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The 1980s
Officials, players, members and/or supporters first noted in this decade
Kevin Barge, Nick Bartels, Richard Borghesi (Capt. 1997/98, wicketkeeper, Premiership player 1986/87, 89/90 & 96/97), James “Tappy” Brown (Premiership player 1989/90), Tim Cosgrave (Premiership player 1984/85, 86/87 & 89/90), Matthew Dalton (Premiership player 1989/90), Bill Denton, John Dillon, Anthony Duggan, Joe Forrest (Premiership player 1986/87, 89/90 & 96/97), John Gibson, Chris Gleeson S.J., Steve Gorman, J. Grenville, Bernard Heaphy (Premiership player 1986/87,89/90 & 96/97), Damien Honan, Paddy Hoppe, David Jordan, Maurie King (Premiership player 1984/85), John McEncroe, Andy Maizels, Hugh Martin, Simon Martin (Premiership player 1986/87), Steve Millard, Ed Northam (Premiership player 1989/90), Carl Nunan (Premiership player 1984/85,86/87, 96/97 & 2000/01), David O’Shaughnessy (Premiership player 1984/85, 86/87 & 89/90), Mal Perriam (Premiership player 1984/85), Brendan Prowse, Peter Prowse (Premiership player 1986/87), Fabian Purcell, Brendan O’Sullivan, Damian O’Sullivan (Premiership player 1984/85). John O’Sullivan (wicket-keeper), Adam Trescowthick, Frank Veber, Craig Veljkovic, ? Waters, Peter Webb (Premiership player 1986/87), Mark Woodruff (Premiership player 1984/85).

1980/81
Captain: Gavan Woodruff.

Averages/aggregates (if known):
Batting: Peter Howard (32.00).
Other batting Brian Smith (26.59)
Ed Borghesi 24.25.
Bowling: Chris Ley 13.39.
Other bowling: John Nicholson (17.85)
Brian Smith (18.75).

1981/82

1982/83
Captain: David O’Shaughnessy.

The Club rose to seventh with 6 wins from 12 games, the credit for the rise given to our younger players.

Averages/aggregates (if known):
Batting: Ed Borghesi (42.9).
Bowling: Paul Bendall (13 @ 13.7).

Highlights
Paul Bendall: 6/35 v. Old Trinity.
Paul Bendall: 7/37 v. Old Haileybury (OH).
David O’Shaughnessy: 129 runs v. Hawthorn-East Melbourne (“HEM”).

Partnerships:
185 runs - David O’Shaughnessy & Ed Borghesi v. HEM.
103 runs (unbeaten) - David Jordan (73 runs not out) & Anthony Borghesi (38 runs not out) v. OH.

Ed Borghesi: 3 unbeaten innings of 60 runs, 83 runs and 63 runs v. MCC “C”, HEM and St, Kilda respectively, and, another 61 runs v. Old Scotch.
Damien O’Sullivan 86 runs v. Old Camberwell.

The School defeated the Club. It was intended to re-instate the game against the School to an annual event.

A traveling party of 27 played two unsuccessful games on the field against the OLs but Leo Borghesi reported in the “Xavier News” that it was heard “through the grape vine” that more encouraging results were achieved at popular establishments in Launceston and Hobart (and probably not for the first time on these events, home or away)..

1983/84
Captain: David O’Shaughnessy.

A further rise in the Club’s fortunes resulted in 7 wins and it narrowly missed the finals. The team was now described as a younger one. Particular reference was made to the drive and enthusiasm of David O’Shaughnessy, Paul Bendall and Ed Borghesi

Averages/aggregates (if known):
Batting: David O’Shaughnessy 427 @ 42.7.
Paul Bendall 280 @ 35.0.
Mark Woodruff 231 @ 28.8.

Bowling: John Zachariah 11 @ 11.54 (52 overs).
Tim Cosgrave 14 @ 15.42 (73).
Carl Nunan 21 @ 18.44 (123).
Paul Bendall 18 @ 18.52 (107).

Highlights:
David O’Shaughnessy won the MCC Club XI batting aggregate and average.
First wicket record partnership - 229 runs - David O’Shaughnessy & Paul Bendall (including innings of 131 runs to Paul Bendall and 93 runs to David O’Shaughnessy: v. Hawthorn-East Melbourne..
Paul Bendall: 6/47 v. Old Haileybury.
Carl Nunan: 6/57 v. Old Caulfield.

Sufficient numbers were recruited to field 3 teams in matches at the School, one against the School and two against the OLs. The School had a resounding win but the Club defeated the OLs’ Firsts and “Gentlemen’s” Elevens. This was the 24th. annual OLs’ event.

At the beginning of the season, a motion was passed to award Life Membership to Bill Carroll, a decision which was to be repeated at the beginning of the 1996/97 season, presumably to ensure that the actual award had not been overlooked on this occasion.

1984/85 - The First Premiership Season
Captain: David O’Shaughnessy

The Premiership team and Grand final contributions
Scores: Old Scotch Blues 153 (all out) v. OXCC: 8/276.

BATTING
Mal Perriam 12
Mark Woodruff 6
Maurie King 4
David O’Shaughnessy 105
Jim Dwyer 3
Damian O’Sullivan 22
Tim Cosgrave 0
Paul Bendall 15
Carl Nunan 73 not out
Ed Borghesi 7 not out
John Zachariah (did not bat).
Extras 25
8/276

BOWLING
Maurie King 2/22
David O’Shaughnessy 1/28
Tim Cosgrave 2/42
Carl Nunan 1/39
John Zachariah 4/9

Averages/aggregates (if known):
Club Champion and Premiership captain: David O’Shaughnessy
Bowling: John Zachariah.

Highlights:
Success this season was due to excellent fielding of a remarkably young team (in terms of the recent OXCC past, all but two well under 30 years of age), the all-round batting and bowling performances of the captain, the consistently strong batting of Jim Dwyer, Mark Woodruff, Mal Perriam and Maurie King, and, the depth of bowling of John Zachariah, Carl Nunan, Paul Bendall, Tim Cosgrave and Maurie King. Only one loss was suffered and that in the last home and away game.
Jim Dwyer: a century v. Old Melburnians.
David O’Shaughnessy: 81 runs in Semi-Final v. Old Camberwell.
David O’Shaughnessy: 105 runs in Grand Final v, Old Scotch.
Carl Nunan: Unbeaten 73 runs in less than one hour in Grand Final resulting in Old Scotch conceding the premiership to OXCC after the second of the three days scheduled for the game ­ Scores: 153 v. 8/276.

Bowling partners:
In the Semi-Final v. Old Camberwell - Carl Nunan (4/50) & David O’Shaughnessy (3/45).
In the Grand Final v. Old Scotch ­ John Zachariah (4/9 off 10 overs) & Maurie King (2/22)

1985/86
The Club finished the season in the finals but a drawn semi-final saw the Club eliminated by Old Wesley (“OW”) with the Club reaching 8/208, including an undefeated ninth wicket partnership of 65 runs between Peter Prowse (24 of his 27 runs not out) and Bernard Heaphy (42 not out) in chasing OW’s score of 6/249. OW had also defeated the Club narrowly earlier in the season.

Highlights:
The match v. Old Scotch
Jim Dwyer’s big (and probably the best) double performance for the Club:: an unbeaten 198 runs & 7/18 (10.2 overs) v. Old Scotch. His innings included 2 partnerships exceeding 100 runs. His contributions were: Fourth wicket partnership: Dwyer 52 of the 111 runs added with John O’Sullivan (56 runs) & Eighth wicket partnership: Dwyer 111 runs of the unbeaten 153 runs added with Ed Borghesi (40 not out).
Old Scotch was dismissed for 86 runs chasing the Club’s 7/359. Their innings included 2 run-outs and a wicket to Tim Cosgrave.
David O’Shaughnessy: 153 runs v. Old Trinity and 132 runs v. Old Melburnians
Paul Bendall 6/35, Maurie King 52 not out & David O’Shaughnessy 33 not out v. another Old Scotch team.
Carl Nunan 70 not out and Maurie King 47 not out v. OW in the season proper. They shared an unbeaten fourth wicket partnership of 113 runs with contributions of 70 and 40 respectively.
Maurie King: 61 runs v. Hawthorn-East Melbourne.
Fifth wicket partnership: 106 runs ­ David O’Shaughnessy (72 of his 132 runs) & Tim Cosgrave (31 of his 46 runs) in the win over OMs (9/269 to 184 all out).
Bowling partners: Carl Nunan (5/58) & Bernard Heaphy (3/29) in that match.

Eighth wicket partnership: 58 runs ­ Ed Borghesi (34 runs of his 36) & Bernard Heaphy (22 runs)v. Old Haileybury

1986/87 - The Second Premiership Season
Captain: Tim Cosgrave.

Success this season came despite a turnover of players in the last two years. Of the players who represented the Club in the 1984/85 Grand Final, only 5 appeared in this year’s premiership team ­ O’Shaughnessy, Cosgrave, Nunan, Ed Borghesi and Zachariah. The new faces in the team were Peter Webb, Peter Prowse, Simon Martin, Joe Forrest, Bernard Heaphy and Richard Borghesi (the youngest of Leo’s three sons to represent the Club).

On reaching the final four, the semi-finals played were:
Old Melburnians (“OMs”) v. Richmond, and, OXCC v. MCC “C”.

As a result of the washout of the first day’s play, these matches proceeded as one day games, a fact of which Richmond’s captain was unaware. As the lower finishing of the two sides, he thought that his side needed to win the game outright whereas in fact any win would have sufficed. Richmond declared at 0/0 and basically handed the game to the OMs. The Club won the other semi-final ­ OXCC 8/129 v. MCC “C” 9/117. The game had its heated moments with the opposition’s appeal for obstructing the field when it alleged that a call of “drop it” by a batsman caused the very same to happen. There was also a collision or “steamrolling” involving David O’Shaughnessy and Josephenson of the Cs.

Premiership victory over Old Melburnians ­
Scores: OMs 201(all out) v. OXCC 9/202.
The opposition’s total was kept in check by the tight bowling of 104.1 overs (33 maidens) at less than two runs per over. This is shown in the following returns:

BOWLING (O-M-W-R)
Peter Webb: 20-5-2-44
Carl Nunan: 15-2-0-34
David O’Shaughnessy: 15-6-1-37
Tim Cosgrave: 6 -4-0-8
Bernard Heaphy: 19.1-9-5-23
John Zachariah: 27-7-1-42
Simon Martin: 2-0-0-2
Extras: 11
201

BATTING
David O’Shaughnessy 75
Peter Webb 8
Peter Prowse 36
Carl Nunan 9
Simon Martin 9
Joe Forrest 14
Tim Cosgrave 29 not out
Ed Borghesi 1
Bernard Heaphy 4
Richard Borghesi 7
John Zachariah 2 not out
Extras 8
9/202

Victory was not attained without a great deal of drama as the team collapsed from 1/107 to be 8 wickets down with 38 runs for victory. The target was reached on the back of arguably Tim Cosgrave’s best innings (29 not out) if not highest score for the Club. He required the support and determined defence of Richard Borghesi (7 runs) and John Zachariah (2 runs not out) in partnerships of 22 and 19 runs respectively for the ninth and last wickets. According to Tim, this was John Zachariah’s first bat for the season, hence the tension, if not high anxiety and lack of confidence in there being a favourable result until Tim hit the winning boundary.

Averages/aggregates (if known):
Batting: David O’Shaughnessy: 83.00.
Five other players averaged over 30 runs per innings (Peter Prowse 47, Simon Martin and Peter Webb 36, Carl Nunan 35 and Ed Borghesi 33).

Bowling:
The main wicket takers were Peter Webb with 17, John Zachariah 12, Bernard Heaphy 9 and Carl Nunan 8.

Highlights:
David O’Shaughnessy (75 runs) & Peter Prowse (36) v. Old Melburnians in the GF.
David O’Shaughnessy (107 runs), J. Grenville (51) & Peter Prowse (44) v. O W.
David had another substantial score during the season ­ 97 runs (opponent?).

Carl Nunan: A top score of 35 runs to get the team over the line v. MCC “C” in the Semi-Final, reduced to a one-day game due to rain (8/129 v 9/117). He took 3/30 in that game with Bernard Heaphy 3/40 and Peter Webb 2/18.
Carl also scored an unbeaten 127 runs, in an earlier game against MCC “C”. It helped the team overtake a score of 328 on the Motel oval.

Peter Webb’s double: 84 runs and 6/53 v. HEM.
Bernard Heaphy: 5/38 v. University.

1987/88
Averages/aggregates (if known):
Batting: Mark Woodruff 332 @ 36.88.
Other batting: David O’Shaughnessy 275 @ 34.37, Richard Barghesi 161 @ 23.00, Joe Forrest 113 @ 22.60 & Ed Borghesi 110 @ 22.00.

Bowling: John Zachariah 37 @ 11.64.
Other bowling: Bernard Heaphy 18 @ 18.44, David O’Shaughnessy 15 @ 19.80 & Tim Cosgrave 8 @ 18.87.

Highlights:
Reigning Premiers, Old Wesley, defeated, 106 to 2/107 with David O’Shaughnessy 61 (and a wicket) and John Zachariah 9/37.
Defeated Old Scotch Reds: 143 to 4/146 with John Zachariah (7/27) and Mark Woodruff (53 runs)..
Mark Woodruff: Two other scores of 63 and 82 runs (opponents not named).
Richard Borghesi: a score of 50 runs (opponents not named).
David O’Shaughnessy: Two other scores of 52 and 69 runs (opponents not named).
Bernard Heaphy: an innings return of 5/61 (opponents not named).

1988/89
The Club won 6 games and lost 4 games (3 wash-outs). It finished sixth. The lack of success was in part due to a lack of depth resulting from reduced numbers. David O’Shaughnessy left the Club for sub-district ranks, Last year’s winners of the batting and bowling figures, Mark Woodruff and John Zachariah, were incapacitated for significant parts of the season. David and Mark were the Club’s major run scorers in recent seasons.

Averages/aggregates (if known):
Batting:
Joe Forrest 420 runs and Ed Borghesi 275 runs for the season.

Bowling:
Bernard Heaphy took 34 wickets and Carl Nunan 26 wickets for the season.

Highlights:
First wicket partnership: 168 runs ­ Peter Webb & Richard Borghesi.v. MCC”A”.
Peter Webb: 115 not out v. MCC “A”.
Richard Borghesi 68 runs v. MCC”A”.
Joe Forrest: 75 not out v. Old Scotch Blues, 82 runs v. Richmond Club XI & 53 runs v. MCC “C”.
Ed Borghesi: 66 runs v. Old Caulfield & 73 runs v, Richmond.
Carl Nunan: 5/31 v. University & 7/39 v. Old Scotch Reds.
Bernard Heaphy: 5/17 v. Old Caulfield & 5/35 v. Old Haileybury.
James Brown: Two 4 wicket hauls v. Old Scotch Reds.
John Zachariah: 5/46 (from 36 overs) v. Old Wesley.

1989/90 - The Third Premiership Season
A premiership won from fourth position, defeating Old Wesley (“OW”) in a hard fought match. Batting first, the Club scored 246 runs all out. OW were dismissed for 213 runs with Bernard Heath cleaning up the tail with 3/8 off his last 7 over. The President also concluded his report to the “Xavier News” with a special mention for Ed Northam who supported his captain with 2 magnificent catches at second slip, “significant catches in any standard of cricket”.

The Grand Final team:
Ed Northam (7 runs), Richard Borghesi (57), Joe Forrest (15), Peter Webb (45), David O’Shaughnessy (68), Tim Cosgrave, Matt Dalton (16), Bernard Heaphy (captain), James Brown, Ed Borghesi, John Zachariah.

Averages/aggregates (if known):
Batting: Special mention was made of the contributions of Peter Webb, David O’Shaughnessy, Ed Northam, Joe Forrest, Matt Dalton, Ed and Richard Borghesi

Bowling efforts were well spread with special mentions to Bernard Heaphy and James Brown (particularly for their combined performances in the finals), John Zachariah (27 wickets for the season), John McEncroe, Peter Webb, Ed Northam and Richard Borghesi, all well supported by their fielders.

Highlights:
David O’Shaughnessy, showing continued excellent form in finals: 68 runs v. OW in the Grand Final.
Richard Borghesi: 57 runs & 2/17 v. OW in the Grand Final.
Peter Webb: 45 runs v. OW in the Grand Final.
Peter Webb: 52 runs v. Old Camberwell in the Semi-Final.
Peter Webb: An unbeaten 69 runs v. Old Haileybury (“OH”).
Ed Northam: 52 v. OH.
Bowling partners: Bernard Heaphy 6/21 & James Brown 4/25 v. Old Camberwell in the Semi-Final (with another 7 wickets between them in the Grand Final).

The Club had two undefeated centurians in the annual match v. OLs ­ Ed Borghesi 102 runs and Peter Webb 101 runs.