Tasmania University Cricket Club

Latest News (12th. July 2007)

The 2007 Annual General Meeting.

President's Report

The 2006/2007 season proved to be a rebuilding season in many ways. Obviously it is disappointing that only one team played in finals. However, if one takes into account that our first grade team lost Josh Marquet, Brad Thomas, Darren McNees and effectively Ben Hilfenhaus, due to state and national duties, from the bowling attack one could argue that we played above expectations in narrowly missing the finals in first and second grade. Of course we will not fall into the trap of accepting this argument and we must set ourselves to improve next season. Once again, in all grades, our bowlers have done a tremendous job but our batsmen have struggled to bat for long enough to build big totals.

Tim Paine and Ben Hilfenhaus established themselves as integral members of the Tasmanian team which won the domestic first-class title for the first time. Hilfy emerged as a genuine strike bowler at first-class level and was instrumental in Tasmania's good fortunes during the season. He sent down a remarkable 509.1 overs in the Pura Cup and claimed 60 wickets at an average of 25.38. The national selectors could not ignore these numbers and took the opportunity to select him to play his first international one-day match against New Zealand in January 2007. As a club we aim to provide a 'cricketing home' for potential first-class players to thrive in so that they can push for higher honours and we celebrate when they 'take the next step'.

Enrico DiVenuto continued as Club Coach and Gavin Shaw continued as an Assistant Coach. We welcomed back Mark Blair as an Assistant Coach. Mark returned to Tasmania from Western Australia where he was Assistant Coach at the Claremont-Nedlands Cricket Club for several seasons. Mark proved to be a most valuable addition to our club in so many ways.

Matt 'Spud' Drury also returned to the club after a break of several seasons. After his sojourn with the Tasmanian Devils football club he returned to cricket at University and added to the depth in our senior squad. His outswingers were really coming on late in the season and he will benefit tremendously by backing up for a second season. Ned Murray, a right hand opening batsman from the Horspath Cricket Club in Oxfordshire, joined the club for the season. He showed tremendous grit and character at the top of the batting order and his cricket will improve dramatically from his experiences in Tasmania. We also welcomed Tom Briscoe, a left arm in-swing bowler from the Eastern Suburbs Cricket Club in Sydney, to our club and he added to the depth in our fast bowling ranks. Tom is still young and shows tremendous promise. He too will improve in his second season.

Tim Paine continued as first grade captain but due to Tim's state commitments Rhett Lockyear took on the captaincy duties most of the time and he received tremendous support from Graeme Cunningham. Only third grade made it to the T.C.A. finals but lost to North Hobart in the semi final. We made it to the final of the T.C.A. Twenty20 competition but lost to South Hobart-Sandy Bay in a close encounter.

Once again our first grade team played an inconsistent brand of cricket throughout the season. Our batting was brittle at crucial times and the job of building good totals was left to too few. Graeme Cunningham, who topped the T.C.A. batting aggregate, and Rhett Lockyear had good seasons and Matt Lister, Ned Murray and Josh Bean made good contributions but our batting fell away very quickly after that. Once again our bowlers did a good job all season and we were always able to restrict opposition teams. Josh Bean had his best season of leg break/top spin/skidder bowling and took 47 wickets at an average of 14.64. At the tender age (for a legspinner) of 29 he can look forward to another decade of success as a legspin bowler. Joe Hoang proved to be the perfect foil for Beany with his uncanny action, nagging accuracy and subtle variations in the air and off the pitch he claimed 23 wickets at an average of 14.96.

Michael Graham-Smith continued as second grade captain and, after a slow start, this team played a good brand of cricket. Paul Hudson was clearly the best spinner in the second grade competition and Josh Parker and Tom Briscoe were very reliable throughout the season. Our batsmen all chipped in during the season but the team narrowly missed the finals after losing the final round match at home against Lindisfarne.

Sean Wicks served as captain of the third grade team for most of the season and Matthew Dare assumed the role towards the end of the season. The third grade team improved steadily as the season progressed and made it to the semi final and lost that match to North Hobart. Matthew Dare was the stand out batsman in third grade and Chris Quinn bowled well taking 28 wickets for the season.

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 good cricket, at times, throughout the season. Hugh Burgess, who scored 383 runs at an average of 20.16, and Tom Ritchie, who scored 348 runs at an average of 31.64, were the mainstays of the batting. Jack Young, who took 20 wickets at an average of 17.60, and Jimmy Hortle, who took 16 wickets at an average of 23, held our bowling together.

Thanks to Tim Paine, Rhett Lockyear, Graeme Cunningham, Michael Graham-Smith, Sean Wicks, Gavin Shaw, Matthew Dare, Tom Ritchie and Ben Read for their fine efforts in captaining the various teams.

Individual

Scott Nichols played for the Tasmanian Institute of Sport Tigers at the Cricket Australia Institute Challenge in Darwin.

Tim Paine and Ben Hilfenhaus trained with the Centre of Excellence squad over winter and toured South Africa and Zimbabwe with the Academy team.

Ben Hilfenhaus was included in the initial 30 man squad for both the Champions Trophy and the World Cup.

Ben Hilfenhaus and Tim Paine won full contracts for the Tasmanian Tigers. Rhett Lockyear was included in the Tigers squad and Josh Bean joined the squad during the season.

Rhett Lockyear 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 and Josh Bean represented Tasmania in the Cricket Australia Cup during the season.

Tim Paine and Ben Hilfenhaus played for the Prime Minister's XI against England at Manuka Oval in Canberra.

Scott Nichols was selected in the Tasmanian Under 19 team which competed in the national championships held in Adelaide.

The highlight of the season came in January when Ben Hilfenhaus played for Australia in the Twenty20 international match against England at the S.C.G. Shortly after that Hilfy made his debut for Australia in one-day cricket against New Zealand in front of his home crowd at Bellerive Oval. When Hilfy claimed his first wicket by trapping Brendan McCullum LBW the roar from the crowd as deafening!

University players again featured strongly at the T.C.A. Grade Dinner. Graeme Cunningham and Josh Bean won selection in the T.C.A. Team of the Year. Graeme Cunningham won the first grade batting aggregate award and Josh Bean won the first grade bowling aggregate award.

Ben Hilfenhaus won the Bradman Young Player of the Year Award at the Allan Border Medal function.

Ben Hilfenhaus capped off a tremendous season by winning the Ricky Ponting Medal (Best Player) at the annual Tasmanian Tigers Awards Dinner and a few weeks later the national selectors recognised his achievements and gave a clear signal that he is destined to become a regular in the Australian team by awarding him a Cricket Australia contract.

Finally, Nick Grubb 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 Milo® Have-A-Go programme was enjoyed by over 40 enthusiastic juniors. Many thanks to Ned Murray who coordinated this programme and to Matt Caddy, Alex Shabala, Ben Bridgman, Matt Dunkerley, Prajit Parameswar and John Gerrard who assisted in the running of this programme. Our club also fielded teams in the TCA Under 15 competition, the Youth League Under 15 competition and the Youth League Under 13 competition. We also fielded two Under 12 teams and an Under 10 team in the Twilight competition.

John Gerrard took on the role of Game Development Officer and did a fine job. Ned Murray took on the role of Junior Coach 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 T.C.A. Under 15 team and Ned Murray for his assistance with the Under 15 teams and for managing the Youth League Under 15 team. Thank you to John Cherry for coaching and managing the Youth League Under 13 team and many thanks to Sam Boxsell, Manda Sandford, Brian Hall, Lesley Hall, Andrew Rhodes, David Gadsby, John Cherry and George Pavlides for their efforts in coaching, managing and scoring for the twilight teams. Ned Murray also did a tremendous job with our Under 13 girls team and the feedback from the parents about Ned and the competition was very favourable. Thank you to John Perry for coaching and managing the Under 17 team and Peter Robinson for his support of the Under 17 team. John has developed a good team spirit within this team and it will be hard to find a replacement for him next season.

Coaching

Thank you to Enrico DiVenuto for his efforts as Club Coach. With the structure we have in place for the 2007/2008 season we are confident Enrico will have all of the support he requires to better manage all players at the club as the Training Coach next season. Enrico always backs our players to the hilt and we are grateful for the guidance he has shown to our players. Many of our senior players owe Enrico a great deal and we are confident his hard work will be rewarded in the not-too-distant future.

Gavin Shaw continued to do a fine job as Assistant Coach and Mark Blair made an immediate impact on the club in his first season as Assistant Coach. In addition to their commitment to the club in a coaching capacity Gavin and Mark are great club men and their input in building club spirit, social cohesion and a strong club culture cannot be overstated. Unfortunately, Gavin and Mark are unable to continue in their official roles next season due to increased work commitments and pressing family issues respectively but we are confident that we will see them around the club regularly next season passing on their expertise to our players.

Finances

As our Treasurer reports, our finances are in a healthy state. This is largely due to the increased support from the TCA, the ongoing sponsorship of Katie and Paul McNamara of Terry White Chemists New Norfolk and Centrepoint, Paul and Karen Jubb of the Customs House Hotel and the University of Tasmania. We also welcomed new sponsors Raine and Horne (Eastern Shore), Bryce Electrical, Network Gaming and Connect Credit Union to the club and we are hopeful that these sponsors will continue their support of the club into next season.

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, Troy Finearty, Rodney Brooks and Barry Russell at Asset Management Services, Greg Atkins at University Maintenance, Michaela Lightfoot at the Alumni Office, Michael Weitnauer at the University Foundation, Eoin Breen at the Scholarships Office, Amanda Wotjowicz and Christine Bailey at UTAS Marketing and Gina Poulton, Shannon Townsend, Nick Gill and Nadia Roulias 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 a clay base and drainage system laid in the bowler's landing area in the turf practice wickets.

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

A special mention should be given to Steve Kerr for his outstanding work in maintaining our website. It remains the best and most informative club cricket site in Tasmania and would be amongst the best in the country.

Thank you to Paul McNamara and Steve Kerr 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 should be singled out for their contributions to the club.

John Paine continues to do a terrific job as clubroom manager and Peter Robinson, Stan Davis, Jon Lister, Steve Kerr, John Jauncey and John Gerrrard 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 once again this season. During my 7 years as President I have made many close friendships amongst this group. The committee is made of many quality people and while these people are involved with this club the club is in good hands. This club has a culture that always seems to attract the best people as administrators, support staff and players and I see no reason why this will change.

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. In exciting news for the club the fund total is now above $32000 and we have reached the point where we can offer the inaugural T.U.C.C. Scholarship next season.

We would especially like to thank all of those people who joined the T.U.C.C. Supporters Club last season. In this age of Voluntary Student Unionism we appreciate all of the support we can muster. We are hopeful that every member will join 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.

We have a lot of work to do before we can start winning flags. We have the necessary talent here but we will need to do some selective recruiting in the off-season to bolster our ranks. In relation to our batting our mental resolve and composure at the wicket must improve right throughout the club. We have taken some steps to address this issue but it may take some time to see the fruits of our labour. Our coaching structure has been finalised already and we believe it will serve us very well in the coming season. The committee has been working very hard in the off-season to address our areas of weakness so that we can start playing the brand of consistent cricket that eventually leads to premiership success.

In standing down as President and handing the reigns over to Paul McNamara let me say that I have thoroughly enjoyed my time as a player and an administrator at the club. I am standing down to throw my energies into pursuing an umpiring career but I certainly will not be lost to the club. With the blessing of the incoming committee I will continue to be involved with the club by overseeing several special projects including the T.U.C.C. Scholarship, the Supporter's Club, club clothing, club memorabilia, reunions and assisting Steve with the club website by proofing and writing articles.

I wish Paul and the incoming committee all the best and I look forward to catching up with you all next season. 1,2,3, the Uni boys are we……...

MICHAEL GRAHAM-SMITH

President


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