Allan Hobley, who brought the Nyabing club back to life, named WA Cricket’s junior community coach of the year

Allan Hobley has been named the junior coach of the year at the WA Cricket Community Awards after bringing his local club in Nyabing back from a long hiatus. Dormant for 38 years, Nyabing is now in radiant health with an under-13 team playing in the Great Southern Cricket Association’s junior competition. Third in the ladder in their first season, they won six of their 12 matches, a super achievement for a mixed side which had been playing kids’ Cricket Blast until donning pads and helmets this season. He was presented with his award at a ceremony at the WACA in Perth on March 23. Hobley, a grain and sheep farmer, had been running the juniors for two years but it was Jarrod Hansen, the WACA’s Great Southern co-ordinator, who suggested the talented youngsters on the Blast program could make the step up from the scheme designed for the under-10s. Hobley said there had been no real pathway for Nyabing cricketers, so he got a group of parents together and decided to give it a go. “Jarrod had said there were some talented kids, so we had a meeting as a community and decided to give it a crack,” he said. “The oval was dead, but we got the shire involved and it’s looking green again; we had to get uniforms, do logos and get all the admin sorted. “That’s about the guts of it, and away we went.” The first training sessions did not go terribly well, according to Hobley, a self-taught backyard-come-country-week cricketer himself. “The first one was a disaster,” he laughed. “It was their first time in pads and helmets and playing with a hard ball. “We had kids tripping over the pads and getting hit with the ball, but we entered the competition and did pretty well.” The under-13 league is one of the Great Southern Cricket Association’s competitions. Nyabing’s third-place finish put them behind champions Kojonup and then Broomehill-Tambellup, but ahead of Katanning and Gnowangerup. Although it was Hobley who won the award, he paid tribute to the parents and volunteers who helped bring the team to fruition. “The other clubs all had their teams, so they didn’t really need us – and it would have meant covering vast distances to play,” he said. “But now we’re able to provide a bit of a pathway, or an outlet, for kids from Pingrup and Newdegate as well as Nyabing. “The kids are so excited, it is great for them, but it couldn’t have happened without the parents and helpers. “Everyone chips in to make it happen.” The young side, which included Hobley’s two daughters, should prosper again as hardly any have reached Year 6. Meanwhile, the Cricket Blast program will continue, and for the first time in nigh on 40 years, the talented kids of Nyabing will have a path to follow. The Nyabing Junior Cricket Club was also a finalist in the country cricket club of the year category. Albany Sharks made the shortlist for the Inclusion and Diversity Award while Albany and Districts Women’s Cricket was a finalist in the Growing Cricket for Women and Girls Award.