Northern Raiders holding Grassmere premiership reunions at end-of-season presentation

The Northern Raiders, a merged entity of Purnim and Grassmere, are holding their season presentations at Rafferty's Tavern which will incorporate 50 and 40-year reunion celebrations for the two flag-winning sides.

Both side's - playing in the now defunct Grassmere Cricket Association - achieved strong victories, with the 72-73 team (Cooramook-Grassmere) defeating Bushfield by 70 runs and the 82-83 outfit triumphing over Hawkesdale by a mammoth 299 runs after compiling 525.

Dunne recalled a strong performance from teacher Russell Hall, who opened the batting and bowling for Grassmere.

Hall struck 210 with the bat before removing Bushfield's top-three batters with the ball.

Dunne said the flag was off the back of a "team effort right through the season".

"We had a fairly solid side and we won the semi-final to get into it," he said. "We had to get a lot of runs to win the semi-final to get in. We beat Orford to get into the grand final."

10-years later it was the McDonald brothers who stole the show in Grassmere's grand-final win. David scored a game-high 234 while Peter notched 109.

Amazingly Terry Beks, who will take the field for Dennington in its division one semi-final on Saturday, was part of the winning side, snaring 3-39. Johnstone has fond memories of the season.

"I loved playing cricket and loved playing cricket for Purnim," he said.

"They were Grassmere at the time but in the Purnim Association. We had a great year."

Both Dunne and Johnstone were impressed by the Northern Raiders' new turf facility at Purnim recreation Reserve, with the former comparing it to when he played.

"We didn't have the conditions like they've got now," he said. "We had pretty rough conditions, in our day the grounds weren't too good."

Raiders' co-president Peter Harris said it was "exciting" to hold the re-union under the Northern Raiders banner.

"Going forward as a club we want to acknowledge the past history of where we've come from and promote our Northern Raiders brand to these past players so they can support us moving forward," he said.

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