 2nd Grade Report vs Blacktown – Day 2
The reserve graders arrived back at Joe Macleer Oval needing only 10 runs to get first innings points. Due to heavy rain on Friday night, the ground was damp and there was a wet strip down the pitch. This caused an hour and a half delay.
We started at 12 and lost Eccles and Cheadle before getting the target. Ben “BG” Garratt and Jules Stephenson finished the innings off 10 runs ahead of Blacktown’s 136. BG finished 78*.
Benny Garratt leaves the field with an unbeaten 78
The talk was that Blacktown was going to make a game of it so Dowsley decided to declare. Both Blacktown openers came out trying to get quick runs. James “JK” Kennedy got an early break through bowling a short one, catching the glove of the batsmen and went straight to Cheadle at gully. Jules bowled without luck and the batsmen found him very hard to get away.
The other opener and the no. 3 batted the way Blacktown did in the first innings and it didn’t seem like they were going to set a target until they came out hitting after lunch.
We could say that our bowling wasn’t at its best, with both senior bowlers battling injuries and JK, being under 19, could only bowl so many over’s. This brought on the likes of Nick Dowsley, Jack “Slug” Ritchie and Elliot “Emo” Richtor. Nick would have had a wicket if it wasn’t for a no ball. The Slug picked up 3-58 and Emo 2-14. A bit of a hoax I think, especially when the openers toil away for 40 overs and get no result and these two come on and get 5 wickets between them in 10 overs.
Blacktown declared at 6-214 leaving us the target of 204 off 34 overs with the required run rate of 6 per over.
The innings couldn’t have got off to a worse start losing 4 early wickets for only 30 runs. Nick Dowsley and Jack Ritchie steadied the ship, making sure Blacktown didn’t get a sniff. They both finished not out when the game was called off with no team able to get the outright victory.
This was a good win for the reserve graders, but we will have to play tougher cricket if we want to play in the finals. We were perhaps guilty of taking a little too much for granted on day two after our good performance on the 1st day. In the discussion after the game we all agreed that improvement was necessary when we play 12th placed Manly in a must win game next weekend.
Elliot Richtor
Scores
Gordon 7/146 dec (Ben Garratt 78 not out) and 4 for 53 (Nick Dowsley 22 not out) defeated
Blacktown 136 (Adair Durie 4 for 24, James Kennedy 2 for 26, Julian Stephenson 2 for 21) and 6/213 dec (Jack Ritchie 3 for 58, Elliot Richtor 2 for14) | 
