England awaits Australian class

MIRBOO North identity, Ian Southall is the only Gippslander and one of five Victorians to have been selected as one of 17 Australians to tour England as the Australian Seniors Over 60s cricket team.
Better known in the town as an activist for renewable energy he is on the team that will play its English equivalent and a number of county sides for one month this June and July.
Furthermore, Mr Southall has been honoured by Cricket Australia with a 50 years Service Award.
All on the Australian Seniors Over 60s cricket team have played a high grade of cricket over many years and are still fit enough to play the game.
As Mr Southall says, “Bowls and golf don’t necessarily fit with the cricket tragic.”
The 17 players were selected by the Victorian Over 60s Cricket Association (VOSCA) following the National Championships in November in Casey/Berwick when over 650 senior crickets from around Australia converged.
The representative side will play 17 games in England and Mr Southall will be the opening bowler.
He played his formative and better years with Sale Maffra and played A Grade cricket for Mirboo North up until the age of 53.
Since that time he has helped as a coach and mentor for the lower grades.
Ian Southall has played with representative Victorian country teams and played against visiting teams from Sri Lanka and New Zealand.
He nominates his 6/24 in the 1980/81 grand final win for Rosedale Kilmany as his best ever performance.
On the Friday evening when we met he was one of several residents at the Mirboo North Community Shed preparing for the following day’s Chaplaincy Auction.

In shape: opening the bowling for Australia, Southall is also no slouch with the bat.

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Posted by Sarah Vella on Mar 31 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