Demons servant joins the 300 club

THERE will be great celebrations at Portarlington Cricket Club this weekend when much-loved Demons stalwart Peter Evans plays his 300th senior game.

Evans has been a part of the furniture at the Ron Evans Oval for all of his 30-plus cricketing years, driven by a love of the game, the friendships created and the immense fun the game provides.

The majority of his career has been spent in the club’s second XI, but he did play enough games in the firsts to remind him he did not belong. His position in the batting order has changed as the requirements of the team altered, but the consistent part of his game has been behind the stumps.

Evans (pictured) was somewhat forced into wicketkeeping as a 17-year-old, but quickly found it to his liking and was only displaced from his post on the occasions Larry Russell, arguably the club’s greatest player, dropped down the grades and demanded his rightful place behind the stumps.

Evans’ family connection with the club goes back many generations, with the oval named after his uncle Ron, while his siblings Bill, Jim and Norm, and their father, Colin, were all long-term players for the Demons.

There are also connections on his mother’s side through the Hitch and Bartlett families going back to the foundation year of 1872.

Portarlington is in its 150th year and big celebrations are planned for next season to commemorate the occasion, and, as club president, Evans is sure to be up to his neck in organisational duties.

The 46-year-old has scored 4061 runs, including two centuries and 17 other scores above 50, and snared 303 victims as a keeper, second only to Russell at the club.

He played in four premierships, captaining the 2003-04 C-grade flag, was the C-grade champion the following year and also won the C-grade batting trophy twice.

Evans has two best clubman awards on his mantelpiece and he was rewarded for his efforts in serving the club, when his peers awarded him with life membership in 2019.

It is a wonderful list of accolades for a long-term servant of any club, but Evans also remains a highly respected member of the BPCA family.

That may be his greatest achievement.