By ADEM SARICAOGLU
A NEW book detailing the long and colourful history of the Spotswood Cricket Club will be launched early next month.
Roy Picone, 86, who has been on the club’s committee since 1955, put the book together after recently doing the same for the Spotswood Football Club.
“I’ve lived in the same house for nearly 86 years and it’s just a drop kick from the oval, so I’ve been more or less brought up with the football club and the cricket club,” Picone said.
“I used my own memories and researched the old Williamstown Chronicle, the Williamstown Advertiser and the Werribee Banner on a computer down in the library, where we got a lot of the stuff.
“It only took me about six or eight months to compile it all.”
The book traces the club, once known as the Spottiswoody Cricket Club, back to its origins all the way back to 1891, after it was initially thought to have been established in 1929.
It also reveals two Brownlow Medallists and two former Footscray coaches have donned the whites for Spotswood throughout its storied history.
Joint 1930 Brownlow Medallist Allan Hopkins was a Woodsman during the 1930s while South Melbourne’s Fred Goldsmith, who took Charlie home in 1955, also played for Spotswood during the VFL off-season.
Picone also told Star former Footscray coaches Alby Morrison and Don McKenzie were once Spotswood cricketers.
The book also contains a piece on former player Hugh Lennon, a local plough maker whose name was embossed on Ned Kelly’s suit of armour.
The cover of the book features Charlie Reid, who will turn 100 this October and is Spotswood’s oldest living player.
The book will be officially launched at Donald McLean Reserve on 8 February, after the Woodmen’s Turf Cricket home clash against Keilor Park.
