against Heatherdale losing by 3 wickets.  20/20 side make the Semi-Final before losing to Bulleen-Templestowe. 4th XI (E grade) and Under 16 teams win the grand-final. Under 12C make but lost the grand-final.  Luke Robinson becomes the first overseas import to play for the club.

2013/2014 1st XI goes through some personnel changes with 8 players from the Shield Final side not returning from the previous season, but the first XI still won 4 games to retain their spot in the McIntosh Shield Grade for another year.  S Alderton appointed as Captain/Coach with only the 3rd XI making the semi-finals for the seniors, as youth players become a focus at BSCC.  5 out of the 6 junior sides made Semi Finals, with the U14 (C grade) making the Grand Final.

2014/2015 1st XI appoints their youngest captain ever in Anthony Giuliano, and though it hasn’t been confirmed we are led to believe that Anthony was the youngest captain ever in the 125 years of the BHRDCA.  All senior sides struggled for consistency and because of this no senior sides made the finals.  U14 1st XI and U16 make the finals for the Juniors with the U14 side coached by Ian Kent and Justin Lui wining the Grand final after finishing in 4th place.

Our 1st XI t20 Side won three of their five pool games and feel over the line in the Semi-Finals against Templestowe before losing the t20 final to Box Hill North Super Kings by 60 runs

BHRDCA put their first ever all female representative side in the January Junior Carnivals and Blackburn South’s own Ashling O’Farrell represented our club and was part of the winning side too with the first ever shield for this age group.

2015/2016 2015/2016 saw the reappointments of Anthony Giuliano as 1st XI captain and Cain Harper returned to the fold to be a non-playing senior coach for the club.  Again, the promotion of younger captains continued with Chris Edwards appointed as captain of our 2nd XI in A Grade. 

A number of senior players put up their hands to be involved in coaching junior teams for the club.  6 players being involved with junior sides, which is always encouraging that these players are willing to be involved in the next generation of cobra’s players.  

On the field after a slow start, our first XI just missed out on making the finals by a few points even though they registered 7 wins for the season (it is not often you win 7 games and miss out on the finals).  The only other senior side to make finals was the one-day side who after dominating for the majority of the season stumbled in the semi-finals to the eventual winner of the grade.  For the first time in 7 seasons we fielded two under 16’s teams. 

Our 1st XI t20 Side won three of their five pool games to qualify for the semi-finals, only to lose to Box Hill North Super Kings by 25 runs 

Our two u14 teams, one playing on Friday night’s and the other on Saturday mornings, both making the finals.  Unfortunately, the Saturday u14 were outclassed in their semi-final and the Friday Night u14’s missed out in their grand final.  Considering that both of these teams finished near the bottom in the previous season it was good to see the turnaround, also the majority of these boys were playing in their first ever cricket finals. Well done.

We also had an under 12’s, two under 10’s and a Milo/t20 participants having a go program,

2016/2017  The 2016/17 season shall be known we were close but couldn’t get the results we needed.  Just like the Richmond Football Club’s is known for finishing 9th, BSCC had 4 teams finish 5th and they all had their chances in the final round to cement a place in the top 4 but results didn’t go our way.  BSCC had all 4 senior teams in the top 4 for the Christmas break, but as the dust settled the 1sts finished 8th, the 2nds, 3rds and 4ths all finished 5th.  We had 7 junior teams in this season included a combined Girls team with Laburnum CC and Ashwood CC.  It was a very tough season for the juniors with the u14a’s finishing 5th and the under 14c’s losing in the semi-finals the only teams to have some success.

Batting records tumbled with Chamindu Mathra and Nayantha Weeraman both scoring double centuries.  Chamindu scored 203 not out against Kerrimuir United CC after scoring his maiden century for the club in the round before.  The innings by Chamindu was a club record for the best individual innings for the club in a 1st XI team.  His mate Nayantha Weeraman scored 201 not out the very next week vs Forest Hill CC.

Bowling at BSCC was just as good this season with 16 “5 wickets in an innings” gained by the bowlers.  This was outdone 2 juniors who got hat tricks Liam Collins from the Under 12 boys and Emma Stivle in the under 15 Anna Lanning Shield girls’ team.

Our 1st XI t20 Side won their five pool games and defended Heatherdale in the Semi-Finals before losing to our t20 finals nemesis in Box Hill North Super Kings by 9 runs

2017/2018 The 2017/2018 season saw the club set itself up for the future.  We appointed a new club captain in Mitch Fitton, who is again one of our home-grown juniors. Mitch brought renewed enthusiasm to the playing group, with Peter Alderton, Mark Lane, Anthony, Giuliano, Matt Magee and Chris Edwards in particular helping with club training. The 1st XI were inside the top four at Christmas which was an awesome achievement in a very tough competition, especially with two of our stalwarts in Jack Murphy and Jake Wilcox sidelined with season ending injuries. While we were edged out of the top four after Christmas, we took the opportunity to put a lot of first XI games into our younger players, with Alex Brennan, Paul Panayotides, Riley Blackburn and Rhys Upton, all figuring prominently. 

Our 2nd XI carried a “rock-star” like supporter base to every home and away game, which demonstrated the depth of our club extends well beyond the playing group.  Also, 2nds and 3rds also put faith into our junior ranks, and while we didn’t win every game, our club is the better for our approach.

The 4th XI was an eclectic mix of hardened, weather-beaten pros and youthful enthusiasm (guess which ones did most of the running in the field!). The boys excelled on the field and proceeded into the March finals. While they got pipped in the semi-final, it was again obvious that our club invests heavily in our youth, because we are a community-based club and our juniors are a big part of our future.  

The club entered 5 junior sides, including a girl’s side. All sides showed glimpses of brilliance. The Girls side in particular punched above their age, regularly playing sides two years older than them, yet still winning all but 2 games.  

On social side the Trivia Night and Cocktail Night were great successes. We also held the inaugural Past Players match vs Forest Hill CC on the first Sunday in January.  This match was played for the newly established Johnson/Manning Shield, with BSCC winning the first of hopefully many wins of this shield. 

2018/2019 In 2018/19 we saw a bit of change within the structure of the cobras.  At the AGM in June it was decided that we needed to split the vice president’s role into 2 functions which saw the creation of one vice president to look after the needs of the senior program and other vice president to focus on the needs of the junior program.  Also, in this season the club appointed Tim Snow as it’s coach of the senior program with Mitch Fitton continuing on as captain of the 1st XI.

The Cobras had 4 senior sides in 2018/2019 – Ray McIntosh Shield, B Grade and 2 Split Innings format teams in F Grade and H Grade.  The first XI and third XI had very up and down years finishing well outside the race for the finals and unfortunately for our first XI it will see them down a grade to the Howard Wilson Grade for the first time since the 2010/2011 season, normally our first XI would not have been relegated but with changes within the league for the 2019/2020 where they are moving to 8 teams grades meant that our first XI will be a grade lower in upcoming season.

The fourth XI had a very good year only losing 3 games for the season including their semi-final by 1 solitary wicket.  The semi-final was a up and down affair with the cobras taking a slight edge after day one, only to be outplayed in the first half of day 2, a comeback in the 2nd half of the bowling innings nearly had the team heading to the grand final but the last 2 wickets for the opposition netted 60 runs which saw the 4s lose by a wicket.  The 2nd XI must have had a guardian angel looking over them or was it that 4 leaf clover that their captain keeps in his pocket, with Brad Jones winning the toss of the coin in every single match including their semi-final game where our 2nd XI qualified for the semis for the first time since season 2008/2009.  In typical 2nd’s fashion being a side full of allrounders they saw themselves in bit of trouble with the bat many a time before 1 or 2 individual efforts gave them a competitive total to defend.  The semi-final match was no different to majority of their matches during the season in where they we defending a total that was about 30 to 40 runs a bit short of what they would have hoped for, but they had their opposition in trouble at 5/46 before 3 partnerships of 30 odd in the next 3 wickets saw the 2s lost by 3 wickets.

On the junior side the cobras had 7 juniors’ side a number of these side were combined with other clubs to allow kids to play the game they love.  For the first time since 2015/2016 we had a under 10 side and this side plus our under 12 side played in the RDCA competition, where our u14 and combined u16 sides played in the BHRDCA competition and our girls side the “Bellbirds” played in the girls only competition run by the ECA.  Having combined sides with other clubs created new challenges for the club, but it also provided new opportunities to work with other like-minded individual’s at other clubs who have their hearts in the right place in seeing the juniors develop in long term players with their club.

With had 3 teams make finals this season.  The under 12s had a dominating year only losing 2 games which one was the grand final unfortunately for them.  After being installed as coaches Rhys Upton and Alex Brennan one over the minds and spirits of the under 12 (as well as the parents/guardians) early on in the preseason and they had a philosophy that the season was 1 big game in where the batting and bowling rotations continued from the last match, rather than change the orders up each game they had a set rotation which started in the next game where it finished in the previous game no matter who the opposition was and they philosophy didn’t change in the finals as well.

2 of the under 16 sides made finals, the A grade side combined with Laburnum CC on a Friday night made the semi-final and in a very hot 2 days at the end of February they trekked up to Park Orchards to take on the top of the table team in this grade.  After having their opposition in a bit of trouble at 4/121 they steadied to make 6/210 off their allocated overs, in reply it could have not gone worse for this side when they started off at 3/26, but a 97 run partnership for the 4th wicket nearly saved the day but after losing 4 wicket for 10 runs this stunted the fightback, but this team put on respectable 169 in reply.  The Saturday B side was the gem of the under 16 teams this season when they made the grand final, a team the was combined with Forest Hill come together just before the season and slowing builded momentum throughout the season.  They had some awesome highlights throughout the season, but the biggest highlight was when Ethan Prabaharan made his maiden century in the last game of the home and away season.  The semi-final was a up and down affair because when 1 team looked like they were in control the other team would fight back.  Our team made 215 off their allotted overs and their opposition looked down and out for the count at 5/148 with 10 overs remaining, but just like the theme of the game they fought back, but fell 5 runs short, so on to the grand final.  The game was in the balance after day one but the opposition got away from us on day 2 leaving the under 16s to chase down a total of 210 to win the game, but with wickets falling at regular intervals it meant a loss in the match, but the season was heralded a success as not many merged sides make grand finals as the coach mentioned when he address the players after the match.

2019/2020 Oh the premierships are following at the Cobra’s, 2 senior flags and 1 junior flag in this season had the club singing our song numerous times for 2019/2020.  Finally, after many heartbreaks we won a flag in the top grade of the t20 competition, our 2nd XI and Under 14’s side went through their seasons hardly losing a game on their way to glory.  It was the first time that the club had fielded 5 senior sides in 5 years and to have 4 of these teams not only make finals but also finish either 1st or 2nd on the ladder which meant that were hosting a semi-final was a tremendous achievement for the club, but to only have 1 of these sides make a grand final was a bit of a letdown, but shows the club is heading in the right direction.

On junior side the club had 5 sides plus both a Junior Blaster and Master Blaster development programs.  The club had 2 under 10 side for the first time in 5 years.  The under 14’s won their junior flag in an undefeated season

2020/2021 What a different season this was.  Starting 6 weeks later than normal due to COVID-19, all games were one day matches, training and games looked quite different early on with hand sanitising equipment never too far away, but as the season progressed it started to look more that cricket, we remember in years gone past.  On field for the 2nd year in row the club had 5 Saturday senior sides, on the junior side the club had 4 junior sides and Junior Blaster program.  The younger junior sides had a tough battle in their allocated grades but finished off the season with a couple of wins to show that we have some talented juniors currently in the ranks.  Our under 16 side sat inside the top 4 if their grade for most of the season only to lose to the eventual premiers in the semi-finals.  In the seniors our 3rd and 5th XIs were in the top 4 all season long where our 1st and 2nd XIs had to win several games post the Christmas break to wrap a finals spot, unfortunately only our 4th XI was the only Saturday senior side to miss out of finals.  The 2nd and 3rd Xis were able to win their semi-finals to make their respective grands finals that were one day matches played over 2 days in March due to weather that rained out their finals.  The 3rd XI fell 52 runs, but our 2nd XI thanks to some good middle to lower order batting for the 2nd year in a row won their Grand Final.  With t20 sides the club decided to enter 2 sides due to restrictions that training had with COVID regulations.  Both teams made their respective grades grand finals with the 1st team setting a promising 214 runs off their 20 overs only to see this run down in the 18th over, but the 2nd XI bowled exceptionally well to set a very chasable target of 102 which was done with ease in this teams undefeated season.