He has plenty of memories of the cricket pitch at the Yallingup reserve, which was called the saucer because of its shape.

He honed his batting there, to the point that during his career he scored several centuries, with different associations at country week.

He laughs when he thinks of some of the incidents at the Yallingup ground.

“I can still remember old Cliff Riley. He used to throw his bat about half way up the hill every time he got out. He was never out!”

Tonight the council will be asked to consider a motion by Cr Anne Ryan to investigate acquiring the land from the Department of Environment and Conservation.

She believes it could be a valuable site for the Yallingup community to have under shire management, but wants community input on how the reserve could be used.

Aub and brother Barry, an MLC for the South West, believe it would be good for the community if the shire acquired the land and did something with it.

Their family farm used to be where Lamont’s restaurant is.

“I think I used to come here when I was about 10,” Aub said, inspecting the pitch last weekend. “So that’s about 60 years ago.

“It wasn’t only cricket, there was a lot of hockey and soccer played here in the early days.

“The hockey was pretty willing. Peppermint branches with a knob on the end were used as hockey sticks.

“The old pine tree is still there and everyone used to have afternoon tea under it.

“It was our home cricket ground but because of its saucer shape there was a move to have another ground, which was near the old rifle range on Caves Road.

“We all fundraised to clear it so we could have a flat ground. We cleared it, but that’s as far as it got.”

“At one time the Yallingup team was comprised of nine Houses and two others,” he said.

“We had a pretty fair cricket history in those days, but there’s not many of the next generation playing cricket now,” Barry said.

“There was a different competition before the current Busselton-Margaret River one. It comprised teams from as far as Hithergreen.”

Like Aub, he believes it should be used for community purposes.

“There isn’t anything in Yallingup. It wouldn’t cost a lot to get it up to some sort of suitability,” Aub said.

Cr Ryan said as well as being used for recreational purposes the reserve could be a community facility for such things as a farmers’ market.