OVENS Valley United Cricket Club (OVUCC) has locked in its head coach for the upcoming summer of cricket, with Dan Walker set to take the reins for season 2021/22.
The announcement came after OVUCC held its annual general meeting, which took place two weeks ago via Zoom, and confirmed the club executive.
Tony Cuskelly was re-elected president, with senior vice president Kane Fitzpatrick, junior vice president Josh Hoare, secretary James Neary and treasurer Gaye Dalbosco.
Walker came to the club at the beginning of the 2019/20 season and immediately showed his talent, ending the season as the club's leading wicket tacker and fourth in the WDCA standings with 29 scalps.
The native Welshman continued to impress last year, racking up 327 runs with the bat, including three half-centuries.
Walker was deadly with the ball as well, taking 32 wickets for the season at an average of 13.16, which helped him earn the club championship.
“I’m quite keen for it, to be honest,” Walker told the Myrtleford Times/Alpine Observer.
“Obviously I miss cricket and the coaching role will be good, just something new for me, really.
“I’ve coached some kids when I went over to Barbados, I did my work experience out there.
“I did some coaching in uni, so it’s been a while.
“I did bits and bobs last year but not to the extent that I’m hoping to do this year.”
Walker credits teammate and outgoing senior vice president Tom Chettleburgh with his desire to take on more coaching responsibility at the club.
“I was speaking to Tom about my future in terms of where I’m living and it just came up about coaching,” he said.
“’Chets’ mentioned it to me and just said ‘if you’re thinking about coaching in the future then it might be an idea to just start off here, just to get to grips with it and then you know whether you want to do it or not’, so it was really that.
“He asked me if I wouldn’t mind doing it, just to take a bit of pressure off him and a few others in regards to training and stuff, so I just said yeah, why not.”
Walker said he’s looking forward to the summer of cricket getting back underway, playing at a club which has a “friendly vibe”.
“I think coming out here I didn’t really expect to enjoy it as much as I have,” he said.
“I find the cricket here is more like my home club, there’s a friendly vibe.
“Back home I play for a club that’s half an hour away, so it’s good here, being close to everybody and seeing everybody more.
“I’ve just enjoyed it a hell of a lot more than I thought I would.
“It’s good here, they’re a good bunch of people.”