Sport
18 June, 2026
St Arnaud Cricket Club votes to move leagues
St Arnaud president Jason Smith said the club’s decision on Monday night was made because of the opportunity offered for junior players in the Upper Loddon, which last season had a four-team junior competition.
ST ARNAUD Cricket Club has voted to join the Upper Loddon Cricket Association for the 2026-27 season.
Charlton Cricket Club is meeting tonight to consider the same move away from the Wimmera Mallee Cricket Association and is expected to make the same call as the Saints.
A third Wimmera Mallee club, Marnoo, will also decide before the end of the month whether to swap to the Upper Loddon competition.
St Arnaud president Jason Smith said the club’s decision on Monday night was made because of the opportunity offered for junior players in the Upper Loddon, which last season had a four-team junior competition.
He said St Arnaud juniors had played in a Donald Friday night competition and taken part in local skills and drills training, “but the kids want to play for a side”.
The Upper Loddon held a meeting last week to invite the three clubs to join the association, which has five senior teams as well as the four junior sides.
“It might seem like a spur of the moment decision to an outsider, but it has been in the back of our minds, and we have been unofficially speaking about what we need to do to get that link up between juniors and seniors,” Smith said.
At one point St Arnaud had an eight-team junior competition of its own, and as recently as the early 2000s was able to field a six-team league of 12 players each.
Smith said it had been eight years “since we have had anything meaningful for juniors in St Arnaud, and the comp was a bit of a shambles for a little bit”.
He said young cricketers either played for clubs elsewhere and went on to play senior cricket for those clubs, or they drifted into playing tennis.
“If you don’t have juniors, you won’t have seniors in five or 10 years’ time.”
All three clubs have agreed to decide on their futures and advise Upper Loddon officials by the end of June.
A meeting will then be held in mid-July to ratify the moves.
If the three all agree to transfer leagues, it raises serious questions about the Wimmera Mallee’s future, as it would be reduced to two teams on existing membership.
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