 Fifth Grade Report vs Campbelltown Camden
Due to the monsoonal weather of late in Sydney, round 6 of the Sydney grade comp was to be a one-day fixture. The 5th graders were in desperate need of a victory after being washed out in the last round, only 50 runs short of victory. With English import extraordinaire Guy “Graham” Hicks and young-gun Dan Lake “Placid” joining the 5th graders, the team was looking solid on paper. But could the big names put the performances on the board?
(Patrick Effeney in action)
Another toss was lost, and the Ghosts elected to bat. A wise decision on what looked to be a fairly good batting deck.
Patrick E-Rattic (Effeney) and Dan Lake took the new ball, much to the disgust of captain “e-lect” Dave Millar. Effeney delivered his usual mixed-bag, either bowling unplayable deliveries or mammoth wides. His bowling was as patchy as his facial hair. Although Lake picked up a wicket in his first over, the numerous wides meant that the Ghosts got off to a flier.
 It was up to the experienced (and rather large) head of Millar to steady the ship. A crucial spell was forthcoming, Millar taking 2-26 off 7 overs to put the game back in the Staggies favour. At the other end Shenal was toiling hard and picked up his first, a miraculous catch taken by Hicks. The catch was made more miraculous due to the fact it was actually taken behind Avendano at second slip, who green-lighted the catch and the fact that Guy is English.
(Dave Millar in action)
Effeney then made up for his erractic bowling by running out the Camden captain with a direct hit from mid-off. The wickets kept falling with Shenal picking up another 2, including one caught and bowled where Shenal had to run past our keeper Hugh Selby to take a sliding catch. 7-102.
Unlike in previous games the Jazz were able to finish the opposition batting off, cleaning up the Camden tail for a total of 131. Dan Lake pulled off a run-out and picked up his second wicket, in what was an impressive 5th grade debut.
Gordon had to negotiate an awkward half and hour before lunch. 131 would not be as easy as it appeared with the Beauchamp out-field being slower than Tiddles’ speech at the Greengate on Saturday night. Hence it was imperative that Gordon didn’t lose any wickets before lunch.
Unfortunately Sunny was dismissed in the third over and it was up to Jimmy Martin and Kenner to take the Stags to lunch at 1/31 (8).
 Lunch was provided by Mr. Avendano who cleaned out the local chicken shop. Mr. Avendano is akin to a god, and is well respected within the 5th grade team. He is one of the nicest blokes you would ever want to meet...which makes you wonder what happened to his son, Justin (just kidding…but not really).
(Justin liked his dad's lunch)
Anyway, enough of the semantics. Martin and Kenner resumed after the break and forged a solid partnership, one which was void of boundaries. With the outfield slowing with each ball, all runs scored were just that, run.
With the score at 70, it was decided to push for the bonus point and this saw the end of Marto who was stumped for 22, dancing down the wicket.
“Graham” Hicks joined Kenner and got straight amongst the bowling. A quick partnership of 50 ensued before Kenner was trapped LBW for 52 (all run). Needless to say Kenner needs to hit the gym or the needles. Maybe he will talk to Andrew Lappan during the week.
Hicksie was quick to finish the job, punishing some shot pitched bowling to get the Jazz home in the 37th over, securing a much needed bonus point.
It was good to sing the song again, after a long month of rain and disappointment. Congrats to the whole club for a great weekend of cricket! Lets have another big weekend against the Tri-Colours!
Until next week, you stay classy Chatswood.
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