Strathmore Heights Cricket Club

(From information provided by the club - October 2015.)

Strathmore Heights Cricket Club has its headquarters at Boeing Reserve in Strathmore Heights. The club currently plays in the North-West Metropolitan Cricket Association, fielding 3 open-age teams along with Under 14, Under 12 and Under 10 boys’ teams, and is on the lookout to add girls’ teams should there be enough interest. In addition, the club has 2 teams playing in the Mid-Year Cricket Association during the winter months. New members, regardless of cricketing ability, are always welcome.

The club’s web site is http://strathmoreheights.vic.cricket.com.au/, and contact details may be found there.

A BRIEF HISTORY OF STRATHMORE HEIGHTS CRICKET CLUB

The club has existed in its current form since 1977, and has operated under the Strathmore Heights name since 1986, but it can trace its roots back much further, to 1938. The club is actually an amalgamation of two former Strathmore churches’ cricket clubs, namely Strathmore Uniting and St.Aidan’s.

The predominant local cricket competition, from its formation in 1903 until relatively recent times, was the Essendon & Flemington (later Essendon & Broadmeadows) Protestant Churches Cricket Association. The Uplands Road Presbyterian Church, soon to be known as Strathmore Presbyterian, formed a cricket club in 1938, entering teams in the churches association. As the suburb “took off” in the 1950’s, both Strathmore Methodists and St.Aidan’s churches also formed cricket clubs, both entering the Association in 1956.

At their peak, in the period 1961-65, the three Strathmore church clubs fielded no less than 12 teams between them each season, and all met with their share of success. However, playing numbers dwindled in the 1970’s as the population of the area grew older. The Methodists club disbanded in 1976, and the following year, the Strathmore Presbyterians and St.Aidan’s clubs decided to amalgamate. As this was the same year as the Churches Union, members chose to name the amalgamated club St.Aidan’s Uniting.

Having previously had no fixed home, the club first gained partial use of Boeing Reserve in 1980, and by 1983 had all teams playing there, along with use of the council pavilion. In 1985, the Churches Cricket Association itself was forced by dwindling team numbers to amalgamate with the neighbouring North Suburban Cricket Association. As part of this merger, there was no longer a requirement that teams represent a church, so in 1986 the St.Aidan’s Uniting Cricket Club was re-named Strathmore Heights Cricket Club, in order to better reflect its location.

The club is now one of the oldest in the area, not only surviving but thriving despite the association it plays in having undergone two more amalgamations in the past 20-odd years. The club has had its own exclusive-use clubrooms at Boeing Reserve since 1997.

Up until 1977, all three church clubs enjoyed success, winning 16 premierships between them – St. Aidan’s 9 (8 open-age plus 1 under-age), Strathmore Pres 5 (4 open-age and 1 under-age), and Strathmore Meths 2 (1 open-age, 1 under-age). Since the amalgamation of the church clubs in 1977, Strathmore Heights has carried on the fine record, winning a further 15 open-age and 4 under-age premierships, and its 1^st XI currently plays in the premier grade of the North West Metropolitan association.