Cricket club welcomes past players

MEMBERS of the VRI Delacombe Cricket Club will celebrate their alumni in an inaugural past players celebration set for early next year.

The event will take place at Doug Dean Reserve on Saturday, 7 January, with attendees to include more than 15 confirmed club veterans.

President, Thomas Nichols, said the day will be a chance to look back on the club and foster a culture for its older members.

“We’re not like the bigger clubs where the life members sort of hang around. We don’t really see our past players that much like Wendouree, East Ballarat and the like,” he said.

“I want us to really have that culture with getting the older blokes back around here. I did a bit of a deep dive into our history so this’ll be a bit of a low-key catchup for everyone.

“People can have a few beers, tell a few stories and watch our twos playing Napoleons-Sebastopol in a one-day match which’ll be our first game back after Christmas.”

The event will coincide with a reunion between the club’s premiership-winning teams of 1972/73 and 2002/03, as well as an unveiling of their refurbished honour board.

Mr Nichols spent much of the year collating the club’s history from archival material from the Ballaarat Mechanics’ Institute and conversations with past members.

He aims to collect the club’s history in a book, and said it’s important the club members have an understanding of their history.

“There’s nothing we really have to look back on our history. I don’t even know how the club was formed so something like this is just invaluable,” he said.

“It’s important for me as someone who’s been around the club my whole life to get something like this happening.”