About Us

In July 1997 in the Sydenham-Hillside Primary School staff room, four men - Ken Griffiths, Phil Rigg, Gary Walsh and Andrew Harrison – met to discuss the possible formation of a cricket club with the aim of providing sporting opportunities for local youth. This laid the foundation for what we now know to be the Sydenham Hillside Cricket Club. In October 1997 four junior teams took to the field in the North West Cricket Association. Home games were played at the Overton Lee Boulevard Reserve in Sydenham (which is now a carpark) and the Sydenham Primary School Oval.

The 1999/2000 season saw the introduction of senior mens cricket - the club fielding two teams and playing home games at it’s new home base Hillside Recreation Reserve. With no clubrooms at Hillside at this point, teams were selected at the newly built nearby Sugar Gum Hotel and afternoon tea was served out of the back of Gary's truck. It was then on to Phil Rigg's garage for post-game refreshments. In it’s first year of senior competition the First XI won the premiership and the club was starting to take shape.

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Late 2000 saw the opening of Council-built clubrooms at Hillside and both junior and senior involvement was starting to expand. The club began to use the oval at Copperfield College (Sydenham) to accommodate its ongoing growth, along with grounds in surrounding council municipalities. October 2007 saw an extension of the clubroom, which made the facility a showpiece of the competition at the time.

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The 2013/14 season saw the club adopt a dedicated second facility at Taylors Hill Recreation Reserve, which it continues to use for all junior and senior synthetic cricket played by the club to this day.

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The installation of a turf wicket table at Hillside saw the club’s 1st & 2nd mens senior XIs join the Victorian Turf Cricket Association (VTCA) in season 2016/17. Upon the clubs entry to the VTCA (where we started in Division 5), Our 1st X1 have won four out of the last five premierships and a promotions (Runners Up) , with our first X1 now competing in the VTCA Senior Division competition. 

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In season 2017/18 we fielded a Womens Team for the very first time, and the very next season (20118/19) our first dedicated junior Girls team was also formed.

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The club is enormously proud to have grown from humble beginnings, to now boast thriving junior and senior programs, catering for both male and female cricketers of all ages. The Sydenham Hillside Cricket Club continues to be managed by a strong and dedicated committee striving to provide a safe, supportive and fun environment for all members.

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We continue to provide a vital service to the community and one that our whole area can be proud of.

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