Airport West St Christopher’s off-season campaign paying dividends
Airport West St Christopher’s favourite son Luke Macumber is returning to Etzel Street and he’s bringing Gisborne premiership teammate Riley Vernon with him for the VTCA Division 1 season.
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Airport West St Christopher’s has picked up a pair of premiership-winning recruits ahead of the new VTCA season.
Riley Vernon and Luke Macumber have crossed from GDCA premier Gisborne in a massive boost to the Saints’ top order and new ball attack.
The pair add to a prolific off-season that has also seen Daniel Salpietro (Tasmania), Matthew Sipala (Greenvale Kangaroos), Kevin Barker (Diggers Rest Bulla), Adam Johnstone (Woodend) and Ben Sims (Lower Plenty) sign on.
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Macumber is a life member at Airport West St Christophers and makes his return to Etzel Street Reserve after one season with the Dragons.
The paceman is expected to take the new ball this season after claiming 15 wickets at an average of 18.73 last season.
Meanwhile, Vernon arrives having spent the Victorian winter in the Northern Territory, winning the Darwin District flag with Waratahs.
With metropolitan Melbourne in lockdown he has prepared for the season at Woodend, scoring an impressive 90 against Romsey and 47 against Bacchus Marsh in the GDCA’s regional series.
After a successful recruiting campaign, Saints coach Scott Woolcock has put a return to Division 1 finals firmly on the to-do list.
“We were competitive last year, things just didn’t go our way, but with the people we’ve added we’re pretty confident finals is a minimum this year,” he said.
“Two years ago we lost the grand final to Druids and last year the weather really didn’t help us.
“We lost a couple of our one-day games by a couple of runs and a few times we were in a really good position (in two-day games) but it got rained out.
“We had a tie with Altona Roosters, if you turn that into a win we would have been top four.
“It’s a 12-team comp this year, so to make finals we’re really going to have start the season strongly.”
Airport West St Christopher’s finished sixth last season, losing the most wickets in the competition while also scoring the second most runs.
Leading run-scorer Dinesh Cooray scored 332 runs at 41.50 last season and together with Vernon, Salpietro and Sipala will form a strong top order.
Sipala returns after six seasons in Greenvale’s lower grades, in 11 Third XI matches last season he tallied 331 runs at 33.10.
However, Isuru Okandage (Druids) and Gihan Kankanamge (Tullamarine) have departed.
“We’re pretty happy with our list, our club has had a really good off-season and our depth is looking really good,” Woolcock said.
The Saints will start their Isaacs/Howarth Shield campaign at home against PEGS.