Tasmania University Cricket Club

Latest News (29th. July 2004)

A.G.M. - 2004

Dear T.U.C.C. Player / Member / Former Player / Supporter

Please find below a list of the T.U.C.C. committee and officials for season 2004/2005 resulting from the election of the new committee at last night’s Annual General Meeting.

Jon Lister was elected to the role as treasurer and we congratulate him on his appointment. Stan Davis has retired from the role of Treasurer and from the general committee. The club wishes to sincerely thank Stan for his efforts in the role of treasurer in the past few years and for his input on the committee over the past decade. Stan was awarded life membership of the club at the annual presentation dinner in 2003.

Paul McNamara joins the committee and takes up the specialist portfolio of strategy, leadership and forward planning. After a break from the committee we welcome Paul back to the fold.

Wise Lord and Ferguson has been appointed as our auditor. We thank them for their support in auditing our financial statement for the last financial reporting period.

If you are able to offer any support to the club in any capacity for the coming season we would like to hear from you.

Yours in cricket

Michael Graham-Smith
President
T.U.C.C.


PATRON: Bob Cotgrove

PRESIDENT: Michael Graham-Smith

VICE-PRESIDENT: John Paine

SECRETARY: Peter Robinson

TREASURER: Jon Lister

COMMITTEE: John Barley, Andrew Kibbey, Paul McNamara, Rodney Purves, Peter Shepherd, Tony Sim

SENIOR MEMBER: Michael Street

AUDITOR: Wise Lord & Ferguson

VICE PATRONS: S E Allen, W C R Bale, J Braithwaite, R Brown, E Stokes, G Farrell, R Jackett, A J Jauncey, P Jones, Prof D Le Grew, D McNamara, K McNamara, M H Street



President's Report

By most benchmarks season 2003/2004 must be considered to be a successful season for the club. All grades made the finals and the first XI team went through the Kookaburra Cup campaign undefeated and played off in the state final. However, as a club, we did not make the most of the opportunities presented to us as only the second grade team made it to the Grand Final losing to Clarence at the University Oval. Our young players have learnt valuable lessons about the pressures of finals cricket and one cannot help but feel that we are on the verge of a very successful period in our history. Of course, this will not happen without hard work and commitment.

Our first grade team had a good season. The bowlers were able to 'knock over' opposition teams for low totals but our batsmen struggled late in the season to chase 'gettable' totals and must work harder to get through difficult periods. There is no doubt that we have the batting talent at our club to post big totals but more application is required if we are to become a real force at finals time. Once again, we excelled in one-day cricket and went through the season undefeated. Unfortunately, the state final against Launceston at the University Oval was washed out and, as no reserve day had been scheduled, both teams were declared joint winners. Our record in the Kookaburra Cup is second-to-none. In the past 11 seasons we have played in 7 state finals and have won 4 of those state finals.

Our second-grade team had a tremendous season and was well lead by Nick Bonner and Michael Hollingsworth. The team had a healthy blend of experience and youth and given a couple of breaks could have won the final.

Third grade had a very successful season particularly in the two-day matches. The bowlers did a sterling job. However, only one batsman qualified for the averages and consequently the side often struggled to post competitive totals. Our 'Captain Courageous', Rod Purves took this team to the semi final but injuries to key players prior to this match, including the captain himself, meant we had to field an undermanned team in this match. We could not bowl out Lindisfarne, the match was drawn and Lindisfarne progressed to the final due to the fact that they finished higher on the ladder.

Once again, the Under 17 team had a good season. In fact, University and Kingborough were the stand-out teams in the Under 17 competition. School cricket claimed a lot of our players at finals time and we fielded a young and inexperienced team in the semi final. They put up a good fight but were beaten by a stronger team on the day.

Thanks to Brad Thomas, Nick Bonner, Michael Hollingsworth, Rodney Purves, Paul McNamara, Robert Jubb, Courtney Winter, Chris Morrison and Robert Hortle for their fine efforts in captaining the various teams.

Individual

At the start of the season Rhett Lockyear and Graeme Cunningham were awarded state contracts. Ben Hilfenhaus and Tim Paine won rookie contracts.

Brad Thomas was appointed captain/coach of the T.C.A. team in the Jamie Cox Plate. Several of our players competed in this competition. Rhett Lockyear, Tim Paine, Graeme Cunningham, Josh Bean and Ben Hilfenhaus all represented Tasmania in the Cricket Australia Cup during the season.

Tim Paine, Paul Ancher and Gordon Kerr were selected in the Tasmanian Under 19 team which competed in the national championships held in Brisbane during December. Tim Paine captained the team.

Tim Paine was selected as captain of the Australian Under 19 team which competed at the Under 19 World Cup in Bangladesh in February. From all reports, Tim conducted himself in a thoroughly professional manner as captain of this team and his leadership displayed maturity beyond his years.

Our club was represented by Scott Nichols and Matthew Lister at the national Under 17 carnival held in Adelaide during January.

Ben Hilfenhaus, Gordon Kerr and Tim Paine all won T.I.S. Scholarships and all played in the State and Territory Challenge in Mackay and Townsville during the 2003 off-season.

Andrew Gaggin, a former player at the club was appointed to the T.C.A. Board of Directors. Paul Lovell and Ray Brown, also former players, were appointed to the T.C.A. Grade Committee.

Nathan King was named as the runner-up in the national Johnny Walker Progress Award for his strength and courage in returning to competitive cricket after sustaining life-threatening injuries in a car accident two years ago.

University players featured strongly at the T.C.A. Grade Dinner. Graeme Cunningham capped off a fine season by winning the T.C.A. Medal. Tim Paine, Rhett Lockyear and Ben Hilfenhaus all won selection in the T.C.A. Team of the Year. Michael Hollingsworth won the T.C.A. 2nd grade batting aggregate award. Ash Winter won the Under 17 batting average award. The players at our club play the game in a fair and sporting manner and this was recognised at the T.C.A. Grade Dinner when the club won the inaugural Spirit of Cricket Award.

Tim Paine won the Best Young Player of the Season Award at the Tasmanian Tigers Dinner.

Junior Development

Our junior development programme continued to thrive. The Milo® Have-A-Go programme was enjoyed by many enthusiastic juniors. Many thanks to Gordon Kerr, Tim Steven, Ronan Fenton and Sam Perkins who assisted in the running of this programme. Our club also fielded a team in the TCA Under 15 competition, a team in the TCA Metro Youth League Under 15 competition and a team in the TCA Metro Youth League Under 13 competition.

Without the support of our parents and senior players who take on the roles as scorers, team managers and umpires for our junior teams we would not be able to field teams. Thank you to Ronan Fenton and Sam Perkins for managing the Under 13 team and Richard Dobosz, John Burgess and Paul Lovell for their assistance.

Thank you to Gordon Kerr, Tim Steven, Nick Grubb and Sam Perkins for managing the Under 15 teams and Peter Robinson, Mick Hortle, Malcolm Brown, Simon Allen, Ian Ritchie, Mick Arnold, Martin Collidge and Paul Boxsell for their assistance with the Under 15 teams.

Thank you to Andrew Jackett for coaching and managing the Under 17 team and Michael Roach, John Perry and Peter Robinson for their support of the Under 17 team.

Coaching

At the start of the season the club re-appointed Brad Thomas as Senior Coach and he had a big impact on our senior players during the season. We have been blessed, as a club, to have a coach with Brad's experience and success at grade level and he has developed into a fine senior coach. In fact, Brad is widely recognised as the best player/coach in the competition and probably the state. Brad has decided to step down as Senior Coach next season, but remain captain, in order to concentrate on his own game but his legacy will live on for years at this club. Luckily, our players will still be able to learn a lot from him for a season or two yet.

On a final coaching note, the club would like to express our appreciation to Ben Harrison who returned to the club to assist after Christmas. Ben has always 'answered the call' in matters relating to our club. Many of our players have worked closely with Bolts over the past few seasons and his efforts this season helped us to reach the finals.

Finances

As our Treasurer reports, our finances are in a good state. This is largely due to the increased support from the TCA, the ongoing support of the Healthsense pharmacies of Katie and Paul McNamara, the support of Paul and Karen Jubb of the Customs House Hotel and the support of the University of Tasmania.

Acknowledgements

We are extremely grateful to the TCA for their support of the game at club level. In particular the tireless work of Scott Godfrey as Grade Cricket Manager makes running a TCA club a lot easier.

The sponsorship made available through the TCA by Cascade and Coca-Cola Amatil is invaluable, and eases pressure on us as a club.

We survive as a TCA club largely due to the support of the University. Lidija Apostoloska at the Sports Council, Tom Beattie and Barry Russell at University Maintenance and Jenny Arthur, Andrew Verrier and Nadia at the University Sports Centre should be thanked for their support of the club.

We thank the Ground Contractor, Nick Hansen, and our groundsman Andrew Burke for maintaining the ground, the practice wickets and the centre wickets to a good standard. Thank you to Nick Grubb for his assistance on the wickets on Sundays.

A special mention should be given to Steve Kerr for his outstanding work in maintaining our website. It is the best and most informative club cricket site in Tasmania and would be amongst the best in the country. Thank you to Steve and Paul McNamara for their hard work on the club's statistics.

Thank you to Penny Patterson for scoring for first grade during the season. Thank you to Steve Kerr and John Barley for scoring in Penny's absence.

Thank you to all parents and friends who have acted as scorers in lower and junior grades. John Hevey (third grade/second grade) and John Barley (second grade/Kookaburra Cup/first grade) and John Perry (Under 17s) should be singled out for their contributions to the club. I would like to especially thank the committee who have been a tremendous support to me during the season. I won't single out individuals but I want to thank each one of them for their efforts.

To all those players, parents and friends of the club who have assisted in so many ways, please accept our sincere thanks.

We have a flood of young, talented players filtering into the higher grades. Our very young club is that much older next season. Most of our experienced players will play on. The great news for our club is that Enrico DiVenuto has been appointed as Club Coach for next season. He has an excellent record at this club and we welcome Enrico (and Liz and Gazza) back to the club. In other good news, Nathan King has been appointed as Junior Coach at the club. His experience as a trainee Game Development Officer at the T.C.A. will benefit our junior cricketers. Josh Marquet and Shannon Bakes are returning to the club and more selective recruiting will bolster our senior squad. For all of these reasons, we should be very optimistic about the 2004/2005 season. Go the UTAS Lions!

MICHAEL GRAHAM-SMITH

President


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