Tasmania University Cricket Club

Latest News (14th. July 2006)

The President's Report from the 2006 AGM.

The 2005/2006 season proved to be a challenging season in many respects. Poor weather at the start of the season hampered our preparations for the season and robbed us of valuable match practice. One of our Assistant Coaches had to stand down due to a chronic back injury. Tim Paine, Darren McNees and Ben Hilfenhaus played many games for Tasmania. As a club we celebrated their achievements and we also found it difficult to cover their losses. Josh Marquet was struck down with injury. All of these factors combined to test our resources and mental resolve.

Enrico DiVenuto continued as Club Coach and Gavin Shaw once again took on the role of Assistant Coach. We also welcomed Gregg Sharman to our club. Gregg is an all rounder who comes to us from the Wynyard Cricket Club. He has played Second XI cricket for Tasmania and is also a Cricket Australia Level 2 accredited coach. James Kingston returned to the club after a break for a couple of seasons. Chris Topp, a left arm orthodox bowler from the Bexhill-On-Sea Cricket Club in the Sussex League, returned to the club for the season. Brad Thomas continued as first grade captain but stood down from the position halfway through the season. The popular Tim Paine took over the reigns as first grade captain. Two teams made it to the final but lost unfortunately. We won the inaugural T.C.A Twenty20 competition and drew healthy crowds to the two matches played at the University Oval. The ABC's Drive Show hosted by Louise Saunders did a live broadcast from the clubrooms during the match against North Hobart and over 400 people attended the Twenty20 final played against Glenorchy at the University Oval. Graeme Paine provided entertainment for the crowds at both matches as the announcer.

Our first grade team played inconsistent cricket throughout the season. Our batting was brittle at crucial times and compiling defendable totals and chasing gettable targets proved to be a problem all too often. Once again our bowlers did a tremendous job all season and we were always able to restrict opposition teams. For the first time in quite a while we missed the finals in both the T.C.A. pennant competition and the Kookaburra Cup competition.

Michael Graham-Smith took over the reigns as second grade captain halfway through the season and this team played a very exciting brand of cricket after the Christmas break. The second grade team, in Chris Topp and Paul Hudson, had clearly the best spinners in the second grade competition and Joe Hoang had another tremendous season. Our batsmen all chipped in during the season and the team made it to the final and was beaten by Clarence on the first innings in a tight affair. Rod Purves continued as captain of the third grade team. The third grade team did not have the same success experienced by this team over the past three seasons but was a happy team and several players improved dramatically as the season progressed.

John Perry continued as coach of the Under 17 team and, once again, he did a great job in building team spirit and this team played some promising cricket throughout the season. The comprehensive victory against Clarence in Round 9 was probably the highlight of the season. This team played excellent cricket all season and made it to the final after a good win against North Hobart in the semi final. The unavailability of some Hutchins players on the first day of the final due to Independent school cricket and a good team effort by Clarence saw us lose the final.

Thanks to Brad Thomas, Tim Paine, Rhett Lockyear, Graeme Cunningham, Andrew Jackett, Michael Graham-Smith, Rodney Purves, Ellis Perry and Mark Barrenger for their fine efforts in captaining the various teams.

Individual

During the season Ben Hilfenhaus and Tim Paine made their first class debuts for Tasmania.

Ben Hilfenhaus, Rhett Lockyear and Tim Paine won rookie contracts for the Tasmanian Tigers.

Ben Hilfenhaus, Rhett Lockyear, Scott Nichols and Tim Paine played for the Tasmanian T.I.S. Tigers at the C.A. Institute Challenge in August.

During the season Darren McNees, Ben Hilfenhaus and Tim Paine played many games for Tasmania and gained full contracts with the Tasmanian Tigers.

Graeme Cunningham was appointed captain of the T.C.A. team and this team went on to win the Jamie Cox Plate. Several of our players competed in this competition.

Rhett Lockyear, Tim Paine, Darren McNees and Scott Nichols all represented Tasmania in the Cricket Australia Cup during the season.

Matt Lister, Scott Nichols and Tom Roach were selected in the Tasmanian Under 19 team which competed in the national championships held in Perth during December.

University players again featured strongly at the T.C.A. Grade Dinner. Graeme Cunningham won selection in the T.C.A. Team of the Year. Mark Fenton won both the best and fairest award and the batting average award in the Under 17 competition. Chris Morrison won the Under 17 bowling average award.

Penny Paterson made her debut as a first-class scorer during the season.

Tim Paine and Ben Hilfenhaus joined a 15 member Academy training squad at the Centre of Excellence in Brisbane during the off-season. The 18 week camp includes an overseas tour.

Ben Hilfenhaus won the Chairman's Award at the Tasmanian Tigers Dinner.

Finally, Chris Morrison was selected to travel to Switzerland and coach cricket as an assistant to ex-University player George Campbell who is now working as Sports Master at Lyceum Alpinum Zuoz, a Swiss International Boarding School.

Junior Development

Our junior development programme continued to thrive. The MiloŽ Have-A-Go programme was enjoyed by over 40 enthusiastic juniors. Many thanks to Chris Topp who coordinated this programme and to Xavier Webb, Matt Caddy, Chris Morrison and John Gerrard who assisted in the running of this programme. Our club also fielded a team in the TCA Under 15 competition, a team in the Youth League Under 13 competition. We also fielded an Under 12 team and an Under 10 team in the Twilight competition.

Matt Lister took on the role of Junior Coach and Game Development Officer and with his expertise in this area he proved to be a very positive influence on our players. 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 Paul Lovell for coaching and managing the Under 13 team and Michael Roach for his assistance. Thank you to John Cherry, Sam Boxsell and Manda Boxsell for their efforts in managing the twilight teams.

Thank you to Matt Lister and Scott Nichols for coaching the Under 15 team and Chris Topp and Mick Hortle for their assistance with the Under 15 team.

Thank you to John Perry for coaching and managing the Under 17 team and Peter Robinson for his support of the Under 17 team.

Coaching

Thank you to Enrico DiVenuto for his efforts as Club Coach. With the structure we have in place for the 2006/2007 season we are confident Enrico will have all of the support he requires to better manage all players at the club. We are also confident that our players will repay his faith in the club in the very near future. Gavin Shaw continued to do a fine job as Assistant Coach. He continued to gain the respect of the players because of the individual attention he gave to players. Gavin has made a great contribution during the season. He 'sets the bar high' and concentrates on the basic skills in cricket that are so crucial for all players to be able to execute automatically in pressure situations.

We should also single out Graeme Blundstone for special thanks who was at most training sessions conducting fielding drills. Gregg Sharman also spent time with individuals during training and his contribution should not be understated. Hopefully, we'll be able to use his expertise to a greater extent next season.

In further good news for the club, Mark Blair has been appointed as Assistant Coach for next season. Mark has returned to Tasmania from Western Australia where he was Assistant Coach at Claremont/Nedlands. Mark played for University from 1991 to 2000 and will have attained his Level 2 coaching colours by the start of the season.

Finances

As our Treasurer reports, our finances are in a very healthy state. This is largely due to the increased support from the TCA, the ongoing support of Katie and Paul McNamara of the Derwent Valley Pharmacy, 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 Vodafone, Cascades 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. Ingrid Lagerewskij at the Sports Council, Tom Beattie and Barry Russell at Asset Management Services, Wayne Palmer and Greg Atkins at University Maintenance, Amanda Wotjowicz and Christine Bailey at UTAS Marketing and Jenni Arthur, Gina Poulton, Nick Gill and Nadia at the University Sports Centre should be thanked for their support of the club. Funds made available from Asset Management Services enabled us to have the turf practice wickets covered with nets during the off-season.

We thank the Ground Contractor, Nic Hansen, and our groundsman Jason Britten for maintaining the ground, the practice wickets and the centre wickets to a good standard.

We would also like to express our sincere thanks to Shannon Bakes who constructed a very fashionable table with a stainless steel frame and donated it to the club.

Many thanks also to Josh Bean for his work in painting out the clubrooms and for painting the scoreboard and John Perry for his work on the scoreboard. I'm sure all members will agree that the clubrooms and scoreboard look magnificent.

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 also to Steve for his assistance around the clubrooms.

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 for scoring in Penny's absence.

Thank you to all parents and friends who have acted as scorers in lower and junior grades. John Barley (second grade) and John Perry and Peter Robinson (Under 17s) should be singled out for their contributions to the club.

John Paine is doing a terrific job as clubroom manager and Peter Robinson, Stan Davis, Jon Lister, Peter Shepherd, Tony Sim and Rod Purves should be thanked for assisting around the clubrooms. We would also like to thank our 'pasta man', Ian Lambert for his fine efforts in feeding us after training on Thursdays. I would like to especially thank the committee who have been a tremendous support to me during the season. Everyone on the committee has contributed strongly to the off-field strength of the club and as a group we have worked well together.

I would like to thank the players who always pulled their weight and tried to do the club proud when they stepped onto the field.

The former players, life members and supporters should also be thanked for their continued support of the club particularly in relation to the establishment of the T.U.C.C. Scholarship. The University of Tasmania Foundation are also supporting the club in establishing this scholarship. I would especially like to thank our Patron, Bob Cotgrove for taking on the role of coordinating the T.U.C.C. Scholarship appeal.

We would especially like to thank all of those people who joined the T.U.C.C. Supporters Club in the inaugural season. In this age of Voluntary Student Unionism we appreciate all of the support we can muster. We are hopeful that every member will 'jump on board' again next season and encourage other former team mates and peers from your time at the club to do so.

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

At this point it is fitting to pay tribute to Brad Thomas for the long and distinguished service he has given to our club. Brad announced his retirement from T.C.A. cricket towards the end of the season and 'signed off' with an unbeaten century against Glenorchy in the last round. In fact, his last scoring shot was a reverse sweep for four. Only Brad could finish off in such style! I am sure everyone at the club would agree that your experience, leadership and cricketing ability will be sorely missed next season but I am confident we will see you around the club often and we look forward to your return to the club, in some official capacity, in the not-too-distant future.

We will be faced by many challenges in the 2006/2007 season especially due to the loss of a number of our key personnel in the bowling ranks. Also our batsmen will need to apply themselves to learn how to work through tough periods and to capitalise later in the day when they are well and truly set in their innings. The committee has been working very hard in the off-season. Our coaching structure has been finalised already and we believe it will serve us very well in the coming season. Couple this with some selective recruiting and we will be in a good position to strive for premiership success next season.

MICHAEL GRAHAM-SMITH
President


[home] [latest news] [scores] [ladders] [players] [contacts] [history] [seasons highs] [halls of fame] [events] [stats] [scholarship] [links]