Remembering the great Mick Cleary

Whether it was running drinks, preparing pitches, picking up cones or filling out the scorer’s book, his dedication to the game was second to none as he became a regular fixture at cricket matches across the region.

In the winter his passion would shift to football, where he was a life member of the Strathmerton Football Club and could often be found stocking up the bar prior to home games.

It was a sporting life that touched so many different people.

Cobram’s Kevin Thewlis was a long-time friend, teammate and competitor of Mick’s and recalls how he came to know the great man.

“I first met Mick Cleary down in Garfield/Bunyip in Gippsland. Mick is from Bunyip and I was working in Garfield at the time so I had a season playing down there with Mick and his three brothers, who were all terrific cricketers,” Thewlis said.

“Then I moved back to Cobram and five years after that Mick moved up to Strathmerton as a school teacher where we began playing against each other while also coming together for representative games for over 25 years.”

In his heyday Mick was as deadly as they came with ball in hand, with Thewlis describing him as a fierce competitor that struck fear into opposition batsmen.

“He was a very talented medium pace opening swing bowler and was a very astute man on the field captaining Strathmerton to three premierships in a row in his early days,” he said.

“He certainly took my scalp a lot of times and certainly had my measure, he was just a very good bowler as well as a popular figure both on and off the field — making him an outstanding cricketer overall.”

Duelling it out against each other in fierce Strathmerton-versus-Cobram battles in the MVCA, the pair would team up frequently in representative cricket, Thewlis recalling precious trips to statewide events such as Country Week.

“A lot of our travels we did as a Country Week side, there was a group of about five of us who went to the event for many years and just enjoyed a lot of great times on and off the field,” he said.

“We had a very successful side playing provincial cricket in Melbourne and I think we won Bendigo Country Week something like seven out of 10 years, it was just a fantastic time and we all really bonded.”

While he achieved such great things on the field, he will perhaps be better known for his work off it, as he truly became the glue that kept Murray Valley Cricket together

“I don’t know how they are going to replace him at Strathmerton or the MVCA; you could nearly call him Mr Cricket, such was his love for the game,” Thewlis said.

“At Strathmerton he rolled the wicket, mowed the oval, scored when necessary and umpired when necessary — he really was just always hands-on and the first bloke you wanted to stand with and have a beer with after the day’s play.

“He is going to be very sorely missed by the entire Murray Valley Cricket fraternity and it is going to be very strange going into cricket season and not seeing his face because he was just always there.”

Given the task of summing up Mick Cleary as a bloke, Thewlis said he was somebody that was loved by everyone he ever met.

“He was just a champion bloke and everybody loved him, he was just one of those fellas that just would not have had an enemy in the world and that was shown by the scenes at his funeral yesterday with the crowd lined up around the Strathmerton Oval,” he said.

“He was first to sing the theme song after a victory, always entertained everyone on the bus and was just a fantastic person to be around.”