Peter Vesty recognised for 65 years of service with VSDCA Hall of Fame induction

Starting at Port Melbourne at 12 and going on to build the history of the VSDCA, Peter Vesty has been recognised with Hall of Fame induction.

Peter Vesty inducted into the VSDCA Hall of Fame.

This one is for all the stats guys out there.

Peter Vesty has made a life’s work out of something we might have dreamed of growing up, watching cricket for 40 years and then meticulously recording the history of the Victorian Sub-District Cricket Association.

His legacy-building achievements were recognised by the association last month with induction into its Hall of Fame, alongside James Earle and Peter Flack.

Vesty’s accomplishment all the more meritorious as the first inductee never to play a VSDCA match.

“I never showed any skill in football or cricket but I had a knack for being a scorer and, of course, these days all the scores are entered as the game goes on,” Vesty said.

VSDCA Hall of Fame inductees (middle) James Earle, Peter Flack and Peter Vesty.

“I’ve always been good on the stats side of things.

“I retired 15 years ago but I’ve still spent a working week going back and gathering stats.

“It’s recognition for all the time I’ve spent on this (VSDCA history) project, no records were ever kept before.”

Starting out as a 12-year-old, scoring the Port Melbourne Third XI, he would spent 41 years as the club’s First XI scorer from 1960-61 to 2000-01, totalling 537 top-flight games – only missing three matches.

He earnt Port Melbourne life membership 50 years ago, in 1974, received the Australian Sports Medal in 2000, was recognised for 50 years of service by Cricket Victoria in 2011-12 and was made a life member of the VSDCA in 2017-18.

Vesty is also a life member of the Port Melbourne Football Club and the scoreboard at North Port Oval in named in his honour.

A local lad, the Borough was like a second home.

“I was a stones throw from the ground, about 250m, in Ross Street and a lot of other footballers and even an umpire lived close by,” Vesty said.

Port Melbourne scoreboard operator Peter Vesty retired after 30 years service in 2011.

“Back in those days the players used to met at the Town Hall and we’d go in four or five cars when we were playing away and then in 1962 I got my licence and could drive to the grounds.

“I’m one of a unique breed, a life member of Port Melbourne football and cricket clubs.”

The idea for building the history of the VSDCA first came in 1992.

Then after retiring in 2009, the dedication to the project saw him spending a tradition work week – 40 hours – compiling records of 100-game players, centurions, best bowling figures, representative appearances and more.

While he has handed over the task of updating the annual figures to David Priddle, Vesty’s work continues trying to complete a list of every First XI player dating back to 1908-09.

Vesty admits his concentration isn’t what it used to be but is slowly working through it, from establishment clubs such as Port Melbourne and Malvern to former clubs such as Kingston Saints, Dandenong and Waverley.

“In about 1992, Port were played out at Monash University and the secretary was Bob Brierley, I asked him what he did with the match reports when the season was over and he said once the annual report was done he turfed them out,” Vesty said.

“Some clubs had good records and some didn’t have any but I’ve been able to come up with a list of century makers, best bowling and wicketkeeping.

“I spent many hours in the State Library, I had record books at Port Melbourne going back to 1936 and I got scores from the Age and the Argus that would publish them on a Monday.

“I said there were two projects I would never attempt, one being all the district (Premier Cricket) results but I did that, which was a tremendous task.

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“Then I must have known COVID was coming because I started doing the list of players A-Z in sub-district cricket, all told there’s 44 or 45 clubs, and I still got many more to do.”

With the loss of MyCricket, it would be almost impossible to complete the task if asked to do it today.

“Now that MyCricket is gone I don’t know how they’re going to access stats from the last 15 years,” he said.

“It’s an absolute disaster, while MyCricket had its faults, at least you could see the weekend highlights and my technology skills are not the best.”