The Essendon Cricket Club had its presentation night for the 2011/12 season. Here is the complete list of award winners:

1^st XI:

Batting Average: Ben Fletcher

Bowling Average: Louis Cameron

Team Champion: Ben Howell

2^nd XI:

Batting: John Patton

Bowling: Stephen Buhagiar

Team Champion: Tom Godsell

3^rd XI:

Batting: Brad Joass

Bowling: David Tate

Team Champion: David Tate

4^th XI:

Batting: Jack Howard

Bowling: Tristan Plunkett

Team Champion: Jack Rhodes

Harry Nunn Award (for the Best Clubperson): Charlie Buhagiar

Ian Monks Award (for the Most Promising Junior Cricketer): Corey Altis

Mick Mitchell Award (for the player who receives the most post-game votes across all XIs*): Louis Cameron

Team of the Year:

Ben MacRae

Ben Howell

Zaheer Hussain

Ben Fletcher

Tom Godsell

John Patton

James Dimattina

Mitch Johnstone

Steve Reid

Tom Batters

Louis Cameron

*Players across all 4 XIs give 2 votes to the best player in their game, and 1 vote for the next best player. The captain of each XI has 5 votes to allocate.

A win for the fourths but disappointments for the other grades this weekend  No play for 1st XI after Dandenong’s outright last week.

2nd XI at Windy Hill lost first innings to Dandenong in spite of bowling the visitors  all out for 129 on pink Stumps Day in support of the McGrath  Foundation. Slevison was on fire, taking seven wickets including four caught behinds by Rory and another stumping. Unfortunately Essendon could not make the runs. Rory on 30, Dickinson 19 and a patient 14 from Mitch could not stem a strong attack. Essendon all out for 98. (Bulakowaki 5/19).

3rd XI. Another loss after Dandenong easily overtook the Essendon 1st innings score of 101, declaring at six for 163. In the second innings ECC made 5/127 Dec.

4th XI. Won first innings keeping Dandenong to 88 with six wickets to Jack Rhodes (6/19 off 11.3). The boys then made 7/94 Ingleton 35.

Thanks to the Mums and other women supporters who came long to Windy Hill for the afternoon tea in support of the Jane McGrath Foundation fundraiser. It was a nice turnout for this community event and several hundred dollars was raised in the worthy cause.
Special thanks to Val Peters who shared some interesting stories of Essendon CC’s past, and Ben Fletcher who talked about the importance of volunteers and community support in boosting the club’s fortunes.

Women friends and supporters of the Essendon Cricket Club

Afternoon Tea at Windy Hill

Saturday, February 18, 3.30 p.m.

In support of the McGrath Foundation

Come along and support the Bombers, watch some cricket, with tea, coffee, cake and a glass of wine

And help raise funds for this important community service – all funds raised go towards hiring breast cancer nurses to help care for women with the illness. So far the Jane McGrath foundation has raised enough funds to hire 68 nurses caring for women in communities around Australia, and helps to raise awareness among young women about this illness. Click here for more details