This week we sat down with Matthew Tedeschi. Matthew is the current president of Centrals Cricket Club and has overseen a revival in the clubs fortunes in recent years as the club has grown from two senior teams 4 years ago to 4 seniors and 3 juniors teams this past season.
Mathew is still actively playing the game and has scored a tick over 2000 runs at an average of just over 15. His highest score is 106 not. He has also claimed 74 wickets at an average of 18, so a fairly handy all rounder.
- Tell me about yourself, who is Matthew Tedeschi ?
Me? I’m just your ordinary guy who loves his sport. I am fairly mediocre when it comes to cricket, basketball, golf, any sport I play really. But I just love to play. It’s the joy of competing, and knowing that every now and then you’ll have a big day, big game, big season, something to keep you excited about coming back for more. I’m also current the President of Centrals Cricket Club in Orange. I have been with the club for about 10 years now, and the last few have been as President.
- What was it that first drew you to the game of cricket ?
I can’t really remember how it started, but for me it probably came down to 2 people in my life. My Grandad, who spent decades playing for Millthorpe Cricket Club, and just lived and breathed all things cricket. The other my big brother Nick. We would compete in every sport/game possible growing up. And one of those was backyard cricket. I still remember one of the very first times I beat him, took a huge diving catch after navigating around the clothesline. More recently, it’s just been a good reason to be around a good bunch of blokes every week.
- What’s your best memory from playing cricket ?
Like I said I’m fairly mediocre, so individually the highlights are few and far between. Winning the 3rd Grade Grand Final in 2011/12 I think it was is right up there. A – because it was great to be part of a championship winning team. 2 – Id busted my fingers that year and missed a lot of time, so it was great to even be out there. And B – the team was full of just really good mates, from before we even played cricket that year. The other highlight would be scoring 100 at the Field of Dreams. Twice now as of last season.
- What has been the hardest/ worst moment on a cricket field ?
I think I smashed the club record for most ducks in a single season when I first joined. It must have been 7 or 8. That wasn’t easy. Otherwise, there aren’t many hard moments out here. Win or loss, it’s not the end of the world. As long as we’re out there, and get out there again the next week to try and be better.
- What’s your cricket story, you were a CYMS junior, so how did you end up at centrals ?
Everyone around here is a Cyms junior. It wasn’t really an option growing up in Catholic Schools. But, when I returned as a senior, Sanga, a mate from school was playing with Centrals, so myself and a couple of mates from uni, Fish and Nicko, all decided to join. And we haven’t look back since!
- What’s your Cricket strength ? What do you bring to your team ?
Well not so much me, but my fiancé Ashley usually brings ice blocks for the team. So I’ll count that as me. Otherwise, I probably just bring energy to the team. I said before I’m pretty mediocre talent wise, but I will try to run all day in the field, and do whatever I can to help.
- What’s the best and worst thing about playing cricket in country NSW ?
The best thing around here is that after a while you get to know everyone you play against, for the better or worse really, but everyone gets on. And while the games are serious and you want to win, 99% of the time you’re still able to have a laugh and joke with your own team and the opposition. There’s some top quality grounds to play on, everything is within 20 minutes and afterwards you’re back at the pub for 2 or quite a few more beers. The worst, is probably just the weather. Every year there’s a few games washed out as a result of rain. It’s what you get here, but it’s a downer when you’re either in a good position after day 1, or you are just really pumped for a game and you don’t get one.
- Your the president of centrals, what have been some of the highlights of your tenure so far ?
We’ve had a pretty good few years, but this is just a continuation of progress from before I took over. In my time we’ve successfully merged with the Wanderers team, we’ve re-established a junior club after 15 years without. We are growing that junior club with some very talented kids. Seeing so many new faces to the club has been great, and getting to see them have a crack at First Grade has been so good. Without looking at the numbers I think we had over 60 seniors on the books last season across 4 teams, and probably close to 40 juniors across 4 teams. So that’s close to 100 players in the rednblack. Not a bad effort, considering we had struggled to fill just 2 senior teams at times in the last 5 or 6 years.
- Conversely what has been the hardest part of being club president ?
There’s always problems with any organisation. Any organisation that has 100 players involved will always result in some conflict. There’s disciplinary action, people leaving, people causing trouble, that’d be the hardest part. But you’ve just got to make sure you have the right committee in place to ensure that the Club is put first, and no one person is above that, and we’ll be alright.
- What is it that you’d like to achieve in the game that you haven’t ?
Personally, gee I’d love to score 100 in first grade, but I’ve given up on that. I wouldn’t mind a hatrick either. No, I’d just like to stay healthy enough that I can keep playing for many a year to come. It wouldn’t be my achievement, but if one of our junior teams can win a premiership in the coming years, that would be a massive moment for our club.
Well that was Mathew from Centrals. Next week we chat with another up and coming superstar in Cameron Laird who is currently in year 12 and this past season broke into the Cavaliers 1st grade squad.
