VSDCA: Taylors Lakes locks in Alex Deuchar as coach for two summers

The Lions have settled on their new leader, appointing a VSDCA premiership skipper fresh from a stint in Premier Cricket.

Alex Deuchar celebrates a wicket during his days at Mt Waverley. Picture: Stuart Milligan

Premiership-winning skipper Alex Deuchar has been charged with the responsibility of lifting Taylors Lakes from the foot of the Victorian Sub-District Cricket Association ladder.

The UK-born Deuchar has replaced Glenn Marr at the helm after the Lions’ First XI endured a winless campaign in 2020-21.

Deuchar, who has been locked in as coach for the next two summers, captained Mt Waverley for four seasons and led its premiership team in 2015-16.

He has spent the past two seasons with Premier Cricket outfit Kingston Hawthorn, playing a mixture of First XI and Second XI while holding down an assistant/bowling coach role.

“He was the clear standout candidate,” Taylors Lakes president Rob Arnold said of Deuchar.

“After conducting the interviews, he stood head and shoulders above everyone else basically with his experience.

“We couldn’t overlook him. We’re very happy to have him.”

Deuchar bends his back at the bowling crease.

Deuchar’s arrival gives the Lions an enviable trio of pace bowlers, with Trent Waring returning from a stint at Greenvale Kangaroos and Hoa Lai coming off a golden season in which he grabbed 26 wickets at 12.27.

The new coach had seven years with Mt Waverley and established himself as one of the competition’s leading pacemen, collecting 169 wickets from 96 games.

Deuchar’s most productive season came in 2016-17, when he took 36 wickets at 14.36.

He also captured between 22 and 30 wickets in the previous four campaigns.

“Technically we’ve got three opening bowlers who we can mix and match as we see fit on the day,” Arnold said.

“That’s pretty exciting.”

A Durham Cricket Academy graduate, Deuchar had two first-class games for the centre of excellence, as well as a handful of 2nd XI trial games for Worcester and Northants.

Deuchar also played more than 200 Premier League games as an opening bowler in the UK.

Arnold said Deuchar was keen to “progress his coaching career” and felt he was ready to take on the top job after his time in Victoria’s top competition.

Deuchar’s diligent research also impressed Taylors Lakes, which contested finals in 2019-20 before a 0-13 record last season.

“He took the time … to drill down and look at the individual games (in 2020-21) and came to our interview with the knowledge that anyone else looking at that may said it was a (poor) season,” Arnold said.

“But he could see we were in five games that we potentially could have won, which is basically what we would have spun back to him.

“It was refreshing he was savvy enough to do that and come up with that information.”

Arnold said the Lions were on the hunt for a batsman and had not lost any players from the First XI squad.