Ballan Cricket Club Team for 2024/25

Here is the team so far for this upcoming season. Thanks so much to all those who have put their hand up this year, both to those continuing on and for those who are new. Many hands make light work!
Ballan Cricket Club Season 2024/25
President – David Leach
Vice President – Noel Heafield
Secretary – Bronwen Davenport
Treasurer – Sav Singh
Junior Coordinator – Martin Phillips
Ballan Recreation Reserve Representative – David Leach
Uniform Officer – Brady Naeff
Website Officer and Club Photographer - Chris Thom
Female Cricket Officer - Bronwen Davenport
Child Safety Officer - Bronwen Davenport
Grants Officer – Sav Singh
Member Protection Information Officer – Stuart Grigg
 General Committee Members -
 Stuart Grigg, Hayden Micallef,  Mark Kennedy, Chris Thom, Troy Connor, Matt Shugg, Nadene Shugg.
Coaching Staff and Captains
Senior Coach – Mark Kennedy
1st XI Senior Captain – Hayden Micallef
2nd XI Senior Captain – Max Burton
Senior Womens Coach - Summer Dehnert
U17s - Jack McGregor, Ben Loughnane
U15s – Summer Dehnert
U15s – Anthony McIlwaine, Max Burton & Warren Ward
U13's - Stuart Grigg
U11s – Martin Phillips & Nadene Shugg Blasters –Brendan Chavasse
A bit of history, for the Ballan Cricket Club, turned up today. ( Saturday, 20th January 2024)
Brad Wootton called into the game at Ballan with a trophy that had been awarded to his Great, Great Grandfather and has left it in our care.
The inscription reads;
"District Trophy
Presented by Dr Corry
won by
Ballan Cricket Club
Season 1894-95
Presented to Mr J R Wootton
as a token of esteem"
Many thanks to Brad with this historical item which will be treasured and honoured. He also thought that it should be displayed as best we can rather than just leaving it at home.
129 years has passed since this was presented.
 Picture
Cricket history returned
By
Lachlan Ellis
Moorabool News
 

Historic donation: Brad Wootton donated the trophy late last month, which was first presented to his great great grandfather, ‘Mr J R Wootton’. PHOTO: David Leach/BALLAN CRICKET CLUB


LACHLAN ELLIS
A HISTORIC donation has been made to a Moorabool sporting club, with a trophy more than a century old generously given.
Brad Wootton is the great great grandson of the Ballan Cricket Club’s John Richard Wootton, whose name is engraved on a trophy from the 1894-95 cricket season.
Last month, Mr Wootton kindly gave the trophy over to the club, which President David Leach said had “come completely out of the blue”.
“Brad dropped in one day and asked if we’d be interested in the trophy. Once I saw that it had been presented to the Ballan Cricket Club, I said of course we are. I asked him where it had been, and he said it had been in his shed for as long as he could remember gathering dust…so he gave it to us,” he told the Moorabool News.
“No-one knew it existed. I thought, what a lovely gesture. The club itself goes back to the 1870s we believe, though there’s not a lot known until basically 50 years ago. A lot of history of the club has been lost, and the club may have not existed for certain periods, but no-one can tell us.”
Engraved in the base of the trophy are the words: “District Trophy, Presented by Dr Corry, won by Ballan Cricket Club Season 1894-95, Presented to Mr J R Wootton as a token of esteem”.
Club historian and photographer Chris Thom looked into the trophy, with his research finding it was tendered to Mr J R Wootton at a farewell banquet on 22 February 1895, “on the occasion of his departure from Ballan after a residence of more than six years”.
According to the Ballarat Star Saturday dated on 23 February 1895, “the trophy was made by Philip Ashberry & Sons Ltd in Bowling Green St (near Kelham Island), Sheffield, England”.
John Richard Wootton died a few years later, on 18 November 1898 at Mooroopna Hospital, from “Bright’s disease of the kidneys”.
The Ballan Cricket Club is now brainstorming how best to display the 129-year-old trophy, and Mr Leach said Mr Wootton would of course be invited to any unveiling event for the trophy display.
“We’re trying to find a prime place to put it, we want to do it justice as you can imagine. It’ll be a prominent place somewhere, we’ve just moved into the new rooms and we’re still trying to sort a lot of things out. If we have an official unveiling, it’d be nice if someone from the Wootton family could be there,” he said.
“We’re stoked to receive it. As President, it’s a fantastic gesture by Brad, we’re super appreciative.”