Wanderers QLD tour a big hit in the bush

By Brad Murphy Captain & President of Wanderers QLD Club

The Wanderers Cricket Club’s country tour to the north and western part of Central Qld has just been completed. Amidst the testing times of Covid-19 we were able to deliver what we thought was a great trip playing a total of eight games against the local teams and coaching the kids on each occasion with the assistance of the Qld Cricket Area Managers. This trip as always is only possible with the kind assistance in funding and equipment from a group of sponsors who know how important it is to take cricket to the country. These trips were started many decades ago by former President, the late Lew Cooper and we continue in his absence after his passing a couple of years ago. We believe the benefits to Qld Cricket are many and are confident that the tours will continue into the future.

Our tour this year included the most town visits ever undertaken by Wanderers on a country trip as we had requests by some new places and we were very happy to accommodate. It meant a very busy time of packing and unpacking and a very understanding bus driver in Ian Crispo to carry out the mission.

After our usual lunch time stop at Gin Gin for lunch on Wednesday on the way to Yeppoon we played our regular opening fixture against a Capricorn Coast team led by Luke Nixon at the Yeppoon Showgrounds on Thursday 13^th August. We coached some very young kids after play finished before ending the day sharing pizzas with the local club members. A highlight of the day was regular Wanderer Ian Healy’s participation both at the crease for a cameo and after the game where he spoke to the audience. We started the tour badly on the field with a loss but it was a good opportunity to get to know our team mates in preparation for the next seven games.

Morgans Financial Limited are one of the proud sponsors of Wanderers QLD

We then moved onto Mackay and the magnificent Harrup Park complex where prior to our afternoon fixture against a Mackay XI we ran a clinic for some Mackay representative juniors along with local coach and former Toombul player Luke Jackson. Both Queensland Cricket (CA) Area Managers Luke Kennedy and Bake Cooper from Harrup Park were massive helpers in staging this fixture. We turned the table on our first game’s form and had a win and enjoyed dinner after the game in the Harrup Park Sports Club.

Onwards to Proserpine the next morning and another well attended junior clinic before clashing with Proserpine at the Proserpine Cricket Ground for another win. We were joined by retired Bulls fast bowler Luke Feldman courtesy of the Australian Cricketers Association and Bulls Masters and Luke was happy to have an after match chat with the locals and also assisted with the coaching of the kids before the game. Bo Saunders from QC was a great help at our pre- game clinic also. President Craig Brown and a large band of club helpers were fantastic hosts on the day and we finished with a drink at the Metropole Hotel.

Home Hill was our fourth game in as many days when we ventured to the Home Hill Racetrack Cricket Ground and had an hour long session with members of the Home Hill and Townsville Norths junior teams who were playing a game on an adjoining field. We had our third victory and the home team was led by President Alexander Romeo. We enjoyed the hospitality of the Home Hill people with a after game barbecue and another talk from Luke Feldman.

Touring party in Yeppoon

After a rigorous four days of cricket games and coaching clinics we travelled west to Charters Towers on the Monday with stopovers for refreshments at historic pubs in Giru and Mingela. Some of the touring party played a round of golf in the Towers whilst the others savoured the opportunity to take the bus up into the hills to visit the gold tourist attractions before joining together at Irish Molly’s Pub for dinner in the evening.

The next day we played a Charters Towers/Townsville XI which included several country representative players and tourist Luke Feldman and Tim Agapow played for them in what was a very good match. We were defeated by three wickets. Both QC’s Dan Kearney and Tony Hampson played in the game and then joined us in running a short session for some local juniors again helped by Luke Feldman who passed on his knowledge to the young bowlers in the group. After a chat after the game with our hosts led by long time Towers cricket worker Roma Bailey we were off to the Enterprise Hotel for a meal.

The next day we were off to Clermont for an afternoon and evening match under the lights at the Clermont Rugby League ground where we defeated the Clermont Bulls led by past Wanderers tourist Matt Hicks. We enjoyed both lunch and dinner at the ground organised by Chris Robertson and her helpers and as it had been some time since we’d last visited Clermont we will make sure that it is not as long before we return. We did a coaching clinic in between innings for a large group of the Clermont junior cricketers and a group of kids from the neighbouring Capella township. We were assisted by QC’s Kade Horan and his excellent assistant Nathan Spencer.

Action from Charters Towers

For our third game in a row mid tour we visited the mining town of Blackwater which is another frequent stopover and this time the opposition were ready for us. Led by local sportsman Chris Johnson we went down in a good match at the Rugby Union Club grounds and again ran our coaching clinic where Kade and Nathan played a huge role in making it a great morning for the kids. The after match function was at the clubhouse where the local hotel delivered excellent meals featuring large packs of ribs.

Another travel day to break the game pattern and to our final destination Roma. We played an afternoon round of golf at the Roma course. Roma was a last minute addition to our itinerary when another town pulled out at late notice.

Darryl Langton saved us in a super final day of cricket and we appreciate the efforts of Scott Hilton who was able to get a Roma team on the paddock at the last minute. We did a coaching clinic in the morning of the game and after the presentations we had dinner for the second night in a row at the Club Hotel.

An early morning departure saw us stop at a roadhouse in Miles for breakfast before returning to Brisbane in the early afternoon. Another fantastic country tour complete!

It was a most enjoyable tour where we won five and lost three of the fixtures and as per the above report we also coached and enjoyed the camaraderie of each of our country hosts after the games.

Coaching session at Proserpine

The touring party included a mixed playing group. We mentioned both Ian Healy and Luke Feldman who played parts on the trip courtesy of the Bulls Masters and the Australian Cricketer’s Association. Redlands and Queensland 2^nd XI wicketkeeper batsman Leigh Drennan was with us for most of the trip and Imparja Cup allrounder Tyran Eggmolesse from Norths was sponsored by the Lord’s Taverners who contribute annually in sending a young cricketer on our tour.

The Greg Chappell Cricket Centre courtesy of Mr Greg Tibbits again kindly sponsored an up and coming player and this time it was Emerald batsman Byron Gale who now plays for Valleys in Brisbane and received the GCCC scholarship to tour.

Numerous other company sponsors and individuals helped in making sure our team had adequate talent by way of their kind monetary contributions.

In addition to those already named we are also indebted to Mr Peter Chisholm from major sponsor Morgan’s Financials, Valley District Cricket Club, Warwick Cricket Association and Mr John Ranclaud, a past tourist and long-time club supporter. Their support and funding greatly assists in allowing the tour to go ahead each year.

The Clem Jones Group through Valmae Richardson once more sponsored myself to arrange the coaching clinics and Qld Cricket provided their usual injection of funds and we also utilised their area development managers at most of our clinics along the way. We thank Mr Terry Svenson and Mr Jon Stimpson for their ongoing support for cricket in QLD and thanks again to all QC staff for their contributions to the tour in each country centre visited. QC also donated signed Brisbane Heat cricket bats to raffle in each town to raise extra funds for the trip.

The bus

We will again be naming a young player/s selected from our coaching sessions during the trip to receive the “Doug Wallace Coaching Scholarship” which enables the recipient/s to attend a coaching clinic during a school holiday period.

This award is named after the late Doug Wallace who was a previous tourist and is kindly donated each year by his son Bruce.

Mr Brad Ipson from Casella Wines as he has done previously donated several cartons of Yellowtail wines which we handed out as man of the match awards.

Mr Ben Siemon (son of touring photography guru Ian) from Byrne Ford Kedron kindly donated caps for the touring party to wear whilst on the journey and we must also thank Ian’s friend Mr Bert Dugdale from RetireInvest for compiling last year’s tour’s collage of photos on to memory sticks and generously giving a copy to each member of the group.

We used Gabba cricket balls in our matches with company director Mark Gaskell also being a former Wanderers player.

As mentioned the coaching was only possible through the sponsorship of the Clem Jones Group and Qld Cricket but in order for it to work we needed all hands on deck in most towns. A very large contributor to the success was Lance Roudenko from Upskill Cricket who keenly coached and videoed the kids and was also a good support on the field during most games. We were assisted at various stages by the rest of the Wanderers team in providing coaching to the local children and the numbers were great.

Thanks to you all for your efforts as the coaching part of these trips is really important in our quest to grow the game in Qld.

Vice-captain and much travelled cricketer Lee Watts took over the reins from myself after two games when I realised my statue at first slip was pretty much useless and Wattsy did an excellent job in making sure that all players got a fair go and contributed himself with both bat and ball along the way.

The “Pop Cooper Award” for player of the tour was shared by two young players who were both extremely consistent throughout the tour and appear set for big grade seasons. Both polling 24 votes, Norths swing bowler Tyran Eggmolesse  took 15 wickets at the miserly average of 11 and Valleys wicket keeper Christian Murphy scored 313 runs at an average of 52 including one century and two fifties as well as taking 6 catches and 2 stumping’s.

Other solid performers in the voting were Valleys batsman Michael Toolis with 226 runs averaging 32 and Sunshine Coast’s young spinning all-rounder Tim Agapow with 186 runs and 9 wickets. James Wooden from the Sunshine Coast took 13 wickets and Tom Morris from Warwick took 10 whilst in the 3 games that Luke Feldman played he took 7 wickets for not many runs! All other players had highlights at various stages of the tour.

Amongst our tourists we were so lucky to have Gian Taviani as our official scorer. What a magnificent job he did not only in scoring but also in writing and publishing the post-match reports after each encounter. Bryan Stephens umpired in every game and was joined by evergreen Pat Carty when he caught up with us in Home Hill for the rest of the trip. Neil McMillan did his usual amount of work in ensuring the eskies were full throughout the trip and our official photographer Ian Siemon once more was brilliant in his work not only snapping the cricket action photos but also capturing plenty of the country scenery along the way. As mentioned our regular bus driver Ian Crispo was magnificent and a really vital member of our party each year.

Mention must be made of club secretary Stephanie McNamee who does a power of work behind the scenes and looks after plenty of the things that I simply haven’t got the time to do. She really is gold. Also many thanks to usual tourist Paul Baker who was absent this time around but still compiled our quiz sheets for the trip. Hopefully Paul will be back on board next year!

Finally in winding up the report I again would like to thank everyone for making the 2020 country tour such a success from our end and a big thank you to all of our country hosts as without them the trip would not happen.

In order to continue it is imperative that we retain our current sponsors and also try to attract new ones to bolster the funds that is takes to travel away so if anyone reading this has any suggestions please don’t hesitate to get in touch to discuss.

We now look forward to playing the upcoming summer of midweek school fixtures and then organising our 2021 western tour. We always welcome new playing members and supporters so please spread the word.