Comments on the draft YPCC Strategic Plan 2012-14 are welcome from anyone. Please forward any comments to Paul Sinclair on email sinclair.ypcc@gmail.com.au.

Regards

Paul Sinclair
YPCC President

WADDY GETS GREEN LIGHT FROM PRIME MINISTER

Great news that our Zimbabwean recruit Waddington Mwayenga and his wife Sibo Ncube have been granted permanent residency in Australia. Waddy will be employed as the YPCC In2Cricket Coordinator for 2012-13.

RECRUITING STARTS AT HOME

Know anyone who sits at home on Saturday's making stuff out of icy-pole sticks? They need to meet people and get active. They need to play at YPCC. We recruit for all senior teams. New junior players welcome. If you know of any quality players the committee need to talk to just drop me a line. Contact Shaun Vance 0401 318 273

SENIOR COACH SIGNS ON

Senior coach Jessie McCartney has signed on for another season. He will be running club sessions on Wednesday evenings, and on Monday's he'll be establishing a development squad to build the strength of our 1st & 2nd XI teams and fostering the talent of players wanting to get the best out of themselves.

NEW JUNIOR COACHING JOBS

We're currently advertising for two junior coaches to support our under 14 & 12 teams, and the Super 8s players. If you want to apply or know of people would do a good job, view and download the job descriptions here.

NEW ENGLISH RECRUIT ARRIVING IN SEPTEMBER

Sam Johnson from Nottingham in England will be arriving at YPCC in September to play a season with us. Sam is the latest player passed onto us by Scott Boswell, a former Leicestershire county player who played with us a few years ago. Sam is looking for casual work while he's out here. If you can help call Paul Sinclair 0409 004 651.

ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING 18 JUNE JULY

The Annual General Meeting is where our club elects the Committee of Management that runs the club. If you want to get involved please give a ring to talk it over. You don't have to be a player to be on the CoM, you can be a senior player, or a junior parent. The date of the AGM will be 18 June July. Venue to be advised. Contact Rohan Phelps for details 0400 527 083

90TH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATIONS

The 2012-13 season will be the 90th birthday of our club. If you want to help us organise events and celebrations during the season give Shaun Vance a call 0401 318 273.

Paul Sinclair

YPCC President

YPCC's Presentation Night for the seniors was held on 28th April 2012 with all its customary glitz and glamour. Thanks to the event's wonderful hosts, Pippa and Rohan Dwyer. Congratulations to all the winners on the night.  Many worthy winners. Some of them are listed below. The rest of them you can find in the latest edition of The Youlden Cricketer's Almanac. Out now in all good book stores...

YPCC Senior's Presentation Night will be held on Saturday 28 April, at 8 Butler Grove Coburg with our generous hosts Rohan and Pippa Dwyer.

You're welcome from 5pm, with BBQ dinner served 5.30-6.30pm, and formalities kicking off at 6.30pm. Drinks and dinner at low cost.

Partners, girlfriends, wives and kids welcome.

Please RSVP to myself or to Paul Sinclair sinclair.ypcc@gmail.com to assist us with catering.

Cheers

Andrew Phillips
YPCC Treasurer

YPCC President

The 3rd XI had a thrilling win over Parkville District last weekend to take home the MCA C-Grade premiership flag. Well done fellas and congratulations! That makes two premierships for YPCC this season. A terrific result!

Read below for Rob Clancy's account of his first premiership in something like 8 attempts.

Regards,

Andrew Phillips

3rd XI Grand Final Match Report (by Rob Clancy)

Full Scoreboard

If you ever want proof that this game we love is the most cruelly beautiful sport of all, then the 3rds Grand Final should be Exhibit A.

Even after a couple of sleeps, it's still hard to believe that what looked like a lost cause on Saturday evening could turn within 24 hours into such an incredible success. But let's not jump to the exciting conclusion too soon; as with all good stories, this one starts at the beginning.

Well, for most of us it started at the beginning, which we all knew was 11am Saturday when, after losing the toss (much to Robbo's relief) and being put in, we began our innings without one of our two best batsmen, Owen Jones, who was putting his duties as a caring husband and new father first, as he should.

That wouldn't have been much of a problem except for the fact that at 1 for 2, his replacement - not entirely unrelated to the author of this report - strode to the crease. Then 3 balls later strode right back off again with a cherry on his outside edge and the score at 2 for 3.

On a painfully slow pitch with tennis ball bounce, a slow outfield and swing in the air Robbo hung around as he does, picking off the loose balls while those at the other end bravely fought a losing battle. Pizzey gone for 1, Clancy the same, Holt a defiant 7, Perkins' 14 the second top score, Pattichis 4, Tucker 3, Nandury 0, Leeder 1 and Lenehan zero left us all out for just 78, with Owen stranded not out on 10 after coming in at number 7. So much hope reduced to such a low score so quickly.

If not for Robbo's 30 we would really have been in strife, but on a difficult track at least we had some runs on the board. It was now up to Parkville District to see if they could match it.

As it turned out, our opponents tried their hardest not to match our score, offering up at least 20 chances, some of which fell just out of reach, while six or seven others were dropped. If catches win matches we were doing our best to hand this particular one to our opponents on a plate, except we probably would have dropped the plate and cut our foot on the broken shards of china strewn across a once pristine floor. But enough of the tortured metaphors!

Luckily our team was well equipped with a battery of quality bowlers at the top of their game. And Nuts Clancy.

Adam Tucker led the way with pace, control and swing to capture 4 for 24 while his opening partner, Subramaniam Nandury - AKA Suby Forester/Sportswagon/WRX/etc - was dreadfully unlucky, returning figures of none for 5 off 7 overs.

Middle Earth's own Mark Leeder provided height, hostility and heat to grab a crucial scalp, and Pirate Pete Pattichis made two decisive breakthroughs. Then jumping James Lenehan surprised a few by grabbing 3 for 6, to wrap up an innings that had threatened to get away from us, but in the end collapsed for just 102 - the last 7 wickets tumbling for only 15 runs.

So at the halfway point of the match we trailed by 24 runs and considering that we batted first and fielded appallingly, felt we were roughly even overall. All that was needed was to survive about 17 overs before stumps on day one. How hard could that be? Ahem.

It actually seemed pretty easy until both Ian "Stobie Pole" Robertson and Dangerous David Pizzey departed with only 10 on the board, then a couple of debatable decisions saw Messrs Holt & Clancy on their way too, with the score on 21.

Oh, then 7 runs later Pete P was gone, with Owen J following soon after!

So when stumps were drawn after the first of the allotted three days, we were effectively 6 for 12 in our second innings and far from setting a defendable total. Hence the "lost cause" sentiments expressed above, despite the relentless optimism being expressed by captain Robbo (which at that stage even he probably didn't believe!).

When day two dawned there were two things we knew for sure:
1. We needed the tail to put on at least one solid partnership to have any chance of setting a target we could defend, and;
2. There were previously unseen holes in the covers and damp patches at both ends of an already tricky wicket.

But with plenty of dew on the grass and the opposition keen to push on, Robbo made the brave decision not to delay, and that might just have set the tone for an incredible day.

The outfield moisture made bowling a touch more difficult and Adam Tucker and Matty Perkins did the rest. This pair didn't just put on 55 runs, they batted right through the first two hours, first quieting, then demoralising the opposition and slowly, surely, incrementally raising our confidence that something amazing might happen.

Matt shuffled his way around the crease in his trademark way for a stubborn, priceless 19 while Adam combined previously unseen patience with an array of shots he'd been threatening to unleash all summer, to end with 46 runs of his own - easily the match's highest individual score.

They took us out of trouble into relative comfort, while Suby and young Jim hung around just long enough at the end to prolong our opponents' pain by a couple of dozen more crucial runs.

When we were all out for 115 our foes had a target of 92 to chase and we had something worth defending, plus an ever-increasing (and increasingly vocal) band of support around the boundary line. The fun had just begun.

Who else could it be to start the rot than A. Tuxedo Esq. himself, finding an edge that was snaffled at slip. Then a few overs later their dangerman, Pickering was gone after failing to keep a Tuxoid lifter out and deflecting it onto his pegs. 2 for 14. Game on.

As the competition's leading wicket-taker Suby was never going to stay out of the action for long; another edge, another slips catch and they were on the ropes at 3 for 17. Then he used every ounce of his all-wheel drive traction to clinch a caught and bowled and it was 4 for 22.

There would be no let up, even as their batsmen did their best to hit their way out of trouble. Mark Leeder came on and produced a chance that Suby somehow stooped low enough to snatch at mid-on. 5 for 36. Much merriment ensued, but we were only half way home with a faulty fuel guage, dodgy shockers and a bumpy ride ahead.

The other mob steadied, their captain and number 7 batting patiently to put on 27 painful runs for the seventh wicket. But cometh the hour, cometh the pirate, and Pete Pattichis knocked over the off stump to break the partnership and put us back on track for the time being.

All the while, our fielding had gone up several notches, morale was good, Robbo was rotating the bowlers, nothing was getting past OJ's gloves and the YPCC contingent under those big fig trees was swelling in both number and volume.

But with 4 wickets still in hand the opposition got to within 12 runs of their target and you could have cut the tension with one of those really crappy half-blunt green-handled garden implements they sell for $2.99 right near the checkouts at Bunnings.

With the pride of Terang, Jim Lenehan, sending down unplayable outswingers from one end, big Mark Leeder had the ball at the other. No sooner had he let go of a juicy full-toss outside off than the batsman hammered it to cover where Pirate Pete took an absolute stunner of a catch, diving forward, literally millimetres from the turf.

That made it 7 for 80 and while we were confident against their tailenders, the target was way too close for comfort, so what did big Leeds do? Only knocked their number 9's middle peg right out of the ground!

Now with 2 wickets remaining, their captain still in at one end and a renowned hitter at the other they were just 8 runs shy of victory. Suby, bowling uphill, was as surprised as anyone to see their skipper dance down the wicket on the first ball of the over attempting to hit him over the Alfred Hospital and miss completely.

Then, after consistently bringing the ball into the right-handers throughout the match, our man casually produced a perfect leg-cutter that took the edge and deposited itself straight into OJ's waiting mitts.

9 wickets down, one to go, but only 8 runs from defeat. What is a captain to do? To his eternal credit, Robbo bravely took the ball from the in-form Leeds and handed it to the man who had put us in with a chance of victory in the first place.

A typically smooth & slithering Tucker inswinger found a crease-bound pad. The appeal went up from all around the wicket and dozens around the boundary. The umpire's finger was raised and time stopped for one glorious, screaming, cavorting minute as anyone present with even a milligram of YPCC in their veins joined in the kind of celebration that some of us have waited decades to experience.

Had there been less at stake it still would have been a great match, but delivering us our first senior flag in 9 seasons and our second in a single weekend (well done to the Powerful Owls!), this was truly a contest that few of us will ever forget.

We don't play cricket for moments like these; we play it because we truly love the game, aware that the more we love it the more it can hurt us. What these moments teach us, on the all-too-rare occasions they come along, is that it's worth risking pain and disappointment for something so perfect.

Thank you to everyone who was a part of this premiership and especially to Robbo for holding it all together, Barney Phillips for running the place and Corey Anderson for having the grace and class to be the big part of it that he was.

Cheers
Uncle Nutso.

See the winning teams photos in our Gallery and click here to see the the team in action (photos taken by Phil Paevere - thanks Phil).

YPCC 3rd XI Grand Final Team

MCA-C Grade
Youlden Parkville* v Parkville District
Fawkner Park 1 Armadale Street, South Yarra (ref Melway 2L B6)  View Map
24 Mar 2012 11:00AM, 25 Mar 2012 11:00AM, 31 Mar 2012 11:00AM

** LEAVING from Ryder Oval at 9:15am to meet at Fawkner Park 1 at 9:45am. We are the nominated home team so there is some setup work to do once there **

Rob Clancy
Peter Holt
Owen B Jones (wk)
Mark T Leeder
James Lenehan
Subramanyam Nandury
Peter Pattichis
Matthew J Perkins
David S Pizzey
Ian J Robertson (c) - 0437 396 431
Adam Tucker
Corey B Anderson (12th Man)

Under 12s v Stathmore: Semi Final at Poplar Oval

Full Scoreboard

On Saturday 24th March the Under 12's took on Strathmore at Poplar Oval. YPCC won the toss and elected to bat on a damp outfield and after their allotted 28 overs finished with 5-96. Top scorers were Daniel with 11no, Arlo 8rtno, Max and Lexi both with 6rtno. Given Strathmore made 109 against them last time the score looked competitive, but perhaps a little short of a winning one.

That all quickly changed when wickets fell on the first two balls of the innings and after 7 overs Strathmore had been reduced to 7-11 which included 6 ducks. Strathmore limped through another 14 overs before eventually being dismissed for 48. Lexi finished with 2-1, Jasper 2-2, Angus 2-8 and Akira 1-1. Bryce also had two direct hit run outs from a very fine leg and Daniel threw the stumps down from fine leg to complete the final dismissal. It was a great team effort and the boys are in great form for their Grand Final against Pascoe Vale Central.

3rd XI v Carnegie: Semi Final at Koornang Park

Full Scoreboard

On a wicket that had been under the covers for the last two days Carnegie won the toss and elected to bowl first. Ian Robertson and Dave Pizzey got the side off to a great start putting on 76 for the first wicket before Dave departed for a well made 29. A succession of small partnerships followed before Robbo fell for 61 leaving the score at 5-131. Two more quick wickets left the innings in the balance at 7-153 before late inclusion Rob (Nuts) Clancy combined with Subramanyam Nandury for a valuable 58 run partnership before one of Nuts suicidal calls left Subby short of his ground for a hard hitting 32. Nuts departed shortly after for a valuable 59 with innings closing shortly after for a very competitive total of 223, the teams highest total for the season. Five overs were left on day one and at their completion the total was looking a whole lot bigger for the Carnegie boys as they imploded after a long day in the field to be 3-3, with Adam Tucker taking a wicket with the first ball of the innings and Suby bowling two wicket maidens.

Day 2 saw Carnegie decide that a draw was good enough for them to progress to the final so they decided to attempt to bat the 100 overs for the day without attempting to chase the score. Three wickets before lunch left the score at 6-45 from 40 overs with one of the opening batsmen still in on 6 runs. Another wicket in the second session, along with a couple of dropped catches, put the score at 7-96 from 75 overs. With half an hour left in the day Carnegie were still 7 down and things were starting to look grim. Robbo threw the ball to Pete Pattichis and with the first ball of his spell he trapped Carnegies opening batsmen in front for a painstaking 26 from 100.1 overs. Adam Tucker took the ball at the other end and with the third ball of his 27th over trapped the other establish batsmen in front leaving one wicket to get. Two balls later Adam produced an edge that flew low to Matt Perkins right at third slip where he took a cracker of a diving one handed catch, despite David Pizzey diving across in front of him to provide interference, and the game was won. The celebrations that followed the catch made one wonder whether the team was full of 40 years olds or the Under 12's from Saturday morning!

Due to some excellent bowling, and some extremely negative batting from Carnegie, the bowling figures for all bowlers were very tidy. Adam Tucker finished with figures of 26.5-11-4-35, Subramanyam Nandury 14-9-3-16, Peter Pattichis 20-10-2-19 and Nuts Clancy 10-6-1-12. Parkville Districts now await in the Grand Final next weekend.

Grand Finals

Stay tuned for news later in the week as to the make up of the two XI's that are to take the field along with the venues for the two games.

Cheers

Barney

Our 3rd XI and Under 12 are playing in their respective Semi Finals this weekend. Good luck to all!!

TEAMS

See below for the 3rd X1 that has been selected to take on Carnegie at Carnegie in the MCA C grade semi final this Saturday and Sunday. I am sure the players would appreciate some support at Carnegie if you have some time to drop by and have a look.

Our Under 12 team (see below) are also involved in a semi final against Strathmore on Saturday morning at Poplar Oval on the Avenue from 8:20am. Once again it I am sure the boys would appreciate some support if you have some time to drop by and have a look at the future stars of the club.

PERSONAL EQUIPMENT

For all of those players who still have personal equipment stored in the rooms could they please contact me to ASAP to arrange to collect it. The rooms are being used by outside parties for a football carnival this Sunday and as such everything of ours has to be put away. We do not have enough room to store personal equipment.

Cheers

Barney

Team selections:

NWMCA-12 E
Youlden Parkville* v Strathmore 4
Poplar Oval, Royal Park The Avenue, Parkville (ref M 29 F11)
17 Mar 2012 8:20AM

Bryce Anglin
Arlo Brown-Shaw
Akira Cairnes
Lexi Durham-Arnold
Francis Evans
Henry Grist
Daniel Mott
Jasper Paevere
Jack Perkins
Ziggy Ryan
Angus Ross
Max Sinclair
Eugene Thomas
Aden Van Gerrevink

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MCA-C Grade
Carnegie v Youlden Parkville*
Koornang Park Munro Avenue, Carnegie (ref Melway 68 H6)[maplink341]
17 Mar 2012 11:00AM, 18 Mar 2012 11:00AM

** LEAVING from Ryder Oval at 9:15am to meet at Koornang Park at 10:00am **

Corey B Anderson
Peter Holt
Owen B Jones (wk)
Mark T Leeder
James Lenehan
Subramanyam Nandury
Peter Pattichis
Matthew J Perkins
David S Pizzey
Ian J Robertson (c) - 0437 396 431
Adam Tucker
Rob Clancy (12th Man)

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