VSDCA 2023-24: Bayswater signs Premier Cricket quick Michael Topp
A veteran paceman has made a shock exit from Premier Cricket, linking with a Subbies South-East outfit in an almighty recruiting coup.
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BAYSWATER has snared a Premier-grade quick in an almighty recruiting coup.
Northcote’s Michael Topp has exited the club after three seasons – linking with the Subbies South-East outfit.
He’s been named in the Waters’ First XI to take on Box Hill this weekend.
The veteran paceman spent 12 seasons at Ringwood, playing 137 First XI matches for 208 top-flight wickets (283 overall from 191 matches and 767 runs), sailing past 30 scalps in three consecutive campaigns from 2011-12.
He crossed to Northcote in 2020, making the Team of the Year in 2020-21 following another 30-wicket haul.
Last season he put up 26 wickets at an average of 27.27 – but had played just one match for the Dragons this year – in the seconds.
Bayswater captain-coach Jason Kilby, a former Ringwood teammate of Topp’s, said the 31-year-old was “taking a break” from Premier Cricket after recently landing the senior coaching gig at Canterbury Football Club.
Topp had attended the Waters’ Round 1 match against Donvale – with the conversation about a potential reunion progressing in the subsequent weeks.
“He’s been really good mates with (current Bayswater player) Jake Wigney and I for the last 11 or 12 years … we go away to together most Christmases … the three of us being such good mates, we watch him play football every weekend and he was taking a break from Premier Cricket,” Kilby said.
“He came down and watched us at Donvale, and a few weeks later, we said ‘What do you think about playing for us?’
“(We said) we can be pretty flexible about your training loads, and he said, ‘I’d love to’.
“He was having a break and he wasn’t sure, but a guy at 31 years of age isn’t going to stop playing the game.
“We said Subbies cricket is still a really good standard and you’re playing against really good players and you play on very good grounds.
“I think we can accommodate everything going on with his footy really well.”
Topp spearheading the Bayswater bowling attack is an exciting prospect for the captain-coach.
“He’s obviously a really big inclusion to come into any Subbies side – it gives us that genuine frontline quick, and if you speak to any cricket club in Melbourne, they’d say: ‘We want one’,” Kilby said.
“It gives us that extra pace, probably a bit of extra aggression on the field … I think him and Luke Turner will complement each other really well with the new ball because he’s quite quick himself.
“What it does to our side is it gives us a really good fast-bowling batter, and we think we’ve got five or six guys (in that role) that all have the ability to play First XI cricket and play a crucial role in our side.
“He’s got a really good record and can execute fast bowling, it’s going to give us hopefully plenty of opportunities to take wickets and put pressure on batsmen.”
It’s been an on-field reunion more than six years in waiting for Kilby and a handful of his current Bayswater crew.
“‘Wigs’ (Wigney), Jordy Ludgater, myself and ‘Toppy’, the last game we played together was in February 2017,” Kilby said.
“To know we’re going to play together again tomorrow and for the rest of this season, we’re super excited because we all grew up playing together at Ringwood.”
The Waters currently sit seventh on the ladder after two rounds, following their maiden win of the season last weekend over Endeavour Hills.
The club recruited heavily in the off-season – and has backed its youth, highlighted by a five-wicket haul from 17-year-old Lachlan Payne in Round 2.
“We wanted to work really hard over the pre-season to improve our depth,” Kilby said.
“We’ve had some really good performances across the grades in the first two games and it’s something from a coaching perspective really excites me that we know we’ve got kids coming through the ranks that are pushing for spots up the grades.
“We think we’ve got a squad of probably up to 15 to 20 guys that we think can perform at First XI level.”
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