Sports stars named for start of the year

SEVEN-wickets in his test cricket debut has earned Moama’s spin bowling ace Todd Murphy the February nod in Bendigo’s Sports Star of the Year award for 2023.

Murphy captured 7-124 in the first match of the four-test series on Indian soil to decide the Border-Gavaskar trophy.

The 22-year-old is Australia’s youngest spin bowler to capture five wickets on test debut.

Despite his bowling feats, India won the clash in Nagpur by an innings and 132 runs.

After defeat in test two in Delhi, Murphy and his team-mates fought back for a nine-wicket victory at Indore.

A great run by Murphy in which he captured 10 wickets in the opening three matches was the dismissal of Indian great Virat Kohli on three occasions.

After a lean run with the bat, Murphy struck 41 off 61 deliveries in Australia’s first innings of 480 at Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad.

His brilliant knock included five fours as he teamed with Nathan Lyon for an eighth-wicket stand of 70.

Murphy took 3-113 as India reached 571 in its first innings.

The tour of India concludes with one-day matches on 17, 19 and 22 March.

A first XI premiership winner with Sandhurst in the Bendigo District Cricket Association season of 2017-18, Murphy has gone on to star for Victoria in Sheffield Shield action, and for Sydney Sixers in Big Bash.

It’s the second monthly win for Murphy who was a Sports Star finalist in 2022 after he represented Australia ‘A’ in Sri Lanka.

Star award for young golfer

CONSECUTIVE tournament victories in Tasmania have earned teenage golfing sensation Jazy Roberts the January award in Bendigo’s Sports Star of the Year award.

Roberts, 18, was in hot form on the greens and fairways in a blistering start to the year.

The young gun from Belvoir Park Golf Club near Ravenswood starred at the Tasmania Junior Amateur and Tasmania Junior Masters.

Earlier in the month, Roberts was runner-up at the TPS Victoria Junior amateur tournament.

In February the teenager returned to Tasmania to win a sudden-death play-off to claim the Tasmanian Open at Launceston.

Just last week, Roberts marked her first international event when she teed off at the Women’s Amateur Asia-Pacific tournament in Singapore.

An Australian team of six was in a field of 85 from which 22 countries were represented.

A big summer for Roberts included competing at the Australian Open and several PGA Tour of Australasia events.

In February, 2019, Roberts was awarded a Bendigo Sports Star of the Year scholarship and was in the running for the Maxine Crouch Trust Fund.

Golf has a long and proud record in Sports Star history.

The Basil Ashman Hall of Fame includes gun golfers Ann Howe, Len Prior and Trevor Tully.

Sports Star of the Year across 2020 and ’21, Lucas Herbert is still excelling on courses around the world and a past recipient of the Cyril Michelsen Trust Fund award.