CHRISTMAS TIME
Firstly, best wishes to all Review readers and families for a really nice Christmas and a good follow in 2025. For many thousands of Australians, it has been a really tough year and a struggle to survive. All the Christian charities such as Vinnies and Salvos report record demands as untold thousands hit the poverty line. So be kind to all strangers you meet—you never know what battles can front them. For the world’s two billion Christians, it is especially a momentous time and across the globe, places of worship will be packed as they are at Easter by the faithful of all ages.
THE TESTS
For the first time in a decade and a half an MCG test will be a “live” rubber. Mostly series have been decided before the teams meet in Melbourne. The iconic venue will be packed on Boxing Day with over ninety thousand fans. Capacity of the MCG is a bit lower in summer than winter due to no standing room and loss of swathes of seats behind the sight screens. Record crowds have attended the Perth and Adelaide tests, and I write this just prior to the 3rd test in Brisbane. The cricket to date has been enthralling but a pity the games don’t last a bit longer. Television ratings have been “through the roof” and a worldwide audience is watching the play.
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The spiritual “home” of cricket is Lords in London, but the MCG has a rich cricket history starting way back in 1877 when Australia beat England by 40 runs. The record crowd for a Melbourne test is 350,000 way back in 1937 when Don Bradman’s team came from two down to win the Ashes 3-2. If the tests versus India are proving a bonanza this summer, just wait till next November when England will bring a young and exciting team to our shores to resume the Ashes saga. The Poms batting line up will be headed by young Yorkshire man Harry Brook, regarded already as likely to be one of his nation’s finest bats of all time. Their attack will be a strong one headed by Mark Wood, as fast as the legendary Harold Larwood.
VARIA
Kilmore’s Brad Ryan has just celebrated a milestone birthday. The ACK maintenance employee is a decent and kind guy. As a very young man, he suffered a serious injury from a car accident which left him in a coma for eight weeks. His dad slept on the floor of the hospital all that time. The injuries cut short a promising footy and cricket future. He remains very grateful to the Marist Brothers who three decades ago ‘saved his life’ (in Brad’s words) by giving him employment.
A number of lovely ladies who worked in the BP servo opposite Coles met for a Christmas catch-up at Mac’s Hotel the other evening. Each has had to relocate to different workplaces while they await restoration of their idle workplaces. Some have had to travel to Kyneton, Euroa, or Seymour branches of Bowser Bean for continuing work.
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The ACK First XI has just played in the national Marist Cricket Carnival in Sydney. Hosted by St Joseph’s College Hunters Hill, there were teams from five states. St Joseph’s is a renowned nursery for elite rugby players and cricketers. One of Australia’s finest batsmen, Stan McCabe, was a Joseph’s boarder. He played some of the most dazzling innings in test history, highlighted by his bodyline knock of 187 at Sydney, a similar total at Johannesburg, and 232 at Trent Bridge in 1938. Aussie skipper Don Bradman claimed it was the most glorious display he had seen.
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But far away from the test arenas, the picture below depicts cricket where it really counts—on the village and bush fields where the soul of the game is ever apparent.
JANUARY TRIBUTE
The first new year Review will include a tribute to the late Tom Hoban, the highly respected Darraweit farmer who passed from this life recently.
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TWO GOOD MEN
Greg Hogarth and Bob Hocking called by last Monday for a fine lunch at Mac’s Hotel. The duo umpired many First XVIII games at ACK and in country towns where Assumption played pre-season games against senior sides. On one occasion at Yea after a game won by the students, Yea President Chris Pollard gave the pair a slab of beer saying, ‘You could have given us a few more free kicks,’ —to which the reply was, ‘Well, you should have given us the beer before the game.’ Greg, from Mansfield, attended ACK with his brother Kevin. Bob is now a resident of Hidden Valley and loves life (and golf) there. The pair are really good guys, products of the real Australia.
HIT FOR SIX
Jonathan Agnew and Kerry O’Keeffe were the ABC co-commentators on the occasion of the famous Steve Waugh innings at the SCG in the fifth test against the English in January 2003. On the last ball of the day, Waugh was on 96, and the pair’s conversation went like this:
Agnew: Well what high drama we have here Kerry. What will he do?
O’Keeffe: He’ll go for it.
Agnew: But he could come back tomorrow and wait for a trundler down the leg side …
O’Keeffe: Stuff tomorrow Aggers, tomorrow is for silver medallists. We’re Australians. Pawns come back tomorrow. Australians only want the gold and we want it now …
Whereupon Waugh, indeed, sent the final ball flying for 4!
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The summer scene below is of boats on the Moyne River at Port Fairy. After a run of cool summers, it looks like this one will see a return to the familiar ones of old.
