CRICKET
Cricket derives its name from the Saxon word ‘cryce’,
meaning a crooked stick. This dates back to between
the 13th and 18th century in England when cricket was
played with a bat which looked more like a hockey
stick and a ball which was bowled ‘underarm’ along the
ground. By the mid 1700s bowlers were pitching or
‘bowling’ the ball and the ‘bat’ had straitened to its
current shape.

CRICKET AND ENGLAND'S COLONIES
With cricket's origins coming from England the game
spread with British Colonisation to places like
Australia and India. It was played by colonists and
soldiers and soon became popular even amongst
indigenous peoples. Cricket today is the national
summer sport of England, Australia, India,
West Indies, New Zealand, South Africa, Pakistan and
Sri Lanka.

AUSTRALIAN CRICKET HISTORY
In Australia the first interstate cricket match took
place in 1856 between Victoria and New South Wales.
The first overseas tour by an Australian Cricket Team
to England was the 1868 Aboriginal cricket tour of
England between May and October of that year, becoming
the first Australian cricket team to do so. The first
tour by a white Australian team in England did not
happen until 1880.

FIRST AUSTRALIAN TEAM TO TOUR ENGLAND 1868
From the early 1860s a number of cricket matches
between Aborigines and whites were being held, mainly
in western Victorian cattle stations around the
Wimmera where many Aborigines worked as stockmen. The
athletic skills of the Aborigines became apparent and
matches developed so that ultimately a representative
indigenous cricket team was formed. Tom Wills managed
and coached the team which played a match at the
Melbourne Cricket Ground on Boxing Day 1866 and which
attracted 8,000 spectators.



AUSTRALIAN VERSUS ENGLAND : THE OVAL MAY 1868
This team arrived in London in May 1868 and were met
with a degree of racial fascination. The first match
was played at The Oval with 20,000 spectators in
attendance throughout the match, presumably mainly out
of curiosity for a strange looking race rather than
for cricket. The Daily Telegraph reported: It is
highly interesting and curious, to see mixed in a
friendly game on the most historically Saxon part of
our island, representatives of two races so far
removed from each other as the modern Englishman and
the Aboriginal Australian. Although several of them
are native bushmen, and all are as black as night,
these Indian fellows are to all intents and purposes,
clothed and in their right minds.

The Aboriginals played 47 matches throughout England
over a period of six months between May and October,
winning 14, losing 14 and drawing 19 - a good result
that would have surprised many at the time. Their
skills were said to range from individuals who were
exceptional to two or three who hardly contributed at
all. Johnny Mullagh scored 1,698 runs and took 245
wickets.
Team members included:
Johnny Mullagh - traditional name Unaarrimin,
Bullocky, Sundown,
Dick-a-Dick - traditional name: Jungunjinanuke, Johnny
Cuzens, King Cole - traditional name: Bripumyarrimin
(died of tuberculosis early in the tour and was buried
in Tower Hamlets in London), Red Cap,
Twopenny - originally from Bathurst and later played
one game for New South Wales against Victoria, Charley
Dumas and Jimmy Mosquito.

Information Source : Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

CLUB CRICKET IN MELBOURNE’S NORTH
JIKA CRICKET ASSOCIATION 1920 / 21
The Jika Cricket Association started back in 1920/21.
The original teams in the competition were made up of
social clubs from the Preston District. A Mr W. Kerr
from the Wood Street side called a meeting of these
social clubs in the East Riding Hall in Preston.
Delegates from the 5 clubs attended and preliminary
arrangements were made to form a competition known as
the Preston District Industrial Cricket Association.
Mr Kerr kept chasing up other clubs in the district
asking if they wished to join. This first meeting of
the 8 interested teams was held on the 12th of July
1922.
The eight teams were : Pineapple; Broadhurst; Nelson;
Regent; Preston Diggers; East Ward; East Northcote and
Howes Scouts.

By 1924/25 the number of teams had increased to 14 in
the Jika competition with the addition of Bell
Ramblers; Northcote Diggers; Darebin; Soccer;
Prestonites; Thornbury Scouts and Preston United.

Today in 2006 the Jika Cricket Association has 30
clubs in its cricketing association.


ROSEBANK CRICKET CLUB
The Rosebank Cricket Club has its home ground and
clubrooms at the Cotchin Reserve in the Merrilands
District of North Reservoir. The club is a part of the
Jika Cricket Association, a northern Melbourne
grouping of teams which fields 30 Cricket Clubs from
as far a field as Bundoora, Reservoir, Preston,
Thornbury, Fairfield and Northcote. Rosebank Cricket
Club has 4 senior teams and 2 Junior teams and like
all clubs in the Jika Association would like to expand
its junior ranks and promote the game of cricket.

ROSEBANK CRICKET CLUB HISTORY 1922
The Rosebank Cricket Club was born in 1922. It was the
cricket team for the workers from the Rosella Soups
Factory in Richmond, hense the name ‘Rose’ from the
Rosella bird and ‘Bank’ as the team played by the
banks of the Yarra River. Sports clubs were a feature
of many of Melbourne’s large factories through the
1900s with cricket being most popular as Australia’s
national summer sport. It was a good way for workers
and families to socialise together, mix with other
workers from Melbourne’s industrial areas and keep a
level of fitness.

ROSEBANK CRICKET CLUB MOVES TO MERRILANDS 1980
As current President Riccardo Tenuta describes,
“Coburg’s Roger Smith played for Rosella Soups. He ran
the Smiths Sewing & Sports store in Sydney Road Coburg
and joined with a group of Coburg High fellahs to
transfer the cricket club to Merrilands. The club then
joined the Jika Cricket Association and at first we
played on a ground behind the Lakeside Secondary
College from 1980 to 1984”.

ROSEBANK CRICKET CLUB MOVES TO COTCHIN RESERVE :
MERRILANDS 1984
By 1984 the ever expanding Rosebank Cricket Club was
given a new home by the then Preston City Council at
Cotchin Reserve.  As Riccardo Tenuta describes, “we
needed some fairdinkum club rooms and a good ground as
we were attracting the sons of many of the immigrant
families like the Italians, Greeks, Macedonians and
Croatians. We were all mixing together with the
Australian born ‘skipppies’ who had traditionally
played the game”.

The Rosebank Cricket Club went from strength to
strength and has a strong ‘Italian Flavour’. President
Riccardo Tenuta, “the surrounding Merrilands area is
full of Italians and many of the sons of the
Sicilians, Calabrese and Abruzze etc who were born in
the 1960s / 70s and 80s had developed a love for the
game of cricket. Were truely a multicultural cricket
club”.


ROSEBANK CRICKET CLUB 
“WERE LIKE A MEDITTERANEAN FAMILY”
2006 Rosebank Cricket Club President Riccardo Tenuta
describes,
“On Thursday after training our philosopy is if you
play together, you eat together. We cook up big plates
of pasta and socialise the boys so they become
friends. Thursday is also selection night and we
prepare ourselves for the weekends cricket games. We
run the club a bit like a Meditteranean family, were
all in together and are always open to new comers.
Around here many of the young fellahs are mad on
Soccer, so we need to offer more than just playing
cricket, its all about coming together and many of us
end up going birthdays, weddings and funerals
together”.
.......”The Rosebank Cricket Club prides itself on the
clubs social life being of prime importance. We’ve now
got a reputation and have attracted district and
sub-district cricketers who want to have a social and
friendly club life mixed with their love for the game
of cricket. Rosebank’s story is best descibed in a
couple of letters sent to and received from Cricket
Victoria”.

ROSEBANK CRICKET CLUB LETTER TO CRICKET VICTORIA
JUNE 4th, 2004
To Cricket Victoria,
I would like to give you a brief outline/history of
our club.
Rosebank Cricket Club was originally the club formed
by Rosella Soups in 1922. we played in Gosh’s Paddock
until 1980, due to lack of juniors in the area at the
time the club was moved to the northern suburbs,
during this time the club rejuvenated itself by having
3 juniors and 3 senior teams.
As most clubs, our situation has changed over the
years, we now have a large ethnic membership base at
our club. We have great links in helping to develop
Italian cricket and with the assistance of Cricket
Australia, we have suppoerted 5 boys from Italy during
the current season.

At the moment we have 4 strong senior sides,
membership base of about 80 people, we now ask for
your support in developing this new cricket wicket, as
a means to develop junior cricket and womens cricket
with a state of the art facility to encourage these
groups to participate with cricket.
We have had discussions with two of our local primary
schools/high school,
ie : Ruthven Primary and Merrilands College and they
appear to be very interested in helping develop our
concept. In essence we will be targeting juniors from
non-English speaking backgrounds to participate, both
girls and boys.

The ultimate goal for Rosebank is to build a Cricket
Club that has community awareness in that it caters
for groups that find cricket completely alien to their
culture and embracing them to participate in the
sport, and in so developing junior and womens cricket.

In conclusion I would like to thank-you in allowing us
to make an application in your grants program.
Regards Riccardo Tenuta.

CRICKET AUSTRALIA REPLY LETTER - 4TH MARCH 2005
This letter serves to acknowledge the outstanding
effort of Rosebank Cricket Club in hosting five(5)
scholars from the Italian Cricket Federation during
2004-05.
Through this initiative we gained an insight into the
Rosebank Cricket Club and wish to make the following
comments in light of the Club’s application to the
2004-05 Cricket Victoria Grants Scheme:
# That the Club strives for excellence and this
reflected in its impressive administration, and in
turn, on-field performance;
#That the Club has a strong presence in a community
which is not traditionally associated with cricket,
and as a consequence provides the opportunity to link
with Cricket Victoria’s ‘All Embracing Program; and
# That the Club acknowledges and supports Cricket
Victoria’s leadership in enhancing the profile of the
game, building links with the community, and striving
for excellance.

The success of the 2004-05 Italian Cricket Federation
Academy Program was based on the commitment of
Rosebank Cricket Club - to host and provide training
and competition opportunities for the five scholars,
and the efforts of Cricket Victoria to collaborate
effectively on the project.
I commend Rosebank Cricket Club to you,
Yours sincelely,
Ross Turner

ROSEBANK CRICKET CLUB PREMIERSHIPS
Riccardo Tenuta, “Over the last 10 years the club has
done well. We’ve won 4 ‘A’ Grade premierships, 2 ‘B’
Grade premierships and 2 ‘C’ Grade premierships. Also
we’ve had 2 Jika competition medallists, Damien
Sampimon and off spinner Shayne Watts. We’ve found
that the 2005 Ashes series in England has made many
kids keen on cricket once again and we’ve just started
our Under 14s and 16s juniors. Its the best thing for
kids too see that we except all kids. Its good for
them to play a team sport and help get them fit. Many
of them these days sit in front of the computer and
are not well exercised and unfit”.

ROSEBANK CRICKET CLUB : PLAYER PROFILES
RICCARDO, TONY AND DAVID TENUTA :
Riccardo descibes, “Dad came in 1953 on the good ship
‘Sorrento’ from Cosenza in Calabria, Italia. Mums from
the same place, she came on the ‘L Sydney’ in 1959.
They both met here in Australia. All of us 3 boys were
born in Coburg and went to East Coburg Primary and
Coburg High School. Tony is the 2006 captain coach of
the ‘A’ Grade team.”

JOHN ‘STOJKOV’ IOANNOU
John describes, “Mum came from Neret and Dad from
Touria in Macedonia close by the current border with
Greece. Both came in the early 60s at first to Perth.
Mum and Dad met in Australia and came to Melbourne in
the 1970s. I was born in PANCH hospital in Preston in
1975. I went to Ruthven Primary and Keon Park Tech
School. I joined the club in the 1988/89 season as a
junior in the Under 14s/. My nickname is Iguana”.

GARY ‘GAZZA’ PALEODIMOS
Gazza describes, “My dads from Arta in Greece’s
central mountains while mum comes from Kastoria not
far from Thessolonika. Both came in the early 60s and
met and married here. I was born in 1973. I joined the
club in the 2001 / 2002 season after playing at other
Jika Association Clubs North and East Brunswick. My
mates drew me here and I’m the current
captain of the 2nd eleven.

DAVE ‘BOLLYWOOD’ DE RUN
Dave describes, “Mum and dad are both from Sri Lanka.
Mum is Singalese while Dad is from a Dutch burgher
background. Both came in 1974 from Colombo. Dad loves
his cricket and played in Colombo. I was born in 1975
and went to St Raphaels Primary and Reddons High
Schools in Preston. I joined Rosebank in the 1990/91
season and have been here since. I came through the
juniors, starting in the Under 15s”.

PAUL ‘OLLIE’ CAPALDO
Ollie describes, “Both mum and dad come from the
central Italian province of Abruzzo. Mum came to
Australia in 1958 as a 3 year old while dad came out
in 1962 as a 14 year old. They met in Australia. I was
born in Reservoir in 1974 and went to Merrilands
Primary and Keon Park Tech Schools. I’ve been at the
Rosebank Club for 17 years and started out playing for
the juniors. I’ve loved the family atmosphere. I
coached the juniors in 1995/96 and it was my mate John
Ioannou who bought me to the club”.

SHAYNE ‘FROG’ WATTS
Froggie describes, “Both my dad and mum are born in
Melbourne, dad  Kensington and mum in Preston. My
ancestors are from the British Isles.
I was born in Reservoir in December 1970 and went to
Lalor East Primary and Lalor Secondary Schools. I
joined the Rosebank Club in 1999 and have been
involved in the 3 ‘A’ Grade premierships”. Shayne won
the Jika competitions Bill McFarland medal. He’s the
clubs off spinner.

PAUL ‘ACCA’ ACKER
Acca describes, “Both my parents are from Cape Town in
South Africa. I came to Australia as a 10 year old boy
in 1981. The family settled in Reservoir and I joined
the Rosebank Club in the 2004 / 2005 season”.

MAURO ‘MUZZA’ CRISTOFOLI
Muzza describes, “dad was born in the north of Italy
in Friuli while mum comes from Italy’s south in
Crondo, Sicilia. The family came to the Merrilands
area in 1966 and are traditional in that they make
home made wine and grow their own veges. I was born in
1971 and went to Ruthven Primary, Reddon College in
Preston and Northcote Tech. I joined the Rosebank
Primary in the 1987/88 season and came up through the
juniors.
For 2 years I played district for North Melbourne
before returning to play cricket with my mates as I
love the family atmosphere at Rosebank.
I’ve played in 6 premierships at the club”.

FRANK ‘FRANKIE’ PAOLA
Frank describes, “Both mum and dad come from Calabria
in Italia and they both came to Australia in the
1950s. The families lived in Northcote and then onto
Reservoir. I was born in 1977 and went to Ruthven
Primary and Lakeside Secondary Schools. I’ve always
liked cricket and played plenty of the back yard game.
My mate Steve Cassar asked me to come down and play a
game”.

ANTHONY ‘CHEDDAR’ MACHEDA
Cheedar recalls, “Both my parents are from Calabria in
Italia and they came to Australia in the 1960s. I’m
born and bred in Reservoir in 1977 and went to school
at Reservoir West and the Reddon College schools in
Preston. I joined the club in 1990 and came up through
the Under 14s. I’ve been fortunate to have played in
one ‘B’grade premiership in the 2002/03 season and a
‘C’grade premiership in the 2001/02 season”.

MARCO BONADIO
Marco recalls, “dads Calabresse and mums Sicilian. my
dad was born here while mum came with the family as a
youngster in 1963. I’m born and bred in Reservoir in
1981. I went to school to the Reservoir East Primary
and Reddons College secondary schools. I’ve always
loved cricket and joined the club fairly recently in
the 2003/04 season”.

JOHN ‘JV’ VILLELLA
Giovanni describes, “dads calabresse and mums from
Latina in Italy. I’m born in PANCH in Preston in 1972
and went to school at St Raphaels in Reservoir and
Reddon College in Preston. When I started at the
Rosebank Club at age 12 I went strait into the seniors
as they were short of players in those days. It wasn’t
uncommon for Mauro and I to play for the juniors in
the morning and the seniors in the afternoon”.