The Culture, People and Community Driving Gymea Bay Cricket Club

The culture behind that award has been built slowly and deliberately. Each season has added to it through visible leadership, shared responsibility and a strong focus on connection across the whole club. 

One of the strongest examples is the Club’s Friday night Cricket Blast program. For more than a decade, Friday nights at Gymea Bay have been a hub of activity. Families arrive early, BBQs are fired up, Cricket Blast participants rotate through stations run by junior players, and parents settle in on picnic rugs. Training for junior teams runs alongside, and across the evening there are hundreds of people at the oval. 

“It’s relaxed, it’s social, and it brings everyone together,” Club President Mark Lavendar said. “It’s a huge part of what our community program is about.” 

Importantly, it also teaches responsibility. This micro‑volunteering model helps young players understand early that cricket clubs rely on people, not just programs. Mark saw that pathway play out within his own family, as his son moved through Cricket Blast and embraced helping out as part of belonging to the club.   

Family connection is another defining feature. This season, 64 of the club’s 143 senior players were family members, including siblings and father‑son combinations. 

“Our coaches really help build that family dynamic as players move into senior cricket”. Mark said. “Many have played seniors themselves and actively encourage the transition, and seeing dads play alongside their sons has created a natural flow‑on for other families.” 

Club events have helped reinforce that connection. Events like T20 Australia Day intra-club gala days and Ashes Under the Stars have drawn large crowds back to the club. One night alone drew around 200 people back to the club, with juniors, seniors and families watching cricket together on a big screen hired out for the Brisbane Pink Test.  

“We also went out to Bradman Oval this year,” Mark said, with the club hosting an intra-club day, “It surprised me how many participants had never played on a turf wicket, let alone somewhere that special.” 

Player wellbeing has remained a priority alongside participation. After a run of back injuries, the club introduced injury prevention clinics that brought together multiple age groups. The sessions reinforced the message that development and care matter just as much as performance. 

Inclusion, particularly in girls’ cricket, has also been a focus. Many girls enter the club through Cricket Blast in friendship groups, easing their transition into Stage One teams. Strong role models have supported that pathway, including volunteers like Andrea Handley, who has guided players through juniors, supported nervous first‑time batters, and continues to score each week while supporting multiple generations of families. 

Volunteering at Gymea Bay is not driven by rigid roles. It is visible and cultural. Parents step in because they see others doing so. Young players help because it feels normal. 

“One of the players in my Under 16 team noticed during Ashes Under the Stars and just jumped on the BBQ because we were struggling. He’s the sort of kid who has come all the way through doing that micro volunteering on a Friday and felt right at home jumping in and helping out,” Mark said.   

Mark believes that happens through leading by example.  

“We roll our sleeves up and do it. People see that and they follow,” he said. 

For Mark, volunteering consistently gives back as much as it takes. The rewards are found in the connections formed and the pride shared across the club. 

“Every year there are little moments you take away,” Mark said. “People stopping to say thank you. Families telling you what the club means to them.” 

At the senior presentation night this season, he noticed the conversations were about community as much as cricket. That balance, he believes, captures what the club stands for. 

It is also a culture Mark has experienced firsthand. 

This season, the club’s Under 16A side won its first grand final in 30 years with a group of players Mark had coached for most of their junior journeys, including his own son. At an age where representative commitments often pull teams apart, this group chose to keep turning up for their club, and it showed in how they trained, competed and supported one another. There was a noticeable difference in their culture, and other clubs saw it too. 

“They just clicked. Not just on the field, but off it. No negativity, no rubbish. They’d sit together chatting away. You know how little kids sit really close on the floor? That’s what they were like,” Mark said.   

The experience was made more personal when his son missed the first half of the season with a stress fracture but continued to attend every week before returning later in the season and contributing strongly in the finals. 

“To watch him come back, overcome that and contribute the way he did… that made me very proud,” Mark said. 

The premiership itself was the only one Mark has won as a coach. The grand final still brings emotion, not so much because of the win, but because of the journey, the resilience, the connection, and the shared experience between players, families and coaches.  

In many ways, that season reflects what Gymea Bay Cricket Club continues to build. As the club celebrates its recognition as Community Club of the Year, Mark sees it as a reflection of that collective effort: a club built on people, connection and time given freely. 

Looking ahead, his focus remains on building what already works. More girls coming through, more role models stepping up, and more seasons like the one shared with that Under 16 team, moments that show exactly what community cricket is about.