2023-24 season wrap: Farewelling a legend, female league launched, club champions again

Orange CYMS Cricket Club's 2023-24 season was a mix of on-field success and off-field sadness.

The passing of beloved Life Member John Covelli in the first weeks of the season was a shock. 'Covel', as he was known to all in the club, died at the age of 57 on October 20, 2023 after a long and courageous battle with brain cancer.

Fellow Life Member and friend, Peter Snowden, described Covel as "beyond a doubt the best, most devoted, most competent, honest committee member I've ever worked with", while First Grade captain Tom Belmonte said he was "one of the greatest people you could hope to meet".

"We have lost someone very special in our club, someone who did so much for the club over more than three decades," Belmonte said.

SORELY MISSED: John Covelli (second from left) with Matt Baker, Steve Blackwood, Gerard Hannelly and Brad Manuel.

All clubs in Orange paid tribute to Covel with minutes' silence before junior and senior games, while CYMS's First Grade team thanked him in the best possible way, smashing an incredible 4-392 in just shy of 59 overs in their first game after his passing.

The club's Executive is planning further acknowledgements of Covel's outstanding and peerless contributions to the club. These will be announced in due course.

On the field, the highlight of the season were the club's retention of the W.C. McCarthy Cup, awarded to the Orange District Cricket Association's (ODCA) champion club, and the welcome addition of more than 50 female cricketers to our ranks as part of the inaugural Orange Social Women's Cricket League.

BACK TO BACK: Centenary Cup's Steve Wotton (left), First Grade's Tom Belmonte, President Ben McNiven, Second Grade's Johnty French, and Third Grade's Mick Curran with the W.C. McCarthy Cup.

The club championship is determined by the regular season standings (not including finals) in senior competitions. CYMS retained this sought-after trophy courtesy of a minor premiership in Centenary Cup, strong second place finishes for First Grade and Third Grade, and a credible fourth place for Second Grade.

Third Grade went on to claim their premiership, smashing minor premiers Spring Hill in a lopsided grand final at Country Club Oval. It was Third Grade's second title in the space of three seasons.

The undoubted hero of the grand final was vice-captain and all-rounder Riley Krause, who tore the heart out of the strong Spring Hill batting line-up to finish with the incredible bowling figures of 6-3 from 3.4 overs. He was named Player of the Match by the ODCA.

PREMIERS: Third Grade after their grand final victory. Back row from left: Udi Lokuge, Matt Culverson, Will Davis, Dom Ferguson, Shehan Fernando and Angus Gorman with (front row from left) Rubin Singh, Cooper Biddle, captain Mick Curran, George Eleftheriou, Sajith Rajapaksha and vice-captain Riley Krause.

In addition to this premiership, our Centenary Cup, under-16s, under-12s and under-11s White teams played in grand finals, while First Grade, Bonnor Cup, under-14s Gold and under-14s Green all qualified for their respective finals.

Meanwhile, the club welcomed more than 50 female players who took part in the Orange Social Women's Cricket League, which was launched in October 2023 and saw teams of 8-10 players take part in 12-over games on Friday evenings.

The league was expanded to 10 teams in February 2024, with CYMS fielding five of those teams as the matches were lengthened to 16 overs. One of the club's teams, CYMS Green, played in the grand final of both editions of the league.

YEAH THE GIRLS: Some of Orange CYMS Cricket Club's female players at the Ophir Hotel after the last games of their season.

There were also two hard ball matches played in 2024 which featured about 20 of CYMS's female players. These matches gave players from all Orange clubs a taste of cricket under full conditions and, it's hoped, will be a precursor to more serious female cricket in the coming seasons.

There was also fantastic growth among the club's most junior programs, with more than 90 kids aged 4-9 taking part in either the Junior Blasters or Master Blasters.

These programs were run by the club on Monday and Thursday afternoons respectively and introduced these children to the game and its skills. Both programs were capped off by presentations where the kids were rewarded for their time, effort and improvement with medals and vouchers.

HAVING A BLAST: Vouchers, medals and smiles for our Junior Blasters after their last session at Wade Park.

Our Blasters programs and juniors teams (under-11s to under-16s) were coached, managed and generally assisted by a fantastic group of volunteers:

Jo Ferguson, Dom Ferguson, Peter Gott, Stacey Cornish, George Eleftheriou, Tom Belmonte, Rory Daburger, Paddy Penberthy-Neil, Isaac Churchland, Sam Garvin, Tom Wythes, Andrew Vogler, Jake Sands, Riley Krause, Cooper Biddle, Harry Harry, Nathan Fardell, Ellie Rinaldo, Henry Heath, Cath Gander, Joel Blashki, Kylie Watkins, Dave Neil, Kym Flitcroft, Angus Gorman, Beau Cox, Chris Wright, Al Dhatt and Tania Biddle.

All of these people and the wonderful group of parents and guardians of our Blasters and Juniors players contributed a wonderful season for all of our boys and girls.

Across all ages and grades there were some awesome individual performances, including players who topped the run-scoring or wickets-taking lists in their respective competitions:

• McCallum Cole: 21 wickets @ 6.24 in under-16s

• Holly Reed: 21 wickets @ 6.57 in under-16s

• Megan McFarland: 11 wickets @ 3.0 in women's cricket

• Joey Coughlan: 776 runs @ 55.43 in First Grade
  

Joey Coughlan and Sam Garvin were named the best players in the Bathurst Orange Inter-District Cricket First Grade and ODCA Centenary Cup competitions respectively.

These players and many more will receive awards at the club's 2023-24 presentation, to be held at the Ophir Hotel on Sunday 28 April. More details about the event are here.