Written by Trish Jeffery
Sunday December 8th, 2024
Bentleigh Cricket Club V Victorian Blind Cricket Association
Sunday December 8th brought about a re-match between Bentleigh CC and the Victorian Blind Cricket Association, having lost to them back in Feb 2022.
Bentleigh put together a diverse mix of team members from our Women’s, Men’s and Junior programs, with everyone having mixed feelings of excitement, nerves and a sense of having no idea what they were about to experience!
The toss was conducted by blind golfer David Blyth AO, guided by his caddy and our Past President Gary McInnes. Bentleigh won the toss and chose to take to the field.
Our players were given the opportunity to wear goggles that simulate various types of vision impairment (VI) during the game. The majority of our team embraced the idea of gaining an understanding of what it’s like for our opposition team to play cricket with a vision impairment. We found it hard, but developed a huge appreciation for the blind athletes who don’t have the option to just remove the vision impairment at the end of the game.
Joe Vaughan opened the bowling for BCC with about 5 minutes of pre-game practice, in the underarm action that is required for blind cricket. Faced with two members from the victorious Australian Blind Ashes team - Steve Obeid and Lachie Heywood at the crease, Joe turned out to be a natural managing to dispatch Steve in the first over with a lovely straight ball with plenty of pace.
Louis Shepard, aged 14, son of Emily Shepard (Louis lives with vision impairment) then took the ball and managed to take Lachie’s wicket with a clean bowled. Lachie is classed as a “B1” player, meaning he’s totally blind. B1 players earn double runs for every run, so Louis saved us from potentially having the scoreboard blow out.
We rotated the bowling overs through the team, with the next four overs taken by Kerrie Plant, Alex Cruickshank, Jodie Wright and Mitch Powell. All bowled impressively considering their simulated vision impairment, but we had a batting pair at the crease that were piling on the runs in Travis Zimmer and Trish Jeffery’s son Wes. Trish decided she’d like to have a crack at dismissing her son so took the ball in the 7th over. The goal wasn’t achieved but she did manage to bowl out Travis whose 31 runs was the top score for the VBCA team.
At drinks we had the VBCA at 3/85 and knew we’d have to keep things tight and not let them put on a total that would have been hard to chase. Maddy Jansz had ably kept behind the stumps the first 10 overs, the entire time in VI glasses, she then passed the gloves to Louis for the 2nd half.
For a bunch of players who’d never played together, the BCC team worked incredibly well together in the field and managed to keep the blind team from running away with the score in the latter 10 overs. We managed two more dismissals in the form of run outs and finished the innings with all team members having a bowl and our opposition on 5/153. We felt confident we could chase them down.
After morning tea, we unfortunately lost Kerrie and Jodie who had another game to get to, but we were lucky enough to have Aida McInnes and Jason Abraham fill the spots in the batting line up.
In the change room batting strategy was discussed. Knowing we could double our run score by wearing a full block-out mask while batting, Trish asked the team if anyone was willing to give it a go. The Jansz women were up for it, and it was decided that Marina would don the block-out goggles and Maddy would act as runner.
Justin and Mitch opened the batting. Unfortunately, they had to face the bowling of one of the best blind cricketers in the country and captain of the Australian Ashes team, Ned Brewer-Maiga. Mitch succumbed early, dashing any hopes of retaining his Player of the Match title from our previous game against the VBCA.
Alex then came to the crease and handled the unique form of cricket like a pro. He and Justin doing some scoreboard damage with a 53-run partnership. Justin was retired on 30* and Alex on 23*.
In came our “B1” batter Marina who bravely took to the crease not being able to see a thing and relying only on hearing and touch to know where the stumps were and when the audible ball had been bowled. Rayyan, bowling for the blind team (also a B1 player) asked the question “batter ready” which Marina replied with the affirmative. The crowd was watching with bated breath to see if she would be able to get bat on ball. Rayyan sent a slow ball down the pitch with Marina swinging a little too early and the ball landing straight on her stumps! Her valiant effort was applauded as she left the field, rightly so.
We had two new batters at the crease in Joe and Louis. Joe wearing VI glasses, Louis with his own reduced visual field. The pair continued building our team score with regular boundaries from Joe and great running and singles from Louis. The pair had made a solid 34 between them when Joe was retired on 21*. Emily Shepard then joined her son at the crease with the umpire commenting that he’d seen plenty of father-son, and mother-daughter combinations, but never a mother and son at the crease together. They both relished the moment, and it only ended up being a moment with Em being dismissed by VBCA fast bowler David Gauci after the pair managed a quick single together.
Louis was then joined at the crease with fast legged Maddy Jansz, just before Louis was bowled on a respectable 13 runs by Wes Jeffery. Our esteemed club secretary Jason Abraham then set to work with Maddy knowing the final 4 overs required 43 runs for victory. They showed an amazing display of running between the wickets snatching continuous singles and doubles when they could, but it wasn’t enough to chase down the VBCA's total and we were once again humbled by this team of amazingly skilled cricketers.
Appropriately the umpires awarded Player of the Match to Louis Shepard, perhaps a future member of the Vic Blind squad, with his impressive cricket skills.
Big thankyou to all who helped get the game on the ground especially to Gary McInnes for supplying a perpetual award on behalf of Lions Club of Moorabbin.
Also to our umpires Jeff Diamond-Smith and Chris Isaac (who also had trainee umpires with them for the game), scorer Dave Shepard, Nat Powell for photos, Sal B for setting up teas and Jas and Jaq for moving games around to accommodate the match. Aida for filling in and manning the bar with Jon.
And especially to my partner in (inclusive) crime Emily Shepard – thanks for being an amazing human.
Looking forward to next season’s clash with the VBCA.
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