Premier Cricket: Fitzroy Doncaster star Peter Dickson becomes ninth to 10,000 runs
Fitzroy Doncaster star Peter Dickson reflects on joining Premier Cricket’s nine-player 10,000 run club.
Local Sport
Don't miss out on the headlines from Local Sport . Followed categories will be added to My News.
When Peter Dickson trotted through for a single at the Camberwell Sports Ground last Saturday, he joined some pretty elite company.
As he propped up a collapsing Fitzroy Doncaster batting effort with an unbeaten half-century, the Lions star became just the ninth player to pass 10,000 career runs in the state’s top domestic competition.
“It was their spinner (Alec) Smith, I blocked it to cover, Nick Fletcher and I just jogged through for a single,” he said. “There was a bit of noise from the sidelines, but it wasn’t a century so I didn’t kiss the badge on the helmet or anything like that.
“It wasn’t an ideal day for batting, the pitch had a little bit more nibble in it. I played and missed at a few early on and then it flattened out a bit.”
The Lions great has only had a brief time to reflect on joining a small club that’s taken more than a century to grow to just nine members.
“It probably means that I wasn’t good enough to play for Victoria,” he laughed. “I’ve never found Premier Cricket easy, I’ve always found it challenging.
“You look at the people alongside you and played against and there’s some great players there.”
Father time and a string of injuries almost ended Dickson’s career within sight of the milestone.
“At the back end of last season, I spent so much time injured,” he said. “By the time the season ended, I was just cooked.
“I couldn’t imagine doing another pre-season.
But after a month off, Dickson said he had felt far more refreshed and he was soon receiving phone calls from captains, coaches and presidents asking him to go around for one more summer and help mentor the Lion cubs at Schramms Reserve.
“It was probably one of the reasons I played again this year,” he said. “To play with the young kids, they are so talented. And they’re still at an age they can go on for quite a few years yet.”
MORE CRICKET NEWS
HARVEY, ROCCA PAD UP FOR THE CAUSE
Over the 10K journey there’s been no shortage of great knocks to savour, his unbeaten 226 as the Lions demolished Ringwood in the 2015/16 grand final will live long in the memories of most Premier Cricket followers.
Dickson’s personal favourite, however, was the day he played second fiddle to a future Australian one-day star.
“It was a double-hundred against Camberwell, eight or nine years ago, (Glenn) Maxwell and I put on a few,” he said. “It was one of those innings that just clicked for me and what was really special was that it was the first glimpse we got of what Maxwell was going to be like.”
Though Dickson remained unbeaten on 209, it was Maxwell’s 106 off 66 balls with 16 fours and 3 sixes, in a partnership of 137, that drew most notice.
Dickson has been blessed to have been part of a golden era at the club. In recent years the Lions have been a permanent fixture at the pointy end of summer.
“It (the premiership success) didn’t just happen,” he said. “We did have a lot of lean years. All those guys we won those flag with were guys we’d brought up and had been at the club for a long time.”
It’s a club that’s always been like a family to Dickson.
“You just have to look after training,” he said. “The Alavis are cooking the meals, the Banthorpes are there. It’s family. It’s like how I imagine sporting clubs used to be.”
