2013/14 Season Highlights

Our home? Whilst the new Centenary is finally making progress we will still have teams playing at Centenary and Bailey as usual but some aftermatch / social events will be at Bailey, stay advised.

Two new club Marquees have been purchased for use at Centenary for your comfort, please take care setting them up.

Playing wise, some quality recruits have landed at the Lions Den to strengthen our bid for a Hat trick of Longmuir Premierships. Michael De Iacovo a strong batsman and spin bowler from Frankston and Darwin clubs. Oliver Oostermeyer, a firebrand fast bowler from St.Kilda who oozes class and aggression, and young up and coming quick Chris Lavery from Mackie.

Our young cubs are coming through with future star allrounder Hugo Ferdinand debuting in seniors with a host of other juniors starting to come through the ranks.

A father / son team is out for some fun in the 6th XI to round off the list.

All get around the club this year, it wil be a testing one off the field re building construction but BUCC will still roar as usual.

Round One

When a player makes his debut in the 1st Eleven he is presented with a BUCC Baggy Maroon Cap with his debut number on the back. This records the number of all 1st XI players since 1932.

Already this season Caps have been presented to Michael De Iacovo 292, Oliver Oostermeyer 293, and last night Chris Lavery 294.

Looking back in history De Iacovo’s 292 was preceded by cap no 192 Peter Coburn, a stylish opening bat from the mid 1980’s and club champion Keith Stevenson No 92, Stevo played over 200 games from 1959 till 1977 and made over 3000 Longy runs and still comes down to support.

The Number 93 cap seems to attact interesting names, A.Beer ? was No 93, took over 100 Longy wickets with a best of 7/27 and 193 was Brendan Razga who played only one season.

Cap no. 94 has a real Football theme, Cap no 94 was Greg Parke who played with Uniting until his football took over and Greg then played over a 100 games for Melbourne Football Club as a classy wingman, 194 was Dennis Knight who also played at Melbourne then Captained Dandenong to a VFL Premiership. More of an athelete than a cricketer, Dennis did some of his best work after dark.

Round Two

The Longmuir boys continued on their winning ways pulling down Mackie’s pants and giving them a severe spanking in front of their home crowd to stay top of the table.

Batting first Mike De Iacovo displayed every shot in the book in a classic knock of 41, his partner in crime Lukie Manders then slaughtered the bowling with raw strength to smash 85 in quick time in our score of 242. Chubbs strangled the top order with 3/15 from his 7 overs but it was young Chris Lavery on debut in front of his old club who destroyed mackie with a burst of quick aggressive bowling to rip through the bats to grab a brilliant 5 wickets for 27 as Mackie was routed for 70

The Woolnough lads bounced back with a hard fought victory holding Hampton Central to 162 with Luke Cody 3 wickets and Sarge 2 then cruising home via Max Millwood 32, Chris manakis 27 and Big Harry a great 58.

The 5ths was the other winning side chasing down Bent ANA’s 140 with Jono Guttmann 51 n.o. and youngsters Joe Aloi 13 and Gav Kalisperis 19 not out. Terry Balders 8 overs for 1/11 and wickets to Joey and Bill Campbell the key.

Hugo Ferdinand is starting to find his feet in seniors with a 1/10 off his 6 overs in the 3rds.

Now here is one to watch, remember this name, Bryson Konoroth, under 16 lad has had two hits in the 6th XI for scores of 44 and 55 not out. A big preseason paying off, well done.

Junior scores not all through or complete but 12 North Rookies had a solid win.

Round Three

In the Grand Final rematch at Centenary, the nightmare continued for East Sandy as Skipper Glenn “Big Dog” Lalor destroyed the attack to post an impressive unbeaten 116 with asistance of little dog Lukie Manders unbeaten on 64 as the two compiled an 181 run partnership after a solid start from Tim Brisbane 45 and Micky DeIacovo 25 to post 3/282.

In a day of partnerships, Buckets Turner 64 and Bas Zaia 40 combined to guide the 2nd XI to 198 after early trouble.

The theme continued in the 3rd XI who were 4/43 till an unbeaten 110 run partnership from Pete Milner 58 and Hugo “Boss” Ferdinand 55 saw us to 4/153. Great to see one of our elder club legends and future stars combining in a batting master class.

Wickets galore in the 4ths when Cluden collasped for 118 with Lachie Still the destroyer with 5/22 including a hattrick. In trouble in our run chase at 4/12 as the old boys all faltered, hopefully the kids can save the day with the bat as well.

Lachie still is now officially the best Still ahead of Uncle Andy, father Doc Still is ranked 4th slightly behind Katie.

Juniors are all halfway through two day games and 5th and 6th XI play One Day games next week.

Round Four - Day One

With most teams having the weekend off only 6 teams hit the park in constantly changing weather conditions.

The Longmuir boys called their game off due to slippery pitch and will play Le Page in a One Day game next Saturday.

All the action was down at the Woolnough game as the boys were in trouble at 3/20 then 6/98 with only Brett Turner showing any resistance with a fighting 34. Two of our Under 16 boys then came to the crease, Hugo Ferdinand and Liam Manakis, under massive pressure they did not let us down to combine for a match saving 70 run partnership. Hugo was the rock crafting a classy 47 not out and Liam was the X factor deflecting singles then smashing 4’s and a massive 6 when required to compile 38 runs. Great sign for the club to see these two future stars start to bloom.

We finished with a solid 195. Game on.

The 3rds ventured down to Chelsea to play the top team and acquitted themselves well to restrict them to 186 on a fast ground. All bowlers did their part with young Jackson Millwood leading the pack with a great bag of 5 wickets for 55 runs.

The 4th’s had a long tough day and are chasing 360 next week. The team full of youngsters stuck to the task all day with Connor Dorofield grabbing 2/20 and Joey Aloi having a crack at keeping and taking 2 stumpings. Well done to all, bat out the overs next week and anything can happen.

The Under 16 boys took on top team Elwood and toiled to compile 120 with Hugo 50 not out.

The Under 14 boys played at Centenary Friday night and restricted Hampton United to 129 with pace bowler Kayleb Klopher the main man destroying Hampton to take 4 wickets for 10 runs.

This weekend Trent Cody will become the 295 th player to wear the Baggy Maroon in a 1st XI game for Bentleigh Uniting.

It all began for Trent in our Under 12 team in 2005 and he then continued to star in our junior grades. Trent was selected in a junior Victorian team and of late has played for the Dandenong Club in Premier Cricket. Trent is juggling promising football and cricket careers at the moment and all at Unitng are wrapt to have one of our loyal sons back at Centenary for this season.

Trent has played 82 games for Uniting as a high order bat and spin bowler.

Trents brother Luke is Cap Number 287 and the family connection continues with Louis Kalisperis Cap Number 211, dear old Pete Kalisperis has no cap number but was a big game player for Unitng, particularily in finals in all grades.

The number 95 has featured before with cap 95 Max Teague in 1961 and more recently with 195, Mr Craig Parow, a fierce competitor and as hard as a cats head who made the most of his ability with his win at all costs attitude.