By RUSSELL BENNETT
THE Lynbrook Lakers Cricket Club had the humblest of beginnings – a kitchen discussion between five mates.
Now, 10 years later and having found a new home at the new Marriott Waters sporting complex, the Lakers have emerged as a real future threat in the upper echelon of the Dandenong District Cricket Association.
After the conclusion of the firsts’ game at home on Saturday, a second-round Turf 4 contest against Parkdale, it was time to celebrate everything the likes of Brett Tibballs, Peter Curtis and inaugural president Steve McPhail had seen come to fruition in the first decade of the club.
Former Test cricket fast bowler Rodney Hogg entertained the gathering of over 100 people who converged on the room for the celebrations – some were former players who hadn’t been to the club in over five years.
Hogg and Lakers club president Peter Charles presented Tibballs with the honour of becoming its first ever life-member.
Curtis said no-one deserved it more than Tibballs, who is a former captain of the club, was its first coach, has served as treasurer, coached junior sides and is currently the chairman of selectors.
But that wasn’t the only milestone witnessed on the night – all five presidents in the history of the club spoke about what being a Laker meant to them.
Tibballs and Curtis both agree – McPhail is “the driving force of the club”.
“Not only was he our first president, he was the one with all the enthusiasm and ideas,” Curtis said.
“It’s only fitting that the Best Clubperson award is named after him.”
As for the current state of the club – it has moved ahead in leaps and bounds, particularly over the last couple of years.
“We’re in Turf 4 now in the DDCA and it’s a pretty good competition,” Tibballs said.
“If you want to go higher you have to start spending some money on players and we’re a couple of years away from that yet.
“(That said) sponsorship has been huge for us, like the Marriott Waters Shopping Centre and the Lynbrook Hotel, which has been with us since our second or third year.
“You go back to our first year and our biggest sponsor was my father-in-law who had his own business.”
The club is also witnessing an exciting generational change, with Curtis’s son now in the Lakers’ junior system.
“Ten years ago he was just being born,” he said, adding he’d love him to progress through the club and one day play senior cricket – just like current first team opening bowler Jesse Walia, who started in the under-13s in the first year of the club, and last year had a remarkable season leading the Lakers’ senior attack – claiming 52 wickets.
The Lynbrook Cricket Club has won an impressive seven senior and three junior premierships in its first decade.
