Harper Sercombe
One of Altona Sports Cricket Club’s finest ever players once again raised the bat over the weekend.
David Kip added another milestone to an already tremendous career as he played his 400th game for the club.
“When you sit back and think about it, it’s longevity of course, our club has been around since 1959, it’s been around a long time and I started there in ‘86, but the more I think about it, it’s all about the players that I’ve played with,” he said.
“I’m player number 189 and there are over 700 now, so that’s a lot of people and it’s about those relationships, that’s what you play cricket for.
“I just enjoy being at the club and playing with friends that have been with me on the journey as well.
“But it’s just the support that the club gives everyone, I’ve been the secretary for a number of years at the club as well and it’s just a really good place to be and we’re going from strength to strength at the moment.”
Kip has spent a lifetime at the cricket club and has spent some of the best days of his life at it, including his wedding day.
“We were in B-grade the year before and won the premiership so went up to A-grade and when we were organising the wedding we booked it in for the end of March, thought cricket season would be over, not likely to make the finals,” he said.
“But we had a good year and ended up winning the semi final, I was captain at the time and said to the boys well I can’t play the second day, so I’ll step aside.
“They said ‘you can’t do that, you’ve got to play’ so I said ‘alright I’ll play the first week’ then I lose the ross and we have to field all day, then on the second day I said to my wife ‘we’re not getting married until 3.30, we start at 1, I think I could bat until probably 2.
“It was about 2 and I had to leave and get married and we drove back past the ground at about 5 o’clock and all the guys were standing up on the hill and waving at us, so that was a good experience.”
While Kip may be closer to the end of his cricketing career than the start, he has no plans to put the bat away anytime soon.
“I’m still loving it, I’m not as committed as I was like I wouldn’t play on my wedding day again,” he said.
“So it’s not full time but I’m probably playing about three quarters of the games each year and I still enjoy getting to the club on a Thursday night and having a beer with the boys and then playing the game on a Saturday.”
Kip reached the milestone at his home at P.A. Burns Reserve on Saturday afternoon against the West Point Titans in the Western Suburbs Churches and Community Cricket Association, after having the milestone game delayed two weeks due to rain.
“After the game they’re doing a barbecue dinner for us and we’ll go back into the sports club and have a few beers no doubt and celebrate hopefully another win.”
