On the Wednesday, the team won the School Sports Victoria Twenty20 championship. They followed up on the Friday with a win in the Woolworths Blast State Championship. 

Their teacher Tim Cain said the victories were a just reward for the boys.

“We are very lucky to have such a talented group coming through together,” he said. “Three or four of these kids have played division one cricket and a lot are regularly playing division two. They beat bigger schools that have pretty full-on cricket programs so it was a big effort.”

The Big Bash, South West Cricket Association (SWC) style, has arrived.

On Saturday, SWC teams played the opening two rounds of the twenty20 competition. 

Each team will play seven games between now and January 5 with semi-finals and the final to be played the following week.

SWC secretary Grant Myers said it was first time the association has had a structured twenty20 competition. “We had some twenty20 games last year but points for those were included in the regular season ladder,” he said. “This year the twenty20 stuff is all separate with a ladder and finals of its own. The clubs weren’t great fans of the concept at the start but they have embraced it now and we had some good cricket played over the weekend.”

One player missing from the opening weekend of SWC twenty20 action was Terang’s Justin Caveny.

A couple of mates at Terang talked Caveny into coming out of retirement. Caveny was captain-coach of WDCA club Koroit’s division two premiership team of 2008-09. He later played three seasons of WDCA division one cricket for Dennington before retiring in 2015-16.

A talented batsman, Caveny didn’t have the luck of the green during his two games with Terang. In his first outing, Caveny was struck in front and adjudged leg before wicket for a duck. He was keen to make amends in round seven against Bookaar, but while the mind was willing, the body wasn’t. Caveny didn’t get to bat after tearing his hamstring in the field. Time indeed waits for no one.

Nick Butters (Woodford) 54 & 3-9; Paul Walker (Russells Creek) 63; James Elford (Russells Creek) 56; Geoff Williams (Nestles) 56; Jeremy Burgess (Merrivale) 54*; Mark Murphy (Brierly-Christ Church) 54*; Tom Bowman (Wesley-CBC) 3-9; David Mills (Allansford) 3-9; Sean Fary (Merrivale) 3-14; Nick Robertson (Allansford) 2-1; Shashan Silva (Russells Creek) 2-6.

Patrick Mahony (Panmure) 65; Tom Mahony (Panmure) 48; Fletcher Cozens (Hawkesdale) 44; Phil Edwards (Mailors Flat) 43; James Cole (Killarney) 42; Chris Woodbridge (Mailors Flat) 5-28; Greg Bull (Purnim) 5-72; Matt Bartlett (Killarney) 5-87; Daniel Jones (Killarney) 4-26; Adam Ryan (Grassmere) 4-44; Maykan Schama (Purnim) 4-71.

Fraser Lucas (Bookaar) 54* & 64; Tim Place (Pomborneit) 64; Grant Place (Pomborneit) 54*; Gus Bourke (Noorat) 32 & 44; Angus Uwland (Cobden) 47; Lahiru Fernando (Pomborneit) 2-12, 34 & 32; Clinton Baker (Mortlake) 3-8 & 28; Isaac Kenna (Noorat) 4-27, 29* & 22; Rohan Symes (Bookaar) 6-8 including a hat-trick; Thara Sendanayake (Pomborneit) 4-9; Sam Munro (Terang) 3-7.

There is a good reason West Warrnambool’s Luke Gannon remembers this photo (above) from December, 1996.

“Mum and dad have that photo up on the wall at home,” Gannon said. “We had a pretty good side back then, I would have been 17. I used to bat 10 or 11 and slowly progressed up the order as the seasons passed.”

Gannon is the wicketkeeper in this photo, a role he filled in the Panthers’ WDCA division one premiership in 2011-12. 

He spent three years at Merrivale, two as coach from 2014-15, before having a break from the game last season.

He returned to the Panthers this season to help pass on some tips to current wicketkeeper Ryan Youl.

“I really enjoyed working with Ryan, he’s a good young keeper, he’s come a long way,” Gannon said. “Through helping Ryan I got the bug to play again and I’m really enjoying it. I’ve played the last three games in the division one team, I’m bowling a few overs and batting in the middle.”   

A delayed start to the Grassmere Cricket Association C grade season has worked wonders for Mailors Flat’s Peter Hunter.

The opening batsman played his first game in round six on Sunday and produced a match-winning knock of 109 against Purnim. Hunter faced 96 balls, hit 10 boundaries and one six on his way to triple figures. 

Simpson division three player Justin Smart smashed 62 not out in his team’s big win over Mortlake.

His contribution helped Simpson to a score of 3-314, with the Cats bundled out for just 52.