Randwick Petersham Cricket Club – AGM Report

At the 17th Randwick Petersham Cricket Annual General Meeting on Thursday 26 July 2018, Mike Whitney was re-elected President for an 18th term. Mike’s election makes him the third longest serving of the 72 presidents of Randwick Petersham and its founding clubs throughout its 256 playing years. Mike has only Petersham-Marrickville’s Jack Ross (20 years) and Petersham/ Petersham-Marrickville’s Sydney Bain (19 years) ahead of him.

Unfortunately for Mike he was caught at a last-minute family function away from Sydney and unable to attend. In his absence CEO John Stewart chaired the meeting. Mr Stewart welcomed the 80 strong members in attendance and in particular Philip Lacovou, the Company Director of Lefand Group, Building and Facility Management – Platinum Sponsor in 2018-19.

In moving the adoption of the Annual Report, both the mover John Stewart and the seconder Denis Hinds spoke of the quality of the report, our imposing list of volunteers, the increasing number and value of our sponsors as well as our healthy financial position. Both speakers were extremely complimentary of the work Neale Anderson and his sponsorship team completed during the season. Adam Semple was also honoured for surpassing 5000 runs and 250 wickets in First Grade as was fittingly the cover feature.

Marshall Rosen (NSW Cricket Board) and Craig Hambleton (Deputy Chairman, Sydney Cricket Association) were also present and commented on the quality of the Annual Report and the club’s progress while giving a run-down of their association’s plans for the coming season. An interesting comment was that the number in attendance at the meeting was in their view, far greater than many other clubs combined which they believed spoke volumes for the support and passion of members for the club. Many thanks to both for presenting awards.

Congratulations to the following worthy award winners in 2017-18 and thank you to Patron Alan Turner for making the presentations. Mr Stewart made note that a majority of awards had been presented at the successful End of Season Dinner at the Randwick Club in late March. The first two awards were dominated by the Calders, with mum Helen a unanimous winner of the Clubman of the Year – Non Player with special mention made of her contributions in the canteen and particularly at PGs on extreme heat playing days. Her son Matt (pictured on home page) was praised as the Most Promising Player in the Club with a strong showing in 2nd Grade and PGs. Kel Mullins highlighted the ability to move up the ranks from Metro to 2nd Grade in the space of 3 seasons to win the Most Improved Lower Grade Player and Corey Graham won the closely contested Fieldsman of the Year. The Encouragement Awards were pleasingly won by the Club’s next generation of stars with 5 local juniors honoured and of special note 50% of the 21 Club awards in 2017-18 were won by local juniors. A list of the Award Recipients is below.

The 10 members associated with the club who passed away during the past 12 months, and referred to in the obituary section of the Annual Report, were recognised with a minute’s silence.

At the conclusion of the announced annual awards Wayne Mulherin addressed the meeting to advise that the committee had decided to present the club’s most coveted award, The Ernie Toshack Memorial Award, to Life Member David Skuthorpe. Wayne went through a list of tributes emphasising David’s value to the club in many roles over the 17 years of Randwick Petersham and 23 with Petersham-Marrickville before that. It is customary that this award is announced on the night and clearly David was surprised, honoured and a little emotional at receiving the club’s most coveted award.

David Skuthorpe – Ernie Toshack Memorial Award Winner

A special presentation was made to retiring player John McLoughlin and Neale Anderson, who was stepping down from his role as Sponsorship Committee Chairman after a stint of nine years, was recognised. Mr Stewart believed that a great deal of the club’s advancement over that period could be put down to Neale’s untiring efforts. The meeting supported his comments with generous applause from all in attendance.

Neale Anderson (centre)

Lyall Gardner OAM was endorsed by the meeting as Returning Officer for the Election of Office Bearers. After listing each of the nominees for the various positions he declared the following to be Office Bearers for 2018-19:

Joint Patron: Alan Turner (10th term) and Robin Gardner (2nd term).
Chief Executive: John Stewart (2nd term)
Asst. CEO: David Bourke (7th term)
Fin. Controller: James Tyson (7th term)
Asst. Fin. Controller: Jeremy Jastrzab (replacing Nigil Singh who stepped down after a 9th term)
SCA Delegates: CEO John Stewart decided not to contest the election as was his right in terms of clause 9 (b) of the Club Constitution. As a result, Alan Wright (2nd term) and Chris Sullivan (4th term) were elected as the two SCA Delegates.
NSWCA Delegate: Alan Wright (2nd Term).

Committee: Peter Wright (2nd term), Bill Anderson (11th term), Peter Devlin (10th term), Robin Gardner (4th term), Peter Jenkins (2nd term)
Hon. Auditor: John Stephens. Omniwealth (4th term)
The committee will consider in due course up to three appointments with Rod Stafford and Paul O’Loughlin likely candidates.

Club Coach Greg Small also addressed the meeting outlining plans for season 2018-19 while commenting on the general enthusiasm shown by up to 40 players who had attended pre-season training exercises. He also informed of closer links with junior bodies in the area.

Lyall Gardner

Award Winners 2017/18
The OA Taylor / Martin Bedkober Memorial Award-Player of the Season – Rod Stafford
The Tim Towers / Stuart Gardner Memorial Award-Clubman of the Year (Player) – Adam Semple
The Bernard Bayley Memorial Award-Clubman of the Year (Non-Player) – Helen Calder
The Keith Austin Memorial Award-Most Promising Player – Matt Calder
The Burke & Davies Families Award-Most Improved Lower Grade Player – Kel Mullins
The Clive Johnston Memorial Award-Best Poidevin Gray Player – James Mahony-Brack
The Ken Devlin Awards
Most Runs – Matthew Everett
Most Wickets – Tom McKenzie
The David Sherwood Memorial Award-Most Dismissals by a Wicketkeeper – Anthony Sams
The Johnny Martin Memorial Award-Best Fielder – Corey Graham
The Cartwright Insurances Award-Best AW Green Shield Player – Alexander Deller
The Col Hollingsworth Memorial Award-Best AW Green Shield Performance – Mac Jenkins
The Don Wright Memorial Award-Most Promising 6th Grade Player – Joshua Segal
The Tresidder Family Encouragement Award – Ravin De Silva
The Peter Rolls Encouragement Award – Dylan Powell
The Duncan Scott-Glassock Memorial Award – Hayden Fox
The Wayne Mulherin Encouragement Award – Luca Lopes
The John Connell Encouragement Award – Liam O’Loughlin
The Mike Whitney Encouragement Award – Corey Sherriff
The Bill Anderson Commitment Award – Bailey Kenzie
The Ernie Toshack Memorial Award – David Skuthorpe
Retiring Committee Members – Neale Anderson, Nigil Singh
Retiring players – David Bourke, Rod Stafford, James Tyson, John McLoughlin & Matt Hilder