Warriors past, present and future will come together on the October long weekend to celebrate Orange City Cricket Club’s 50th anniversary, a weekend greens president Nick Cooper says “will be huge”.
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Although Orange City’s 50th season playing was actually 2016-17, the club was established midway through 1967 and as such, its golden anniversary has just past.
Cooper says he and his committee made the decision to use the occasion as the perfect way to launch into the club’s 51st summer on the field.
The celebrations begin with a season launch and welcome drinks on Friday, September 29 before the club’s gala dinner the following night at the Ex-Services Club, and a wind-down, recovery session on the Sunday.
“There’s been a lot of hard work put into it and everyone’s really looking forward to it, but there’s only a couple of days left to buy ticket so anyone who wants one needs to get in quick,” Cooper said, ticket sales finish next Monday.
“I think it is going to be huge, it’ll be a great weekend and a really good way to launch the season.”
Cooper said the real feature of the main celebration will be the launch of the late Carl Sharpe’s book, Orange City Cricket Club: 50 Golden Years.
Like the memoir Sharpe wrote for Orange District Cricket Association’s centenary celebrations, the book takes readers through the history of Orange City so far – all 50 seasons of it.
“That’s going to be a real feature of the night, there’s a lot of work been put into the book by Carl and then a couple of others after he passed away, I know how much everyone’s looking forward to reading that,” Cooper said.
“We’ve got one of Orange City’s greatest captains in Keith Crossley, who was one of Sharpie’s closest friends, coming up to launch the book too.
“We’ll also be announcing our team of the half century, which will actually be the equivalent of a touring squad. So it’ll be the 17 best players through the club’s 50-year history.
“I couldn't tell anyone who was in that whether I wanted to or not, it’s completely secret until the night.
“We’ll have guest speakers from each decade the club has been formed and then a few other special presentations to make on the night as well.”
Cooper said there’s former players coming from all over for the night, with one guest in particular flying all the way from New Zealand just to be there.
“Bill Price, from the Green Island Cricket Club, is coming from New Zealand,” Cooper enthused.
“He has an affiliation with the club through Sharpie, and the tours to Otago Orange City used to go on in the earlier days of the club.
“We’re really excited to have him here, because our club shares a great friendship with Green Island.”
To buy tickets, people can head to https://www.trybooking.com/book/event?eid=292880&bof=1.
Alternatively they can get in touch with Orange City on Facebook or via email (orangecitycricket@gmail.com or orangecitycricket.president@gmail.com) or by calling Cooper on 0437 334 013 to organise tickets and payment.
Orange City also recently announced its 2017-18 skippers.
Craig Rogan will once again take the reins in first grade while Shaun Grenfell retains his place as Royal Hotel Cup captain.
Jamie Stedman will lead the side’s second grade again, with Josh Cheney taking over third grade and James Dowler Centenary Cup.
Pat Giuffre has taken the reins as club captain as well.