As a cricket administrator in various roles, and still involved, Martin said successful clubs are built on a pyramid base.

“Your juniors are your base,” he said.

“If you only have a small base – your pyramid doesn’t get very big at all.”

Beginning cricket at the age of 12, Martin remembers cricket soon becoming a big part of his life.

“I studied for a few years at Geelong Grammar and I will never forget meeting the headmaster for the first time,” he said.

“He was an Englishman and I met him with my parents.

“All he said to me was ‘do you play cricket boy?’.”

Martin moved back to the area and had a year of cricket and took up tennis.

It wasn’t until he made the move to the then Great Western Cricket Club that he found his groove within the sport.

“One of my most memorable moments was when we won the B grade premiership in the 1976-77 season,” he said.

“I was the captain of the side then and we were promoted to A grade the following season.”

In total, Martin played 199 match days for Great Western.

In early years at Great Western, Martin was part of the drive when the club recognised the need to build a strong and competitive club they had to build a strong junior base.

“We entered a team in the Ararat under-16 Saturday morning competition, Stawell under-16 Friday night competition and later a team in the under-13 Grampians competition,” he said.

“I recognised that if I was coaching I should be doing it the right way, so availed myself of the coaching schools run by Frank Tyson in the eighties.

“My coaching philosophy was that if the players were coached correctly and exposed to the correct tactics, wins would come.

“This proved correct as all teams won premierships in that time.”

Martin said he tried to teach the players to be gracious in defeat and humble in victory.

“I’m pleased to say that many of those players went on to be valued administrators and coaches of the club,” he said.

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Martin is still involved with many Grampians Cricket Association under-age teams within the Central Highlands Region.

“At one stage my weekly schedule was a seven day a week commitment to cricket,” he said.

“From junior training sessions through the week and competitions on Friday, Saturday and Sunday it was a big commitment.”

In A grade matches around the grounds, this weekend Pomonal requires just 19 runs to take the six points over Halls Gap when A Grade resumes this weekend. 

Youth Club will be hoping for a better second innings against Buangor-Tatyoon after getting bowled out for just 51 last weekend, dropping the first innings.

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