The passing of the long, cold nights of winter has long marked the commencement of the siren song that summer sings for the cricketers of Mansfield Shire.
It starts as a whisper as the golden bloom returns to the branch of wattles across the region and cricketers return to the nets and reaches a crescendo as the games begin.
One lifelong cricketer, however, won’t be listening.
No matter how loudly summer sings its song.
David Foster has recently retired as the Club Secretary of the Delatite Cricket Club, ending his formal association with the club he became a founding member of in 1985.
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Back in 2014, he hung up his whites having amassed a record 307 appearances for the club across four decades.
He went out on a high, participating in Delatite’s B Grade T20 Premiership win and the B Grade Season Premiership win.
We asked the self-proclaimed right arm medium pacer trundler and plodding number eight batsman whether he missed playing?
Whether he might consider coming out of retirement for one last match to celebrate the end of a forty year career with Delatite as a founding member, long-time secretary, and committed player?
“No, no, no, no, no,” David Foster answered emphatically.
"When the weather is nice, I miss it but there will be no more long afternoons in the field, under the heat of the summer sun for me.
“I’m leaving the club in capable hands.
“I will enjoy looking on from a distance.
“And when time permits, I’ll help out with a little scoring on Saturday afternoons.”
David’s roots in the cricketing community in Mansfield Shire predate the Delatite Cricket Club itself.
Recruited by a colleague, he began playing for Merton when he moved to the area to teach at Mansfield Secondary College in 1977.
But when his young family moved to Jamieson, the trip to Merton began to feel like it was keeping him away from home.
In 1985, a group of likeminded cricketers from Mansfield got together to form the Delatite Cricket Club.
“Three blokes who were working in a ski hire, we got together, once all the skiers had come and gone, we had a beer and said let’s start a club in Mansfield.
“We said, let's call it Delatite - they'll give us a sponsorship to get us started.
“They didn't, oh no, oh no.
“We didn’t really know what we were doing in those first few years.
“Fortunately you didn't need a lot of money to get things started.
“It was just a single side playing at Lord's, we had a nucleus of committed players so we were always able to put a team out but the standard of the cricket we played in that first season wasn’t very good.”
Having started off in the old Alexandra cricket league, it wasn’t long before Delatite were forced to look for a new home after clubs around them began to fold.
That brought the club into the Benalla cricket league where it would remain for around 15 seasons before a changing landscape once again forced the club to move.
The club has been settled in the Wangaratta & District Cricket Association’s (W&DCA) league for the past decade.
There, David believes, the club is surrounded by strong clubs and by struggling clubs with Delatite occupying a spot somewhere in the middle.
The club is entering an exciting new era with the appointment of a new Coach/Captain in Nathan Goodes.
Junior cricket continues to thrive in the district with numbers remaining strong.
With the three senior teams needing a second ground to throw into the rotation for home games, cricket will return to Bonnie Doon for the first time in decades.
And the looming multimillion dollar redevelopment of Lords Reserve, including a new pavilion and clubroom, will represent a significant quality of life upgrade for the club.
If there are two things community Cricket Clubs need, David believes, it’s subs-paying members and players.
And while David has no plans to give up life as a member, he has no plans on returning to the field for his 308th appearance.
No matter how many times he is asked by the club to make up the numbers.
“I managed to take a few wickets over the years and was pleased to have only won the club’s duck trophy just the once despite holding the club’s overall record for ducks up until very recently.”
There have been many highlights to his forty years.
Working alongside presidents such as Gary Breadon, Peter Scales and now Mark O’Loughlan as well as treasurers and general committee members like Gil Powell, Bob Wilson and Naomi Campbell.
There have been grand finals and premiership wins along the way.
David enjoyed the experience of captaining the B grade to a grand final despite, in his mind, not being a natural captain.
He speaks fondly of coaching a youth side for a spell, imparting his hard-earned knowledge on the next generation and forming a strong fruitful partnership with a talented youth captain.
He calls every catch he ever took in the field a triumph which is probably a fair assessment given a health condition which can impact his depth perception.
And he mentions the single solitary half century he scored in his 307 matches for the club as though it was something of a fluke or the punchline of a funny joke.
Ever self-deprecating, David laughs at the memory of winning a wooden spoon/consolation prize one year as the butt of the joke at the Delatite Cricket Club presentation night for injuring himself at the very beginning of a game when he was not batting, not bowling and not fielding, but umpiring.
But for all of his downplaying of his talents and contributions, David has been integral to the Delatite Cricket Club for decades.
Mark O'Loughlan, President of Delatite Cricket Club congratulated David for having made an incalculable contribution to the Delatite Cricket Club.
"Like any sporting club, we rely on the generosity of volunteers to ensure the club functions effectively," he said.
"David has gone above and beyond many times over, and we are incredibly grateful to him for his service."
The club, and by extension the town, owe the middle-paced trundler and plodding number eight a debt of gratitude for his custodianship.
While David is stepping down as Club Secretary, he doesn't intend to sever ties with the club entirely, he will remain as a friendly face at Lords Reserve.
Just don't ask him to slip into his pads and bat at eight.
He has no intention of regaining his club duck record.
