1st Grade vs Wests - Round 6 - 2011/12

We arrived to Pratten Oval on a picturesque summer's day with the magpies larking and the local shoppers pushing their trolleys through the thick outfield (amazing). After a few rounds ofT20 where we were largely unsuccessful, the 1st graders were keen to get back to winning ways.Stevey Colley

After welcoming back Blair “Beach runs are the best hangover cure” Lindsay to the side our stand in captain and King of the coast Iain Beverley won the toss and sent the home team into bat on a pitch that should give a little assistance to our 3/4 pronged pace attack (depending on the Reece’s Neck).

Steve Colley uses his feet to hit straight

The team motto to ‘out enthuse’ was evident from the get go with James "Contacts" Kennedy and Dan "Redbull Racing" Smith tying the batsmen down with nice line and length. Our first breakthrough came with “Better than what Reece can get” Kennedy bowling a strategic no ball to force a free hit. This free hit saw their opener smash a cover drive straight to Harry "Geoff's new In-law" Evans and take off resulting in both batsmen at one end. Cheers. 1/15 was soon 3/28 as Dan picked up 2 wickets with catches to Reece "the owl" Bombas (neck reference definitely not a nocturnal reference) and "fingers" Beverley. With tight bowling from Scott “How did I get stuck with him” Heaney and Elliot “Let me take over the decks” Richtor wickets just kept coming. Col Chipped in with what some would describe as ‘spinners’ wickets and we went on to dominate with the ball and in the field as we bowled the magpies out for 111 off 45 overs. A few special mentions need to go out to:

Elliot Richtor
  • Steve "this is what I would wear anyway" Colley's one handed pick up and throw with one stump to aim at run out. 
  • James "Geppetto" Packman obviously getting bored with the pace of the game and sitting on the fence and feeding Reece "Parrot" Bombas with some dreadful banter.

Elliot Richtor playing off the back foot
  • The tight bowling from our bowlers to restrict the Magpies to such a small total. 
  • The determination of ‘S. Undries’ to get Wests above 100 runs. 
  • The expert fielding to snag 3 run outs courtesy of Evans, Colley and Richtor. During our festivities at the Orchard later that night I heard many comments on these run outs including one from Dowsley commenting on the Chatswood update board “who is RO, he must have bowled well”.

Harry Evans

With the job half done myself and Greg "Six %" Lewis to get our run chase off to a good start with our first wicket falling at 42. With “The sitch” Lewis trying to up the run rate the game was always in our hands. Joined at the crease by "tip and run" Colley the objective now was to secure the bonus point.

Harry Evans playing through the covers

With the next two wickets falling on 74 (Eccles) and 90 (Evans) the bonus point was pretty much within our grasp. However 4 more wickets fell and the 30th over passed us by. 7/112 looks like the end score was close but it must be known that we were never in doubt. Highlights of our batting performance include:

  • “Retainer” Beverley bringing up the win with a crunching cover drive.
  • “Soft sand – No thanks” Eccles hitting a full toss on leg stump for six, free lessons will be given to anyone needing to learn especially any number 5 batsmen out there. 
  • James “can’t believe Heaney is behind me” Kennedy not batting. We don’t need that!
  • Harry “my chest is silky smooth” Evans finally getting out.

It’s a great feeling to be back on winning ways and even better to have 6 points in our pocket by 4pm.

Cam Eccles

 

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