I will start with some reflections on the club’s overseas signings of Will Sutherland and Will O’Rourke, which have been announced since my last blog.
Last Tuesday, I actually trained with the Prahran club out here in Melbourne. That’s the club where Will Sutherland plays when he’s available.
It was something that was organised by our captain at Beaumaris, Adam Bull, who played for Prahran for 10-15 years, and alongside Will. Adam said to me, ‘It would be good for you to go and get a bit of a taste of what the Premier club scene is like out here’.
Will wasn’t there, but everyone spoke so highly of him.
They said that he’d been so unlucky with injuries coming over to England previously, having signed for both Somerset and Essex before having to pull out of those spells. And it sounds like he’s really excited to be coming to Yorkshire.
He’s definitely one of those with a very bright future in Australian Cricket. He’s played Australia A, he’s captained Victoria and the Renegades at such a young age, and that indicates quite a lot I think.
Picture by Sarah Reed/Getty Images. Will Sutherland is heading to Yorkshire. Noah Kelly has been training with Will’s grade club in Melbourne, Prahran.
As for Will O’Rourke, I actually watched him on TV when New Zealand bowled India out for 46 earlier this winter. He took four wickets and blew them away with pace and bounce. That adds another element to our attack in the Blast, which is really exciting.
I think they’re two really good signings, and both are rising stars, which is really cool because they’ll bring a good energy to the group. Being young lads, I know they’ll fit in really well to our group.
It hasn’t been an ideal couple of weeks for us at Beaumaris.
We lost our last completed two-day game. My last blog was in the middle of our game against Mordialloc, who are currently second in the table. We were chasing 169, and I was unbeaten in the early stages of my innings heading into the second Saturday. Unfortunately, we lost our last nine wickets for 74 and were bowled out for 148.
This coming Saturday, we have work to do against Bonbeach, who are third. They will resume on 46-1 chasing 158.
The pitch for that Mordialloc game was really dry, tough for scoring and hard to get started on.
Picture courtesy of Noah Kelly. Noah keeps wicket in white ball cricket for Melbourne club Beaumaris.
Adam, our captain, also did his calf late on, hobbled off and hobbled back on again Nathan Lyon style in the Ashes at Lord’s. It looks like he’s going to be out until the finals if we get there.
Mordialloc had two English guys, Harry Birkman and Jack Plom. Harry has played Lancashire seconds and Jack a bit for Essex’s first team a few years ago. They bowled really tightly, and we struggled.
In this ongoing game against Bonbeach, we didn’t make use of quite a good pitch which was pretty quick on Saturday just gone. There were quite a few interesting shots, and we reflected on it afterwards and said we could have knuckled down more to get some partnerships going. But that’s the way it goes in two-day cricket.
I’ve had a couple of low scores in those games, which has been frustrating.
By and large, things have gone well for me through the winter. But I’ve actually found it quite tough with the schedule.
I’m only batting once every two or three weeks, depending on whether we bat or bowl first in our two-day games.
Picture by Allan McKenzie/SWpix.com. While loving his time in Melbourne, Noah Kelly has found the schedule of Australian club cricket challenging.
It’s quite tough to stay in rhythm or get form back because you don’t bat as often as you would at home. I think my last innings was my 12th on a Saturday since October, whereas I could bat 12 times in a month at home for Yorkshire and Driffield.
In our Premier League at home, we play 22 Saturday games plus your cup fixtures and T20s. Here we have those cup games and T20s, but you still don’t play as regularly. It’s an interesting adjustment to make, and you have to adjust your training as a result.
I know I’m not going to be batting on Saturday, for example, so I will do more on Friday afternoon in the nets – more than I would if I was going to be batting the following day.
I can work on a few specific things as opposed to just preparing for a match.
Form typically comes and goes. I know I only made a few on the weekend – seven – but I actually felt good.
Steve Smith made a really good comment, summing it up perfectly, at the start of the year when he said during that Australia v India Test series, ‘I’m not out of form, I’m just out of runs’.
Picture by Allan McKenzie/SWpix.com. Joe Root cashes in when in fine form.
And it’s rung true because he scored heaps towards the back end of that series and is going really nicely against Sri Lanka at the moment as well.
As a batter, you just have to get used to failing. No one averages 100, and it’s not going to happen for you in every single game. It’s just that the better players such as Smith and Joe Root cash in when they’re in form.
It’s good to get on a roll and to understand what your preparation is like when things are going well. That was something I was able to do before Christmas when I scored three hundreds in four days in a T20 festival.
Self reflection is important in that sense – what were my processes, that sort of thing – and it’s good to look back.
I’ve actually started keeping a bit of a cricket diary this winter, which is new for me.
Before each game, I’ll write down a few things which I’d like to think about during my innings. Then I will reflect on it afterwards.
Picture by YCCC. Will Luxton, Ben Cliff and Harry Duke are all involved in the same Victorian Premier cricket fixture at present.
If I’ve scored runs, I will make a note of what worked really well against certain bowlers. If I play against a certain bowler or a certain team, I will know what worked well last time.
I’ll definitely be sticking to using that. Particularly as a batter, your mind can wander, especially if you’re new to an environment. So writing things down takes away that anxiety.
Elsewhere in Melbourne, Harry Duke (Essendon) and Ben Cliff and Will Luxton (both Greenvale) are playing against each other in a two-day game at present. Luxy got 82 opening in his side’s 309-7 last Saturday, with Cliffy 19 not out at close.
I’ll be looking for that score with interest this Saturday. Hopefully all of them have a good day.
All three of them are really good mates and are living not far from each other. They’ve spent a lot of time together this winter, and I’m sure they’ve enjoyed going up against each other.
Away from the cricket, I’ve been playing a bit of padel as a way to vary my fitness work. And it’s brilliant.
Picture courtesy of Noah Kelly. Noah sporting his Driffield Town colours whilst on a beach road run in Beaumaris. He has been varying his fitness work, including swimming and playing tennis and padel.
I’ve played quite a lot of tennis as well – I really enjoy all racquet sports.
There’s only so many times you can run around the local park without thinking you could be doing something a bit more exciting. I’ve been swimming regularly in the bay here as well in order to keep ticking over and add that fun element.
I see the county second-team fixtures for 2025 were released recently, and I’m all in favour of the change in format of the Championship competition, which sees us placed in one of the three Conferences of six.
We play five four-day games, and the best two group winners qualify for a final. I enjoy the finals element to any competition, so that addition is a really good thing.
Because the Championship has been settled on average points over the last few years, and with teams playing a different number of matches to others, it can be quite hard to put wins into context. So this format will definitely benefit the second-team system, adding that extra competitive edge.
If you get through to finals, that’s just another game to show off what you can do, whether that be for Academy lads wanting contracts or for someone like myself who is wanting to push for first-team cricket. We can only be better for having to play for – and hopefully in – a final.
