Under the Auld Pump: Mortlake cricketer Steve Blacker opens up on careers highlights

AT A GLANCE

Born: Mortlake on December 15, 1972.

Children: Charlie, Nick and Lucy.

Parents: Harry and Anne. Sibling: Robert.

Education: St Coleman's Primary School Mortlake before going to Mortlake High School.

Sporting highlight: I'm probably the only person to have played cricket with a bloke who has represented Australia in cricket and then played in a side with a woman who has played cricket for Australia.

Steve, that's an interesting sporting highlight. Can you give any more details as to the two people who have represented Australia in cricket and also played in a cricket team with you?

I played with Kew in the sub-district competition in Melbourne with Jeff Moss.

Jeff played one Test match for Australia against Pakistan in the 1978-79 season. He also played in a one-day international for Australia.

Jeff was a great player for Melbourne and represented Victoria on a lot of occasions.

I also played cricket at Mortlake with Georgia Wareham.

Georgia has done an incredible job with her cricket career representing Australia on numerous occasions after starting her career at Mortlake and I was lucky to have been in the same side as her in a few games.

Steve, I take it your cricket career started at Mortlake. How old were you when you started playing the game?

Cricket was not my first love as a sport. I played a lot of tennis in my younger years in Mortlake.

We would play tennis on Saturday mornings. I was pretty young when I started playing tennis but I remember my cricket career began when I was 12 years old.

My cricket career started off in the under 16s at Mortlake. I was 13 years old when I filled in for Mortlake's A grade side but I was 15 when I was established in the senior side.

We won the colts grand final in 1988-89 and I was lucky enough to make 100 runs.

Richard Palmer, Glen Pasque and David Palmer were some of the good players who played in the premiership side.

We used to play in the old Hampden Cricket Association against sides including Hexham, Caramut, Terang, Cobden and Camperdown.

Sadly, there are a lot of those clubs not fielding cricket sides that used to play in that competition.

I suppose one of my cricket highlights is I was the last person to make 100 runs on the old Hexham ground.

How did it come about that you played cricket for Kew in Melbourne?

I was studying in Melbourne but was coming back home to play senior cricket for Mortlake each weekend.

I loved coming back home to play cricket with players like Wes Robertson, Robbie Jewell and Geoff Barker. They were stalwarts of the Mortlake Cricket Club but in 1993-94 I stayed in Melbourne and played for Kew.

I thought I would play in one of the lower grades but after starting out as the night watchman and keeper I ended up playing in the senior side with Kew.

Neil Kilpatrick was one of the key people at Kew at the time. He helped model my batting technique and Jeff Moss was also there to help my batting.

There's one game I'll never forget playing for Kew and that was when we played against Caulfield and their key player was the former West Indies fast bowler Malcolm Marshall.

He was not bowling as fast as he did when he played Test cricket but he did let one or two really quick ones go.

I played with Kew for just over one season before moving up to Sydney for work and I played with Randwick.

Grade cricket in Sydney is really strong. I was appointed the captain of Randwick's fifth side. We made the finals but couldn't win a flag in my time there.

I came back to south-west Victoria in 1997 and joined West Warrnambool Cricket Club.

The main reason I joined West Warrnambool was I knew Stuart Bishop. We had both played at Mortlake and Stuart was one of the top players at West Warrnambool.

I coached at West for one season and we made the semi-finals.

I ended up going over to Allansford as its captain-coach in 2003-2004. We defeated Nestles to win the flag and that was a huge thrill.

We had some talented players playing for Allansford back in that era including Stephen Gibson, Simon Rea, Brett Membrey, Sam McCluggage and Justin Fary, who were all top class cricketers.

I would have to say Simon Rea is the best player that I've played cricket with. He just had a lot of gears when he played cricket.

Where did your cricket career go after Allansford?

I went back to Mortlake and ended up out at Woolsthorpe for two seasons before joining Panmure.

I then had one year with Wesley-CBC where I got the chance to play alongside my son Nick. That was a huge thrill.

I've been helping out for the last couple of seasons with the turf wicket at Mortlake and watching a great group of young players learn their skills at Mortlake.

Steve, what's your opinion of various cricket clubs merging over the last couple of seasons in the south-west?

It was the only way to go.

I'm confident the mergers will be beneficial for the future of cricket in this region.

There are lots of good young players coming through the ranks.

Steve, you've also been heavily involved in the footy. I take it your footy career started at Mortlake?

Yes. I played in the junior grades before playing in the seniors.

Ken Hinkley was our senior coach in 1998. It hasn't surprised me to see how well Ken has gone as an AFL coach.

He's a gun coach. Ken has the ability to relate to all the players on the list.

I had a stint playing at Balwyn when I was living in Melbourne. I coached Allansford's under 17 side in 2005 and 2006. Jason Hughes asked if I was interested in football umpiring in 2017 and I've now umpired more than 150 games and I'm the secretary of the Western District Umpires Association in Hamilton. I love umpiring and watching the young players develop their skills.

Steve, away from the footy and cricket you also work for top harness identity Matthew Craven. How's work going?

We're very busy. Matt has about 30 horses in work.

He does a great job with his team. I was fortunate enough a few years ago to be granted my drivers license.

I've driven in about 120 races and won eight which were a great thrill.

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