Richie Wyld set out on a six-month adventure to Australia in 2001 aiming to also play some cricket. Plans, however, can go astray as it did for Richie when he fell in love with his now wife Chantelle and the Australian way of life, as he explained to PHIL KETTLE.
LITTLE did Richie Wlyd know as he boarded the plane bound for Australia that his life as he had known was about to change in a way that he could never have imagined.
The year was 2001 and it was suggested to Wlyd, then 18, by UK teammate and seasoned Mildura cricketer Ben Erskine, that he might like to play a season for Mildura Settlers Cricket Club.
With a passion for cricket, along with the chance to escape what would have been a very normal miserable English winter, Wild jumped at not only an opportunity to improve his cricket by playing on faster pitches, but the great adventure.
Wyld arrived in Mildura and took to what was for him an extremely hot climate like a duck to water, duck being a term that rarely ever gets used when speaking of his batting.
Wyld never had thought anything other than being in Australia for six months, then returning to England where hopefully he might have been able to play county cricket.
But as so often happens in life, fate intervened in the form of not one, but two beautiful young ladies.
“Mark Cleary, also a Settlers cricketer, had been playing cricket in the off season in the UK,” Wyld explained.
“Mark and I had met and become good mates. He told me that he was going to Adelaide where he had friends from the South Australian cricket team where he had played.
“While in Adelaide I had, by chance, met and spoken to a very beautiful young lady for a few moments.
“Not that long after that weekend in Adelaide I was at a wedding and couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw who I believed was the same beautiful girl.
“I thought, ‘it must be fate’ so making my way over to where she was standing, I smiled and said ‘hi’
“All I got back from her was a look of ‘who the heck are you?’
“Don’t you remember me from Adelaide?’’ I asked.
“She smiled, then laughed and said ‘I’m pretty sure that would have been my twin sister who lives in Adelaide’.”
Fate had changed Richard’s life, forever and for the better.
Richie and Chantelle were soon a permanent item and the idea of being anywhere else other than with her was never a thought.
Work was good, cricket was great and life was fantastic.
Of course, there were periods of time that Richie missed some of the things that he had grown up with. Village life where the centre of all community activities in small English villages is the pub.
But his parents had become regular visitors to Australia and the thought of ever living back in the UK were fading more and more as each day passed.
But that thought had to change as he needed a de-facto visa.
In 2004, Richard and Chantelle moved to the UK.
Richie played cricket again with Clifton until 2007 when they were able to return to Australia where he again started playing cricket with Setts.
Life was moving fast for Richard and Chantelle, and in 2011 their first child Milla was born.
They married the following year in 2012, the same date that they had met, in Phuket. And in 2013 their second child Ruby came into the world.
The proud Pom and new Aussie who continued to forge an outstanding cricket career for Mildura Settlers, is described by club president Greg Schultz as “an absolute godsend player, friend and all round good bloke”.
“Richie came to us from England in season 2001/02 and made an impact straight away,” he said.
“He played in our ever-so-close First Division losing grand final team that year and stated just after that, he would make it his goal to create a winning culture and dynasty for Mildura Settlers Cricket Club. And what a culture and dynasty he has created in his 22 years.”
Playing in 11 grand finals in 15 years, Wyld chalked up 10 First Division premierships of which he captained three.
He won three Innes Medals for the best player in the Sunraysia Cricket Association and was a keen advocate in representing Sunraysia at Melbourne Country week.
Wyld has been and continues to be a once in decades champion player for Mildura Settlers Cricket Club.
Off-field, Wyld has been involved in the club committee and has been a huge contributor in setting the family, winning and social culture of the club.
He has been club champion on many occasions, was named in the club’s team of the year at least 20 times and was named captain of the team of the decade (2000s) at the club’s 50-year reunion in 2021.
“Richie and his lovely wife (Chantelle) have together raised two beautiful daughters and has and will always make us and the Sunraysia community proud,” Schultz said.
“We are so pleased that he and his whole family have been such a huge part of the Mildura Settlers family.”
