“The club was formed in 1962 by an elite group of men,” well- known local sporting legend Glenn Brear told the Yarrawonga Chronicle.
“John Ryan, Pascoe Ellis, Bob Adkins, Kevin Lawless and Peter Bruce, and some footballers got together and produced a cricket team.
“There were three Yarrawonga teams – Yarrawonga, Yarrawonga Rovers and Yarrawonga Footballers – two Mulwala sides, Mulwala and Mulwala Footballers, Rennie and Ringwood, seven sides.”
YFCC’s executive included president Noel Loughnan and its inaugural captain was local headmaster Norm Stewart.
The club won 11 premiership flags in its 57-year history which was against stronger and more competition over the years, especially with Wilby entering the Yarrawonga District Cricket Association in the 1970s. YFCC only missed the finals on seven occasions.
“There was a litany of schoolteachers – Trevor Manley, John Hall, Trevor Hunt and Bruce Mitchell - former shire secretary Don Presley, former health inspector Ray O’Toole and footballers,” Brear, who was one of those footballers and first donned the whites at age 13-years in 1965, said.
He may not have been a tertiary-qualified person, but allrounder Brear possessed all the sporting qualifications, not only captaining the side to premierships, but also association president and rightly being made an association life member.
“So many changes took place over the years,” the Team of the Century member recalled, “malthoid, green rubber, carpet and then turf.
“It was all good fun. It was good the Yarrawonga District Cricket Association stood the community in good stead and what it is today as part of the Wangaratta District Cricket Association and all the sides we have, with A, A Reserve, B Grade, C Grade, Under 16s, 14s and 12s.”
So many fond and funny memories can be relived. How about the day when former Yarrawonga Footballers and Mulwala Footballers star Neil Davis dropped a new player, an off-break bowler sometimes leggie of the latter club off at the Rennie Telephone Exchange instead of the Rennie cricket ground? Talk about ‘come in spinner’!
On Saturday, November 23, A Grade will be playing at home at Vic Park with action underway at 1.30pm. The evening proceedings will get underway from 7.00pm. Finger food will be available and drinks at bar prices. Reunions are great. This promises to be one of those.