New cricket season set to begin

THE Geelong Cricket Association (GCA) and the Bellarine Peninsula Cricket Association (BPCA) both begin their seasons on the weekend.

Ocean Grove Cricket Club were the winners of last year’s BPCA after defeating Anglesea in the grand final.

Ocean Grove finished third on the table, but were equal on points with first placed Anglesea and second placed Barwon Heads.

Club president John Giuffrida said it was great for the side to win in A Grade last season, but they were now broadening their focus to the club as a whole.

“We’re looking to do more with our junior sides this year. We’d love to win the club championship.”

The grand final in 2019 reversed the result of the 2018 grand final where Anglesea defeated Ocean Grove. The two sides are likely to be favourites in what has proved to be a competitive league.

Anglesea Cricket Club president Brett Kerr said he was feeling positive about the coming season.

“We’ve picked up a couple of players, which is nice, and don’t seem to have lost too many.”

Kerr said being able to keep players at the club had been a key part of its recent success.

“We’ve been lucky that we’ve had a couple of juniors come through that have been pretty good players and they’ve stuck at the club, which is fantastic.”

In the GCA, Leopold will similarly be looking to improve on their previous season.

Their firsts finished eighth out of the 10 teams in Division 1.

Club president Matthew Sinkinson said they were determined to improve across the divisions this season.

“Ideally, we’d like to play finals, but certainly improve our standing within the club championship across the whole competition.”

Sinkinson said he was also excited about Leopold fielding its first women’s side, when their competition begins later in the year.