This year’s annual pre-season Wanderers (Qld) Club country cricket tour from August 12th until 21st sees the group travel up as far as the mid north of the state and back through the inland west playing a total of eight games against local select sides and facilitating free coaching clinics prior to each fixture with the help of the Qld Cricket area managers.
There was some doubt early on if the trip would be able to go ahead given the parlous state of affairs surrounding the COVID-19 however all appears to be on track and making sure all safety measures are adhered to, the show will go on.
The opening game of this particular trip is against Capricorn Coast at the Yeppoon Showgrounds Oval and we will have an appearance by long time Wanderer and former Australian Test wicket keeping legend Ian Healy who just happens to be on a travelling holiday at that time and is keen to squeeze a game in with his mates! It’ll be back to the scene of his last hamstring strain but Heals always enjoys his time with the Wanderers.
The following three days will see matches against Mackay at the magnificent Harrup Park Complex, Proserpine and Home Hill at the racetrack ground after which will be a day off and a mid-tour round of golf at Charters Towers for the tourists. The following day we will be at the CTJCA grounds for a game against the Towers XI.
The tour will include former Bulls quick Luke Feldman up until this point and he’ll play three matches before he heads back to work in Brisbane.
The BULLS MASTERS and the AUSTRALIAN CRICKETER’S ASSOCIATION have kindly chipped in funds so Luke and former Australian Test quick Geoff Dymock can come along on the tour to help promote cricket and coach juniors at the towns we visit. During and after each game Geoff will fraternise with the locals and entertain them with stories from his playing days.
Moving back down through the south west we encounter Clermont, Blackwater and finally end the hectic schedule playing against Taroom/Wandoan at Taroom State High School on the Saturday August 21st.
This year’s tour group will have a total of 27 personnel including players, officials and supporters and follows on from tours over the past four decades where the Wanderers have provided opportunities for sponsored young cricketers to gain a head start for the summer by gaining valuable match practice leading into the first round of grade fixtures.
QUEENSLAND CRICKET is a massive contributor to the Wanderers and without their and all the other sponsor’s support the trip could simply not take place. Apart from Qld Cricket financial contribution they also provide valuable from their QLD Cricket area managers in each centre to help with the junior coaching programme. On this particular trip we are indebted to Jon Stimpson and his staff of Kade Horan, Luke Kennedy, Dan Kearney and Adam Paroz. QLD Cricket also provide a signed cricket bat to raffle at each centre to assist in raising funds for future tours.
After each trip Wanderers awards the “DOUG WALLACE COACHING GRANT” where a child/or children from one of the towns is/are chosen to receive a grant to attend a holiday coaching camp in the future. This award is named after former Wanderer Doug Wallace and has been kindly donated by his son Bruce Wallace each year since Doug passed away. Formerly the “David Baird Award”, many children over the past twenty-five years have been given the chance for further cricket experience through these awards.
As mentioned earlier the financial support from both the Bulls Masters and the ACA is really important to ensure we have a few past First Class players on the bus and it is important to note the club is granted massive lifelines by all sponsors and most are long term supporters through the massive efforts of the late President Lew Cooper who had a knack for tracking down support.
Without the ongoing support of the following it would be very tough to continue the country tours and the financial assistance they provide goes towards sponsoring several young cricketers to participate and the coaching component of the trip where local country kids are exposed to free coaching clinics in each town.
The Wanderers QLD Club would like to thank:
CLEM JONES GROUP who sponsor the Head Coach to arrange all junior clinics.
MORGANS FINANCIAL LIMITED - Mr Peter Chisholm is a long time major sponsor of several young tourists for each trip.
LORDS TAVERNERS CLUB – annual player sponsor.
GREG CHAPPELL CRICKET CENTRE - Mr Greg Tibbits, annual player sponsor.
WARWICK CRICKET ASSOCIATION – sponsor of two Warwick cricketers each year.
RETIREINVEST - Mr Bert Dugdale. In conjunction with tour photographer Mr Ian Siemon, Bert produced and donated last year’s tour video highlights package.
VALLEY DISTRICT CRICKET CLUB – sponsors a Valley player each year to go on the trip.
CASELLA WINES and YELLOWTAIL - Mr Brad Ipson. Man of the match awards, (bottles of Yellowtail.)
MR JOHN RANCLAUD – Wanderers club member who very kindly sponsors players/coaches to go on the tour.
ROUDENKO CRICKET ACADEMY and UPSKILL CRICKET – coaching content.
This year’s touring party is again led by club president and captain Brad Murphy who currently coaches Valleys and will include cricketing journeyman Lee Watts, most notable for his commitment of driving from Bowen to Brisbane each week in the past to play for Ipswich in the Brisbane grade competition and also Australian Over 60s medium pace bowler Pat Carty who hails from the Gold Coast.
There will be a strong Valley flavour with young wicketkeeper Christian Murphy, batsmen Michael Toolis and Byron Gale (originally from Emerald and the recipient of the Greg Chappell Cricket Centre Scholarship ) all in the line-up as well as hard hitting Norths allrounder Tyran Egmolesse and the two Warwick lads in Caleb King and Tom Morris.
Tyran Egmolesse
Two young Sunshine Coast products, batsman Tim Agapow and fast bowler James Wooden are hoping to further their playing experience alongside the others whilst rounding out the squad are another veteran in Rick Jones from Central Qld, Lance Roudenko who currently is player/coach of Runaway Bay in the Gold Coast competition, Shane Wyatt from Bankstown in Sydney, Robert O’Keeffe from Emerald and Redlands cult figure Matt Williamson.
Apart from the playing group the trip is very reliant on a band of travelling supporters which includes legendary long time bus driver Ian Crispo, who all love coming along and whether it be umpiring, scoring, playing golf or just watching the games they really enjoy it!
Finally the efforts of each local country cricket association we visit are to be acknowledged as without their support it would be impossible to stage the annual Wanderers tours. At each local cricket club there are so many great volunteers who ensure the games go ahead and these fantastic people are the lifeblood of cricket.
Here’s hoping that this year’s tour is as successful as previous ones where young tourists such as Matt Hayden, Stuart Law, Mike Kasprowicz, Jimmy Maher, Joe Burns and Wade Seccombe and in years long gone by Sam Trimble, Carl Rackemann and many other household Queensland cricketing names enjoyed the country hospitality whilst getting ready for the summer.
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