Pines and Balnarring all level, Baxter wins a tight one By Brodie Cowburn
PENINSULA
Picture: Craig Barrett
MPCA WOMENS
AFTER a thrilling battle at Eric Bell Reserve on Sunday, nothing could separate Pines and Balnarring. The two sides have both been impressive in the MPCA Women’s league so far. A win for either would have put them in the mix for the top of the table spot. Balnarring were sent in to bat first and put a good score on the board. Opener Abby Trezise top scored with 27, with her side going on to make 139 before their 20 overs were up. Pines were impressive with the bat, but their run rate was what cost them in the end. Despite a knock of 47 from Jaide Anthony and another good innings from Samantha Ryan (37), Pines could only do enough to snatch a tie. Both sides finished all square with 139 runs. Things were a little less competitive at Lloyd Park on Sunday. Langwarrin secured top of the table with a good win over Rye. Rye batted first but could only set their opponents a target of 71 to win. Rye opener Stella Appleford did her best, scoring 40 runs. Langwarrin made quick work of their target. They wrapped up the win with seven overs left to play and six wickets to spare. Tootgarook had a bye.
PROVINCIAL
A STELLAR innings of 91 not out from Matt Prosser was the highlight of Langwarrin’s win over Old Peninsula on Saturday. Old Peninsula set their opponents a target of 147 to chase down to win. Their top scorer was Justin Grant, who scored a half century (51). Langwarrin lost opener Chris Brittain early on but never looked back from there. Prosser’s awesome innings, complete with four boundaries, got his side over the line. Langy won by nine wickets. It was a little less easy for Baxter on Saturday, as they scraped over the line in a low scoring clash with Red Hill.
Red Hill chose to bat first but struggled. They were bowled out for just 96. William Borthwick did damage with the ball, sending Red Hill’s openers and number three to the sheds and posting final figures of 3/8. Baxter’s run chase got off to a nightmare start with both openers gone for ducks. They continued to lose wickets, and at 7/58 looked in real danger at letting the game slip from their fingers. A good late showing from the tail got Baxter over the line, They ended up winning by just two wickets. In other Provincial action last weekend a half century from Nick Jewell helped Long Island defeat Mt Eliza, and Baden Powell defeated Sorrento by six wickets.
A BRILLIANT unbeaten knock from Damien Lawrence was the difference between Pines and Mornington at Eric Bell Reserve last weekend. Lawrence opened the batting and was superb. He scored 91 runs, and batted the whole way through the innings. Pines set Mornington a target of 197 to win. A few Mornington batters made starts but none could turn them into big scores. At the end of Mornington’s 40 overs they remained 82 runs short of victory. Seaford Tigers, Heatherhill, and Somerville rounded out the winner’s list in the Peninsula division last weekend. They defeated Moorooduc, Flinders, and Rosebud respectively.
DISTRICT
MAIN Ridge and Carrum did battle in a nail-biter last weekend. Main Ridge chose to bat first on their home deck. Their innings went well, with most batters making contributions to the score. After 40 overs Main Ridge ended their innings at 9/170. Carrum had a tough task ahead of them to get the win. Carrum lost both openers early, but a strong showing from the middle order got them back on track. Ryan Dyer was their best performer with the bat with a
score of 40. After Ryan’s wicket fell, Carrum still had 50 runs to score with four wickets in hand. They worked hard, but time was against them. Carrum ended up just a couple of runs short of victory. They finished their innings at 8/169. Delacombe Park defeated Carrum Downs on Saturday, while Dromana bested Crib Point. Hastings had a great day, smashing Frankston YCW by nearly 100 runs.
SUB DISTRICT
TOOTGAROOK took home the win in a thriller over Mt Martha on Saturday. Chasing down 108 to win, Tootgarook faced some resistance from the Mt Martha bowlers. A strong opening stand between Travis French and Steven Nelson proved crucial in the end. Despite a middle order collapse, Tootgarook managed to drag themselves over the line. They hit the winning runs with just one wicket left to spare. A paltry total of 41 doomed Boneo to defeat against Rye. In other Sub District matchups Tyabb smashed Seaford by 100 runs, Pearcedale defeated Balnarring, and Skye defeated Ballam Park.
It's a world first for Baxter SOCCER
pression, suicidal thinking or a psychotic episode what would you do about it as a first aider? “The course goes through aspects of mental health illnesses – what are the causes, what are the symptoms like and what are the treatment options? “Just as general first aid has an action plan mental health first aid has an action plan. “We take participants through that action plan and alert them to the main mental health diagnoses and teach them to look out for each other.” Baxter president Bray Hodgkinson was thrilled with his club’s achievement and hoped that it would raise awareness of mental health issues among other clubs. “An achievement like this for our small community club is incredible and I want to thank the participants and Bryan from MOAT who made this possible,” he said. “We’re immensely proud to be the first sports’ club in the world to be accredited and hope to
By Craig MacKenzie BAXTER has achieved Gold Level status in the Skilled Workplace program run by Mental Health First Aid Australia. Bryan Jeffrey from MOAT Mental Health Services conducted the course at Baxter Park that involved 16 participants drawn from the soccer club’s administration, coaching and playing ranks. “I spoke to MHFA and they confirmed that no other club in the world has this accreditation,” Jeffrey said. “It entails two days of training but we split the training up into evening chunks to make it easier for the club to organise participants.” The course draws parallels between general first aid and mental health first aid and prompts participants to establish an action plan. “If someone is having a panic attack, has de-
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be an inspiration for other sports clubs to do the same. “Mental health is such an important issue and we hope we can raise awareness within our local sports clubs to better support our players and members.” Clubs wanting to learn more about the MHFA course should go to www.moat.com.au where Jeffrey’s contact details are available. In State 3 news Frankston Pines clinched the signature of Callum Batey last week. The 22-year-old has played at left back, central defence and in midfield. Batey’s football journey started when he was just five years old and joined the junior program at English Premier League club Newcastle United. Two years later the family moved to Melbourne and he spent almost six years at Brighton before joining Bentleigh Greens as a 13-year-old. He had a stint at Oakleigh Cannons then switched to Beaumaris making his senior debut as a teenager under head coach Marcus Stergiopoulos. Batey was first alerted to Pines’ interest through close friend Marinos Panayi who joined the club last season. The pair were teammates at Beaumaris. “Marinos told me that they obviously are looking to get promoted and when I went down I really liked the group and the coach so it just seemed like a really good fit for me,” Batey said. Pines have a couple more targets in their sights but the club isn’t prepared to name them yet. In State 4 news Chelsea has confirmed details of some pre-season games. Carlo Melino’s men will face Casey Panthers at Prospect Hill Reserve on Saturday 29 January (1pm and 3pm), Pakenham United at IYU Recreation Reserve on Saturday 5 February (1pm and 3pm), Peninsula Strikers at Centenary Park on Saturday 26 February (1pm and 3pm) and Aspendale Stingrays at Edithvale Recreation Reserve on Thursday 10 March (6.30pm and 8.30pm). In other news Football Victoria released its preliminary league structures for 2022 last week and there’s been little change for local clubs. Barton United, based in Cranbourne West, won the race for the spot in State 5 South that Rosebud
Heart thought it had. Barton runs senior men’s and women’s and junior programs and plays at Barton Recreation Reserve, a $7 million sporting precinct opened in 2019. Scanning the club names throughout next year’s leagues makes it clear that FV has well and truly consigned the one-time policy of banning foreign names to the dustbin of history. That policy was implemented and enforced by the old Sir Arthur George-led Australian Soccer Federation and would never have allowed Manningham Juventus or Monash City Villareal to compete under such names. Meanwhile FV also released its player registration and team entry fees for next year. Individual player fees for MiniRoos (age 11 and under) are $70, community juniors (under 12 to 18) $110, NPL juniors (under 14 to 18) $200, community senior men $233, community senior women $201 and over 35s (men and women) $135. Player registration and team entry fees for senior NPL clubs are combined. Langwarrin is up for $18,200 for its senior NPL2 teams next season. There’s a sliding scale of team fees for State League clubs and the following entry fees are combined totals for seniors and reserves: For State 1 (Mornington) the fee is $8430, State 2 (Peninsula Strikers and Skye United) $6920, State 3 (Frankston Pines) $5840, State 4 (Baxter, Seaford United, Chelsea and Somerville) $3780 and State 5 (Rosebud, Aspendale and Mount Martha) $3350. FV has also set a 20 January deadline for clubs to supply fixturing information for next year. Clubs must contact the federation by this date with information on preferred day of play, home fixture kick-off times and primary home venue. For years now there’s been a fixture logjam on the peninsula with local clubs playing home games on the same day and at the same time. Although playing home games on Saturday afternoons has long been the fixture preference of the majority of local clubs it’s hoped that FV’s fixturing may finally be tweaked to alleviate the congestion.