The Dean of KilcundaBass

By Brad Kingsbury
DEAN Pipicelli is no stranger to success on the cricket field after being a part of many top sides in a long and illustrious WGCA career.
However, the KilcundaBass captaincoach rated Sunday’s victory over Nyora in the Bgrade grand final among his greatest achievements in cricket at any level.
“This is one of the biggest highlights of my career by a mile. I didn’t think there was another one coming,” he said amid the postmatch euphoria at Pakenham.
“These blokes have worked so hard over the past five years. There have been a lot of setbacks. We lost four finals series in a row, but we finally got over it in our fifth.”
“I’m just taking it all in at the moment,” he said.
Pipicelli said his side was always a chance with consistent bowlers Paul Matthews and Paul Cornelius able to master most batting attacks, but it was a big effort given Nar Nar GoonMaryknoll and Upper Beaconsfield were the star performers all season.
“We’ve come from nowhere really,” he said.
“We had plans set and we stuck by them in the semifinal and carried that on into this game.”
The KilcundaBass leader said that he thought his side had cracked Nyora early on, but was still wary given the nature of cricket.
“When they were three down after we had taken two of the best catches and there was a freakish runout, it just seemed to be our day at that stage. You never know in cricket, but I was confident in my bowlers,” he said.
Pipicelli said he would remain at the club next season, hopefully as coach, and would not be surprised if Nyora joined KilcundaBass in Agrade fairly quickly.
“I will be a part of it one way or another. I was coach this year, but realistically we had three or four coaches with the experience we’ve got,” he said.
“Nyora is a younger side than us and we were in their position four years ago. If their guys hang around and keep improving then they’ll be a force up in Agrade too.”