Richard Tibbett is a local cricketing legend. 3556 Magazine student Alaric caught up with him to chat about his accomplishments.
Richard has lived in Eaglehawk for 28 years. It is safe to say he is a true-blue Burra boy!
He has been playing cricket for over 20 years after beginning his cricket career playing for our community when was around 13 or 14 years old.
Over the years, Richard has played a season with Richmond alongside Australian cricket stars Dan Christian and Cameron White; a few games for Footscray and even a season up in Rochester. Otherwise he has stayed close to home playing for the ‘burra.
Richard has had a number of grand final appearances. His first premiership was in 2007 for the Under 17s. He followed this up with an A-grade flag for the 2016/2017 season, with a number of finals appearances in between.
Richard has also represented Bendigo in the Melbourne Country Week competition, winning it in his first appearance for only the second time Bendigo has won since the 1950s.
He also recalls being lucky to get selected in the Victoria Country team. ‘I went down to one try-out session, where I only got to bowl three overs
before getting washed out. They still selected me pretty much off a whim.’ The Australian championships were played in Mandurah in Western Australia and Victoria finished runners-up. ‘From this tournament, I was
selected in the All-Australian Country XI and received my first baggy green cap’.
Richard went on to play for Victoria Country three times, recalling how amazing it was to play the third tournament in Bendigo ‘in front of
family and friends.’ He was also selected in the All-Australian Country XI a second time.
On reflecting on his greatest moments, Richard proudly stated that ‘winning the premiership in 2017 was the biggest highlight’ as ‘it had been a few years since we had won it and we had come so close many times. But all the memories are great. You see new places, meet new people, make new friends. They’re all great memories.’
Richard’s biggest influence is his dad. ‘He taught me all the basics: how to bowl, bat, field, catch, everything, from a young age. We’d spend hours in the backyard batting and bowling.’
Richard’s biggest cricketing influence would have to be Ricky Ponting, ‘he was my all-time favourite player’.
For our 3556 fans of cricket statistics, Richard’s best figures were 8 for 32 against reigning premiers Strathdale-Maristians in the 2012-2013 season. Over all he has taken over 250 wickets for the ‘burra including a hat-trick in 2016.
Richard’s final remarks were that of all the clubs he has played with,
‘Eaglehawk is my favourite. It is my home club and all my mates play there. I know a lot of Eaglehawk people and it is a great community and a great club. So, it is well and truly my most favourite place to play’.
If you see Richard out and about at all make sure you say g’day and wish him luck for this year’s upcoming season!
