WHEN founders William (Bill) Findlay and John (Jack) Esmond played the first match for their new Eastlake Cricket Club in October, 1922, a century of cricketing history began. 

The result and the location of this game against the military team, the Cadets, remains unknown, but the first reference to a cricket pitch was in 1926/27 when Eastlake listed its home ground as an area “south of the printers headquarters”, believed to be the current site of Kingston Oval.

Now, through countless wins, losses and name changes, Eastlake Cricket Club has scored a century of its own which sees it as the only foundation club still playing in the ACT Premier Cricket Competition.

Throughout history, Eastlake has been home for several notable figures, including chief justice John Gallop playing for the team and being named ACT Cricketer of the Year in 1964-65.

Club treasurer Gary Molineux says one of the club’s most famous players was Neil Fairbrother.

“He was an English player who came and played a full season with Eastlake, and he captained the England team,” he says.

Senior vice-president Petra Bright says another high-profile member of the Eastlake team is SJ Moore.

“She captained the ACT for quite a long time and was recently inducted into the Cricket ACT Hall of Fame,” says Petra.

Cricket ACT lists Moore as having “one of the most successful careers in Women’s Grade cricket history in the ACT”.

She played for Western District from the mid-1980s to 2001, and played for Eastlake between 2002 and 2006.

Across her cricketing career Moore won 18 premierships, played 240 matches in first grade and scored 3133 runs at an average of 38.20, including two centuries.

Petra began playing for the Eastlake junior team when she was 17, and says it seemed a natural fit to continue with Eastlake when it introduced a women’s team in 2002, and she played its first match.

“This is actually the 20th year of having a women’s team, which is fantastic too, although not quite as exciting as 100 years,” she says.

“So we joined in 2002 and won the premiership in the first four years of our existence. Over the years we have actually amassed 12 premierships between one-day and T20 competitions.

“Across the men, I believe they have won 20 first-grade premierships since 1922.”

Petra, now 38, has played about 160 matches for the women’s team.

Gary, 61, joined the Eastlake Club while it was under a different name in 1982, and says its the camaraderie that’s kept him involved.

With 13 name changes across its century, it was only after they changed to Eastlake in 1999 did the club realise it had been the original name of the cricket club.

“I think knowing our history and where we’ve come from as a club, knowing that we started as Eastlake, certainly cements the Eastlake identity pretty firmly,” says Petra.

“I can’t see us moving away from that anytime soon.

“Something we would like to do more with and we started last season – we’re the third club to do it in Australia – is participating in the Pride Cup, as well as embracing the Reconciliation Round.”

“And improving our facilities as well,” says Gary.

“It would be nice sometime soon to have a picket fence around the ground at Kingston Oval.

“We’ve got a couple of other grounds as well that don’t have too much in the way of change rooms and stuff like that, so down the track it would be nice to have something better at those grounds.”

On October 1, a time capsule was launched to commemorate the centenary.

“Over the course of this season we’ll be collecting items to put in, including any notable items from during the season such as awards and premierships as a memory of not just what’s happened, but what’s happening on this anniversary,” says Petra.

“We’re not going to be around in 100-years when the club is celebrating its 200th anniversary, so it would be fantastic for us to leave a legacy that lasts another 100-years and keeps this club going.”