Rusell Napier and son Ben after Cooma’s flag win.
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All premiership wins are special, and the Napier family savoured a special one after the Goulburn Murray Cricket Bill Williams B-grade Murray division season decider.
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Sharing in that Cooma Cricket Club triumph was father and son Russell and Ben Napier.
Russell Napier said it was extra special to play with his son in his first premiership win at senior level.
‘‘We embraced when we won it, which was a great feeling,’’ Napier, who started his cricketing career with Lancaster juniors in the 1980s, said.
After the demise of the merged Wyuna-Lancaster club in the 1990s, Napier joined the Cooma club with his talented batsman brother Gavin and has been there for 30 years now.
“I played in a Lancaster under-16 side which won a flag, but this is the first one since my junior days,’’ Napier said.
But there was one near miss, when Cooma was pipped on the post by Ky Fire Brigade, in a heart-stopping season decider in the mid-1990s, Napier recalled.
The Napier family after Cooma’s premiership win
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Napier, now 57, was more than a handy A-grade cricketer in his time, and he stills pulls his weight with both bat and ball in the second level of Goulburn Murray Cricket competition.
It is likely he is the last player still playing from the merged Wyuna-Lancaster clubs from the former Kyabram District Cricket Association in the early 1990s.
Both clubs have now gone into recess.
Napier is hoping Cooma’s group of talented young present players stick with the club and return it to A-grade ranks in the Goulburn Murray competition in the near future.
‘‘Not next season year but the year after, hopefully,’’ Napier said.
And if that happens, Napier could be still around because he is enjoying his cricket at the moment and has no plans to retire.
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