South Ground Club Award
This year the South Ground Club Award was presented to Year 10 student Ryder. Ryder won the award for consistently displaying the following characteristics in the 2019/20 season:
• committed
• reliable
• fair play
• encouragement
• sportsmanship
The South Ground Club donated a new Genesis cricket bat valued at $250. A big thank you to the South Ground Club and Carl Breitenbach from Genesis Cricket Australia for their very kind donation.
Ryder has been playing cricket for five years, starting out alongside his brother for the Ivanhoe Cricket Club. He reflected below on the game of cricket and his aspirations for the future.
What is the best thing about the game?
The best thing about the game is batting, going out to bat for me is such a great feeling you get a little bit nervous and you get to go out with one of your best mates, also just being out on the field having a laugh in the field is one of my favourite things to do as it allows you to interact with new people and it allows you to build strong of-field friendships.
Who inspires you?
The people who inspire me are not generally the most talented but are willing to work so hard for these opportunities, there is no particular cricketer or person who inspires me but I love watching people like Marnus Labuschagne and Will Pucovski, who I know are all ways working on their game and trying to improve, that really inspires me to do my best not in cricket but every day.
How does it feel to be the South Ground Club winner for the 2019/20 season?
It is a great honour to win this award as there are so many talented and hardworking cricketers at our school, but for me personally, I love to see my hard work pay off, and for that to be such a great award is great recognition for my hard work and dedication.
Where do you hope to take cricket and what are your aspirations for the future?
This year I hope to play at a high standard for school cricket and just to keep playing for representative teams in my area. I also want to start playing seniors and I hope that might take me to play premier cricket. I try not to look too far forward and I just focus on the staying in the moment and doing the best I can for my club, school or representative team.
