Historical Plenty Buildings

The Plenty Cricket Club

Plenty Cricket Club was formed at a meeting held in the Plenty Hall on Thursday 20th November 1947. Residents present at the meeting were Messrs J Upton, A Brereton, N Booth, J Walker, R Beale, N Baxter, H Cullen, N Furse, L Baxter, W Upton, K Fellowes, and B Cullen. Mr J Upton moved, and Mr J Walker seconded the motion that a cricket club be formed in Plenty.

Officer bearers elected were:

President.    Mr G Upton

Secretary    Mr W Upton

Treasurer    Mr J Walker

Membership fees applied were –

Junior (members) under the age of 16 years -five shillings (50cents),

 adults – ten shillings ($1-00).

Fund raising began immediately with donations of £8/12/- ($17-20) being given and memberships of $4-10/- ($9-00) being received.

Euchre evenings were planned for the first Saturday of each month with admission being set at 2/- each. Prizes were set at £1/-/- for the winning Lady and £1/-/- for the winning gent. Invitations were issued to the four Cricket Clubs in Greensborough.

A Ball was planned for Boxing Night with admission charges of 3/- and 2/6 agreed. 200 tickets were to be printed and arrangements set down to provide supper with the club providing the bread and fillings for sandwiches and the ladies to do the work of making them as well as baking cakes for the Ball. An orchestra was to be obtained within one week.

The first Plenty cricket players played on land owned by Mr Burns which is now the site of the Council Depot in Yan Yean Rd. The first cricket pavilion was built in the early 1950s on the eastern side of the oval, behind the old tennis shed. The new Plenty Cricket Clubrooms were built in 1990, opposite the Plenty Hall.

The Club won its first premiership in the 1957/58 season.

Clubrooms

The original club rooms were built in three stages. The first stage was built approximately around 1950 which was the northern part of the club rooms closest to Yan Yean Road. The second stage was built appropriately late 50s and the third and final stage approximately mid 60s. The club rooms were constructed by the members of the PCC with brothers Bobby and Donny Beale as the principal builders. 

All construction was done pro bono.

They were eventually named the N.G.Furse Pavilion after Noel Furse who was a local resident of Plenty. Noel didn’t play cricket but was a tireless worker around the club and would always make sure there was a cold beer waiting for the players after training on match days .

The original N.G.Furse Pavilion sign hangs with pride and place in current club rooms .

The current club rooms are named in honour of Vernon Brown who raised thousands of dollars in the 80s by running bingo at South Morang hotel for a number of years with a great support from a number of cricket club members and supporters.

They were officially opened in 1990 with great fanfare and pride.

These rooms were approximately 10 years in the making all through the vision and hard work of Vernon Brown.

Also, it would be remiss, not to mention Gary Bartlett who was Vern’s son in law and the architect who designed the pavilion.