Veterans Cricket Victoria praised local grounds after a successful, if rain-affected, 2025 edition of the over-60s Echuca carnival. Photos: Matthew Kappos.
Despite some unfavourable weather, the Veterans Cricket Victoria over-60s carnival has been deemed a success by VCV.
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Twenty-eight teams, totalling hundreds of over-60 cricketers, descended on the region last week, playing on local grounds from across the Goulburn Murray Cricket system.
Rain played havoc on day one of the competition, on Sunday, March 16, with some games rained out and others resorting to the Duckworth-Lewis method for results. The same was true as rain hit again on Wednesday, March 19, the final day of competition.
With Tuesday serving as a rest day, the sides played three total games, one each on Sunday, Monday and Wednesday, in four divisions.
Fortunately, the rain held off enough to score a result in each of the division grand finals on Wednesday, although the lower-place play-offs were impacted.
VCV vice-president Greg Sebire said the hospitality of the local clubs was top-notch.
“We always appreciate what the local clubs and their supporters and volunteers do to make the carnival a success,” he said.
“We always appreciate the fact that volunteers are there.
“They're serving food, they give us good lunches, and we really enjoy the hospitality.
“The grounds I played on in Division 1 were in really good condition and the pitches were really good.”
The carnival featured 28 teams of over-60s cricketers playing three matches over four days.
Photo by
Matthew Kappos
This was the 12th year of the VCV Echuca carnival, but there was some miscommunication between VCV and Campaspe Shire Council over securing a grant for this year’s event.
In February, council director communities Jo Bradshaw said that this year’s application “did not provide enough information to meet our guidelines and criteria” but the two parties eventually came to an agreement for $2000 of event attraction funding, down from the $5000 grant the event had received in recent years.
Sebire told The Riv he had productive talks with representatives of the council while in the region for the 2025 carnival, and steps were made towards securing an agreement to support future iterations of the event.
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