By CAMERON LUCADOU-WELLS
FOR hook-happy batsmen, Lois Twohig Reserve’s short square boundary is an easy 30-metre top-edge for six.
Unfortunately for neighbours, their backyards have also frequently been in the firing line.
Recent complaints have prompted Greater Dandenong Council to summarily eject North Dandenong Cricket Club from its home base of 40 years.
Club president Glenn Nicholls said it was given a day’s notice before being shifted to Lyndale High School the weekend before last.
He did not understand why, after years of complaints, it was done with just a two-day game — plus a possible home final — left of this season.
“You would have thought the council would have come to me first if there was an issue.”
Nicholls said an eight-metre-high perimeter wire fence — installed by the council to protect homes — was easy to clear, even for under-17 players.
“There was a joke going around that it should be ‘six and out’.”
Long-time neighbouring resident Les Harris, whose roof tiles have been regularly cracked by cricket balls, said it was a “planning failure” to put a cricket pitch within 40 metres of backyards.
Mr Harris has collected about 15 cricket balls at his Devira Street home so far this season. That is not counting the balls that have ricocheted beyond his front yard and into the street. His neighbours either side have also suffered frequently.
“I guess I’m there for the hook shot,” Mr Harris said. “When the cricket’s on, we won’t let our grandkids play in the backyard.”
He said the trouble was also from balls used in social matches on most summer nights. He has long stopped returning them to cricketers knocking at the door.
Having just spent $9000 to repair his roof, Mr Harris said he and his wife were on the brink of moving.
He said the council should shift the oval east — which would require removing a bitumen track next to the ground. The suggestion had been “shifted to the too-hard basket” about 10 years ago, he said.
Greater Dandenong chief executive John Bennie said officers made the “sensible and prudent” move to “take away the risk”. He said there would be discussions with residents and the club about options such as shifting the oval’s pitch.
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