Bowral Blues registration up as 60th anniversary approaches

The club has a spring in its step as it commences the 2018/19 season with a 40 per cent spike in registrations across its junior and senior divisions.

It has also added to its long-term stable of girls, with more girls than ever signing to play.

The Blues are also on a high as many of its junior players continue to make local, state and national representative achievements.

Jack Baldwin, Eliza Heinecke, Hillary Swan, Willoughby Watson and Hayden Willebrand have all been busy over winter, having been selected to participate in advanced training academies run by Cricket NSW.

Hillary is a Greater Illawarra participant of the Sydney District Cricket Association (DCA) under-15s girls squad, while Willoughby has been selected for the Greater Illawarra DCA under-14s boys squad.

Blues juniors Charlie Dummer and Ravi Wikramanayake are playing well in Sydney grade cricket.

The club congratulated Dom O’Shannessy who at just 16 has secured a spot in the ACT/NSW squad participating in the Under-19 National Championships in Adelaide in December.

Dom has also been named in Cricket Australia’s 2018 Pathway Rookie Squad, having achieved similar breaks last season at 15 and emerging as one of Australia’s most promising junior pace bowlers.

The Blues are off to a cracking start this season, with every Blues junior team finishing round one with a win.

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Bowral Blues Cricket Club president Ian Pope, who has been involved with the club and local cricket for 43 years, said junior development was at the heart of the club’s success.

“Our approach to nurturing juniors has paid off to the point where we’ve been able to form extra teams, including an additional seniors’ side largely made up of junior players - players who are there to progress their cricket as opposed to win each week,” he said.

“We’ve got terrific in-house junior coaching talent made up of Cricket NSW qualified figures and others with plenty of playing and rep-level coaching experience.

“Brian Martin’s achievements coaching male and female champions and squads stretch beyond what many people can remember. Former English international player and Blues mentor Barry Knight is cricket coaching royalty and we’re blessed to have him offering pearls of wisdom to our juniors and seniors.

“In recent years Blues seniors captain Matt Watson has taken numerous local junior teams to grand finals, coached rep sides and taken the Bowral Public School girls PSSA side to top- eight spots in the school’s state-wide knock-out competition twice in a row.”

Others in the Blues coaching engine room include Michael Heinecke, Brett McAulay, Craig Willebrand, Nigel Elton and Adam Willis.

“We don’t aspire to be a big or grand club - we aim to simply concentrate on those under our fold,” Pope said.

“Our other advantage is Centennial Park, our beautiful and modern home ground that’s been developed, maintained and often funded by our members. 

“Our key local sponsors are in on the act too and we can’t thank them enough – the Scottish Arms Hotel, McKillop Property and Holiday Rental Specialists.”

2019 will be a milestone year for Bowral Blues Cricket Club, which will celebrate 60 years since forming in 1959.

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