UP THE SAINTS

BACK IN TOP TIER FOR FIRST TIME IN SEVEN YEARS

St Peter’s Cricket Club is back in the top flight for the first time in seven years.

The Saints, who won three senior premierships from four grand finals in 2023-24, including a first-grade triumph in GCA2 after drawing against

Torquay, are back in the top tier for this coming summer.

Their promotion follows the Geelong Cricket Association’s on and off-field club assessments over a two-year period, with St Peter’s taking the place of Lara in division one.

The club was last promoted to GCA1 in 2016-17 but went through the season winless.

It came two years after it famously declined a promotion to division one after finishing the top-ranked team following the 2014-15 season.

First-grade skipper Luke Ford said the club was hoping to attract back some homegrown talent, including Brodie

Craig (Geelong), Rhys McWaters and potentially Hunter Lewis (Corio), ahead of its promotion.

“The wheels were in motion when I signed that we wanted to go to division one,” Ford said. “We’re definitely ready now. There are a couple of guys who went off and did their own thing for a couple of years, be that footy or higher cricket or not playing at all.

“We’ll certainly touch base with those guys again.

“I’m hoping some guys want the challenge again.”

He said the club had also been eyeing off some secondgrade GCA1 cricketers looking for more opportunities in 24-25. “There’s a couple of guys we’re going after, you have to,” he said. “There’s definitely some good cricketers who play second 11 cricket in division one who would love an opportunity to play first 11, or more first 11.