FAMILY FIRST: Terry Neil (right) with son Dave and grandson Paddy.
Orange CYMS Cricket Club will celebrate its 80th anniversary in the 2024-25 season, with a weekend of events on 2-3 November planned to mark the milestone.
The centrepiece of the weekend will be a gala dinner at Orange Ex-Services’ Club on the evening of Saturday 2 November, with hopes that up to 250 past and present players and supporters will attend.
Among them will be three generations of the Neil family: Terry, his son Dave, and grandson Paddy.
Terry has strong links to the club’s greatest ever player, Jack Moroney, for whom CYMS’s major individual awards for senior and junior players are named.
Not only did he play with Moroney in the club’s premiership-winning First Grade team in 1965-66, but he was the beneficiary of the former Australian Test opener’s work to get junior cricket up and running in Orange.
Moroney, a teacher by trade and principal at what is now Orange East Public School, began a competition for primary school-aged children in the city in the late 1950s. Terry was in the De La Salle College team that played in that inaugural competition.
Six years later the pair played together as CYMS completed a hat-trick of First Grade premierships, Terry taking a wicket opening the bowling and scoring an important 1 not out batting at number 11 in a dramatic grand final win.
“As a former Test player, Moroney was a cut above, the best player in the district,” Terry said, a statement backed up by Moroney’s outstanding batting statistics for CYMS: 2545 runs at an average of 106.04.
“In that grand final against Blayney we were cruising in our run chase before a batting collapse meant I had to go out there. I scored one not out while Tony Kelly hit the runs at the other end.
“It was a wonderful team to be a part of, with some terrific cricketers: Moroney, Kelly, Austin Hewitt and Bill Bourke and others. I was only 18 years old and much younger than the rest of the team, but they really looked after me.
“In the years since it has been great to see Dave and now Paddy wearing the club’s colours and enjoying their cricket with CYMS.”
IN THE NEWS: The back page of the Central Western Daily on Saturday 13 July, 2024.
CYMS president, Ben McNiven, said the long and proud tradition of families representing the club would be a focus of the 80th anniversary celebrations.
"To be able to celebrate an 80th anniversary is a fantastic achievement for any organisation, especially a community-based, volunteer-run sporting club," Ben said.
"There have been thousands of cricketers proudly wear CYMS's colours since the club was formed, and we would love to see as many of them, as well as their families and supporters, in Orange to help mark the occasion.”
Orange CYMS Cricket Club has won more than 50 senior premierships and 19 club championships. The junior teams - previously playing under the names of St Joseph's-Sheahan and Orange CYMS Junior Cricket Club - have also contributed hundreds of premierships.
Ben said the club's successes - on and off the field - were the byproduct of a strong culture of volunteerism and respect that has always been present.
"From the outset, CYMS has always been a club with strong values: fairness, family, contribution and pride," Ben said.
"The premierships, club championships and other accomplishments have stemmed from these values, and the many volunteers over the last 80 years who have worked to build this wonderful legacy.
"Someone like the late John Covelli, who passed away last season, exemplifies this more than anyone else, and the anniversary weekend will be a terrific opportunity to reminisce about him and many others in our history."
Details about the weekend, including costs, RSVPs, times and more, can be found here, or via email to cyms.cricket@gmail.com.
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