ITP Cricket

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ITP 30TH ANNIVERSARY today legends!
1pm, Oxford Hotel, Leederville
Come have a frothy with us!

THIS SUNDAY
ITP 30TH Anniversary reunion
1pm, Oxford Hotel, Leederville
Pop in for a coldie or two and relive those sunburnt summers!

Picture: Coastal after winning the 2005-06 T20 Cup with a second-last ball win against Perth OMP

ITP'S 30TH Anniversary get together this Sunday fellas!

FORMER AUSTRALIAN cricketer Andrew J Tye bowling to Nathan Colgan for the Fisters against Koits CC in a T20 match at Menzies Park during the 2007-08 season
For the record AJ Tye would pick up only one wicket (Colgan's) in his only ITP match. He is also the only ITP Cricketer to go on and play cricket for Australia!

SOUTHERN BROTHERS 2006-07 to 2011-12

Five Championships and five Cups in just six seasons of ITP would suggest it's pretty safe to say that this south eastern based club was the most formidable to ever play our humble little game

In these pictures at Menzies Park in Mt Hawthorn we find SB winning their first of four doubles and also going back to back here with a Cup final win over the Fisters during the 2007-08 summer

Main picture: Darren Hewson and Matt Delaurentis with the Cup and Championship shield

COASTAL BREEZE and family relaxing after another win at Deanmore Square, 1998-99

COASTAL BREEZE 1997-98 to 2011-12

"Blow the Breeze!

The sash worn on Coastal's "Greg Chappell" hats

For the record:

Championships: three
1997-98, 1999-00, 2006-07

Scott Bonnar Cups: three
1999-00, 2000-01, 2005-06

Runner/up in Scott Bonnar Cup
1997-98, 2011-12

PERTH OMP finally get on the winners list!

After coming into the ITP for the 1998-98 summer, Comer Reserve's original tenant couldn't take a trick when it first started making its way under the tutelage of a young Matt Geary
But for the 1999-00 summer Perth managed to get Kevin Borruso , Daryl Hudson, David Hughes-Owen and Mark Kingham to leave North and play at the riverside club
The results had an immediate affect with OMP looking a much more formidable outfit under Borruso's leadership
After finishing 1998-99 last in the Championship without a victory the club was primed to start its second season with a win when they travelled to Deanmore Square for it its first match of the 1999-00 Championship in December 1999 (see picture)
Despite their big recruits failing to have an impact Perth finally had a W beating a listless Fisters by just three runs
In what would be Deanmore Square's last ITP match, Perth defended 123 after Rohan Smith (4/15) and Gavin Tempany (2/3) proved to be just too good with the ball despite Greg Kahl's (26*) best efforts with the bat!
After making 30 earlier in the day Gavin Tempany was awarded the man of the match
For the record, Perth OMP and Fisters would finish that summer's Championship in fifth and sixth positions respectively
Unfortunately for Perth the win here wasn't a sign things were about to change as the club continued to struggle with another wooden spoon in 2000-01 before it eventually made the 2001-02 Cup final which it would lose to Gundill Boys
The Championship would forever allude Perth. Although Perth did win the Second Division Championship in 2007-08 and again in 2009-10 when the ITP briefly ran a second tier Championship to accommodate eight teams with promotion and relegation
Though success did eventually come its way when Perth began to make a habit of making the Cup final in the mid 2000s, and even won back to back Cups from 2003-04 to 2004-05 during a stretch that saw them make the 'autumn play off' three out of four seasons in a row, finishing their run with a heartbreaking loss to Coastal in 2005-06
Perth would eventually move east to Victoria Park and play out of Fraser Park until the club moved lock stock and barrel to the far northern suburbs and became the Joondalup Bouncers from the 2009-10 season onwards under Steve Lemmey
The club did well to rebuild after defections to new franchises in 2001-02 (Spinal Caps) and 2006-07 (Southern Brothers) which was ironic given it had raided North before the 1999-00 season
As Joondalup Bouncers the club eventually qualified for a Cup final again in 2015-16 in what would be the ITP's last ever match. Joondalup going down to the Sri Lankans on the final ball of ITP cricket!
The franchise holds the unique distinction of never forfeiting a match or missing a season from the moment it entered in 1998-99 until the ITP's final season in 2015-16. Quite a record for a club that nobody wanted and was passed through the hands of three different owners

Photo: Perth OMP's Rohan Smith confidently appeals for another Fisters' wicket during his match winning spell of 4/16. Fisters fell three runs short of Perth's very gettable 123. Deanmore Square, December 1999

GUNDILL BOYS 2001-02
After tragically losing the previous summer's Cup final against Coastal the Gunners came through with the goods one year later when they beat Perth OMP by three wickets at Robertsbridge Reserve in March 2002
After losing the unlosable against Coastal the Gundill Boys made no mistake this time after restricting Perth to just 80 runs from its 30 overs
Despite losing wickets along the way the Gunners eventually got home in the 26th over and finally had the little pewter mug in their hands!
Colin Stewart for the Gundill Boys was the main difference between the two sides on the day and a worthy man of the match after taking 3/6 with the ball and making a vital 15 not out with the bat
Despite this being its second of five Cup final appearances in a golden run for the southside club than ran from the 2000-01 to 2004-05 seasons, this would be the only time the Gunners tasted victory on the game's biggest day
Rain would rob them twelve months later at the same venue when their scheduled 2002-03 Cup final appearance against North Koits was completely abandoned without a ball being bowled
Interestingly three of the Cup finals the Gundill Boys played were against Perth OMP, and the only Cup they would win would be without its captain, Tim Richards

2001-02 SCOTT BONNAR CUP FINAL
24 March 2002 - Robertsbridge Reserve
PERTH OMP 80 (30) 37 G Holt, 13 S Oxley, 3/6 C Stewart, 3/13 T Hess, 2/3 L Lindsay LOST TO GUNDILL BOYS 81/7 (25.2) 18* A Farrell, 15* C Stewart, 15 B Blake Burrows , 3/17 DJ Hudson, 3/23 R Rick Warner-Jones BY THREE WICKETS. MOM C Stewart

TEAM
Back Stuart Douglas Currell Danny Cattalini Tim McLernon J Loft T Hess A Farrell
Front J Widenbar Colin Stewart L Lindsay Blake Burrows

POSSIBLY THE greatest player to ever play ITP cricket is the Sri Lankans Gayantha Gamage
In just nine matches between the 1997-98 and 1999-00 summers Gamage amassed an incredible 259 runs (43.16) with two 50s and took 18 wickets (9.55)
Savage on anything loose, Gamage hit an amazing 16 sixes and strangled the life out of opposition batsmen with his slippery seamers. Indeed, it is fair to suggest that Gayantha made the Lions walk tall as they claimed back to back Cups and a Championship in his short time in the game
During the 1998-99 summer he took eleven wickets with his deceptively quick seam bowling, and also amassed 167 runs at 83.50 making him that summer's undisputed ITP Cricketer of the Year. It would be the only occasion in the history of the game where a player would do the double of scoring 100 plus runs and taking ten plus wickets in a season
Although he would make a golden duck in the 1997-98 Scott Bonnar Cup final against Coastal, his 3/18 from seven overs more than made up for that rare failure as the Lions upset the Breeze to claim its first ITP silverware
His most memorable performance came exactly one year later when he single handedly destroyed any hopes North Koits might have had of claiming the 1998-99 Scott Bonnar Cup in that summer's final in front of a massive crowd at Horrie Long Reserve in what would be his second last appearance
After being the only Sri Lankan bowler to have an impact on North's 120/6 when he removed the dangerous Paul Massara and the stubborn Shane Bender to finish with figures of 2/24 from his seven overs - Gamage then made the opposition look simply second rate when he came out to bat in what had been a very slow and low scoring match
Smashing three fours and five sixes against the grain, Gamage's 44 from just 22 balls saw his side home in the 17th over
For the Sri Lankans the massive eight-wicket win meant they had become the first team to claim the double (Championship & Cup)
Gamage's fifth man of the match performance in just his eighth game also meant we were unlikely to see an all-rounder this good ever again
Indeed, apart from Gundill Boys' Luke Lindsay, you really struggle to find another player in his league!
Gamage is an absolute certainty whatever the case when the ITP names its "All Stars Team for All Time" later this year

Gayantha Gamage
Sri Lankans
Debut v South Koits, 1997-98
Matches 9
Innings 9 NO 3 50s 2
Runs 259 at 43.16 S/R 130.1
HS 52* v South Koits, 1998-99
Wickets 18 at 9.55 RPO 3.20
B/B 3/12 v South Koits, 1997-98