10-WICKET VICTORIES - WE PULL OUT

TWO ON THE TROT

Ten wicket victories don't come along very often - but Moonee Valley pulled off two in two days as we had our first weekend's play in the 2025/26 season, with our Fourths and Fifths leading the charge.
First off our Fifths, playing on the eastern oval at home on October 11, chased down the Flemington Colts tally without losing a wicket.
At left: The Sevensons had a lot to celebrate in the massive 10-wicket win in the Fourths ( L-R) Luke with two catches as keeper, Paul with an unbeaten century and Jeremy 59no.
Then the next day our Fourths, playing Youlden Parkville at their McAlister oval in Parkville, repeated the dose - passing a challenging target without a blemish.
Wise old heads around the Valley couldn't recall a previous time when we had achieved this rare feat twice in one weekend.
In the President's Shield (NWMCA) game, Flemington Colts amassed 9/180 off their 35 overs, with the screws tightened on them by Bede Gannon's 5/39.
We then came out blasting, with Life Members Mark Gauci (70no) and Geoff McKeown (64no) setting the base before retiring and giving the honor of bringing the game home to young guns Aksha Perera and Oliver McKeown with 16 overs to spare.
The Sunday turf game in Mercantile's D Grade followed a similar pattern, with Youlden Parkville all out for 191 with six balls to go in the 45-over innings.
We got off to a flier with father/son combination Paul and Jeremy Sevenson putting on a 171 run opening partnership before Paul retired on 103.
On top of Jeremy's 59no, his younger brother Luke also made a significant contribution to the match, taking two catches as the wicketkeeper.
Sunday also saw our Thirds open their account after being promoted to A Reserve Sunday, beating CUCC Kings 157 to 108.
And not to be overshadowed, our Women's team celebrated their elevation to the top grade of the NWMCA competition with a comprehensive win over Youlden Parkville, 4/146 to 5/79.

If the cap fits......

The debuts of four new Moonee Valley players in our First Eleven were made extra special this year, with cap presentations by significant people.
The four played their first games against Kingsville for the October 11 Round 2 fixture, after the first week of the VTCA season was called off.
At right: Hayden Rayner (left) and Terry Nagle.
First Eleven Cap No. 290 was presented to Hayden Rayner by Terry "Tex" Nagle, a four-time Premiership Moonee Valley legend from our glory era of the 1980s and early 1990s.
At left: Jaspreet Bhatti (left) and Amit Chaudhary.
Cap No. 291 was presented to Jaspreet Bhatti by Amit Chaudhary, a two-time Club Champion who made the 12 in Moonee Valley's Team of the Half Century. Jaspreet played with Amit at Haig Fawkner.
Cap No. 292 was presented to Ashen Fernando by Joshua Gorry, a hero in our 2019/20 First Eleven premiership. Josh played at Maribyrnong Park St Marys with Ashen, but returned to the Valley this year and brought him across.
At right: Ashen Fernando (left) and Joshua Gorry.
Cap No. 293 was presented to Ben Tarran by our coach Brayden McGregor, who was well aware of his capabilities and brought him to Moonee Valley from a Grand Final team with Nagambie.
At left: Ben Tarran (left) and Brayden McGregor.
All four debutants played a role in the match v Kingsville, but we were unable to close out the game after posting 7/183 from our 40 overs. They passed us with 2.3 overs to go.
The cap presentations are an innovation introduced after Life Member Gary Irons and more recently club President Charlie Walker went through the records to identify every player who had pulled on the whites in our First Eleven over our 54-year history.
The list, which is featured in our Wisden, makes for interesting and compelling reading - from the one-game players to those who have made their mark on our club over decades.

OUR SEASON STARTS - A FUN NIGHT

The Moonee Valley 2025/26 season got under way with a club dinner at our long-time sponsor the Moonee Ponds Club on October 4.
The onfield start had already been delayed by a week due to lack of available pitches, but it didn't dampen the enthusiasm at our launch.
We combined the launch with our trophy presentation for our 2025 Mid Year Cricket Association winter season.
Our winter awards were: Batting Rohit Choudhary 155 runs @ 51.67; Bowling Sunny Singh with 11 wickets @ 16.18; Fielding Vansh Tandon; and Most Valuable Player Maks Rahman.
The voting for the MVP was: Maks Rahman 17; Aksha Perera 16; Sunny Singh 15; Rohit Choudhary 13; Javed Mushtaq, Lachlan Smith 11; Vansh Tandon 10; Gurinder Dhaliwal, Sagar Bhatia 9; Max Caspersz, Krish Kanchan, Tony Van Beek 4; Joe Adams 3; Jerome Caspersz, Indika Perera, Prashant Hirani, Kaushik Kalam 2; Ewan Campbell 1.
Above: Maks Rahman (left) and Vansh Tandon with their awards.
We had a strong second half to the winter season, with a couple of good wins coming late.
President Charlie Walker did the welcome, and outlined our expectations for the season ahead.
**For more pictures from the launch, click HERE

Barooga - away for our pre-season hit out

                 
Our Barooga pre-season team. L-R: Back - Ashen Fernando, Dejan Gilevski, Jaspreet Bhatti, Joshua Gorry (capt), Krish Kanchan and Indika Perera. Front - Aksha Perera, Luca Nimorakiotakis, Stephen Ward, Sunil Bhandari and Cameron McGregor.
Moonee Valley got some valuable pre-season turf practice with a game at Barooga on the September 20/21 weekend. Playing against Oak Park/St Francis on the Barooga No. 2 ground, we struggled to make much impact with the bat and then felt the impact of their big hitters.
We were all out for 85 in the 35th over of the 40-over innings, then saw Oak Park/St Francis compile 7/210.
Jaspreet Bhatti top scored for Moonee Valley with 20, while Luca Nimorakiotakis, Dejan Gilevski and Aksha Perera all made 11.
Pick of our bowlers was Sunil Bhandari with 3/20 from his eight overs, including three maidens.
The weekend was jointly organised by the Moonee Valley and Barooga cricket clubs. At the same time as our game on the Saturday, Barooga played Glenroy.
The Barooga Cricket Club then hosted dinner and drinks at its pavilion, leading to watching the AFL Prelim final between Brisbane and Collingwood.
In his speech after the games Barooga Cricket Club President Jason "Guru" Stephens acknowledged the long-standing link with Moonee Valley. We have entered a team in Barooga's Over 35s tournament every year since 2014 (bar the COVID lockdown) and twice won the competition. Guru even played two tournament games with us as a fill-in player.

OUR 2024/25 WISDEN - IT'S HERE NOW

The Moonee Valley 2024/25 Senior Wisden is out now, with hours of reading in the statistics, reviews and club facts contained in the 158 pages.
There are plenty of photos too in a weighty document that chronicles our great club's past as well as our present, including details of the season just gone.
Who scored centuries, what new records were set, who was honored for competition awards – it’s all there.
The Moonee Valley Wisden has been compiled every season since 1983/84 and all the back issues are on our website at https://www.mooneevalleycricket.com.au/article/seniorwisdensandplayers - except for the 1986/87 edition, and anyone with a copy in their archives please contact me.
On our website you can also find pdf versions of a lot of our old scorebooks – you can access them at https://www.mooneevalleycricket.com.au/events-and-dates.html so there’s plenty of reading there too.
This year’s Wisden has a handy guide and index on Page 2, both for the 2024/25 document and for some past pages to access through the website.
For a teaser on this year’s Wisden, have a look to find:
* Which 12 players made the Wisden Team of the Year? (Hint: See Page 3)
* Who was selected as captain of our Team of the Year?
* Who was our leading wicket-taker in 2024/25? (Hint: See Page 34). And who had the best bowling average?
* Who are the only three players in our history with a bowling average under 10 {minimum 30 wickets}? (Hint: See Page 140).
*Only four players in our history have a batting average over 65? Two of them are still current players. (Hint: See Page 139).
* Who were the three players who scored centuries in 2024/25? (Hint: See Page 20)
* Who are the five players selected as a Moonee Valley Wisden Player of the Year six or more times? (Hint: See Pages 6).
This information is all available - you just have to look.
So start reading - here's the link
Cheers,
Charlie Walker, Editor, Moonee Valley Wisden

*CRICKET - STILL VACANCIES IN ALL

TEAMS 

Moonee Valley Cricket Club is always keen to talk to potential new players, and there are vacancies in all teams - our Saturday and Sunday turf teams, our Saturday men's hard-wicket team, our Sunday women's team and junior teams at all levels.
Anyone interested in joining Moonee Valley can phone senior coach Brayden McGregor on 0429 559 797, junior co-ordinator Paul Sevenson on 0407 556 950 or President Charlie Walker on 0411 705 381. Anyone wanting information can also email us at [email protected]

Main Club contact details:

* Charlie Walker - President 0411 705 381; 9370 1802
* Allan Cumming - Treasurer 0438 380 990
* Sarah Fenn - Secretary 0438 141 179
* Mark Gauci - Vice President 0457 778 335 
* Paul Sevenson - Junior Co-ordinator - 0407 556 950   

Emails: [email protected]
        [email protected] 

For more contacts, see " Office bearers & Officials " under "Club News & Info" at the top of the page

Last updated : October 12, 2025.
For more of our history, including our Premierships, click HERE