4th Grade vs Campbelltown-Camden - Round 11 - 2011/12

The rain had been pelting down for three and a bit hours; the ground was soaked; puddles covered the outfield; it was 1:30; not a ball had even thought about being bowled and I was ready and packed to head home.

Thanks to the relentlessly positive attitude from both skippers, however, Gordon and Campbelltown 4th grade managed to squeeze a match in on the day, and not a bad match at that.

Colley looks down the ground for early runs

The morning and early afternoon proved to be one of those typical wet cricket days. The covers were on from 9:45am until 2pm, and most of us thought that the weather had defeated us. There was the usual back and forth between players, captains and umpires. Will we or won’t we?

Having snuck a warm up in, sans touch I couldn’t help but notice, the rain started and came down steadily for most of the day. Mick “Radar” Perry had the smartphone out and was giving us regular updates. “There’s one patch of rain, and it hasn’t moved from this spot in about two hours.” Apparently the clouds had decided that they liked Killara, as they tend to do, and remained over Bert Oldfield oval as long as they possibly could.

The umpires weren’t particularly positive, even at 2 o’clock, about the possibility of play, because of the large puddles that surrounded the wicket. Despite the lack of hessian under the covers, when we peeled back the tarpaulin we discovered that the pitch had managed to remain remarkably dry. Both skippers decided it was better to make a fist of it and try to play than go home having sat around all day.

We were cut down to a 25 over-a-side fixture, and Captain Lin promptly won the toss and sent the Ghosts in on a wicket that looked fine, played fine and generally was absolutely fine. What was very fine for the Stags and not so fine for the Ghosts was the first delivery, sent down by Alex Lines. Big fast bowler steams in, bowls a half volley on middle, batsman struck on pad, umpire raises the finger, batsman on his way. It was a nice way to kickstart a day that had hitherto been rather uneventful.

Mitch Kleem, concentrating on Mark O'Neil's recent coaching, looks to squeeze the knees together

Linesy looked very good in his first mini-spell of two overs. He was the pick of the Staggies bowlers, picking up two wickets in his first two overs and he finished with the figures of 2-15 off 4. Having not played for a month, Big Al looked to have picked up a yard for mine.

The Ghosts batsmen tried hard, but in the end the Gordon side picked up wickets at regular intervals, stifling the batsmen and slowing the scoring. A partnership for the fifth wicket of 48 had the stags on the back foot. The Ghosts wicketkeeper took a liking to some flighted deliveries from Alex “Motormouth” Jackson and to a lesser degree Tom “BouncersGo46” Gooch and “Radar” Perry. Once Goochy and Radar tightened up, however, runs proved harder to come by, and runouts eventuated.
There were three run outs in the innings, each one more spectacular than the last. Two were affected by Kris Colley in one over as part of a team hat-trick.

A couple of dots from yours truly built the pressure, the batsmen clipped one straight to square leg, and Colley swooped in after the unwise call of “yes” to knock back the middle stump. Pinpoint.

Next delivery, a rather nervous looking number 9 came in, was promptly struck on the pad in front of middle and was on his way, quick as you like.

Next ball, another clipped to mid-wicket. This time Colley bolts from square leg, picks up one handed and hits the middle stump at the bowlers end. Kris did end up making the song, these two runouts combining with his useful 19 runs to make up a good days work for Colley K.

Another LBW and a caught behind later and the Ghosts were dismissed for 147, and they would have been disappointed seeing as they were 6-135 with five overs remaining.

The Gordon innings was dominated by Colley the Younger, with Jack playing a very mature and well paced knock to chase down the Campbelltown score comfortably, with eight balls to spare and six wickets down. Sherman and Perry fell early, but Kleem stayed at the wicket with Kris Colley for a decent amount of time and started to build a platform.

The author, Pat Effeney, charges in on his way to 3 wickets 

Once Kleem was dismissed, Colley and Colley joined forces and took it upon themselves to chase down the score. Slowly but surely they chipped away at the Ghosts’ total. Some overs were bigger than others, but they made the score 71 before Kris was dismissed, somewhat controversially, LBW for 19.

Jack kept the score ticking along, with some lovely hitting and regular singles and twos. Chris ‘Retro’ and Lines both played useful hands but were dismissed hitting out (Lines trying to hit a glory maximum to end the game), and Alex Jackson went out with six runs to get off two-an-a-bit overs and four wickets remaining.

Jack did the sensible thing to knock a two, then a single at the end of the over, and another at the start of the next. Two runs to get, the man who doesn’t stop talking on strike. Thankfully, Jackson abandoned conversation long enough to hit a two straight back past the bowler with eight deliveries remaining to secure the victory for the Stags.

A man seldom mentioned in this report has been the captain, Shayne Lin. He took a good catch to dismiss the number six batsmen (the last man out). That was about it.

Otherwise, a real team effort was good enough to get the W on the day. A big thanks goes to Dave Millar who filled in fielding for the injured Anthony Sherman, and also lended his booming vocals to the victory song. I’d also like to thank the girl who was going to walk her dog on the field during play but didn’t at my request.

Cheers.

How good’s winning?

Patrick Effeney