Bowled over: Heathcote’s 19th century cricket scene

CRICKET was a popular summer pursuit in Heathcote during the second half of the 19th century.

Local clubs sprang up across the Victorian goldfields and teams travelled long distances to pit their skills against one another, often meeting at a halfway point for a game.

In January 1861, the fledgling Heathcote Cricket Club beat the newly-formed Diggers Cricket Club at Barrack Reserve.

A return match at the Diggers’ Wattle Flat home ground in February saw Heathcote as the victor for the second time.

The following summer an all-England side visited Australia, and this maiden tour inspired what the McIvor Times referred to as a “monomania for cricketing”.

The two countries met in their first Test match at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on 15 March 1877, but the Ashes series did not begin until 1882 when the Australians won at the Oval in south London.

In Heathcote, cricket teams came and went at a local level – ­­ as with most pastimes in a small town, the ebb and flow of activity was generally dependent on a few dedicated individuals.

By the 1890s cricket was a regular part of sports days and picnics, with women’s matches becoming more common.

In April 1897 the McIvor Times provided details of the upcoming Heathcote Hospital Fete.

“We hear that the latest novelty on the ground, will be a cricket match consisting of Heathcote ladies and judging from the form recently shown by some of them this will not be the least interesting feature of the programme,” it reported.

A year later, in April 1898, it commented on how well women played at a picnic match in Tooborac.

“Cricketing was also indulged in by the ladies, many of them being adept with the willow, and they made the ball travel along the turf in a surprising manner,” it said.

 

“It would be a very good idea if the Ladies of Tooborac next season would meet the Ladies of Heathcote in a match in aid of the charities.”

In December of the same year, a “ladies cricket match” at the state school picnic was described as “very interesting and provocative of much fun”.

At the end of 1899, representatives of the Heathcote, Costerfield, Redcastle and Knowsley cricket clubs met to form the McIvor District Cricket Association after a trophy, in the form of a silver salad tureen, was donated by the Victorian Sports Depot.

This appeared to be a one-off series, and various other associations were formed in the following years.

Heathcote residents could also take advantage of world-class cricket on their doorstep.

In December 1897, the McIvor Times advertised a “grand international sporting carnival to be held in the Bendigo Showground on Boxing and New Year’s day”.

It included a match between the touring English cricket team, known as Stoddart’s XI, and a Bendigo side.

However, to this day it’s grass roots cricket that binds communities – sometimes in local teams, but more often in street and backyard matches where families, friends and neighbours meet in competition and comradeship.

In the late 1890s, Heathcote bank manager Roderick Gates photographed his family playing cricket in a Heathcote park, and while the outfits are old-fashioned, the image still resonates today.