Our PJ 60s Boys Go from Strength to Strength!

This season was our busiest yet. As Veterans Cricket grows rapidly throughout NSW, State Comps are now at 5 year age groups. This results in additional State Comps filling up more and more of the calendar, making it harder to fit in other events such as carnivals, mini tours and local one-off games. Also there were times of match overload resulting in the cancellation of a couple of midweek games and one mini tour.

The State Competitions are covered elsewhere in the reports so this report will cover the other events.

Over 60s

The weather was kind this year and PJ60s managed to complete 9 one-off midweek matches. In addition there were 2 midweek mini tours and a Carnival at Gloucester in mid Sept 25. Unfortunately our Western Tour in Dec 25 was a casualty of so many State and National events held before the Christmas break

Our Over 60s Port Jackson Red team at the State Tournament

Over 65s

Unfortunately they only completed 2 midweek games with 2 being canceled due to bad weather. Also a Mini Tour was canceled for the same reason. However they did attend a T20 Carnival at Quirindi in April 25.

Our Over 65s Port Jackson Red team at the State Tournament

PJ Carnivals

Following on from the success of the PJ Carnivals of last year we held them again in Feb 25.

In each of the Carnivals PJs turned out 2 teams and we had two invitees from the Regions.

The events are held over 3 days and played at the Randwick grounds. They were high quality events (grounds, lunches, dinner).

The first was for the O65s and the visitors were Northern NSW and MNC. All games were closely contested. The PJ60s Carnival was held 2 weeks later with Hunter Invitational and S Highlands Invitational as our guests. This time we managed 2 games on Coogee Oval.

All teams showed their desire to return next season.

A big thank you to our Organising Committee of Neil Brodie, Ian Pryde, Michael McCarron (and myself).

Our PJ Blue side at Coogee.

Opportunities

Compared to most other Regions, PJers have so many more opportunities to play cricket than other Regions. There is the Vintage League every fortnight in addition to our many games. Most other Regions have only a handful of games. The aim will be to continue to offer as many opportunities to our Members as we can (but avoiding fixture congestion as best we can).

Thank Yous

Firstly a big thank you to our Fixture Secretaries. For the 60s we had Ragavan and Mark Wilson. For the 65s there were Paul Georgiadis and David Trewin. Also a thank you to Paul Adams who supported us in many different ways.

The Future

I have held this position since 2017 (8 years). When I took over there were only 60s and they played 4 home and 4 away games at most. This number has been expanded over the years, and we have added in mini-tours, and now attend nearly all Carnival to which we receive an invite. Plus there are now O65 games.

Two years ago we introduced the PJ Carnival proving that we are capable of running such events. In Feb 2026 we shall be hosting the State O65s Competition (8 teams), a great coup for PJs.

I have succeeded in achieving what I set out to do and will now be standing down and giving someone else the opportunity to keep things moving forward.

I have enjoyed doing this role and trust that I have left PJ 60s/65s cricket in a position of strength for the future.

Douglas Latto

Vice Chairperson

Port Jackson Cricket Club