Gunbower United Cricket Club

2022/23 "C" Grade Champions 🏆

Gunbower United Cricket Club will be competing for their 6th Mercantile Cricket Association Premiership this Saturday (March 25) in the C Grade Grand Final versus Carnegie. The game will kick off 12 pm at Koornang Park Carnegie. All ex-Galahs and friends of the club are welcome to come down and support us in what should be a cracking Grand Final of cricket.

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Safeguarding children and young people | Gunbower United Cricket Club

Galahs a reminder that the FUNERAL for Simon Phillips will be held at 1pm today at Heritage Funerals, 733 Boronia Road, Wantirna. The service will be live streamed on the link https://www.vividstream.live/simon-phillips for those unable to attend.

Simon Phillips | Vivid Stream

Vale Simon Phillips

Simon Phillips was the heart and soul of the Gunbower United Cricket Club from it’s foundation in 1974 until long after his playing days ended in the mid 00’s. In my first season 2003-04 he was still playing regularly. GUCC had one team at that stage, in D Grade, the association had only 5 grades and we played 2 day games. Tall and lean he was quite an elegant batsman with a strong defence, relying on timing and placement to eek out runs. One of my fondest memories is of a late wicket partnership with Si against Reds. Wickets had been tumbling, we still had 20 runs to win, which seemed like an absolute mountain to a number 10 batsman new to the crease. Si was calmness itself. I couldn’t play the ball off the square and, thankfully, didn’t need to. Si farmed the strike magnificently and after about an hour-and-a-half at the crease, with a strike rate of 1 run per over we (he) knocked off the required runs (I’m not sure if it’s historical revisionism but I’ll sure he brought up the winning runs with the only 4 of our partnership!). As our slow, steady partnership developed the sledging from the Reds got ever more personal. The worse it got the more Si and I would smile during our end of over conferences.

Off the field he drove the scorebook. He had a supply of good, reliable ink pens, the kind that draftsmen use (never the unreliable biro) and scored every ball in a meticulous, neat hand. He’d make notes in the margins of interesting occurrences in the game. This caught the fascination of esteemed cricket writer Gideon Haigh, our sometime opponent, who in his book chronicling the course of a suburban cricket season ‘The Vincibles’ immortalized Simon and his marginalia. Sitting beside him at the books was a first class education, not just in the art (and science) of scoring, but in thinking about the game. He wasn’t verbose, rather he was fairly taciturn, but when he spoke his insights went right to the heart of what was happening on the field. The final word in his score book expertise was the Grand Final loss to Canterbury out at their ground. Simon scored every ball of the game using different coloured ink for each of the bowlers. You could literally work out how many balls each batsman faced from each bowler.

Long before we had results vault to enter scores into Simon had a green folder in which was detailed all the achievements of GUCC players for well over 40 years. Whenever something noteworthy occurred, worthy of going in the green folder, a partnership, number of catches in a match, hattricks, he would note it down after the game in his folder; and as we sat on the deck enjoying a post-match brew, he’d inform us of where it sat in the rich tapestry of GUCC history. A history of which he was the keeper. He’d invoke the memories of Gunners past, names like Keech, ‘Errol’ Flynn, Sharkey, Kelly, and many others. He had a gift for telling a tale, in a quiet yet authoritative voice. His knowledge of the game was immense, it’s history and particularly its laws. Not many of us in those days had much idea of his work in the 90’s building the umpires association. He never really talked about his own contribution. You only got hints of it through the deference the umpires always paid him and the obvious respect in which they held him.

He loved cricket, as attested by his love of collecting cricket books and paraphernalia for the club. But it wasn’t his only love. He loved music and over the years complied arguably the best collection of vinal that could be boasted by any cricket club in the world! He also loved his beloved ‘Pies’. The Collingwood football club was . . . well for anyone who knew him you knew what it meant to him, for those that didn’t, I’m sure you understand where I’m going. One-eyed hardly covers it.

He was more that just a player, scorer, keeper of lore. He was the club Elder. He held no official position on the club committee, he didn’t need to. He guided those of us who did, letting us know (in no uncertain terms at times) that this is not the MCA way and, more importantly, not the Gunbower way. He ingrained in us what cricket, what Fawkner Park and what the club were all about. That spirit is still there, passing down from player to player. It is his legacy; it lives on.

The Galahs fair-welled our club slawart and spiritual guardian Dustine Barnes on Sunday night after a hard fought draw with Power House on Cordner. There is no player past or present who so wonderfully encapsulates the culture and ethos our great club stands for. A cricket tragic of the highest order Dusty’s out-swingers were a thing of legend amongst the corps of the MCA. He was a handy middle order bat that thrived in the contest and was one of the fairest players you will find anywhere. We wish you all the best on your overseas odyssey Dusty, and wish you Louise and Hen the safest of travels. Our club, the MCA and the Park herself will be a very different place without you. 🙏❤️

Galahs if you are free next Wednesday night jump online and sign up for this awesome event the Mercantile Cricket Association are supporting as part of . Bring your brother, dad, and mates for an honest chat about what's going on for men right now, and leave the session with some tools to better support ourselves and each other.

A Virtual Night with the Blokes | Men's Health Week Join us for an engaging and impactful virtual workshop to have a casual and honest convo this Men's Health Week.