GUEST SPEAKER: Cameron Schuster

 

The song title might be appropriate for our presentation from Cameron Schuster, but the context is very different.

 

Cameron was a Melville City Councillor for a total of 10 years, and that’s an important part of the story.  More importantly, he had been a leader in Applecross Junior Cricket Club (JCC), beginning in 1970, and a key mover for its merger with the big kids in the Applecross Cricket Club that was finalised in 2022.

 

The story is a familiar one.  A club with a dwindling membership in 1980 was fielding two teams a week, involving a total of 35 kids, and ominously "looking at its options" for the future.  When Cameron first became involved, there were three local JCCs, Applecross, Mt Pleasant and Ardross; now there's just Applecross.  All the usual excuses were offered: families with kids have moved on or the kids had left home.  Yet the Primary Schools were doing OK for numbers (and they are booming now!).

 

Cameron persuaded his JCC to change its culture - from winning to participation, and playing cricket for fun.  Importantly for the future, there was a deliberate move to include women - the mothers of the sons, and now daughters, who wanted to have fun playing cricket with their friends.

 

The result was the JCC was fielding 5 teams a week involving 75 kids, within a few years.

 

And now in the season just concluded the Applecross Cricket Club had 21 junior teams, including three teams all girls, with one team being for years 10-11 for the first time.  They had trouble finding enough ovals for all their teams to play home games.

 

There are 261 kids involved and of the 41 people in leadership roles, 16 are women.

 

The final part of Cameron’s story concerns Shirley Strickland Oval.  The cricket team needed a base, and Shirley Strickland Oval needed a total revamp to continue honouring her local legacy.  If you haven’t driven past lately, go have a look.  The pavilion itself is a proper recognition of Shirley Strickland, and is the result of judicious use of funds available from the state government and the City of Melville, including grants and low interest loans.

 

Thank you President Tom for inviting Cameron to address our recent meeting.