 Fifths go into Christmas break with good win to stay on top of competition
Last Saturday I found myself rudely awoken at six in the morning to a message from Tristan ‘Upright’ Cooper – ‘Mate I’m loose can you give me a wake up call so I don’t miss the game’. Given that the T20 was due to start at 2.30, I thought that this might serve as a bad omen for the last game before Christmas in what has been a particularly successful start to the season for Fifth grade.
Tom Gooch against ND's
Toddy won the toss and chose to bat first on what looked to be a very solid Killara wicket. Jack ‘Precious’ Colley paid no respect to the ND’s opening bowlers, with 13 off the first over that included a brutal pull shot off the front foot for six. Max ‘The New Guzzler’ Newman kept the scoreboard ticking over through some well-placed drives and quick running between the wickets. Dan Richtor displayed some excellent strokeplay on his way to 28, and after a series of ‘free hits’ the score was quickly becoming very competitive. Joel Monaghan was the form man with the bat, picking up exactly where he had left off in previous weeks with smart, patient batting.
Fresh from a couple of weeks of carefully tapered training, the Fives pace attack was rearing to have a crack at the ND’s batsmen. Dan Richtor struck in the first over of the game with Crossy(Andrew Crosland) taking a sharp chance at point. In such a limited format it seems that if the bowling side can string together three or four tight overs the run rate can very quickly get out of hand. Forced to take chances against Toddy later in innings, the ND’s batsmen were unable to cope and eventually fell 56 runs short at the end of their twenty overs.
 Mention should be made of Tom Carruthers’ screamer of a catch at cover, as he dived backwards to take a ball that was quickly making its way towards the fence. The fielding, which is sometimes pretty volatile in Fives, was excellent with Toddy’s big mitt engulfing another chance in the gully to all but end ND’s chance of a win.
Matt Todd in action against ND's
This win takes Fives to the top of the ladder, however as we found out last year we will need to take every bit of form with us into the new year as we look to make a strong challenge come finals.
Tom Gooch
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