Marist Cricket Carnival 2024

Beginnings
Marcellin Champagnat was born in 1789. He was a country boy from a small French hamlet called Le Rosey in the hilly country to the southwest of Lyon. Marcellin was a raw-boned country lad, somewhat reserved but generally frank and open with people, not overly literate but well skilled as a handyman, and well-schooled in religious practice. A Priest of the diocese visited the Champagnat family home to seek likely young men to become priests. The idea appealed to Marcellin, and he decided to accept the advice. He was ordained a priest in 1816.

Marcellin was part of a group that wanted to start a new order in the church. The new order was called Marists. Marcellin saw fit to stress the need to provide Brothers who would instruct the neglected youngsters of rural areas. This work was so dear to his heart that the group entrusted its future to him. Marcellin, whilst attending to a dying youth, realised that some young people knew nothing about the truths of the faith. It was here that two young men responded to his proposal, so he bought a house. Work, study and prayer were the daily routine and from this modest beginning the first Marist schools emerged.

Marist Schools in Australia
The first Marist Brother ever to set foot on Australian soil was Brother Michael Colombon, who was trained by Marcellin Champagnat in France. He arrived in Sydney on 9 December 1837. It would be 35 years later, after numerous requests, that the first community of Marist Brothers was established at Harrington Street in the Rocks, the poorest part of Sydney. After the Brothers had begun their work in Sydney, there were requests from other parts of Australia, especially Victoria, for Marist Brothers to take charge of schools. Education in the Marist traditional has flourished with over 50 schools in the Marist Schools Australia network.

History of the Marist Cricket Carnival
The concept of Marist Schools across Australia meeting annually on the cricket field was born from an idea tossed around between Br Jordan Redden (Sacred Heart College, Somerton Park) and Tony Lantry (St Joseph’s College, Hunters Hill) as they sampled some of the “spirit of the Institute” in Adelaide in 1973. A love of both the Marist traditions and the game of cricket, prompted the use of the second of these to further the ideals of the first. And so, from humble beginnings at Hunters Hill in 1974, where Sacred Heart College Adelaide, Assumption College Kilmore and Marcellin College Bulleen joined the host in a round robin of matches leading to a final, the carnival grew to maturity, attaining its twenty-first birthday in Adelaide in 1994. Along the way, St Patrick’s Sale replaced Kilmore in 1975, then Marist College Ashgrove, Marist College Canberra and Newman College Perth joined the others in Adelaide in 1976 and set the pattern for many years.

The original concept was to expose our boys to the wider Marist community - to help them remove school or state blinkers and see there are schools, Brothers, lay staff and boys just like them, with the same ideals and background, and steeped in the same Marist spirit and tradition, in places right across the nation; to have our boys meet other Marists on and off the cricket field; to provide an opportunity for boys, staff and families to make friends across the nation; to involve parents as workers and supporters; in short, to promulgate and strengthen the Marist message. The change from boarding school accommodation at the first two carnivals to the billeting of players by local Marist families thereafter helped realise another of the original goals, visiting boys and hosting families forging life-long friendships. Unfortunately, in early 2019, Marist Schools Australia decided that billeting at the carnivals was to end.

Following the 21st carnival in Adelaide, the Principals of the participating schools paid the carnival and its supporters the greatest compliment when they decided it was so worthwhile it should be offered to all Marist Schools in Australia and New Zealand. By the 1995 carnival, expressions of interest from 18 schools developed into firm commitments from 12; and from 1996, two carnivals were held in different states each January, catering for a progressive mix of the twelve schools until 2001. From 2002, an additional 4 schools joined the two carnivals. A committed 17 schools made up the draws from the 2009-2014 carnivals, with three venues each year catering for six schools at each Carnival. This allowed for the inclusion of an 18th school as an invitee.

From 2015 we welcomed the inclusion of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart College Alice Springs, St Augustine’s College Cairns, and St Mary’s High School Casino on a permanent basis and in addition, Trinity College Beenleigh. This meant that a new format was developed involving three pools, two having seven teams and one pool of six teams. In 2017, two new schools joined the carnival, St Francis Xavier College Newcastle and Marist College Bendigo. With some withdrawals, the Carnivals accommodated 20 schools with two pools of 6 teams and one pool of eight teams.

Unfortunately, billeting of players with Marist families ceased in 2019. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, no Carnivals were held in 2020 and 2021. As such, the 48th carnival was delayed until 2022.

In 2024, the 50th Marist Cricket Carnivals are being hosted by St Joseph’s College Hunters Hill and Lavalla Catholic College Traralgon. This has seen the introduction of a division system to ensure flexibility of participation for colleges with smaller cricket programs, and to better match the quality and equity of the cricket played across the carnivals. Two boy’s carnivals incorporating eight teams in each carnival will be held this year. In addition, the first trial of a girls’ carnival involving four school’s will be held in Traralgon this year, an exciting time in the development of the Marist Cricket Carnivals program.

From humble beginnings, the Marist Cricket Carnival has certainly flourished and come of age. It has far exceeded the expectations of our co-founders when the first carnival was held in 1974.