Tim Wilson (Goldstein, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Goldstone electorate is blessed with so many community organisations that do incredible work. Last Saturday I attended the 175th anniversary dinner of the Brighton Cricket Club at Brighton Town Hall. Formed in 1842, the Brighton Cricket Club famously beat all expectations in their first match against the more established Melbourne Cricket Club. They proved it was no fluke by winning again at Melbourne's home ground three weeks later. Ever since then they have had incredible success. The club prides itself on being a competitive and successful club, promoting enjoyment, participation and mateship. We saw that mateship on Saturday night. They have enjoyed a great deal of success over the years, being represented by many great players who have also represented Victoria and Australia. I would like to particularly congratulate Andrew Beck, its president, and the secretary, Russell Stocker, for another successful season. Their success on the night was also attributed to the BCC club sponsors, Bayside Council, Simon Thomas from Goodoil and Rob Curtain from media and communications. It also proves an opportunity to launch David King's new book on the history of the club, A famous old club. Congratulations to everybody who was involved.

Equally it followed the Brighton Union Cricket Club's recent successful sportsperson's night on the 10 February. The theme of the night was success. We heard from a number of sporting giants. The master of ceremonies was Tom Morris from Fox Footy, who did a good interview of every panellist. Stephen Mount, a Richmond premiership player in 1980, Leigh Montagna, who was a St Kilda Football Club player, and Brendon Gale, the CEO of the Richmond footy club. The BUCC has celebrated over 60 premierships since it was officially founded on 23 September 1907. I would like to acknowledge the current committee who have taken the club forward both on and off the field—the president, Russell Purvis, vice-president Paul Fidock, secretary Brett Northridge and treasurer Bill Arnold.

Yesterday we had another incredible community event with the joined forces of Stand-Up Paddle Victoria and the Sandringham Yacht Club as they hosted the 2018 stand-up paddle board Vic Mad Paddle. There is a 30 kilometre track that is normally traversed, but unfortunately the weather wasn't the friendliest this year, which meant that paddlers could only do a much more modest distance around the Sandringham Yacht Club. We have to congratulate everybody who is involved in the organisation, because it was the fourth Mad Paddle. It was held with the support of many organisations in pursuit of assisting the Sandringham Yacht Club. So far this morning the tally was nearly $15,000 raised for funding state-of-the-art emergency department equipment for paediatrics for improving care for children at the Sandringham Hospital. If you'd like to donate, please head to the 2018 Mad Paddle at gofundraise.com.au. Particular congratulations to the chair of the organising committee, Felicity Frederico, and everybody else involved. Good luck to Warwick Lee for his potential to do it in two years time.