Brothers Sports Club Bundaberg

TWO months out from the grand finals on March 9 (seniors) and 15 (juniors), it has been another very good season for Brothers Cricket Club across the board with most of our teams faring well. We are by far the biggest club, providing 6 of the 19 senior teams and 8 of the 26 junior teams, as well as conducting a Milo Have-a-Go Program for 5 to 8-year-olds. We are the only club with teams in all 4 senior divisions and have 2 each in 2 of them. Off the field, we were also delighted to win the Best Youth Organisation Float in the Bundaberg Pageant of Lights, and were very proud to be able to help brighten up the Christmas of others by using the $300 prizemoney to purchase 2 Christmas hampers to donate to Centacare and Lifeline for distribution through the “Adopt A Family’’ scheme.

Division 1: Our team is on track for 4 straight premierships, maintaining their unbeaten record since February 2006 and leading on the table by a massive 46.4 points. We also made it 3 straight NewsMail Cup titles on 16^th December with a 138-run grand final victory over ATW, courtesy of another robust team performance but again brilliantly led from the front by captain David Boge with 89 and 1-43. David also leads the Bundaberg Toyota Tallon Medal standings by a proverbial country mile after sharing the award last season with another of our stars, Mick Warden. What made the magnitude of the win even more remarkable was that it was achieved without two of our other best, player/coach Boyd Williams and Adam Rayner, who both did not play enough games to qualify for the match due to injury and work commitments respectively. David will be bestowed with another fitting honour when he receives the Bundaberg City Council Australia Day Sports Award. Boyd is back to his brilliant best, and last week, he produced another heavyweight double as we returned after the Christmas break to again beat ATW despite being without the services of 2 opening batsmen and 2 dynamic all-rounders. Boyd wreaked havoc with the ball, claiming 4-12 from 9 overs, then scored 42. There was also an unlikely hero in Matthew Cross, who is also a great Brothers servant in rugby league, receiving a last-minute call-up from Division 2 and coming to the rescue with an unbeaten 50.

Division 2: We are on top of the table, albeit by a mere 2.15 points and the battle for the minor premiership will go right down to the wire. Unfortunately, we lost the NewsMail Cup grand final to Norths, who do not have a Division 1 team. The team has been well led by captain Josh Nugent, but there have been many other heroes, including Josh Haynes, who notched a sparkling unbeaten 137 to start the New Year, 55-year-old spinning maestro Patrick Logue and all-rounder Paul Somerfield.

Division 3: Our 2 teams, Brothers and Brothers Bulldogs, are running second and fourth respectively, with both assured of semi-final berths. The Brothers side transferred as a team from another club this season, and they have been a great addition to the club, both on and off the field. Also superbly led by captain Arthur Richardson and with Paul Somerfield their best performer, they were unlucky in going down to ATW by a mere 10 runs in the NewsMail Cup grand final. With their captain Paul Trace also leading the charge, Brothers Bulldogs beat Brothers for the first time in their last game before Christmas, and after struggling for bowling strike-power early in the season, they have now got a well balanced team together, they are now just 1 point behind third and at full strength, are also very capable of challenging for the title.

Division 4: With talents spread evenly between our 2 sides, Brothers and Brothers Bulldogs, the depth of both has been exposed at times, but both have also recorded some good wins to be sitting in third and sixth positions under their respective captains Michael Black and Ben Turnbull. The Bulldogs are just one win away from fourth place, but if they are not able to break into the top four, they will get the chance for consolation in the Division 5 grand final. Congratulations to William Buswell, who has only been able to play occasionally due to study commitments but took out the Shalom College Dux Award and Mayor’s Medal, received an OP1 and will receive a Bundaberg City Council Australia Day Achievement Award.

Representative Honours: Congratulations to Daryl Jensen, who represented Queensland at the Australian Under-17 Girls Championships over the past 2 weeks. Well done to our South Queensland under-19 representative Ben Smith and our other Wide Bay representatives this season – Daryl’s brother Michael (open schoolboys), Alex Dowsett (Primary Schools boys), Peter Turich (open), David Turich (under-17), Alistair Rathbone and Michael Lovett (under-16), Ben Lanskey and Boyd Smith (under-14) and Ryley Parter (under-12). Special mention must be made of Ben Lanskey’s hat-trick at the state championships.

Juniors: Our under-16 team is currently running third on the ladder, with our under-14a’s second, under-14b’s fourth but just 9 points from second, under-12a’s first, and 2 under-12b teams a close second and fourth respectively. Under-16 captain Jake Goldsmith recorded a rare double earlier in the season, when he scored two centuries on one weekend, in under-16 on the Saturday and Division 4 on the Sunday. Jan De Villiers also smashed a blazing century in the under-16 match, while state tennis ace Sam Jensen has been a great addition to the team this season with his big hitting, but unfortunately he will be shortly lost when he relocates to Brisbane to take up a tennis scholarship at Nudgee College. There have also been many outstanding performers in our 2 under-10 teams. Our Blue team has swept all before them, while our White side have won most of their games. Special mention must be made of one of our players, Jacob O’Shea, who not only excels every time he steps on to the cricket field, but also shines in many other sports, including swimming, in which he claimed the Swimmer of the Meet award at the City of Charm Carnival in November after breaking a record which had stood for 29 years and made an impressive State Championship debut just before Christmas.

Brothers Cricket Club president Vince Habermann and vice-president Brad Smith present an Adopt a Family hamper to Lifeline. One of two hampers for needy families purchased out of the winning prizemoney from the Pageant of Lights.

NewsMail Cup: Our Division 1 team celebrates their NewsMail Cup grand final victory

We proudly show off the Brothers Sports Club banner on our entry which won the Best Youth Organisation Float in the Pageant of Light.

State Member for Bundaberg Jack Dempsey joined club members for the Pageant of Lights Parade