5th Grade Report vs Randwick - Petersham - Round 1 |
1 man down, but 7 points on the board A hot sunny morning welcomed the 5th grade team onto the field. We warmed up with about 6 players and we knew that it was going to be hard against last year's grand finalists. Were we going to have another John Sawtell moment? Surely not, it wasn't that hot out there. We've been told that Knox boys are made of tougher stuff. Nevertheless, the captain, and former Knox boy, Will Sweeney was confident with the reduced line-up, called heads and opted to bowl first. Brave move! Justin "The Embryo" Avendano - growing out of his trousers Actually I have no idea if he won the toss, but we found ourselves in the field nonetheless. With only 9 men on the field, and an opening bowler down, Sweeney's hand was forced and Millar shed the keeping pads and took up the challenge to run into the breeze and up a hill in order to pair up with Tim Fulton to open the bowling (Tiddles would be ashamed if he found out Sweeney allowed Millar to run with the breeze in the first half). The opposition found hard to score under Millar's (fast ' well slow medium) bowling which had them jumping all over the place. After 12 overs for almost no runs and now with 10 players on the field, the players knew that we were on top. With a couple chances going down on the field, James 'Billy' Kidd got the break through with sharp bowling with figures (1 for 24). When the opposition started to increase the run rate, Will decided to put spin from both ends; both bowlers rewarded the captain with some very tidy figures. Justin 'Embryo' Avendano (2 for 34 after 10) put in a much bigger performance much to the chagrin of Kenner, who is now both smaller and slower than the 15 year old. Mark 'The Fonz' Fonsaka (0-5 after 5) has been imported from Sydney Uni and bowled a very mixed bag of deliveries that kept the batsmen, wicketkeeper and usually himself guessing as to what was coming next. His athleticism in the field, a tidy pair of hands and a solid arm meant that there were very few runs scored through the point region.
Millar on his way to 0/15 from his ten After lunch, our openers Kris 'Steve' oh, sh!t' sorry mate' Colley and Richie 'Sticks' Kenner got us off to a very good start, with Richie flying to his first 50 of the season. Colley fell, bowled around his legs, with the score on 60-odd and Vaughan 'Micky V' Patterson was caught lofting the ball down the ground. Our stand-in wicket keeper Jono 'Chief' Wigham lifted the run rate with Kenner in search of an early season bonus point. Sticks finished with 71 after chopping a ball back onto his stumps, bringing the skipper to the crease. For those watching, it brought back memories of Dave Gray as he strode out to the crease to meet the young pup Wigham. The order was issued that there was to be no quick singles due to his age / lack of fitness / desire to win it in boundaries. For those of you who are unaware of Will's background ' Will was a regular in 2nd grade before succumbing to the curse that has stopped Ed Howitt Snr from returning to the field in recent years (bad knees). Opting not to have titanium replacements, Will is currently recovering from tendinitis and is playing as a batsman whilst captaining 5th grade. A true club man and you would struggle to find a person who could say a bad word about the man ' despite what Higgins would have you believe. The Chief and our captain kept pushing on towards the bonus point for the team and after a quiet start the Chief showed some very classy shots through and over the field. Sweeney butchered the bowling from ball one and sent some lusty straight drives cannoning into the picket fence. With only 3 runs to win within 11 balls to get the bonus point, The Chief tried to finish it with a pull over mid-wicket. A great catch was taken by a bloke who had done nothing all day and this then saw both the Fonz and the Embryo fall in the remainder of the over.
Steve... sorry Kris Colley opening the innings for the Stags Sweeney knocked the first ball through the covers for 1. Fittingly he brought up his 50 with this ' not that any of his teammates even clapped. Perhaps they too may have a bad word to say about him. But more than likely they were engrossed in the finish. A quick single to Millar, testing out Sweeney's knee, and a leg bye saw the side home with a couple of balls inside of the 40 overs. It was a solid win to the 5th Graders who played a man down all day. The song was sung with gusto and the new players will hopefully get a chance to learn the words in the coming rounds. Finishing an hour early, a few players packed into the local pub to watch the end of the AFL Grand Final. We publically apologise for an unnamed player's first ever trip inside one of these hallowed drinking establishments. To borrow a phrase 'You stay classy Livingston Hotel' ' and all its patrons |
5th Grade vs Randy-Petes
A few runs were leaked in the final few overs, but the score was kept down to a very manageable 190. With only a couple of wickets down and 10 overs to go, Randwick-Petersham would have been looking for a much bigger total. But credit to the bowlers and especially the fielders in restricting them to a very gettable target.
Thinking it was all over, Millar, missing a right pad, left glove and his bat, strode to the crease to finish of the game with his skipper. Luckily it was the end of the over and he had time to retrieve his missing gear.
