Hudson Bowls 1sts to Victory
9th December 2019
Nathan Hudson took the historic figures of 9/52 in 1st Grade's win at University, securing a place in our record books as the 6th best figures by a WMDCC player in 1st Grade (and 16th best overall). This was in addition to the 61 he scored in the morning to push the Waratah total to 228 after Asher Robins (75) and Lachy Curtis (50) got scores last week. Jonty Durrheim and Ben Sullivan bowled well in support roles to set up Huddo for his big day out.
2nd Grade started the day well behind with Uni at 4/242, but an improved bowling and fielding performance restricted them to 286. Robert Hill (4/52) was brilliant on day 2, barely putting a foot wrong. The batting got off to a shaky start at 3/46 with only Josh Brackenbury (30) troubling the scorers at the top of the order, before a good partnership from Jacob Hill (30) and Liam Wilson (58) got us back into the game. Another collapse put the big chase out of reach, but a fighting effort from the tail got us to 9/238 after our 67 overs. David Sutherland (38), Jono Twomey (24) and Tommy Sheehan (28*) all contributed in the lower order.
3rd Grade resumed with Uni at 4/84, and bowled well to roll Uni for 150. Brendan Cunningham (2/15) and Ryan Moorcroft (2/26) were the wicket takers on day 2. The batting was far less impressive, failing to bat the overs to be dismissed for 115 and left to rue a missed opportunity. Barry Davis's 25 at the top of the order was the only significant contribution.
Steve Christie's 4th Grade were in a great position heading into day 2 at 2/104. Martin Francis continued where he left off to score 80 and set up a platform for Todd Hearne (45) and Harry Compton (18*) to push the score to 4/213 after the maximum 55 overs. Uni batted well early to gain the ascendancy, but Crunch did what he does best to break the partnership and ended up with 4/30 from 15 overs. Tom Davies (2/19) had an important contribution through the middle overs, and Nick Onslow (3/32) cleaned up the tail to bowl Uni out for 173 and move the boys back into 2nd on the ladder.
The C&S called off the days play due to the smoky conditions, which allowed a few of Bear's D2 boys to fill in for our S&D side in their game against Cardiff. Cardiff batted first and scored 140 from their 40 overs. Troy Harvey (72) was in a hurry to finish the game and blasted some quick runs to ensure that our guys chased the score down in just 23 overs 2 wickets down. Mike Wheeler (35*) was the other major scorer. We are now top of the ladder in the S&D competition with one game to go before Christmas.
