Match Facts
Date: Sunday, November 3, 2024
Location: Johnny Mullagh Oval, Harrow, VIC
Time: 1pm start
The Big Picture
A bit of a big weekend coming up, not only will this be the 15th year of The Quokkas in Australia, but it will also be a visit to a very significant place in Australian and Cricketing circles.
For those not in the know, Harrow is the home of Johnny Mullagh and many of the Indigenous Australians that made up the unofficial 1868 tour to England. This was the first Australian cricket tour to England, was made up completely of Indigenous players and, amongst other things, was completely unauthorised by Australian authorities (such that they were at the time).
I don’t have the time or knowledge to write anything that properly summarises the significance of that tour, but it does hit a lot of The Quokkas areas of importance including; social justice, Cricket, and Cricket tours.
Speaking of which, we are on tour to see where the first International tour started from.
Similar to my knowledge of that first tour, I don’t know much about where we are going except it is quite far away - approximately 270 minutes away. The town has a proud cricketing tradition, a cricket museum and a population of approximately 100. Should be great fun.
Pitch and Conditions
The Hermy Heavy Hitters are, apparently, a combination of locals that have and have not played before, which seems like an appropriate opposition. They’ve agreed to play us in YPCA rules, which could be to our advantage, but probably won’t be.
I don’t know much about the Johnny Mullagh Oval, though it does look pretty picturesque according to our friends at Google Maps. It lies on the banks of the Glenelg river, which is a palindrome, which is also fun.
The Western Districts are quite a flat and dry region of the State, and we are expecting weather to support an enjoyable game of Cricket.
Team News
That original 1868 tour involved players being smuggled out of the country, or more accurately ‘colony’, to make the tour and I have often thought of doing some kidnapping of players myself, such has been the changing rates of availability for this game.
It looks like we are going to be short on the day due to a last minute bout of gastro, but will be able to field a team with the assistance of locals and amenable partners.
The team, at the time of writing (really shortly before departure) is:
- Radar (w/k)
- Oscy boy
- F1
- Rev
- TBC (c)
- Animal
- Andre 3001 (1st slip specialist)
- Fargo (now with added run outs!)
- Andrew C (TBCs mate)
Facts and Stats
- Radar has bowled 99.7 overs (not sure how that works), so should become the 7th Quokka to break the 3-figure club this weekend.
- The Animal is sitting on 228 career YPCA runs and the way his average has been climbing in recent years, he is a real chance to break into the 250+ run club this weekend too.
- Funnily enough, F1 is on 181 YPCA runs, Fargo is on 125 and TBC is on 91 runs, so they should also hit milestones this weekend.
- We actually won our first Tour game EVER at the start of last season, against Love Shack Brewery (love you guys), but then managed to get absolutely slaughtered in our next tour match in NZ (love you guys too) – so let’s see what this weekend will bring!