Yorkshire batter Noah Kelly is heading to Australia this winter to play club cricket, for the Melbourne side Beaumaris. Noah will be blogging for yorkshireccc.com throughout the winter. Below, he sets the scene before heading Down Under today.
It was great to see the lads seal promotion at the weekend, a brilliant achievement, and we are back where we belong as a county in Division One of the County Championship.
Now I’m heading to Melbourne with my eyes on a different prize.
I will be spending my winter, my first abroad – in fact, I’ve never been to Australia before – with the Beaumaris Cricket Club, who are based around 20km outside of the city.
I will be playing as an overseas player, hoping to help the club reach, and win, the Grand Finals.
They play in the Cricket Southern Bayside competition. It’s not Premiership grade cricket, but I’d say the standard is the equivalent of our top ECB leagues in England.
I will be playing a mixture of two-day, one-day and T20 cricket. I fly out today and am expecting to make my debut on Saturday. I can’t wait.
Picture by Allan McKenzie/SWpix.com. Yorkshire’s new rookie pro Noah Kelly is heading to Melbourne today.
I have actually played overseas before, in Sri Lanka. It was with the Ceylon Cricket Academy, which was run by Tharindu Perera, who is an ex-Yorkshire coach and is now the assistant coach of the Sri Lanka women. He took a group of county age-group players across when I was 13 or 14.
But this will be a completely different challenge.
As a 19-year-old, I’ve not lived away from home for more than a few weeks, and it will be a really good life experience.
I made a good start last week when I said to my mum, Rita, that I would be packing the day before I fly. But she threatened to do it for me, so that kicked me into gear.
My cooking skills aren’t too bad, you know. I’ve cooked quite a bit. But the dishwasher, I’m still not sure about and the washing machine is definitely TBC.
Never mind facing some big fast and nasty Aussie determined to sledge me, I reckon mastering those two could be my biggest challenge of the winter!
Picture by Allan McKenzie/SWpix.com. Noah Kelly will be in contention to play Division One cricket next summer following promotion.
I’m going to be living with two of their players, who have just moved into a new house and have offered me a room for six months. So I’m being looked after nicely.
It sounds like I’m going over to a great club and network of guys. I’ve had loads of messages from their players checking I’m ok with everything and making sure I’m all sorted.
The club was sorted through CricX, the Cricket Exchange Agency who sort out overseas players for clubs abroad.
My agent went to them, and they came back with this club, saying, ‘It’s a great club, it’s in a great area’. It was done within two days of initial contact. I think I’ve landed on my feet.
Their former overseas player was Iain Cockbain, who used to play for Gloucestershire. Apparently he fell in love with the place and kept going back. But this is the first winter in a while that he’s not been out.
I’m expecting to be out there until mid-March time.
Picture by Allan McKenzie/SWpix.com. Harry Duke is heading to Melbourne to play grade cricket for Essendon later this month.
It’s not been confirmed with Yorkshire’s pre-season tour, which is usually mid-March. I’ll be looking to come back just before that, after the Grand Finals with Beaumaris.
Mum and Dad (Mark) are coming over to visit in January. They’ve never been to Australia either, which will be amazing for them.
My older brother, Reuben, is also coming to stay in Melbourne for a few weeks in January before heading off to the Gold Coast to travel for a year, and then he’s moving to Sydney. It will be the last time I see him for a year or two, so that will be nice to spend some time with him.
This is going to be a really big winter fitness wise for me.
I’m living not far from the beach, and there are some great gym facilities there.
Speaking to a lot of players who’ve gone previously, they’ve said, ‘You’re always outside in the sun, fitness comes naturally because that’s the lifestyle you live’. I’m really looking forward to that side of things.
Picture by Allan McKenzie/SWpix.com. Noah Kelly is spending his first winter abroad.
I had a chat with Gavin Hamilton last week, and he said that he’s really happy for me to go away and it’s the best thing for my cricket at the minute.
We’re going to keep in contact each month, and he’s going to see if he has any contacts out there who can help get me some extra training.
Will Luxton, Ben Cliff and Harry Duke are also going to Melbourne this winter.
Luxy and Cliffy are going to play at the same club, Greenvale, which is Premier Grade Cricket.
The challenge of being an overseas player, someone who has a lot of focus on them, will be different, but it’s something I’m looking forward to taking on.
I’d love to get to Grand Finals and win the whole comp with Beaumaris, but a lot of it’s about development as well.
Picture by Allan McKenzie/SWpix.com. Noah Kelly, bottom right, has progressed through the Yorkshire Academy. He is pictured here as part of the 2024 Academy squad.
I’ll be netting a lot in the week, coaching as well – I want to progress that side of things. I’m looking at the overall package and not just winning games.
Off the field, there are a few things I’d like to do. I want to go to the Australian Open Tennis and the Boxing Day Test. That’s against India, so there are a few of us looking to get some tickets.
Christmas will be weird, outside with a BBQ and all that.
I’ll try and get some Yorkshire puddings across, but I’m not sure how easy that will be.
Making my Yorkshire first-team debut in August against Glamorgan in the Metro Bank One-Day Cup is something which I’ll remember forever, even if it didn’t quite go to plan with the result or with the bat.
My family got to come down to Cardiff, which was nice.
Picture by YCCC. Yorkshire’s Academy won the Under 18s County One-Day Cup in August.
First innings, I was just soaking it up in the field because you don’t debut twice do you. I wanted to make the most of it.
Batting wise, it was a tough challenge, and I only got three before being bowled by Jamie McIlroy.
The ball was seaming about, the pitch was a bit two-paced, and they had a really good attack. That rang true because they went on to win the competition in the end.
But it was a chance to see what first-team cricket was about and made me think, ‘If I’m in that situation again, how do I combat it?’
It’s nice to be able to take that experience into this winter in Australia and know what I need to work on.
I will be blogging on the Yorkshire website throughout the winter, so hopefully I’ll have a few wins and some runs to report back on towards the end of the month.
