Dunne caps fairy tale comeback with medal
By Tim O'Connor March 7, 2016, 1:40 p.m.
Cam Dunne returns to Ballan with the Bernie Davey Medal 
COMEBACK KID: Cameron Dunne with the Bernie Davey Medal he won on Monday night. Picture: Kate Healy.


CAMERON Dunne is lucky just to be playing cricket, let alone be any good at it.
The 22-year-old Ballan all-rounder was forced to miss the entire 2014-15 season after a freak football accident nearly cost him the ability to walk.
But after months and months of rehabilitation – which is still ongoing – Dunne decided to return to the sporting field for Ballan’s foray into the revamped Ballarat Cricket Association seconds competition.
And his comeback was so good it resulted in victory during Monday night’s Bernie Davey Medal count.
Dunne polled 14 votes – including three in the final home and away round – to finish one clear of Buninyong’s dual winner Joel Kitchen and a further one ahead of teammate Zac Graham.
Dunne’s total of 434 runs during the home and away rounds – the fourth highest in the competition – came at an average of 48.22, while his 22 wickets were at 15.95 runs apiece.
His season returned votes in five separate matches, four of which were adjudged best-on-ground performances.
Formerly presented to the standout player in the now defunct BCA district division one competition, the Bernie Davey Medal was this season awarded in the 14-team seconds grade. 
Another successful night with Ballan taking out several awards was had at the Association presentation night at the Ballarat Golf Club on Monday  the 7th of March.
Several awards were taken out by Ballan with the top 2nd Grade award, the Bernie Davey Medal, being won by Cam Dunne.
Before the BCUA ( Ballarat Cricket Umpires Association) vote count there were individual awards the Ballan taking out three of them.
 Zac Graham won the award for the 'most catches' being 10 just beating Mick Nolan by 1 catch, J Cahir (Dunnstown) & J Hartnell (Golden Point) also took 9 catches each.
Jack McGregor won the wicket keeping award with 22 dismissals. Jack took 20 catches and 2 stumpings. A great effort having played the entire season with the U16's and doing well with the bat, ball and as keeper. He also has to play in the U16 Grand Final next week.
Jack finished 5 dismissals clear of his nearest rival.
Shortly after the awards were handed out for the Champion player for all the senior grades. As it was Zac's shout he headed to the bar to get drinks when he was called up to receive the '2nd XI Champion Player' so the bar was bypassed  and up he went to claim his award. The Champion player is worked out against individual statistics. Zac was also runner up with the batting averages; 548 runs @ 60.89.
The Bernie Davey vote count began shortly after the Association President confirmed that Noel Heafield was in the house as he was last years Bernie Davey Medalist and was required to present it this year.
Throughout the season the favourites seemed to be  Joel Kitchen (Buninyong) and Zac Graham, so the votes headed that way early in the night. However Cam Dunne was getting 3 votes regularly along with Jeromy Johnston (VRI).
It came down to the last round with Cam getting 3 votes, Zac getting 2 and Joel getting only 1.
Cam won with 14 votes ahead of Joel Kitchen 13 and Zac Graham on 12.
Cam was a surprised winner as through the count didn't think he was in the running. An amazing season considering the battles he has and still is going through with the football injury sustained a couple of years ago.
Cams stats  for the 2nd Grade were:
434 runs @ 48.22 , 22 wicket @ 15.95, 6 catches and 1 run-out.
A great honour for Cam  as he was presented the Medal by coach and teammate Noel.
2 Bernies for Ballan as Noel would say.
Congratulations to Cam, Zac and Jack.
Congratulations also to Captains Mick Nolan and Troy Connor for making the Semi Finals, quite often a thankless and criticized task.

All  Ballan votes;
BALLAN: Cam Dunne 14, Zac Graham 12, Ben Loughnane 5, Mick Nolan 3, Brendan Masters 3, Noel heafield 2, Mick Loughnane 2, David Gardiner 1
PictureJack getting a stumping against Ballarat/Redan in the T20 game.
BCA Junior awards for 2015/16
Following on from the senior success at association level, our juniors have continued the form.
Jack McGregor has had a busy 2015/16 season having taken out both Senior ( 2nd Grade) and U16 association awards.
On Monday 7th March he won the senior 2nd Grade Wicket Keeping award with 22 dismissals ( 20 catches and 2 stumpings). Wednesday the 9th March saw him take out the U16 2nd XI association Best & Fairest with 15 votes, polling in 7 matches, to win by 1 vote from Blake McPhan ( North Ballarat) and 5 clear of Callum Shaw (East Ballarat) on 10 votes.
Jack Crowe was our next highest vote getter with 5, followed by Riley Ranieri on 4, Clint McEgan  and Dylan Graham with 3 each.
Jack also won the association U16 2nd XI Batting Averages. His stats were; average 146, runs 438, strike rate of 212.6 and scored six 50's in his 10 innings with a top score of 53 not out. He was not out 7 times through the season.
Clint McEgan picked up the U16 2nd XI Best Bowling performance with a match winning 7/16
The boys performance for these awards don't take finals into account.
The Ballan U16's finished off a very successful year by winning the Grand Final ,at Brown Hill against Ballarat/Redan, by 98 runs. A great team effort with everyone doing their bit, especially with some great all round fielding, ensuring the the shield returns back to Ballan for another 12 months. Ballan did win the Grand Final last season as well.
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Clint McEgan bowling against East Ballarat in the U16's.
Greendale Cleaning Services
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Steve Penn from Greendale Cleaning Services helping out the cricket club by cleaning the Club-room windows on Saturday 27/2. Steve's boys both play cricket with the U16's at Ballan.
New Scoreboard
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Troy Connor putting the finishing touches to the new 'Commercial Hotel' scoreboard. It will make it's debut at the next home game on February 6th with One day C Grade against Ballarat/Redan. Hopefully it doesn't confuse Ronny too much with the batsman's individual scores now on the board.
1st XI Round 7
Ballan's outright win against Nth. Ballarat
Ballan travelled to St. Patrick's college No 2 oval on Saturday to play against Nth. Ballarat in the 2nd grade competition.
Nth. batted first and got off to a good start with an opening partnership of 91 runs before the first wicket fell thanks to Zac Graham's accurate bowling.
Zac got a second scalp without conceding any more runs before the home side added another 69 run partnership bringing the score to 160, with S Page scoring 95 runs.
The rest of the team only managed to get the score up to 218.
Ballan went in to bat with 14 overs remaining in the days play.
Mick Nolan and Zac Graham started aggressively  with Mick being run out on 39 ( 2 fours & 4 sixes) for a total partnership of 84.
Zac continued on hitting all around the ground with Lachie Snaith finishing with 117 valuable runs after the 14 overs. Zac hit 13 boundaries in his innings of 71 runs before retiring as he was unavailable for the second day.
Day 2 saw Ballan lose a couple of early wickets before Daniel Romeo settled in and made 61 with 10 fours & 2 sixes and a partnership of 95 with Mick Loughnane.
Jack McGregor was next in, after Daniel was bowled, and opened with a six to get himself off the mark.
Mick was in fine form knocking up a fantastic 120 n.o. and creating a partnership of 115 with Jack to give Ballan a total of 5/352, 134 runs ahead of Nth. Ballarat. Mick hit 19 fours & 1 six while Jack hit 5 fours & 2 sixes in his total of 41 n.o.
With 32 overs still remaining in the match, Ballan sent Nth. back in in an attempt to bowl them out for outright points. This also allowed Nth. a chance to claw their way back needing only just over 4 an over to win themselves.
Troy Connor and David Gardiner opened the bowling both getting an early break through  at ( FOW  4 & 8)
From then on the wickets were falling regularly until the last over with Nth. still needing 50 to win and Ballan needing 2 wickets. It seemed like an unlikely task until Lachie Snaith's 3rd last ball took the bails off. Two dot balls followed leaving the last ball all up to Lachie who to his credit hit the stumps again. All credit to the entire team who tried hard all day not giving up and were duly rewarded with an outright victory.
The best of the bowlers for the 2nd innings were: T Connor 3/8, Ben Loughnane 3/27 & Lachie Snaith 2/1 with David Gardiner 1/22 and Daniel Romeo 1/21

One Day C Grade Round 15
Rob Lindsay 151 not out
Only in round 12 had Rob got his first 100 and first 6. Now comes round 15 and he scores his first ever 151 not out. Is a 200 just around the corner?
Rob opened the batting with Craig Tooze , who scored 87 himself, and put on an opening partnership of 216 with, Rob hitting 18 fours while Toozy hit 13.
Next in with Rob was Jarryd Graham (72) with 11 fours and 2 sixes. Putting on 128 between them bringing the score to 334 before Jarryd was caught out. Justin Cameron was next in and finished on 11 n.o. with the last partnership of 22. Ballan ended at 2/ 355.
The only resistance that Bunninyong had was from the opener and captain D Tierney with 70.
Our bowlers did well with Corey White taking 3/7 off 2 overs.
Troy Connor took 2/38, Jarryd Graham 1/43 and Marcus Easterbrook 1/3.
Bunninyong were all out for 98

Ballarat begins path to country week
By David Brehaut
Nov. 23, 2015, 12:04 p.m.
BALLARAT Cricket Association has injected a wealth of new blood into an initial squad to prepare for Melbourne Country Week.
Experienced recruits Heath Pritchard (Darley) and Adam Eddy (North Ballarat) join the likes of English imports Adam Ranson (East Ballarat) and Ryan Plom (North Ballarat) as newcomers in a 42-man squad.
This will ultimately be trimmed to a 14-strong team to contest country week on February 1-5.
The squad features players from all 10 clubs playing the firsts competition, as well as Buninyong and Ballan, which under this season’s new BCA structure are now playing seconds.
Selectors have given Buninyong’s Joel Kitchen the nod along with Noel Heafield and Mick Nolan from Ballan.
Last season’s EJ Cleary Medallist Liam Rigby from Napoleons-Sebastopol has also been selected pending his return from England, where he travelled under a Cricket Willow United Kingdom scholarship.
East Ballarat, Napoleons-Sebastopol and Wendouree have the biggest representation with five players each. Boom team Darley has four.
BCA chairman Rob Florence said a coach was still to be appointed. 
Early preparation will be under the direction of chairman of selectors Mark Van de Heuvel.
Ballarat will play its first representative match against Maryborough in the Kenmac Shield at Maryborough’s Princes Park on Sunday, December 13.
SQUAD
BALLARAT-REDAN: Anthony Taylor, Bobby Hind, Al Edmends
BROWN HILL: Ryan Knowles, Jason Knowles, Alex Code, Tom Bourke-Finn
CORONET CITY: Brad Dunbar, Tom Baker
DARLEY: Heath Pritchard, Harry Killoran, Richard Moore, Brad Barnes
EAST BALLARAT: Brad Whittaker, Charles Murrie, Josh Brown, Adam Ranson, Harli Givvens
BUNINYONG: Joel Kitchen
GOLDEN POINT: Saman Jayantha, Josh White, Dan White, Andy Warwick
MT CLEAR: Nathan Yates, Steve Nicholson, Les Sandwith, Grant Trevenen
NORTH BALLARAT: Adam Eddy, Ryan Plom, Leigh Lorenzen
NAPOLEONS SEBASTOPOL Carmen Mapatuna, Jacob Eyers, Matthew Ringin, Luke Corden, Liam Rigby
WENDOUREE: Cole Roscholler, Heath Pyke, Austen Prendergast, Matt Smith, Liam Brady
BALLAN Noel Heafield, Mick Nolan

 PictureGards finishing off his fine 60 runs.
David Gardiner
Ballan's new No 3? 

Has David Gardiner worked his way into the prestigious number 3 batting spot with Ballan this season?
He seems to be angling at that in the last part of the 2015/16 season having batted there three times so far.
The first was against Golden Point in round 10 when he was sent in as night watchman where he managed to amass 60 runs hitting to all parts of the ground, starting in an aggressive manner where the opposition had no idea where to bowl to him.
Round 11 against  Ballarat/Redan  he scored 14 runs in the first innings before being caught out. Not quite as good as his previous effort.
Ballan then went back in after bowling Ballarat/Redan out with only 80 runs to achieve the outright victory. Ballan's first wicket fell and Gards was then brought in, again, at the coveted  number 3 batting with Mick Nolan. Between them they scored the runs required with several overs spare. Gards , 17 inc' 3 fours,was again hitting aggressively ( with the opposition initially calling him a hack) ably supporting Mick who scored another fine 54 not out including 10 fours.
1st XI Round 2
Ballan Pile on the Runs against  Coronet City.

Partnerships were the name of the game against Coronet City at Russell Square 2 yesterday with the opening order performing and getting 4 notable ones to secure a massive score of
5 for 518 runs declared.
Cam Dunne ( in his return season after a devastating injury playing football) has started well with the bat, again, hitting 18 runs off  D. Jeffreys first over setting the stage with a partnership of 43 with Lachie Snaith.
Next to the crease was Zac Graham and along with Cam, put on 119 runs. Cam was soon bowled  on 113 runs hitting 23 fours and 1 six.
Mick Nolan continued on with Zac amassing 170 runs between them. Mick was doing some hard hitting  of 11 fours and 5 sixes for a total of 92.
Next to continue the partnerships with Zac was Ben Loughnane putting on 159 with Zac, with his own score of 64 helped with 7 boundaries.
Throughout these partnerships Zac was increasing his score to his highest ever total of 196 being unlucky to be out, LBW, just 4 short of a maiden double ton. Zac's 196 consisted of 25 fours and 2 sixes, he gave only one chance when he was in his 40's.
Cam Dunne followed up his opening stint with the  bat by getting 2 for 23 with the ball putting Coronet City in a tight spot of 3 for 72. Ben Loughnane got the 3rd wicket, Dale Jeffrey 35, with 1 for 14.
Cam continued on the second day picking up 4 more wicket to give him a tally of 6/77 with Noel Heafield picking up 2/11.
Ballan bundled Coronet out for a total of 249 well short of the required 518.
Coronet City were sent back in in the hope of Ballan achieving an outright win with the remaining 30 overs. After a good start with Noel getting 1/13 and Cam picking up another wicket, 1/33, Coronet held Ballan at bay with the boys earning only the points for the first innings win.
1st XI Round 4
Zac Graham's 2nd Ton

Zac Graham has scored his 2nd century in 4 games including 196 & a 57, unfortunately it wasn't quite enough, along with his 3/65, to bring home a win for the side  as they went down by 5 runs against Buninyong.
His solid performance of 109 has given him an average of 91.5 with the bat. He has also picked up 6 wickets and taken 4 catches so far this season.
Other good scores for the day went to; Cam Dunne 44, Mick Nolan 43, Noel Heafield 38 & Mick Loughnane 30. A notable partnership of 61 runs came with Zac & Jack McGregor for the 6th wicket.
The loss of 5 wickets for 2 runs at the end of the game sealed Ballan's fate.

By Tim O'Connor
Oct. 4, 2015, 2:10 p.m.

Ballan will be back on home soil this Ballarat Cricket Association season.
The club, which was forced to play home games at Korweinguboora, Wallace and the Myrniong Primary School while its oval was renovated during the 2014-15 campaign, is set to resume playing matches in Ballan following the installation of a new synthetic wicket.
This is expected to be completed by Monday.
Those works are the final component of the Ballan Recreation Reserve Oval Redevelopment Project, one that was worth $100,000 and was jointly funded by Sport and Recreation Victoria’s Country Football Netball Program and the Moorabool Shire Council.
The project has included re-shaping the oval to promote and encourage greater efficiency of water run-off, the installation of an extensive sub-surface drainage system to moderate the water table and the establishment of turf to improve the year-round condition of the sports ground for all users.