The Boolarra Cricket Club first joined the Central Gippsland Cricket Association in the late 1980s when the Mid Gippsland Cricket Association disbanded.
The original Boolarra Cricket Club was formed in 1920 playing against teams from surrounding areas. In the early 1930’s, Boolarra, Morwell, Yinnar, Driffield, Middle Creek, Hazelwood, Budgeree, Boolarra South and Morwell River Road formed an Association. In later years it was Boolarra, Hazelwood, Narracan, Glendale, Yinnar and Glendale Green. Some of the noted players of the early days were Jack and Bill Briggs, Syd Turner, Arthur Morrow, Alex Simpson and Bill Christian who played till he was over 75 years old. In the 1930’s Albert Meyer, Alf Mills and Stan Briggs come to mind.
The first ground at Boolarra was where the school now stands. (Paddy
Scanlan’s paddock as it was known then included the first turf wicket in the
Latrobe Valley). A later change drew together the teams - Boolarra, Mirboo Nth,
Yinnar, Glendale, Thorpdale, Jumbuk, Jeeralang and Boolarra Footballers. This
cricket competition was known as the Mid Gippsland Cricket Association.
For an extended period from the 1950s through to the 1970s the Boolarra
Cricket Club produced some of the strongest and best performing teams in the
league. From the 1950’s - 1972, Boolarra played in 15 Grand Finals winning 10
Premierships and runner up 5 times.
Some of the players in the 1950’s - 1970’s were Ron
Fox, Noel Fox, Ken Beamish, Geoff Beamish, Stan Beer, Theo Bosma, Ted Mayer,
Jack Booker, Jack Rennie, Hec Downing and Ken Peters. Noel Fox was selected to
represent the Association in the All Gippsland Team to play the West Indies at
the Yallourn Cricket Ground.
Some of the highlights of this period were Boolarra dismissing Narracan
for 3 runs in an innings of a Grand Final. Noel Fox took 6 wickets for 2 runs
and Ken Beamish took 3 wickets for 0 runs. Grand Final individual performances,
such as a 280 run partnership between Noel Fox (152) and Theo Bosma (137), Jack
Booker 171, Noel Fox 160, Hec Downey
133 and Stan Beers 6 wickets (including a hat trick) will be remembered for a
long time.
In the Centenary
year (1884 - 1984) of the Boolarra District, the two cricket clubs in the town
were fielding eight sides each Saturday afternoon. The Mid Gippsland Cricket Association disbanded in the late 1980’s with
Yinnar, Mirboo Nth, Jeeralang and Thorpdale voting to move to other cricket
leagues.
The Boolarra Cricket Club was then invited to join the CGCA.
The Boolarra Cricket Club has a long history and a proud tradition of
producing premiership teams and quality players. In recent seasons, in the
CGCA, the BCC has played finals in A Reserve, Third Grade and narrowly missed
finals in following seasons in Third and Fourth Grade.