Day: February 16, 2015

DISTRICT ONLY four of the six scheduled MPCA District matches got starts on Saturday. Seaford and Carrum, a critical match in the context of the season, as well as Somerville and Boneo, will be played this Saturday in a one day format. There was no stopping Red Hill though, who bounced back from their first loss of the season last week to post a massive 3/347 against Flinders at BA Cairns Reserve. However, despite posting the massive score, there were no triple figures from any of the five Hillmen bats who went out into the middle. Mind you, none of…

PROVINCIAL IT was an unbelievable day in MPCA Provincial cricket on Saturday. While the highest score for the day was a staggering 136, arguably the peninsula’s greatest ever player, Long Island’s Scott Phillips, was single handedly tearing up Heatherhill. The all-rounder snared nine wickets in a day, eight in the first innings and one in the second to have the Hills reeling at Bruce Park. Although heavy rain threatened matches across the peninsula, five of the six Provincial games got underway. Baxter and Crib Point will play a one-day match this Saturday after Baxter Park was unplayable for the second…

SUB-DISTRICT BALNARRING has yet another opportunity for an outright victory after dominating Dromana on Saturday in Sub-District cricket. Dromana won the toss and sent the Saints in to bat. It proved to be a pretty good decision when the Hoppers rolled the visitors for 168. Tim Jessup top scored for the Saints with 40, taking the place of David Ross, who didn’t play. Craig Dunlop was the pick of the bowlers for the Hoppers with 4/50 from 20 overs. Dromana needed to capitalise with the bat and failed to do so, bowled out for 62 in 28 overs. Jacob Cook…

COUNTRY WEEK THE Mornington Peninsula Cricket Association failed to have an impact in last week’s Country Week carnival for the first time in memory. The MPCA finished in sixth place on the table with just one win for the carnival. That win came in round one when the MPCA rolled South West at Melbourne University. Sorrento’s Corey Harris made 82 and Moorooduc’s Bobby Wilson an unbeaten 75 in that first game when the team scored 3/260. Long Island’s Justin Bridgeman and Mornington’s Luke Popov snared two wickets each as the MPCA rolled South West for 225. In Round two, despite…

MR J. P. Pratt has quite recovered his recent motor accident, and has now returned to Shepparton. *** MESSRS A. Eddie, H. Jackson and O. Palmer have returned to Melbourne after spending a most enjoyable holiday at Mr A. Eddie’s seaside residence, “Cheer-Oh”, Frankston. *** THE monthly meeting of the Somerville Fruit-growers’ Association will be held in the Somerville Hall on Monday next, when the matter of the cool storage project will be discussed. *** NOMINATIONS for the Flinders Naval Base Sports close with the secretary on Monday next. From what we hear there is likely to be a big…

ABOUT 3500 people packed Rosebud’s Village Green on the foreshore for the Peninsula Short Film Fest, delighting organisers and cementing it as one of the peninsula’s premier arts events after just four years. The films were streamed to Federation Square in Melbourne. Festival founder Steve Bastoni said the event generated a “fantastic, friendly community feel” and the galaxy of acting stars who came down to Rosebud “loved it”. Bastoni, a Rosebud resident and award-winning actor (On the Beach, The Matrix Reloaded, The Water Diviner, and Blue Murder), started the festival in 2011 to give his acting students a forum for…

THE derelict lower station of the old Arthurs Seat chairlift is no more. A Parks Victoria contractor operating a tracked excavator flattened the building, which contained a kiosk and storage sheds, in less than a day on Monday last week but a Parks spokeswoman said the work would take about a week as there was asbestos material throughout the building. Parks Victoria said the building was surplus to its needs. The demolition also removed graffiti that appeared on Thursday 5 February: “No vandalism in our park” and “I am not the vandal”, presumably painted by a person or people opposed…

MORNINGTON poet Theresa O’Dea’s book Someone’s Child is a poetry anthology on grief and loss. It has been written to raise funds for the Luke Batty Foundation and the Forgetmenot Foundation. It will be launched on Wednesday 18 March at the Mornington Library in Vancouver St, from 5-7pm, and sell for $50 each. Ms O’Dea started Poet’s Corner in Mornington many years ago “when it was just a small township”. “When Luke Batty was murdered in February last year, I was brought into a higher power by his spirit to compile a book of poetry from other poets,” Ms O’Dea…

MORE international tourists visited the Mornington Peninsula over sum­mer than last season with a large per­centage using the region as a “gate­way” to Phillip Island and the Great Ocean Road. Peninsula tourism operators reported that visitors spent between 10-20 per cent more, and more bookings were made in advance. These and other trends were reported to shire councillors last week by the shire’s communications manager Todd Trimble in his annual “summer report”. “Tourists complained less, perhaps due to improvement in quality of ser­vices and products,” he said. The increase in international visitors came particularly from Asian markets. Statistics on the…

LIKE ripples from a pebble tossed into a still pond, revelations of sexual impropriety at the Mt Eliza-based Shiva School of Meditation and Yoga have been echoing around the world. The ripples have left a string of fractured and broken friendships and relationships in their wake. Announced first to “members” of the school and ashram and then published in The News, the revelations that the school’s founder Swami Shankarananda had admitted to having secret sexual relations with women devotees was soon picked up by national news organisations. Inevitably, it has also become a source of comment on social media, mostly…

REMOVAL of the carbon tax should curb any rate rise next year, according figures drawn from the Victorian Auditor-General’s report for 2012-13. The federal Labor government’s tax, abolished by the current federal Coalition government after it was elected in 2013, is the fourth largest driver of rate increases, the report, Rating Practices in Local Government, stated. The three bigger items were “maintaining services/cost shifting”, “general/other costs” and the state government’s landfill levy. The report was compiled using figures supplied by Victorian councils. Both federal and state governments “cost-shift” services on to local councils, often to achieve savings in their own…

AUSTRALIAN of the Year Rosie Batty is taking time out from official duties for a motorbike ride. The inaugural Luke Batty Memorial Ride was held last year three weeks after 11-year-old Luke was killed by his father after cricket training at Tyabb. Since then, Rosie batty has become a high profile symbol for the growing anti-domestic violence movement. And with her being named by the Prime Minister Tony Abbott as Australian of the Year and a Royal Commission into domestic violence about to begin in Victoria, she is guaranteed never to be far from the limelight. Ms Batty will be…

THE shire council has been embarrassed by revelations it could have stopped the controversial Rye food truck park. Food truck traders under the banner of Australian Mobile Food Vendors Group set up on a vacant block on the corner of Weir St and Point Nepean Rd last November. The move sparked angry protests from Rye traders with Mornington Peninsula Shire saying it could not stop the food trucks. Signs protesting the food trucks were erected on fences with one painted on a shop roof. Now it has been revealed the food truck park needed a planning permit. Rye eatery Baha…