AS Robinvale prepares to re-enter competitive cricket after a 16-year absence, some club members have picked up paint brushes, others scalpels.
Using the scalpels has been a slower process, but members have been on their hands and knees scraping away remnants of half the turf pitch at Len Arnott Oval in preparation for laying new grass.
When the grass arrives from Swan Hill, they will carefully wash the roots of dirt. Once the grass is rolled out, it will be important to keep it watered to ensure the roots take.
Robinvale-Euston Rangers Cricket Club (RERCC) member Darryl McClure says the tasks of preparing the pitch, painting clubrooms and administratively preparing the club, as involved as it has been, has brought a “buzz” to the community.
“The guys have been fantastic with working bees (with) their partners and kids.
“It’s just great that we’ve got a nucleus of guys who have really got the get-up-and-go to get it all happening at the moment,” McClure said.
The energy around the Rangers has been vital as they prepare to join the 2021-22 Red Cliffs Cricket Association (RCCA) competition. There has been a lot of work to do.
RERCC president Tom Lister said what made finding sponsors, choosing uniforms and applying for a liquor licence rewarding was the pathway the Rangers would provide the next generation of Robinvale cricketers.
“One of the driving factors of starting (the Rangers) was to promote it to young people in the community.
“We want to build it as a family thing for young people. If they don’t want to travel to Swan Hill every weekend to play, there’s something new for them when they’re finished with Under-17s.
“When there’s not, when there’s no change and nowhere else to go after you play your juniors, you can sort of lose interest,” Lister said.
Robinvale last fielded a side in the 2005-06 RCCA season and captain-coach Travis Shawcross said the Rangers’ participation in RCCA would offer more pathways for juniors who can’t immediately travel to play for Mildura or Red Cliffs-based sides.
“Until now, basically, anyone from Robinvale that (wanted to play senior cricket) moved … to Gol Gol (to) play,” Shawcross said.
He said the club had not struggled to draw numbers to training and he hoped, this year, everybody would enjoy being social.
“It’s just it’s an outlet for people to go and do something that we haven’t been able to do here in Robinvale for the last 15 or 16 years.”
For McClure, who has trained juniors aged 10 to 17 since moving to Robinvale in 1989, the energy created by the Rangers joining competitive cricket was exciting because of the way it had drawn people, especially youngsters, together.
“What’s really pleasing at the moment is there is a real buzz of players who played before, and new guys in the area … and with that there’s also a lot of interest being generated with younger age groups.”
“That pathway (to senior cricket) is an exciting thing. And junior players may be asked to come and fill in.”
For Lister, while the club would aim for finals success from the first delivery, overall success was already being achieved.
“The goal is really just to get cricket back in Robinvale.”
