Cricket loses a team
THE Fish Creek Tarwin Cricket Club has gone into recess for 12 months, as it has been unable to attract player numbers for the upcoming season.
The Fish Creek and Tarwin cricket clubs amalgamated 18 years ago, with both clubs having a long history before that.
Club president Clayton Fisher said on behalf of the committee, he would like to thank all of the players, past players, supporters, families and everyone else has looked after the club over the years.
“It is a big disappointment we can’t get a side together this year, but we are hopeful we can get one together next year,” he said.
Gary Webster from Middle Tarwin had been involved with the Tarwin Cricket Club for nearly 40 years, including the 18 years as an amalgamation.
He said a lack of interest in cricket and less young people taking up the sport is affecting the game everywhere.
“It is not just a problem here, it is all around. Young people just don’t want to play cricket,” he said.
“Maybe it’s because cricket is played in the summer time and people would rather be at the beach.”
Mr Webster said the club only had about six or seven players left before it decided to go into recess.
“A lot of the established players were getting older and looking to retire and there were no young players coming through to replace them,” he said.
“I am disappointed but it certainly wasn’t a shock, you could see it was going to happen. I was hoping we would get a couple more years out of it at least.”
Mr Webster, along with a few others will play for MDU this season, one player retired, some have gone to Foster and another possibly to Inverloch.
Former Fish Creek cricketer Jack Charlton said it was a sad day for Fish Creek.
“I played in the old South Gippsland Association for Fish Creek, we won premierships in the 50s and 60s,” he said.
“Until now, I don’t think Fish Creek has ever stopped.”
Mr Charlton said before the amalgamation of Fish Creek and Tarwin between Foster and Fish Creek, there was over four clubs in each area.
“Now they can’t get one team on the ground. A few of the older players would have got going, but they just couldn’t get young blokes to play,” he said.
“They just haven’t got the numbers.”
Fish Creek Tarwin’s Graham “Paddy” Watkins has gone to coach Foster and so have some of the club’s remaining players.
“Foster is likely to have two senior teams this season, it only had the one last year,” Mr Charlton said.
“Paddy played district cricket with Waverley 20 years ago.”
Mr Charlton said Norm Wilkins is upset about the clubs demise.
“He has done a heck of a lot of work for the club, on the grounds in particular,” he said.
The future of Fish Creek’s turf wicket at Terrill Park is not yet up for discussion but Mr Charlton said, “I don’t think they’ll rip it up just yet.”
Leongatha and District Cricket Association president Russell Matthews said it is a shame the Fish Creek Tarwin Club failed to put together a team this year.
“They have gone into recess for 12 months, but obviously it will be hard for it to get up again next year,” he said.
“Unfortunately, there are a few clubs struggling for numbers. In the old days most blokes retired when they got to their early 40s.
“These days with the extra divisions, more are playing on but we are getting a lot of retirements now.”
Mr Matthews said junior numbers have struggled in the last few years.
“The association has been putting a lot of effort into the junior competition and we are hoping in the next few years we will see the benefits,” he said.
“Juniors are on the increase quite rapidly. A couple of years ago we only had seven Under 16 teams and we will have at least 11 this year.
“Under 14s is much the same and we have seen an increase in Under 12 numbers as well.”
The Star this week previews the LDCA cricket season on pages 31-35 and the finalised senior cricket draws are published on page 57.
Some last minute tweaking of the draws took place on Friday with some changes in B Grade Division Two and C Grade Divisions One and Two.
The A2 draw now has a bye due to Fish Creek/Tarwin dropping out.
Cobra: from left, Matt Wrigley and president of the Korumburra Cricket Club, Allan Summerfield, are proud of the transformation which has taken place to the club house over the off season.
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Posted by Tayla Kershaw on Oct 6 2015. Filed under Sport. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry
