Cobras to celebrate 50 years of cricket

KORUMBURRA Cricket Club is celebrating its 50-year anniversary in November.

The milestone event will be held in Korumburra Soccer clubrooms, with around 200 guests anticipated to come along to mark the occasion.

“We are hoping to see a lot of the premiership players from the early days. There are some that wouldn’t have been to the club in 30 years at least,” club president Tim Morrison said.

“There was a lot of Korumburra teams before this club became what it is today. They used to play in the Leongatha league as well. To hear from some of the old blokes who were around in the early days of the club will be great, so I’m looking forward to that.” 

The celebrations will kick off on November 4.

B Grade will take on Glen Alvie on Korumburra’s turf at 1pm, and the main celebration event will start at 7.30pm.

On Sunday, November 5, guests are welcomed back to watch A Grade play Nerrena on the turf at 1pm, where a barbecue lunch will be available.

This is also an opportunity to watch Korumburra’s latest signing, former Sri Lankan captain TM Dilshan, take the field for the Cobras. 

The rooms will be open until late on the Sunday night.

It is hoped the event will bring about retellings of old stories and recounts of past premierships.

Korumburra has brought home more than 10 premierships, more than half of which took place in the last 10 years. 

“What we are hoping to do is have someone from every premiership team give a run down on that season, or especially that finals campaign,” Morrison said.

“After that, we will probably do our team of the half century. We’ve sent out to opponents and ex-players to work out who they think the best 11 players were after 50 years, which is pretty hard. 

“We are also hoping to induct some legends. Of course, every club has life members – and they do a lot of work with the club – but the idea behind the legends is not so much about the cricket stuff. It’s more about giving back to the club, whether it be in a coaching role or an administrative role. Life members are probably a good gauge for a few of them on there, but there will be a few outside that box, which is pretty exciting.”

Morrison said he is looking forward to hearing more about the 79/80 and the 83/84 A Grade premierships.

“They’re our only top A Grade wins. We’ve had a couple of A2 wins, including the flag we won last year,” he said.

“(The 83/84) team had four district cricketers in it – blokes who went and played second level in the Melbourne comp, which is pretty handy.

“Terry McGann was Victoria’s second wicketkeeper before he came to us, I believe. Max Beard was one of the better cricketers in Gippsland history. David Cruickshank played district cricket too – I’m definitely looking forward to hearing about this one.”

For more information about the celebratory weekend, questions can be directed to president Tim Morrison or secretary Glen Barrett.