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.

Brendan, a Premier Cricket great with 7,500 runs for Fitzroy and veteran of two Premiership sides having captained one, said he is looking for the right attitude among the players, and it will be “a clean slate for everyone”.

“In the first few months we will focus on fitness and fielding, and in August we will do more batting and bowling training. In September we will be looking for practice games. By starting a bit earlier we will get ourselves into a more competitive position – having an edge on fitness and good fielding will be an advantage early in the year,” the new coach said.

Brendan said he was positive about what could be achieved, even though the Bombers had a disappointing ending to the year, coming 13th out of the 18 Premier Cricket teams. The story of the year for the First XI seemed to be that the team could get itself into a winning position but then failed to carry through.

Brendan said he is positive about what can be achieved in what is a pretty young side, across all teams.

Selected in the Premier Team of the Season in 2000/01 and 2001/02, Brendan played in the Fitzroy Lions’ 1993/94 and 2001/02 premiership teams. He played a total of 220 games for the club. His finest season was 1995/96 when his 915 runs @ 76.25 earned him the Jack Ryder Medal.

Brendan returned to Premier Cricket last year, as an assistant coach at Carlton, helping them to the minor premiership title.

Click here to see Brendan Joyce’s full Premier Cricket statistics

Brendan’s signing follows a detailed search by the club’s Coaching Sub Committee headed by John Shannon.

Click here for full details.

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.

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

See the full newsletter here.

Good effort from First 11 in first day against Ringwood at Windy Hill and also from thirds and fourths. Seconds had a shocker.  Great 100 from Lowther in the Fourths and 93 for Howell in the Firsts.

Firsts: Essendon scored 269 on a hot and humid day with Benny Howell unlucky not to make 100, caught on 93. Good efforts also from Fletcher 55, Hussain 37, Godsell 28, Macrae 25 and Patton 15. Ringwood went in to bat for ten overs with Clint in great form getting two wickets leaving them 2/33 at stumps.

Seconds: all out 80 then Ringwood made 3/146 dec. they put Dons back in and the score was 4/28 at stumps.

Thirds: Ringwood all out for 209 with four wickets for D. Tate and two for Slevo.

Fourths: Essendon 9/232 at stumps. Lowther 100, Howard 44, Hutcheson 35.

First XI – Nth set a first innings target last week of 181 but easily got us all out for 105 after leaving us 6/90 odd overnight. They went for the outright and made 6 for 188 before declaring. This set us a 2nd innings target of 266 off 41 overs. At stumps we were 4 for 184, thus avoiding the outright but still delivering Nth Melb first innings points. Well done JP not out (13*, 40*) both innings and Dicko 41* . Louis took 7 for the match. Steve Reid out with shoulder injury hopes for early return next month. Best wishes for speedy return.

2nd 11 – Nth Melbourne 8/350 def Ess all out 276. Great efforts from Tom Godsell 98 and Zaheer Hussein 66.

3rd 11- Essendon 7/314 def Nth Melb all out 141.  Dimattina 138 and Tate 82.

4th 11 – Nth Melbourne 10/181 def by Essendon 10/217. S Brown 45. Great last wicket partnership by Aangan 30 and Darcy 35.

Nice to see a good crowd for after match get together in club rooms early evening