Scotch College

Commemorative Cricket Bat Launched

2003 cricket captain Paddy McKenna is pictured with 1927 captain Leonard Kemp.

Past Captains of Cricket Wanted!

The Scotch College Maintenance and Grounds department, in conjunction with Gordon Lanman of Fine Furniture, has made a commemorative cricket bat which will be used to recognise the contributions of past cricket captains.

The wood used for this special bat is from the gum trees which were felled when the Montgomery Hockey field was enlarged in 1994. It is hoped that every former cricket captain at Scotch who is still alive will be able to sign the bat which will be displayed at the School.

The first signature which appears on the bat is that of Len Kemp, Scotch's oldest living cricket captain. Len was captain of cricket in 1927. Len, who went on to play District cricket for Prahran and University, has the distinction of scoring 197 against Wesley (still one of the highest scores ever made by a Scotch boy in an APS game) before being caught in the outfield by a future Prime Minister of Australia, one Harold Holt.

Directly below Len's signature, Paddy McKenna's signature appears as the captain of this year's Premiership team. The bat was present at the recent McLeod Club launch dinner, at which time 15 previous captains added their signature to the bat.

This is a call for past cricket captains to add their signature to the bat. If you are a past captain, or know the whereabouts of a past captain, could you please ring Tim Shearer in the OSCA office to organise a time for more signatures to be added to this wonderful piece of Scotch cricket history.