5th Grade Report vs Blacktown - Round 15 |
Round 15 saw the mighty 5th Graders make the early morning trek out to Mt Druitt to take on the winless Blacktown. Victory was necessary to have any chance of snaring an all-important home final at our Beauchamp 'fortress'. Ouch... Cooper is dismissed after saving the Stags' innings The massive Whalan ground was in less than ideal condition. A wet patch on the pitch delayed the start of the game and allowed for a greatly appreciated trip to McDonalds. Gordon batted first and were soon in trouble at 3-1 with extras being the main contributor from some wayward Blacktown bowling. Will "outdated nickname" Medcalf and Tom Cockburn found themselves trying to resurrect the innings. Patiently waiting for the inevitable 'boundary ball' the score got to 73 before both batsmen were dismissed in quick succession (as usual) leaving their team in trouble. The under-prepared, crumbling pitch, after little more than 10 overs, resembled something you would find on day 4 in Mumbai. After a fightbackfrom the Blacktown spinners the scoreboard read 7-90 and a home final looked like it might slip through our fingers. We were rescued by Tristan 'Tom' Cooper (62) and David 'Masterchef' Monaghan(18) who got us to 8-155 and back in front. 'Coops' was putting on a show for his travelling family, taking a liking to to the Blacktown bowling attack. Dave showed his hardwork isn't only found in the kitchen, running hard and playing a typical 'Joel' innings. The pair ran plenty of 3's on the expansive, slow, ordinary outfield it must be noted. We scraped together 179 to defend. With the pitch only going to turn and crumble more and with our arsenal of experienced and improving spinners we were confident of collecting the 6 points. A bright start by Blacktown was soon dulled by Paul Deitz (4-28) who grabbed two early wickets in his impressive first spell. Dave Monaghan constantly beat the bat with his savage outswingers and was unlucky not to grab a wicket early. Matt Todd was vocal in the field and was thrown the new ball on a raging turner. It became obvious that spin was going to do the damage through the middle overs. Cockburn(1-19) and Cooper(3-15) bowled in tandem and really put the brakes on the run chase with some quality offies. Although we were on top throughout, Blacktown always had a sniff. Andrew Coleman was awake to this and was rather vocal and forward in reminding us. We eventually got the points with 23 runs up our sleeve. Finals are finally here and an increase in intensity is exactly what we need as we have been coasting and going through the motions at times recently. With team chemistry arguably our greatest attribute, some great banter in the sheds and a bit of talent the 5's are a huge chance of hoisting the David Sherwood Cup. As Tim Packman reminds us "There is no other team you would rather play for" |
5th Grade have a close shave against the Warriors
