United Cricket Club

Tigers,
At the club’s recent presentation evening we have two awards that we value with high esteem - the Keiran Nihill Club Champion and the Best Clubperson. We value them so highly that they actually receive a trophy unlike the other award winners who get their names on an honour board.

Remarkably this year, two players tied as joint club champions. This has never happened before. One of these players is known in cricketing circles simply as Harry. When this name is mentioned everyone knows who we are referring to which is indicative of the player he is. Harry Whittle, champion player and champion person wins yet another of the top Tiger awards. A special effort, as generally this award is won by all-rounders, but Harry did it this year by his batting alone. Three centuries during the year but these innings were overshadowed by his performance in the semi-final, when he and Tom Calvert put together a partnership for the ages. Wonderful effort, Harry.

The other winner may not be as recognised universally as Harry, but in the confines of the Tiger club, his value is certainly appreciated. Kane Goldsworthy. To illustrate his talent, Kane opens both the batting and bowling in a team loaded with stars. Kane produces when most needed which is a sign of a player that every club seeks. Luckily for United Kane has chosen us. His loyalty to the club is well recognised as we know he is on the shopping list of other clubs, but his love of the Tigers overrules all.
Kane’s first ever club champion trophy could be the start of something special. He could go down as one of the greats as we watch him develop into a player that other teams fear with both bat and ball.

The other major club award is the Best Clubperson. This is won by the person who receives the most votes from all committee persons, to someone who has gone beyond normal expectations and made our club so much better. Club batting coach Rod Whittle is this year’s winner.

Rod really has been our secret weapon. Before our two Division One flags, the club went through four years of disappointment, falling just short of against very good opponents. We realised our batting required two major improvements- a strong top order and dangerous hitters in the lower order to capitalise on those solid starts. We were lucky that the man who could install improvement was someone in our club - enter Rod Whittle. Rod doesn’t just work on technical improvements, but also the mental component of batting and being strong when the pressure is on.

A great example of Rod’s teaching is Paddy Hartney who went from Division Two three years ago to winning both Division One Best Player awards in the past two flags. Our whole batting line up is now confident whoever they play against and whatever the situation - and we thank Rod Whittle’s astute mentorship for this.

Great stuff Kane, Harry and Rod.

Evening Tigers, we had our presentation last week for the historic 25/26 season.

DIV 3
Batting Ave/Agg- Ian Alexander
Bowling Ave/Agg- Brent Bogaski
All rounder- Ian Alexander

DIV 2
Batting Agg- Jayde Mullane
Batting Ave- Justin Hancock
Bowling Agg- Bailey Walsh
Bowling Ave- Dharmik Desai
All rounder- Justin Hancock

DIV 1
Batting Ave/Agg- Harry Whittle
Bowling Agg- Kane Goldsworthy
Bowling Ave- Joe Hartney

We’ll circle back later with the 100s, 6fas and ducks.

We’ll also have a special post for the winners of the club champion and best clubman.

A dominant season to celebrate at the United Cricket Club presentation night over the weekend.

United Cricket Club capped off an outstanding 2025/26 season with premiership wins across Division 1, Division 2, Division 3 and T20 - a remarkable achievement.

Photo: Harry Whittle (L) and Rod Whittle (R), a standout son-father duo who played a key role in the club’s success. Harry led from the front as Division 1 Captain, while Rob’s guidance as batting coach helped shape a winning season.

Committee members Mitch Blackburn and Demi Rayner-Blackburn have celebrated the Tigers’ big March (and to a lesser extent their wedding) with a month around Europe.

Mitch hasn’t picked up much language, but can now say “74” in 6 different tongues. In exchange for this knowledge, many European villagers now have a deeper understanding of the politics and nepotism involved in the selection of the Shane Hartney Medal.

Demi has done a good job of preserving Australia’s diplomatic relationships.

Don’t forget the presentation on 1 May.

The tigers have landed a big 12 leg multi! The spider and a half was stacked with $1.05 favorites but all 12 premiership tigers have recommitted for the 26/27 season.

Don’t forget the presentation on 1 May.

Evening cricket fans. More good news out of Tigerland. We are pleased to announce Harry Whittle and Joe Hartney have been reappointed as Div 1 captain and club coach respectively for the 26/27 season.

26/27 will be Harry’s 9th season leading the Tigers. Harry’s record as a player speaks for itself (and seems to just keep getting better).

However, we’re far more interested in Harry as a person and a leader. He puts his heart and soul into his relationships with his players to get the best out of each and every one of them. The grand final was true testament to this. The tigers were able to lift the shield without the best player in the comp batting or bowling (albeit his efforts in the semi to get us there were pretty handy). These sort of team efforts are the sign of a great leader.

His record as a captain is exceptional, we haven’t missed finals in his 8 seasons-
3x 1st
3x 2nd
1x 3rd
1x 4th

Joe will be leading the club for the 7th time in 26/27. From the outside, Joe’s role as coach may go under the radar, but those within the club see the hours upon hours that go into Joe’s week. Recruiting, player retention, high quality training programs, intensive match day warm ups and morale-building Saturday nights are all standard part of Joe’s week.

Joe’s first 4 years in the job saw moderate club success with regular Div 2, 3 and t20 premierships. But the last two seasons have been something else, winning 7 out of 8 available trophies. It’s an easy stat to say, but the amount of big games 4 teams have to win to make it happen is incredible. Since the semi final Sunday of 23/24 (or as we know it “Black Sunday”) the club has won 17 from 18 finals (including 8/9 grand finals). The probability of that occurring is minuscule, but Joe, along with other club leaders, have created a winning culture that thrives under pressure.

The club is in safe hands.

Don’t forget the presentation on 1 May.

The Tigers are over the moon to announce that Bailey Ilsley will join us for the 26/27 season.

After receiving strong interest from all parts of central Victoria, Bailey has become a United man.

Bailey’s record speaks for itself. He’s a premiership player, a league medalist, an inter league representative and a regular in the EVCA team of the year.

Welcome Bailey!

In other news, we’ll be having our 25/26 presentation night on 1 May. Details to follow.

Congrats to our league award winners.

Kane Goldsworthy was selected in the team of the year. He also won the most one handed catches in finals. The latter award isn’t officially recognized, but it still counts.

Ian ‘Goose’ Alexander won the Div 3 batting. Apparently this is Ian’s first league award at the young age of 64. Hopefully he gets the next one before he turns 128.

Well done men.

Tigers,
It’s not often you set high value goals and then achieve them. All year our leaders have set a challenge that no club has done before - win every flag on offer. In 2002-3 our club achieved all 3 flags which no one has done before or since. Could this be eclipsed? Joe, Harry, Dooley, Ryan and Josh thought so and carried everyone on for the ride. It was a wild trip but we got there. All three games on the weekend were against opponents who we knew would not make it easy for us, and so it proved to be.

Division One: Spring Gully 133, United 3 for 134. Our bowling and fielding on day one were outstanding. Led by our opening three medium pacers, our spin trio then took over. This is our point of difference having quality spin bowlers who can squeeze the life out of batters. Jim Grogan 3 wickets, Paddy Hartney 3 for 18 off 16 overs.

Paddy 46 not out and Mitch Blackman 74 set about holding the fort against aggressive bowling and they did so with aplomb. It was tough finals batting but they did it brilliantly. The 118 stand was the biggest EVCA GF partnership since the Collins Brothers in 13/14. Both these blokes do a mountain of work with our batting coach Rod Whittle who has played a huge part in our recent success.

Man of Match was Paddy Hartney who has now won this award in both premierships of the last two years.

The best batter in country cricket was not needed. Harry did his work last week and so did Tom Calvert.

The greatest rivalry in Bendigo sport will continue.

Division Two: United 217. Justin Hancock 43, skipper Dooley Niemannn 91 no. Mandurang 185. Justin Hancock and Bailey Walsh 4 wickets each. Some brilliant individual efforts none better than the skipper’s amazing runs under immense pressure. Justin has been a fantastic pickup, and the performance of Bailey Walsh in the finals has been outstanding. A great team effort.

Division Three: Marong 116, United 6 for 117. Cuz was worried but he should never have been. His cunning plan to assemble a more than adequate Division Two side to take into the grand final had the makings of his mentor Ben Dyett. Daniel Francis and Dharmik Desai 3 wickets each. Both these men are very good players, and their performances proved to be. Our batting was a consistent input which you hope for in finals. Nice finish in front of a large, very well behaved Marong crowd. We thank them.

Back at the uBar Sunday night we had an enormous crowd gathered around the newly acquired United Pedestal (what a good idea, should have done it years ago). Each of our leaders stepped up above the crowd to regale stories of victory. It was a special night.

We congratulate our on-field staff: Club Coach Joe Hartney, Batting Coach Rod Whittle, Chairman of Selectors Josh Kinsman, Captains Harry Whittle, Dooley Niemann and Ryan Currie. You sold us the dream, we trusted and believed in you. Mission Accomplished.

Tigers grrrrr.