Memories flow at club reunion

ALUMNI of the VRI Delacombe Cricket Club visited the grounds at Doug Dean Reserve over the weekend to reminisce about their time on the pitch.

The past players were invited back during a match up against Napoleons-Sebastopol last Saturday as part of a get together celebrating their contribution to the club’s history.

Steven Idnurm played with VRI Delacombe from the early 1980s until the early 1990s and hadn’t set foot in the club rooms for nearly 30 years.

He said he’s blown away by how far the club had come since his time.

“When I was here, we had just a little tin shed and we’d put some nets up and I’d lay the wicket out the front,” he said.

“Our home ground used to be at what was Lakeside in Gillies Street. That got taken over by housing and our home games were shifted over to at the old zoo up at the lake.

“We settled here about 35 years ago and it’s come a long way. It was a very good family club and that’s definitely persisted.”

Phil Clamp was a wicket keeper and top order batsman between 1991 and 2000 said there were plenty of memories being recounted among the alumni.

“We’ve been talking about the time I got hit in the nose by a batsman. I was fielding mid-off, came in short and the batsman took a swing and got me,” he said.

“I got dumped in the back of a station wagon and rushed to hospital. That was my ambulance. There’s been stories too about [VRI alumni] Mal Hughes… People who are no longer with us.

“It was a real family, social club and it’s good to see everyone and that it’s still the case.”