Comerford hits his peak as a master

By Marc McGowan
OFFICER resident Steven Comerford has just returned from the Australian Masters Championships in Perth, where he has captained the Victorian indoor cricket side to a runnerup finish.
“We played 11 games in six days – it was pretty intense,” Comerford, 39, said.
It was Comerford’s second successive appearance in the over35s tournament after playing indoor cricket locally for 20 years. He puts his recent success down to a switch of local clubs.
“I used to play for Dandenong until they closed down,” he said. “I play for Knox now and the state coach (Ross Gregory) is also the coach at Knox.
“They have a lot of representative cricketers there and it just gave me a better opportunity to make the side.”
It was not just a matter of playing under the state coach for Comerford, though, evidenced by his win in Knox’s bestandfairest last year in indoor cricket’s major league.
Every player is required to be an allrounder in indoor cricket but, on top of his batting and bowling duties, he is also the wicketkeeper, a role he has carried on from his outdoor cricket days in the Box Hill Reporter McIntosh Shield.
Indoor cricket has eight players per side and each innings is 16 overs. Players bat in pairs for four overs each, regardless of whether they are dismissed. Each dismissal results in a fiverun loss to the batting team. Each player is required to bowl two overs.
The scoring results from normal running between wickets, but there are bonus runs added for hitting different parts of the surrounding net. These range from one bonus run (for hitting a side net) to six bonus runs (for hitting the back net on the full).
Victoria’s impressive run for the national title was halted by whitehot Queensland, which has emerged victorious in 12 of the past 14 years.
“Queensland beat us pretty easily,” Comerford said. “They are a very good side.”
It was a major improvement on Victoria’s performance from last year, where they finished secondlast out of the six competitors.
It has left Comerford, a production manager at a rubber company, dreaming of higher honours.
“The Australian team goes to South Africa next year and I would love to make that,” he said. “I’ll just keep training hard and just keep doing what I do.”
He does not plan on retiring from indoor cricket any time soon.
“I’ll go on as long as I can – you can play over40s,” Comerford said. “I love the speed of the game and it keeps me fit.”