Graeme Way

Well before scores were available through online results vaults and Twitter delivered instant updates, there was only one way to keep abreast of Dandenong’s fortunes in District/Premier Cricket if you were unable to get to the ground. You rang Shepley Oval on 9793 1546 and went straight through to scoreboard attendant Graeme Way.

“Dandenong,” he would answer every time, almost in a whisper. Then the details would come: the score, the overs, the batsmen out and the wicket-takers. There was no small talk; he avoided it as a sandal does puddles.

Graeme Way operated the scoreboard at Shepley for so many years that he assumed the permanence of the Frank Storan pavilion, the upper seats of which he stood on as he chopped and changed the metal plates. He missed nothing. “Often the scorers would look across to Graeme’s board just to make sure their books were right,” Dandenong president Michael Findlay said. “He had his systems down pat and they hardly let him down.”

Way also worked in the canteen and social rooms, where he liked to sip at a can of beer and take in the discourse of the day’s events, happier to listen than contribute to the conversation, but welcome in everyone’s company.

Graeme Way’s death at age 75 on January 2 took from Dandenong Cricket Club a dedicated and diligent volunteer and a life member (granted in 1975, when it was affiliated with the sub-district competition). He was just as avid in his support of the late, lamented Dandenong Football Club, where he acted as Treasurer for many years. Shepley Oval was very much his second home.

Findlay said Way delighted in the Panthers’ premiership victories in 2007 and 2011 and was a quiet financial supporter of the club. “For the past few years he has matched our club championship points, dollar for point, and would never accept a shirt or ticket unless we took full payment,” he said.

“Graeme never played for Dandenong, but will be remembered by many of us as one of the greats of the club and was inducted as a Club legend alongside our playing greats. Certainly he enjoyed his time at the club watching the action on the field and the by-play in the social rooms, but he also made a vital contribution to our success.” A funeral service was held at the Shepley Oval social rooms.