Roach to veterans: Get your game on

VICTORIAN over-50s captain David Roach is putting a call out to veteran cricketers to come out of retirement and pull the whites back on for Geelong next summer.

Roach, who captains Geelong Cricket Club’s over-50s first XI, will lead the Cats into the semi-final against East Ringwood at Burdoo Reserve, Grovedale from 12.30pm on Sunday, and is encouraging over-50s to come and watch to hopefully inspire them to play next season.

While Geelong boasts two over-50s teams, it has to play in a Melbourne competition due to the lack of numbers in the region, but Roach said there were enough ex-cricketers in Geelong to start up a competition in the GCA.

“We travel up there (to Melbourne) once a month — we play every second Sunday,” Roach said.

“The way it’s looking at the moment, we’ll definitely have three sides next year.

“There’s that much interest from over-50s players, and some are still playing locally that want to play on a Sunday — they just want to play more cricket. We’ve got 30 players on the books … (and) it’s only the first year we’ve done it.

“Ideally what we want to do at the end of the day is have a local competition for the over-50s, instead of travelling to Melbourne once a month.”

One of the other benefits of over-50s cricket is the chance to represent your state at national level. Roach has been selected for the Victorian over50s team which will play a game against South Australia in Adelaide on Tuesday, and will also captain the team against Tasmania at Grovedale on Tuesday, February 19.

Victoria’s over-60s and over-70s will also host Tassie in games at North Geelong and Queens Park respectively on the same day.

For more information about over-50s cricket, contact David Roach on 0487 721 128.