3rd Grade Report vs Penrith - Round 12 |
Day 1 The Killara wicket has been reasonable to bowl on first over the last few weeks but with the extreme heat on Saturday, winner of the toss was always going to bat. The odds were stacked against us with Ed only winning 1 out of twelve tosses this season, not surprisingly Penrith won the toss and elected to bat. Pascal continues to contribute with bat and ball With the Stags bowling consistently although with some occasional short and wide crap, the batsmen steadied and moved to 2-120 at tea. After tea there were a few near things but unfortunately it wasn't our day and none came off. The two Penrith batsmen continued after tea and a very large score was on the cards before a couple of wickets had things looking up. Charlie Bangs (1-44) and Alex Lines (2-41) bowled well with good lines but not length. Ed, who had bowled only 2 overs before the break, began a long and successful spell where he took 5 wickets with his well-flighted offies, the action he got off Pat Symcox. He probably could have had 6-for if we took our catches. It was a long hot and frustrating day in the field, with Penrith finishing on 9-298. Pretty sure most of us don't want to relive it, so I don't have much more to say on day one, particularly as I wrote this report on Saturday night after spending the whole day in 49C. Day 2 Chasing a total like Penrith's has certainly been possible at Killara over the years. An hour or so after the beginning of play on Sunday saw the score at 6-38. With only Reg ('there's no better feeling than blocking a bloke for 6 balls in a row') managing to fight through the difficult period, it was not looking good. Then things went from bad to worse when Reg got unlucky and was declared out LBW for 20 off 200 balls, leaving the lower order with a lot of work left to do, particularly after a disappointing performance by the top 5. However, from adversity comes achievement when Pascal and Howitt got together to improve the situation. Batting very sensibly, they added 95 before rain and bad light saw players off the field for an extended period. As the rain started to fall and after having to do the covers numerous times, thanks to the cold southerly breeze (dearly missed on Saturday) we decided it was time to put our heads together and think of a new game to occupy our time in the sheds. Moments later Tait and Beverley came across a deck of cards, not just any cards, but Australian cricket player stats cards from 1994. So a new game began and within moments with the whole team getting involved with more enthusiasm than they'd mustered that weekend. Taity took the first game easily thanks to sneakily studying the cards before play commenced and of course making up the rules as he went along.
Charlie Bangs persists in the dreadful heat Also for the first time ever Pascal couldn't believe it when his hero leggie Warnie lost to Stuart MacGill, as he had a better bowling average than the great one. If there's any cricket memorabilia that MacGill owns it'll be those 1994 stats cards. As Henry came close to winning his first game the rain stopped and covers needed to be removed to continue our run chase. Howitt and Pascal went out needing 8 an over from the reduced 25 overs and added a total of 142 before Pascal was dismissed after yet another useful contribution of 52. Alex (sidekick9) Lines strode in looking good to his form in stick cricket on the iphone, while the skipper moved towards what might have been a memorable match for him ' 5-for and a ton. Unfortunately, he was dismissed for a fantastic 88, Alex then deciding that he could get 15 an over instead of playing out 7overs for the draw, which lead to the final 2 wickets crumbling soon after. This saw the Stags falling 84 runs short of Penrith's total being all out for 215. A very disappointing outcome for the Stags, which means we now have to win our remaining 3 games to make finals. Perhaps we should look no further than the determined manner in which our skipper approaches the game or maybe just play 1994 cricket stats trivia instead. Tjaard Tait |
Third Grade vs Penrith
That was also the last time he scored that day, going on to get his first ever duck at Gordon. Henry was a standout finishing in second place every time, and second behind Tait for a TFC award. The remainder of the players had one win each after realising that Shane Watson is the worst player in the deck with Alan Border being ten times better than the kid who gets his medal, but I suppose they were from 1994. We can safely say that it will be called the Watto medal soon.
