Day: March 20, 2017

By Ben Triandafillou TWO AFL premiership players will be coming to the peninsula in April to play a few matches for local Nepean League football teams. The Pearcedale Football Club will have the ex-AFL stars Daniel Kerr and Barry Hall joining their line-up for a couple of one-off matches at the start of their season. Kerr, 33, spent his entire career at the West Coast Eagles and helped take the side to a one-point victory in the 2006 AFL grand final. Kerr will play his first match for the Tyabb Football Club on 01 April before slipping on the boots…

PROVINCIAL BAXTER are just two wickets away from MPCA Provincial premiership glory against Mt Eliza. The Mounties were still 100 runs short of the Baxter total of 272 at stumps on Sunday. They will head back to Tyabb this Saturday in the hope that Tim Clark (37no) will carry them to the promise land. It is highly unlikely though. Baxter are on the verge of winning their fourth flag in less than 10 years – a sensational performance from the club. On Saturday night at the end of the first day, Baxter had left themselves in a commanding position, batting…

DISTRICT DELACOMBE Park are in a winning strong position in the MPCA District premiership against Red Hill. The Hillmen, the best team in the competition all season, still need more than 230 runs with just seven wickets in hand against the Parkers in the final day of the match at Graydens Rd this Saturday. With skipper Simon Dart still unbeaten at the crease, one wouldn’t be wise to write off the Hillmen just yet. However, there is no doubt that the parkers are in the box seat after Joel Malcolm finished with an unbeaten 104 and Jon Guthrie hit 94.…

SUB-DISTRICT HASTINGS has won the last ever MPCA Sub District Grand Final, humiliating Frankston YCW by more than 100 runs. And for the township of Hastings, it was more about adding a cricket pennant to the footy pennant it won last season. The Blues bowled out the Stonecats for just 99 on Sunday after posting a score of 214. The game was looking to be an intriguing battle at the end of the first day’s play on Saturday night. In a see-sawing opening day which saw both sides have their purple patches, Hastings were 7/189 at the close of play.…

SOCCER By Craig MacKenzie CHAMPIONSHIP aspirants Casey Comets and Mornington slug it out on Friday night at Comets Stadium in a blockbuster opening to the 2017 league season. Both sides have made significant changes to their squads during the off-season and the visitors have boosted their chances of a State 1 South-East title threepeat by improving both the quality and depth of their personnel. Both camps are keen to get off to a flyer in a season where the championship winner is offered a place in the second tier of the elite NPL competition for 2018. At the heart of…

LICENCES are to be issued shortly by the Federal Government for the exportation to Great Britain of practically the whole of the surplus Australian apple crop. The arrangemnent made with the Imperial authorities is for the admission of 500,000 cases, It applies only to the present crop, however, and after July the British prohibition will be absolute unless conditions undergo a change. *** THE daylight saving scheme, which has aroused much opposition, particularly in country districts, will cease to operate at the end of the present week, On Sunday next, at 2am, the clocks in the Commonwetalth will be put…

A P-PLATE driver who crashed on the Esplanade, Mt Martha, Sunday 12 March, was lucky not to have plunged 50 metres onto rocks. Roadside vegetation snagged the Holden Apollo’s axles after the driver, 19, of Dandenong, lost control while reportedly racing up to six other cars on the narrow, winding road, at 9.30pm. Although it has a designated 60kph limit, police believe he may have been going much faster. Police, ambulance and CFA trucks rushed to the scene and used ropes to prevent the car from falling over the jagged clifftop with the man still trapped inside. He was later…

THIS year’s six-week team challenge at Mt Eliza Bowls Club attracted 26 teams, up from 10 when the competition began last year. Coordinator Gordon Sanders said residents had embraced the idea of competing in 45-minute games, which allowed friends and families to enjoy the social and competitive side of the game, even with little former experience. He said the club had recently installed two synthetic greens with lights, and started the challenge to recruit players and make the most of the warmer days and evenings while they lasted. “We got 26 teams this year, which meant more than 100 non-bowlers…

A RUN and fun festival in Mt Eliza next Sunday (26 March) to raise money for people affected by multiple myeloma is likely to become an annual event. Event Organiser Geoff Nyssen said more than 300 people had already signed up for the scheduled 5km and 10km running and walking events at Emil Madsen Reserve, Wooralla Drive. The day will include a kids’ dash, skate, BMX and scooter competitions, as well as stalls and refreshments. “We’re extremely excited about this event and the awareness it will bring to this illness,” Mr Nyssen, who was diagnosed with the terminal blood cancer…

HOMEOWNERS in Mt Eliza’s prestigious Ranelagh Estate have defended their rights to embrace modern architecture in the wake of claims that new developments are changing the character of the 1920s “garden estate”. Their claims come in the wake of protests from a group opposed to what it calls “inappropriate” development. The Ranelagh Residents Association and several other property owners have appealed to the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT) against a planning application for a two-storey house in Rendlesham Av. The association, led by architect Victoria Grounds, is trying to retain what it says is the estate’s unique neighbourhood character.…

AN application for a $4 million “mega” supermarket on the site of the former Masters store on Mornington-Tyabb Rd is causing concerns among planners. Mornington Peninsula Shire Council is assessing a request from Home Investment Consortium Company to convert the existing building for use as a supermarket and other retail outlets with a variation to car parking layout. Eight tenancies are proposed for the 10,845 square metre site, including a 4250 square metre supermarket, six bulk stores ranging in size from 500-2000 square metres and a 100 square metre cafe. Coles, which already has a supermarket at Mornington Central shopping…

THE Mornington Peninsula Tennis International which started this week at Mornington, has attracted the highest number of international entrants in its three-year history. Players include former world number 16 Arantxa Rus and Australia’s Destanee Aiava. Rus has won 12 International Tennis Federation pro circuit titles and is a current member of the Netherlands Federation Cup team. Aiava won the Australian under-18 championships at the end of last year, reached the second round of the Brisbane International and two weeks ago won the Perth Pro Tour event. The Mornington Peninsula Tennis International gives top players a chance to earn world ranking…

IT’S never too late to have your first solo art exhibition. That’s what 85-year-old Mornington resident Brian Gibbs thought – and last week he was busy hanging 18 paintings on the walls of the Somers store for an eight-week show. Gibbs, who retired after 30 years as an engineer with and international oil company, began painting when he came to the Mornington Peninsula in 1986. “I retired to pursue my interest in art and water colours,” he said. “I joined the Peninsula Arts Society, taking classes with Robert Wade, Colin Johnson and Ron Muller, and did workshops with other water…

A “COUPLE of dills” who went on a vandalism spree at Rosebud Primary School last week are no match for the “many thousands of wonderful people” in the school community. Principal Stephen Fisher, who oversaw the clean-up and restoration of the heritage-listed before and after school care room, was speaking after a horror Labour Day weekend when vandals broke in and wrought havoc, early Sunday morning, 12 March. Mr Fisher said he had “never seen anything like” the destruction caused by the group which caused up to $10,000 damage to walls and floors, equipment, furniture and windows in their night…

PRESSURE is mounting to stop demolition of the iconic building that once housed Manyung Gallery in Mt Eliza. More than 400 people signed a petition in just three days to prevent the loss of the building. Mornington Peninsula Shire Council has approved plans to turn the Nepean Highway site into a childcare centre, but demolition orders were put on hold until 31 March after the owner of  neighbouring Licciardo’s Bar and Grill, Rob Licciardo, took the matter to the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal. Archaeologist and Mt Eliza resident, Peter Jupp, who organised the petition, said the building should be…

SOUTHERN Metro Region divisional commander Superintendent Glenn Weir last week downplayed a rise in crime in October-December last year. Crime Statistics Agency data released on Thursday painted a bleak picture: aggravated burglaries in Frankston surged 49 per cent in the past year – from 96 to 143, while motor vehicle theft was up 38.5 per cent – from 493 to 682. “We don’t deal with old data,” he said. “These statistics are three months out of date.” Theft from motor vehicles — described by local police as “volume crime” because of its prevalence — was up 10.6 per cent, from 1497…

A GRAND feeling of “independence” is a motivating factor in getting out on the water for blind sailor Latisha Davenport. An enthusiastic participant in Rye Primary School’s sailing program, Latisha said she “loves feeling the wind in my face”. The grade 6 pupil has been a regular at the helm, piloting her borrowed OziOpti dinghy in the calm waters off Rye sailing club. She handles the main sheet and the tiller, but receives a little help from instructor Trudy Clarke in handling the centre board. Mostly the weather has been fine and warm, but one day last week it was…