 Colts claim points against last year's grand finalists
Within three minutes of the start of play, we had achieved the same result as when we finished six hours later. Somewhat depressing, yes, but some thrilling cricket was played in the meantime, so it was all worth it.
Wigham in a rich vein of form
A few of the boys turned up in a little worse for weather from the previous night’s entertainment provided by the club. Many stories were swapped and headaches were brushed aside for a clear determination on the job at hand; put the match out of its misery. After a brief warm-up and pep talk from the skipper, the clear headed Dave Millar, Jono Wigham and Simon Massey resumed from overnight, and quickly got the three runs required for victory, with both displaying some thrilling hitting.
With this, the lead built up until Massey unfortunately perished just short of his half century, bringing another newcomer, Michael Singh, to the crease, who quickly set himself for a score. With both batsmen cruising, Colts looked in good shape to notch up a handy lead. With the score on 5/204, however, Singh perished for a well made 35. Effeney came and went, as did Dan Lake after a few handy strokes, and the rest of the tail offered little resistance, with Wigham being dismissed for a fantastic 83. Biraj enjoyed the No. 11 pain, stranded on 0*. Leading by over 120, Colts were in the field again, with a few more than 50 overs to bowl Randwick Petersham out again.
 Short, sharp spells from the pace bowlers were the order of the day, with it being quite warm on the field. After eight overs from the openers, Millar and Effeney, Massey and Lake were brought on, all of whom bowled with good control, with Lake picking up two wickets in his spell of 6 overs. The bowling hero of the first innings, Michael Singh, was introduced, but had a tough time finding his length in this spell, but came back well in his second spell some overs later.
Biraj - stranded on 0*
Fielding was superb, and the spirit among the boys was very promising, with the benefit of a few weeks of gelling behind us. Wickets fell steadily, with Sam Ranney picking up four in an economical, top-shelf display of turning, bouncing off spin. Other notable contributions with the ball came from Effeney and Lake, with three and two respectively.
The highlight for many was the tea break, in which some questionable eating techniques were displayed, as well as some high quality Aussie produce. A good laugh was had by all, as well as a good choke. However, it should be said that some of the boys need to contribute a bit more to the afternoon spread.
 Randwick Petersham were eventually dismissed 49 runs ahead, leaving us fifty to get in four overs. The day had finally come alive. It would be a big mountain to climb and it didn’t start in a great way. Lamont and Massey were dismissed in the first over and the score had barely begun to tick.
"Come on men, we can roll them a second time!"
Introduce Don to the crease and within the space of 4 balls we had knocked 21 of the total, including three crunching sixes up over the hedges on the hill. 50, however, was a handful too many, and we fell 8 runs short. It was a good effort and the boys will learn how to play in those situations; ones in which they are more than likely unfamiliar – getting some bat on the balls they were missing trying to replicate Don’s heroics and thus picking up singles and twos would have been better than none at all.
Nevertheless, it was a fine effort by the whole team to knock off last year’s grand finalists. A first innings victory for the Gordon Colts over Randwick-Petersham. I got to enjoy my first team song which, from the perspective of a newbie, may take some getting used to – and I hope there will be plenty of occasions to learn it throughout the season.
Pat Effeney |
