DEAN Arnott has spent a lot of his summers playing cricket for Colts in the Horsham Cricket Association – and even after 44 years in the game, he is still going strong.
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At school he had always showed interest in sport in general and it was as a 10 year-old that he decided to try his hand at cricket.
“I was about half the height of all the other kids because there was only an under-16 competition at that stage,” he said. “Colts had two teams and they were coached by a fantastic coach by the name of Phil Lienert.”
Lienert continued to have a big influence on Arnott as a PE teacher at Horsham Technical college.
Arnott said his passion for cricket stemmed from Lienert’s passion as a coach.
“He’s someone I credit as being the main reason that I got to the level I did when I was playing,” he said. “And that’s something I’ve told him a few times.”
Arnott had to wait almost 30 years to win his first premiership with Colts when the side claimed the 2002-03 A Grade premiership.
He said he played in more than 10 grand finals before finally breaking through for a win.
“I then gave the game away for about half the season and had supposedly retired but I came back for the second half of 2003-04,” he said.
“My son (Dylan) had started playing at that point and that’s basically the reason why I have kept playing to this day.
Every time I walk on to a field and he’s out there with me, it just puts a massive smile on my face.”
The pair played together in a B Grade premiership for the club in 2016-17 and Arnott said it was a special moment.
“To see the smiles on the faces of the rest of my teammates was great, but to see the smile on the face of my son was incredible,” he said.
“There were players in that team who celebrated that win for three days. At Colts we really celebrate and do things together as a team.”
Arnott said most of his best memories centred around the people he had played with during his career.
Rick Schirmer, Linton Burton and Brad Millar stood out as players he particularly enjoyed playing alongside.
“There are so many players that you play with over the space of your career,” he said
“It is fantastic when you have played with people you might not have seen for a long time.”
He said playing alongside players he coached in the past allowed him to reflect on his time in the game.
“When I play alongside them now in our team now I sometimes stop to think about how I helped them out and taught them things to hopefully make them better player,” he said.
While team success eluded Arnott at a club level he was proud to captain the under-21 Horsham Cricket Association team to a premiership in the Hopper-Crisp inter-association tournament.
He said getting the opportunity to play in premierships alongside players such as Paul Morgan and Steve Harvey as well as David and Barry Hopper in the Lehmann-Fairburn was also special.
“Just to stand on the same field as those legends of the association was a really good opportunity,” he said.
After a number of seasons without a junior side in the Horsham Cricket Association competition, the club returned to action by fielding an under-12 side for 2017-18.
Arnott said it was great to see young players involved at the club again.
“There only really young but a number of those players were able to play in our senior teams during the year,” he said.
“We’re really happy, just as other clubs are, to give those juniors a chance to play alongside the adults.
“They are treated really well here.
“It’s also really great to see that five of the juniors were girls because we’d love to see opportunities grow for them as well.”