Recruit rekindles love for game at St Joseph’s

CAMERON Parker credits playing in regional Victoria’s leading cricket competition with having reignited his love for the game.

It is fair to say the hard-hitting St Joseph’s keeper-batsman is well placed to comment on the relative standards of cricket around the state having covered his share of territory in pursuit of a contest.

Parker, who bludgeoned a run-aball 121 not out to lift his side from the mire of 5-60 against Leopold, has notches on his belt representing performances at centres including Bendigo, Echuca and Cobram.

“When moving to Geelong I spoke to a mate who had played a bit of cricket down here and asked him where he played,” Parker said.

“He said, ‘St Joey’s, do yourself a favour, you’ll really enjoy it’.

“So, I went on line, saw that ‘Kento’ (Leigh Kentish) was involved and said, ‘do you want to go out for brekkie?’.”

New to the club in January last year, the Northern Bay outdoor education and physical education teacher spent his early time at the club moving between seconds and thirds, waiting in the wings as understudy to incumbent gloveman Nathan O’Brien.

But with O’Brien taking a break this summer, Parker announced himself, first with a quickfire 73 against a revered East Belmont attack, before putting Leopold to the sword on Saturday.

“I took a lot of confidence from the fact that there was a lot of hard work done early by Tom Courtney and Andrew Casey,” he said of Saturday’s effort.

“Even though they weren’t scoring at a rapid rate, they showed that if you put your head down and knuckle down, battle through a tough period, that you could score at some point.”

Parker worked in conjunction with the Saints’ latter order, firstly to build some respectability then to propel his team to a defendable 9-256, with his innings including nine sixes and six fours.

“A.J. (Alexander Davie), who came in at No.7, was fresh off 140 in the twos the previous game, so we just talked about scoring as many as we could without playing any ridiculous shots,” he said.

“The total we got wasn’t the total we expected at the start, but we just talked about getting to a score that would annoy them considering where they had us.

“A.J. took the pressure off me through his capacity to strike the ball well, while Paddy De Grandi, in his first game, Aussie and Gus Humphrey all certainly helped us to where we got.”

And while he concedes he is still settling into the region’s top-grade, Parker says he is relishing the opportunity to test himself against country Victoria’s best.

“The professionalism of both the GCA and St Joseph’s Cricket Club has reinvigorated my passion for cricket,” he said.

“I’ve always loved cricket, but I think the health of cricket in Geelong is a lot stronger than plenty of places in the country.

“There’s still plenty of kids prepared to sacrifice their weekends to play the game, and while sides are fiercely competitive on the ground you can see the players get along well and are happy to mingle.”