LLOYD ILETT HDCA – Season Preview


PIGEON PONDS enters the Hamilton and District Cricket Association (HDCA) 2025/26 A Grade season knowing the time for this squad to claim the Dundas Cup is beginning to run out and this Summer may well be the best opportunity to rectify that.


It has been 10 years since the club joined the HDCA from the old Casterton competition and in that time the Pigeons have reached the semi-finals in the top grade only a couple of times, without going on to play a grand final.


With 21 players taking the field in the top-grade last Summer for the club, there were only two players that played all 12 games and this must be rectified if the club wants to be a force again.


The top grade will be helmed by Hamish McCrae and the opening-bowler-come-middle-order hard hitter will be looking to lead by example, as his 18 wickets with the new ball last Summer testifies.


McCrae and his fellow opening bowling partner, Jack Beaton, were the only bowlers to record double-figure wicket returns and no bowling attack can achieve a premiership with that level of success.


There needs to be at least four bowlers taking double figure tallies for a team to be successful in this grade or have an extremely economical group of bowlers who allow their teammates to attack and claim wickets at the other end.


Beaton was the only bowler to claim a five-wicket haul in an innings and that must be changed this season if the Pigeons are going to fly higher on the ladder.


Bowlers have rich veins of form just like batsmen and they look at claiming five wickets in an innings the same as a batsman posting a century, to have only one player hold the ball aloft to acknowledge the performance is the same as only having one century scored for the summer.


Of course, scoring centuries came with ease for one Ponds batsman last summer, as opener Simon Close raised his bat on four separate occasions to acknowledge the applause of his team and spectators.


Close posted four ‘tons’ in season 2024/25 with an incredible highest score of 304-not-out (from 223 balls with 36 boundaries and five maximums) against Tahara to finish his season with 813 runs and a place in the Victorian Country Cricket League Team of the Year, to become only the third player from the HDCA to be so honoured.


If an A Grade top order batsman looks at 400 runs being the pass mark for the Summer, only Ben Hanrahan (440 runs) joined Close in posting a pass mark.


Hanrahan was brilliant for the Pigeons as he not only batted well, but he was very good behind the stumps as wicketkeeper and to top it off, was the third-highest wicket taker with the ball.


These four players – Close, Hanrahan, Beaton and McCrae – will again be the core of the team but they need greater commitment from the rest of the squad if the side is going to push the likes of Tyrendarra, Portland Colts, Macarthur and Portland Tigers.


Every team needs 10 players committed to playing at least 10 games out of the 12 if continuity is going to be built under McCrae.


No team will win the Dundas Cup with the majority of the team playing only six or so matches in any Summer.


Ponds will look to Michael Close, Peter Staude and Noah Hildebrand to support Simon Close and Hanrahan with the bat in hand, while McCrae and Beaton need Anthony Close, Lachie Craig and George Austin to shoulder the bowling attack as a unit.


“We have not lost or gained any players from last summer, so we enter the season with our core group intact,” McCrae said.


“We know where we have to improve and we have started pre-season training with our goals firmly in place.


“Tyrendarra is the team to beat as they have proven over the course of the last two Summers, but we know we can match it with them and the rest of the competition.”


Pigeons seek to take flight


THE Hamilton and District Cricket Association D Grade premiership is the goal for the Pigeon Ponds team this summer as they enter the 2025/26 season with commitment firmly in place for the campaign ahead.


The Pigeons have been one of the powerhouse sides of this grade in the past, but of late the side has struggled to regain the lofty results of years gone by.


Last season the side finished fifth after claiming seven of their 17 games and a lack of bonus points were the reason the side did not play finals, after winning the same number of games as fourth-placed Grampians.


This summer, the race for the top four has been made easier by the promotion of premiers Tahara into C grade, but it means there will be a bye this season which will allow players from all teams to have a break every seven weeks to refresh.


As an A Grade batsman must reach 400 runs in a season to achieve a pass mark, so too in D Grade where 300 runs is considered to be par.


The Pigeons had only two players get to that milestone as Brenden Preston (403) and Lachlan Stevenson (334) shouldered most of the run-getting for the team last Summer, with both players averaging more than 50 runs per innings.


Unfortunately, neither finished in the top five run-getters for the competition and both will be keen to climb that ladder this season, along with other members of the side.


Preston and Stevenson will need support with the bat from Ponds skipper’, Alex Hodgson, Andrew Colgan and Michael Craig to score the runs required to claim victory, while the bowling attack will be led by Colgan (14 wickets) and William Cuneen (10) who were the only bowlers to grab double-wicket tallies for the season.


The side will have 15 games and two byes for the Summer and bonus points are going to be vital to reaching the final four.


Like the top-grade side, the D Grade team needs commitment from the entire squad to play the maximum number of games possible so the team can form a formidable unit that is capable of matching the likes of Coleraine, Hamilton and Grampians.