Tara Murray
Four premierships is the dream for Altona Sports this Saturday in the Western Suburbs Churches and Community Cricket Association.
The club, which only has four sides, finished on top of the ladder in their respective divisions.
On Saturday, all four won their semi finals, to win through to the grand final.
Committee member and player David Kip said the club had never achieved this before.
“We used to have three sides, but with a new committee we managed to have four sides this season,” he said.
“To have four sides in the grand finals is really good. The club has been going since the 1970s in different names and versions, but we’ve never made four grand finals in one year.”
Kip said it had been a bit of a different year with COVID and the impacts and restrictions that come with that.
He said despite that, the club had grown with players wanting to be around their teammates and enjoying getting back to their normal lives.
The club and the committee had worked really hard in the off season to get new players to the club and help it grow.
“I think just being able to play cricket has been really good,” he said. “Players just want to play and there’s a really good culture at the club.
“We got people at the club and recruited for the first XI and that has flowed down into the lower grades.”
Kip said ideally the club wants to get its first XI side back playing two-day cricket next season.
That has been on the back burner the last two seasons due to COVID-19.
“We want to be in the first two-day cricket competition. We want to play two-day cricket in the top side and have the lower grades playing one-day cricket.
For now Kip and the club are focusing on this weekend.
Their first XI will face Forsyth United Chargers in the division 4 grand final, after beating West Gate in their semi final.
In that match Altona Spots made 9-145 before bowling West Gate out for 127.
“The firsts didn’t lose a game all year,” he said. “The first side is the side to beat. They won a tough semi final with a couple of overs to go.
In division 8, Altona Sports will face Williamstown Congs, in division 9 and 13 they will face Footscray Angliss.
