Cricket comes back to O'Connell

November 7, 2024

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Cricket returned to O'Connell on Sunday, November 3, for the annual Fish River Cup match between O'Connell and Tarana. The match was the first to be played at the new Recreation Ground on the corner of Beaconsfield and O'Connell Roads. Oberon Council must be thanked and congratulated for providing this new venue for sport, and the place will get even better when construction of the amenities block is completed (the foundation slab is already there, waiting for the building to go on top of it). There was a good crowd of supporters from both teams and everyone is looking forward to playing many matches there in the future.

One of the sponsors of the event was the O'Connell Hotel (another was the Tarana Hotel, and as both are owned by the same people neutrality had to be maintained). The hotel had this to say:

Congratulations to the O'Connell cricket team for their Victory over Tarana in the Fish River Cup yesterday! A hard fought match and a great tradition continues! Well done to everyone who was involved, from the organisers to the players and the supporters! Cheers!

Fittingly, the home team won on their first home match for many years.

Photo supplied

Here's a bit of the action on the day.

And here's a bit of trivia - the Tarana team contained someone with the surname Webb and the O'Connell side contained a Burns. The same thing happened in November, 1901. The same team won then, too.

From the Bathurst Daily Free Press and Mining Journal, November 13, 1901

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