THANKS to the efforts of two Swan Hill District Cricket Association legends, the history of the competition is being preserved at the Swan Hill Club.
“Swan Hill Club has been good enough to give us this whole wall in the William Garden room where we’ve been able to put our honour board up,” SHDCA board member Ross Cleeland said.
“We’ve also just purchased two new glass cabinets and we’re beginning to put our memorabilia in there. We’re really thankful to the club for doing this.”
This is only possible due to the efforts of fellow SHDCA board member Bill Gurnett.
The Murray Downs and Swan Hill Club board member is also one of the greatest cricketers in the history of the competition, amassing more than 11,000 runs and taking an incredible 1,000 wickets throughout his career.
“The association has a leg in because I’ve been involved with the cricket for many years,” Gurnett said.
“I have my name up on that board a few times.”
Cleeland added: “more than a few times.”
Gurnett continued: “We sponsor a lot of organisations at Murray Downs Golf Club and Swan Hill Club, but we get so much more value for money out of the cricket association than any other sponsorship we do.”
Gurnett also has the A grade’s best and fairest trophy named after him.
The pair are putting a call out to anyone with competition memorabilia sitting at home who’d like to have it on display – with one particular lost item on their wish list.
“The reason we’re putting this stuff in here is because it was collecting dust in our sheds, and we’d rather it be on display,” Cleeland said.
“What we’re hoping to do is if anyone in the public has old cricket memorabilia, would be willing to put it on display in these glass cabinets.
“We currently have two of the three A Grade cups. The original shield from between 1926-1940 and the current cup is here, but the Barwick Cup, which was the shield between 1940-1961, was in the care of the Maddie family, but last time we spoke, they couldn’t find it.
“We’re hoping that turns up so we can have all three cups on display.”
Besides the cups, the cabinet alred contains personal trophies, scorebooks and historic photos of teams and clubs long gone.
The next additions are already being planned.
“I have got a couple of Melbourne Country Week winning flags we’ll try and get in there,” Cleeland said.
Gurnett added, “one of those flags was in 1959 when I was playing, and the other was 1964, and that competition was extremely strong back in those days.”
