RCC 100

A celebration of the club's centennial year

The Rosanna Cricket Club celebrated 100 years as a local sporting club in season 2024-25. Many events took place to commemorate this auspicious achievement that culminated in a Gala Dinner. There were many highlights in a memorable season for the club both on and off the field.

RCC Gala Dinner

A Gala Dinner was held at the Heidelberg Golf Club on 22nd February 2025. Approximately 160 guests were in attendance with a good representation of past players from many decades. John McKenzie set the scene for the evening with a wonderful speech reflecting on the culture and history of our great club and the opportunities to continue this into our future. A series of interviews around the topic of "Reflections of RCC" was performed on stage in a panel arrangement. With Garry Carlton facilitating the discussion, 500 game player, Geoff Wilson, spoke on Life Members, past-president, Dan Flynn, spoke on Presidents/Committee and current captain and coach, Sam Sheehan, spoke on Captains/Players. Later in the evening, a video was presented with snippets from players on their thoughts on the club which provided some interesting entertainment and determined who was good in front of the camera. The victorious Summer Smash team was presented on stage who had recently done the club proud in bringing home our 100th premiership in our 100th year! It was a wonderful night with an excellent venue and organisation and the attendance of so many older past players mixing with current players and supporters. Many memories were recalled and tall stories exchanged!

100 Not Out

As part of our centenary year, past player and life member Dennis Hartney put forward an idea to the RCC committee, which was enthusiastically agreed, to publish a history that covered our 100 years as a local cricket club. Dennis set to work on this mammoth task drawing upon club Annual Reports, the club history written by Alan Bell in 1972 and consolidating club records and statistics along the way. An editorial and research team was established supporting Dennis. "100 Not Out - The Centennial History of the Rosanna Cricket Club", was published in February 2025. The work involved was massive and the club will be forever indebted to Dennis Hartney supported by Alan Bell for their efforts, enthusiasm, perseverance and dedication to the task that culminated in an amazing three volume historic almanac of our great club.

DVCA 100 Tournament Premiers

The club won its 100th premiership in its 100th year at Montmorency Oval to cap off a great tournament. Playing the tournament in the top Division for Barclay Shield clubs, the team went undefeated playing fantastic cricket, demonstrating skill and enthusiasm and striving for that 100th premiership as a goal. In the final, we were up against North Eltham Wanderers who were well suited to this game format. We batted first getting off to a bright start from Josh Henkel (23 from 11 balls), however a mini collapse had us in a little trouble at 4 for 36. A magnificent knock from the coach of 55 off 38 balls held the innings together to post a credible score of 7 for 140. In reply, North Eltham Wanderers started well losing their first wicket at 29, but they were soon in trouble with OliverToussaint picking up 2 early wickets and bowling tight finishing with 2 for 14 off 4 overs and Patrick Bourke causing havoc from the other end with his left arm orthodox spin. Patrick finished with 5 for 8 off his 4 overs to claim a well deserved Man of the Match. The Wanderers were all out for 56 to give Rosanna a resounding victory.

Consolidated Club Statistics

Club statistics were consolidated and further developed with a structure established for future maintenance thanks to the exceptional work of Dennis Hartney. It is a testament of the work of many people over the years who have kept club records providing an amazing archive. The majority of scorebooks have been kept and annual summary statistics were prepared by captains each year as part of the club governance processes. Even with the records available, it was a mammoth task to reconcile all statistics across pre and post electronic scorebook records. This is a considerable achievement for the club and one of the many great things coming out of our centenary year. The statistical work has been presented in Volume 3 of "100 Not Out" and a selection of stats are now available on our website.

DVCA Barclay Shield Premiers

To top off an amazing year, Sam Sheehan and his first XI team won the Barclay shield for the second time in three years. Returning to the Montmorency Oval where the Summer Smash premiership had been won and with a strong supporter contingent, Rosanna batted first with an opening partnership of 52 between Sam Sheehan and Nick Horsford followed by a second 50 partnership of 59 between Sam and Tom Bourke giving us a great start to be 2 for 111. Unfortunately, our middle order collapsed leaving us 7 for 160, however a fighting 52 from Dalton Marsh got us to 9 for 209 at the end of the 80 overs. In reply, Bundoora lost 2 early wickets in the first 9 overs and continued to struggle at 4 for 34. The bowlers stayed on top throughout the innings to bowl out Bundoora for 127 to win by 82 runs. It was a great bowling bowling performance with all contributing, with the standout being Josh Henkel with 4 for 34 off 22 overs ably supported by Nick Carlton with 3 for 36 off 16.5 overs. A fitting end to our centenary year.