My Best Grade team - Chris Lanagan 1994 to 2007

Chris Lanagan | October 21, 2024

As a country lad from Toowoomba, I made my way to the “big smoke” of Brisbane for the 1994/95 season where I was lucky enough to play grade cricket in an era when the international and state players were available to play club cricket regularly and we had some pretty handy ones at Valley District Cricket Club

Here is my best 11 (plus a couple) ….

1. Matthew Hayden - his results speak for themselves on an international level but was also a prolific runs scorer at grade level

2. Nick Kruger - came into the side at the back end of my career and made a mountain of runs to force his way into the state side. Later went to Tasmania and won a Shield title with them.

3. Lee Carseldine - lucky enough to debut in the same game as a Leeca and he was a star from his first game.

4. Stuart Law (Vice Captain) - an outstanding cricketer and even better bloke and obviously unlucky not to have played more at the international level

5. Allan Border (Captain) - my childhood hero and was lucky enough to play alongside him a number of times for Valleys and no-one left the dressing room early on the days that AB played.

6. Brett Henschell - an outstanding allrounder who had the ability to score runs against quality attacks and take a mountain of wickets with his crafty off spin.

7. Heath Pedrola - good allrounder who although predominantly an opener could bat anywhere in the order and produce runs as well as bowl some handy off spin.

8. Brendan Shinnick (wicket keeper) - good glove man and a possibly the hardest hitter of a ball I’ve seen. Like a few blokes of that era, would’ve been a T20 superstar.

9. Ian Hansen - quality pace bowler and hard hitting lower order batsman. Also capable of giving the batsmen a good spray when needed.

10. Joe Dawes - JD was an outstanding out and out fast bowler who’s pure numbers at grade level demanded his selection for higher honours. Going ok on the coaching front these days as well.

11. Darin Turner - no Valleys team is complete without “Hoochy”. A fantastic swing bowler, could hit a long ball when needed and was the ultimate team man.

12. Richard Anderson - Ando gets to carry the drinks as he could bowl long consistent spells and was also my opening bowling partner in out ‘94/95 premiership win. Was also a red ink specialist with the bat in hand.

13. Gavin Brown - hard hitting opening batsmen and holds the record for most grade runs at Valleys. Another of the guys that would’ve suited the T20 format perfectly and is the obvious choice as off field skipper.

Coach Michael Ephraims - wonderfully competitive player and coach who got the best out of his players.

Scorer Pat Culpan - PC is the scoring king, keeping the books, now the iPad, updated with pure accuracy and is also the stats maestro for the club.