September Meeting Report: A History of Cricket in Geelong.

Geelong is a city known for its sporting achievements. We were fortunate to listen to Tony Joel and Mathew Turner speak about the history of Cricket in Geelong at our September meeting. Tony and Mat recalled how cricket began in 1840, less than two years after Geelong officially became a town in 1838.

They began their talk explaining how their book, Line and Length: A History of the Geelong Cricket Club, came about. It was a surprise to everyone involved with the Geelong Cricket Club that the sport began at such an early time in our city’s history and highlighted the fact that detailed research is essential.

Tony and Mat took turns at presenting their findings to our group, in a chronological style, with references to various teams, venues, characters and competitions.

It was very obvious that over the history of the sport in Geelong, our Geelong sporting teams’ advancements have been stifled by the vested interests in Melbourne, resulting in many talented Geelong players needing to join Melbourne based clubs to achieve selection at the state and national level.

It also became clear to us that Geelong’s identity, whether through cricket, football, athletics and many other sports, is on display and our citizens achieve pride in their city with the way our teams perform and represent us. Sport is an important part of who we are and the values we hold.

Many questions were forwarded at the conclusion of their presentation and Tony and Mat generously presented our Society with copies of their previous publication: On the Take: The Scandal That Changed Australian Football Forever.

I highly commend to members the story they presented to us. If you missed it, then you can read it.