Premier A Grade vs Toongabbie @ Racecourse Turf
Moe won the toss and batted. Evan Sheekey could only manage one run better than his golden duck last week, first to go lbw. The Lions had two centuries in the two-day win over Toongabbie last year in their only meeting to date, and it was a sense of deja vu for the Rams as Moe had two centurions again. Rob Phoenix (102 off 123) & Andrew Philip (114* off 134) put on a 198 run stand for the second wicket to take the game away from the visitors.
198 equalled the club’s highest ever 2nd wicket partnership (1st XI & Club) set by Albert Tabuteau & Robert Evison against Morwell Colts in 1938/39.
Phoenix holed out point in the 42nd over to end the pairing. Hughes (1) & Savige fell in back to back deliveries in the 43rd over, before Laytten Smith (15*) joined Philip through to the innings end, Moe posting 4/250 from their full 50 overs. Barry 2/43 (10) was the only multiple wicket taker for Toongabbie.
Keenan Hughes (1/18 off 6) struck first for the Lions with the ball, opening with Smith. First change saw Aaron Johnstone (2/21) & Jordan Shields (4/49) take 6/70 from their full 10 overs each to see the visitors reduced to 8/84. Shields was unlucky not to get his first 1st XI 5 wicket haul, with a dropped catch when he had 3fa and another 3 dropped attempts when sitting on 4 wickets. Laytten Smith (2/17) returned to the bowling crease after the pair had bowled out, and took the last two wickets to wrap up the match. The Rams all out for 109 with only Amal Athulathmudali (33) scoring over 20.
B Grade vs Yinnar Raiders @ Yinnar Turf
B Grade travelled to Yinnar and for the second consecutive week showed batting depth beyond the first XI is an issue the second XI is facing. Moe batted their overs last week but could only muster 7/84 from the full 45. This week, bowled out in 23.2 overs with Braden Finn (33*) carrying his bat and no one else making double figures. Jeevan Varghese took 5/24 off 9 for Raiders, astonishingly with all 5 wickets being bowled. Sandhu finished with 4/16 from his full allotment.
The hosts chased down the total with ease, 2 down in just the 11th over. Hill 24 & Singh 17*. Farmer & Pickering each claimed a wicket for the Lions.
Moe desperately need some batting faces to return across the top 2 grades to get some strength back into the 2nd XI batting order.
Premier C Grade vs Cats
Unfortunate circumstances for Prem C to get on the board, winning their Round 1 match by forfeit.
This Saturday – all One day games starting at 11.30am
– Premier A travel to Yinnar to face Raiders
– B Grade will face Imperials for the first time, at Ted Summerton.
– Premier C will host Rovers on the Racecourse Turf
The Moe Cricket Club is excited to announce the signing of Laytten Smith. Laytten comes to us from Yarragon Cricket Club with extensive Div 1 experience whilst also having stints as playing coach & vice-president. On-field, Laytten has won the WDCA bowling aggregate and earned multiple WDCA Team of the Year selections.
Laytten looks like he’ll be a fantastic addition to our 1st XI squad and we are hoping his first silverware success comes in his first year as a Lion.
We also wish to welcome Laytten’s wife Alice and daughter Alina into the Lions family. We look forward to seeing you all at the Den.
As distributed at last week’s juniors night, please see the key details for the junior sides.
We had a great turnout and numbers are looking strong for 10/12/14’s. A few more 16’s would be great. Unfortunately not enough interest to get Women’s or girls comp sides up for this year, we’ll try again next season. These junior sides (and senior teams) are mixed, so girls are welcome to join in these teams.
14’s & 16’s training commences tonight.
Junior Blasters details coming soon for those below the 10’s age group (or within the 10’s ages and not wanting to play competitively just yet)
Vice Captains 2024/25
Introducing our vice captains for the upcoming season.
A Grade – Benn Zomer
Assisting Noah Kane in A’s will be former Latrobe captain/coach Benn Zomer. Benny came across late in the pre season last year. Despite missing a few games, the talented all rounder finished 3rd in runs & 5th in wickets for A Grade last season. An experienced leader for his age, he’ll bring some fresh ideas & support to Arky.
B Grade – Rob Blunt
Blunty bounced between A’s & B’s last year and still has A Grade ambitions, but will be Michael Johnstone’s support when in 2nd XI this year. Previously acted captain in prior captains absences (due to them also bouncing between A & B’s), and knows a thing or two about cricket. Johnno & Blunty’s goal will be to bring B Grade straight back up following relegation last season.
C Grade – Mustafa Glibanovic
A young all rounder looking to develop leadership, he will deputise under Garry Edwards learning the tricks of the trade whilst also bringing some fresh ideas from the younger generation mind. Musty finished 5th, 3 runs short of 3rd for C’s batting last year and 4th in the wickets.
Premier A Grade –
Noah Kane will continue into his third year as captain. Noah stepped up as skipper following A Grade’s promotion to the Premier A Grade in 2021/22. His first two years in charge have seen a semi final loss & a semi final draw, so he will look to continue that upward trajectory hopefully one step better in his third year and reach a Grand Final.
B Grade –
Following relegation from Premier B Grade to the second B Grade division, returning A Grade player Michael Johnstone, will take the reins as captain and help develop our young players into better cricketers. The club wishes Michael all the best in the quest of B Grade win promotion back to the Premier B Division and fingers crossed winning silverware in doing so.
Premier C Grade –
Experienced former A Grade player Garry Edwards will be in charge of the thirds this season and will look after the mix of experience and youthful fresh faces in the senior ranks. Gary’s main objective is to help develop our young cricketers into better players. This will be the 4th season since C’s won the lower C Grade and got promoted to the Premier C division. After finishing 7th in 2021/22, it’s been two years of finishing 5th. Garry will be hoping that he can take his C Grade team to the finals this season.
We look forward to seeing what these skippers can do paired with the new look coaching team of Paddy & Mez.
Go the Mo!
As we enter August, there’ll be more announcements here for the upcoming season.
Firstly, although internally it’s been known since the end of the last campaign, it’s probably overdue to go public with the news that former Premiership Captain/Coaches Steve Mesaric & Patrick Spiteri will be returning to the coaches box in a dual capacity.
Both bring a significant wealth of knowledge to the role as they look to get the Lions primed for success in all 3 grades.
Welcome back Mez & Pat, and we can’t wait to see what you guys can do with the playing group in 2024/25. Go The Mo!
Unfortunately, with no games in Grand Final week, our final Workways Australia Transition to Work award for the 2022/23 season went to the “Volunteer of the Week”.
C Grade skipper Shannon Murphy received the award from Kaney for his help around TSR hosting the Premier A Grade Grand Final.
Our other volunteer’s help doesn’t go unnoticed and we appreciate everyone who assisted over the weekend.
A reminder Presentation Night is on the 31st March to officially bring the season to a close.
The Latrobe Valley & District Cricket League held its ‘league’ presentation night last night with 3 award winners from the Moe Cricket Club recognised.
CALLUM GRANT
– LVDCL Premier A Grade Bowling Aggregate
– LVDCL Premier A Grade Team of the Year
ANDREW PHILIP
– LVDCL Premier A Grade Team of the Year
RONNIE WHITNEY
– LVDCL Premier C Grade Bowling Average
Congratulations!!!!
The Moe CC Senior Presentation takes place on March 31st
MOE 1ST INN: 10/137
MORWELL 1ST INN: Resuming at 6/42
Blake Mills & Jordan Campbell started Day 2 and in the first hour of play appeared to take the game away from the Lions. Mills (33) was adjudged lbw to Grant as drinks were taken at 7/79.
Campbell and Brincat steadied to add 24 for the 8th wicket before Campbell (25) hit a short ball straight down Andrew Philip’s throat at mid wicket.
Harvey 
was lbw to Johnstone and Brincat (12) bowled by Grant with no further score as Morwell lost their last 3 wickets for 0 runs, all out for 103. Grant finished with 5/31 (20.1), Taylor 2/14 (8.), Johnstone 2/5 (3) & Phoenix 1/26 (22).
MOE 2ND INNINGS – Lead of 34
59 overs left in the day, Moe led by 34 runs. Morwell had to go for the reverse outright and needed to take 10 wickets then make that score plus 35 runs, all in just 59 overs.
Four balls into the innings and Brincat had made it 2/0 (Robinson , Philip ) to make any result look possible. Noah Kane & Riley Baldi added 19 before Kane (7) fell lbw to Brincat. Sean Spiteri (3) was bowled upon the lunch break at 4/32, a lead of 66 and 43 overs still remaining.
3 overs after lunch and Whelpdale struck twice, Baldi (20) lbw not playing a shot and Grant caught behind two balls later. Harvey claimed his second scalp with Paddy Spiteri (5) caught and bowled. Phoenix (10*) added 6 runs in the 23rd over to extend the lead to 83 at 7/49. The 24th over was a killer blow with Johnstone , Colgrave & Taylor all given lbw in the same over, to make it 5 lbw’s in the inning and 8 for day 2 alone. Harvey finished with 5/10 from 7.5, Brincat 3/14 from 8 & Whelpdale 2/9 off 4.
Moe also lost their last 3 wickets for 0 as part of losing 7/17 to close.
MORWELL 2ND INNING – 84 runs required, 35 overs left to play.
Cukier & Mooney got off to a comfortable start, putting 24 for the first wicket, before Cukier (16) fell lbw to Johnstone. Mooney (9) was the 13th lbw of the match and 10th for the day, dismissed by Grant at 2/33. Mason (9 off 7) blasted a six then fell moments later at 3/44, caught behind off Grant.
Blake Mills (31* off 34) brought up the win with a six as he and Blair Clymo (15* off 26) finished off the game in attacking style to pull off a remarkable reverse outright semi final win.
Congratulations to Morwell who will face Raiders at Ted Summerton next week and bad luck to our A Grader’s where the season has now unfortunately come to a close.
A GRADE SEMI – Morwell v Moe
MOE INNING
Moe’s batting woes in the two day format brought a changed order as Chris Robinson switched places with Riley Baldi at opening & number 4. But the early woes continued, Robinson (1) undone by a cracking delivery from Seymour clipping the bail. Seymour struck again with Andrew Philip lbw to make it 2/11. This brought the regular opening pair of Noah Kane & Baldi back together after just 10 overs.
The pair put on 69 for the third wicket, Baldi with the vast majority going close a run a ball throughout his inning. His knock of 50 runs included 4 fours and a six, the latter being hit to bring up the half century. Unfortunately two balls later, he lost his head and a rash shot saw him back in the pavilion at 3/80. Kane (35 off 116) didn’t last much longer, next to fall, run out at 4/89. The middle order collapse became 4/15 (total 6/95) when Phoenix (1) & Grant both fell to Mills (2/1 off 3.3). The innings sort of stumbled towards the finish with the last 4 wickets putting on 42 runs with cameos from Sean Spiteri (12), Paddy Spiteri (14) & Royce Colgrave (14*) whilst Johnstone (4) & Taylor (2) didn’t cause the scorers much issue. Moe all out for 137 from 59.4 overs. Seymour 3/27, Harvey 2/24 & Mills took multiple wickets for the Tigers.
MORWELL INNING
With a minimum 26 overs to face, Morwell looked to knock off a chunk of the total by stumps. Mooney (
& Cukier (13) managed to rack up 18 off of Colgrave’s 3 overs but the free flowing nature at one end actually spelt trouble at the other as Clint Taylor collected the scalps of both of the openers in a fiery spell of 2/3 from 5 overs.
Rob Phoenix replaced Colgrave at the club room end and struck with his 2nd ball (Whelpdale ). Phoenix had the figures of 1/0 off his first 7 overs, which worked perfectly in tandem with Callum Grant at the other end. Grant had Day ( off 23) caught superbly by Andrew Philip to make it 4/24 and a frantic three ball inning saw Mason stumped in the same over. Four overs later, Grant had 3 wickets with Clymo (3 off 51) lbw to make it 6/25 and the Lions were in dreamland.
Jordan Campbell (6* off 33) & Blake Mills (8* off 19) saw Morwell through to stumps at 6/42 with 96 runs still required. Moe need 4 wickets. Play resumes 12/3.
B GRADE SEMI – Thorpdale v Moe
MOE INNING
Moe won the toss and batted. It was slow going from the outset with 5 runs from the first 7 overs as Jesse Pheeney & Mark Micallef saw off the new ball. They fell for 14 (39) & 9 (34) respectively in the 12th & 13th overs. Ash Savige 2 (4) fell in the 15th over to make it a 3/5 collapse and 3/28 total. The slow run rate continued with Jarryd Atkinson (4 off 29) & Evan Sheekey (18 off 53) unable to get the bowling of Zac O’Connell & Ken Dron away. Dron collected both of their wickets on the way to 2/13 from his allotted 9 overs. The scoreline was just 51 runs for the loss of 5 wickets from 30 overs.
Randy Straughair (24 off 42) threw the bat around to try to muster up some sort of total, but he and Troy Oakley (8 off 43) fell in consecutive overs to make it 7/83 with just 4 overs left. Josh Pickering (22 off 19) swung for the fences and connected with a couple (2 fours and a six) to push the total to 9/110 from 45 overs. Pickering and Blandford 
fell the last two balls of the innings to give Kayne O’Connell 3/13 from 8 overs. Dron & Powell (2/16) took multiple wickets whilst Shannon Pickering (1/15 off 9) & Zac O’Connell (0/22 off 9) were economical. Bradshaw (1/28 off 4) felt the wrath of Straughair & Pickering but scalped the former for his troubles.
THORPDALE INNING
The match was settled with the first partnership. Kayne O’Connell & James Durkin put on 77 with none of the Moe attack able to get a breakthrough early. A few chances close to fielders but nothing going to hand. Blunt & Savige who played all (11) and all but two (9) of A Grade’s home & away games respectively this season were unable to influence the result with their experience, going for 0/40 from 13 overs between them. Pickering was Moe’s best bowler with 0/5 off 6 but unable to claim a wicket either.
Jarryd Atkinson’s second spell finally brought an end to the partnership with O’Connell (38 off 81) picking out Blunt at mid on. The ball was thrown around late and Jesse Pheeney snagged a wicket when Powell (11) also picked out Blunt in the field. Bailey Wilson bowled tight at the end of innings with 0/7 from 4. Durkin (47* off 111) & Z.O’Connell (1*) at crease to finish 2/111 off 36.3 overs, 51 balls to spare.
B Grade’s season comes to a close as Thorpdale make it 4 from 4 vs Moe this season.
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