3rd Grade vs Wests - Round 6 - 2011/12 |
We arrived at Blick Oval at or before 9am, with the exception of Ian Higgins who arrived 30 minutes after the recommended arrival time, to be greeted by a flat pitch with not one blade of grass showing. This was not the case across the road at Canterbury Boys High school, where it was noted a 8/10 snipping job was completed recently by Julian Stephenson on behalf of Envirolands. Hoppa getting on the umpires good sideA little more attention to detail and I am sure this grading will reach the level of those great snippers who have gone before him. Talking of Jules, after being selected in 3rd grade for this round, he pulled up lame again after our Thursday training session and was a late withdrawal. The club looks forward to the time he is able to string together two games in a row, however this may mean he misses the following 6 games. He did make an effort to get to Blick and every time he moved without incident we breathed a sigh of relief. We welcomed 3rd grade debutants Retallick and Perry and watched in awe as James Kidd stuffed up our catching warm up with poor throws and dolly droppings on a consistent basis. The man with the hair - Pat at the bowling creasePerry and Livermore ensured the Stags got off to a steady start, with the loss of Perry seeing Turner enter the fray. Harry (72) was the rock of our innings and ensured we reached a competitive 6/206 after the 50 overs. Chris Retallick, Adam Cubbage, Ed Howitt and Damon Livermore also made some valuable, smaller contributions against one of the better 3rd grade attacks going around. Missy Higgins was again given out LBW and again he was sure he had hit it. Turner wasn't so sure about that, but did think the decision was a little unfair. The lunch break saw people scurry off in all directions trying to find a feed. Unfortunately, nobody had success and a lesson was learnt for people to bring there own lunch to away fixtures. Howitt Senior was prepared and brought his lunch, of which he left half of his pickles on the floor of the dressing room. He did forget his mobile again and he was not looking forward to fronting his wife after a day of messages were sent to him by the likes of Wilson, Stephenson and Falk. 
West's started their run chase well and were soon 0/50 after just 12 overs. Some good batting some less than convincing bowling at times saw the stags behind the eight ball. The introduction of the skipper brought almost immediate success, however wickets were hard to come by and the magpies grinded away toward their target. 72 and 3 wickets was a good individual performance for Harry TurnerHarry Turner (3/35) was introduced into the attack and his 2nd over saw two wickets fall and a sniff of victory was in the air. Although Howitt (3/18) managed to pick up a couple more wickets, we were unable to prevent an opposition victory and they passed our total with 3 balls to spare. Unfortunately, a few elementary errors at the back end of the game when the pressure was on did not help our cause, but were not to blame for the loss. Some loose bowling at times and the loss of wickets when partnerships were beginning to assert some authority did not help.We played pretty well against a fairly handy team. However, another loss and we are back in the pack and need a victory soon. I hope we don't see a repeat of last season where we lost our way after a promising start. A one dayer away against the Panthers will be another good test and hopefully the batsmen can go on with their starts and bowlers maintain good lines and length without lapse. Ed Howitt Jnr |
After a disappointing performance in the previous round against the Sharks, the thirsty thirds were keen get back into the winners circle against the competition leading Magpies.
The coin was tossed and after calling heads Howitt prepared himself for the worst and began motioning for the bowlers to loosen up. However, the coin landed with heads facing up and Howitt very quickly decided batting would be the way to go.
