Final Round for Grade Sides
14th March 2018
Final Round for Grade
In the final Saturday of the season for our Grade sides we managed to close out wins in 2 of the 4 grades. Unfortunately 3rd Grade's win wasn't enough to get them into finals, with other results going against us, finishing in 5th by the closest of margins. 2nd Grade were the other side gunning for a finals position, but their loss meant that they slipped down to 6th position.
1st Grade produced a polished performance with the ball to restrict City to 164chasing our total of 316 from the week before. It was all the more impressive as we were playing a bowler down, with strike bowler Aron Tisher absent due to a last minute work trip as well as already missing opening bowler Ben Sullivan due to injury. Shebak Khan led the attack beautifully in their absence, taking the first 3 wickets in a brilliant new ball spell, and backed it up all day to build constant pressure. Jonty Durrheim, Jono Twomey and Nathan Robins all chimed in with wickets to close out a win that showed what the side is capable of if they all turn up and play to the potential.
2nd Grade were chasing 215, which looked a very achievable total at the start of the day. Mitchell Hunt and Will Palmer were the only ones to put in the required application as we fell short.
3rd Grade were defending a modest total of 139, but with a very strong bowling attack were always a good chance. David Sutherland took the opening 2 wickets and was unlucky not a have a bag, before Tommy Sheehan and James Carathanassis combined to roll second-placed City for 91. Unfortunately some of those close losses early in the season have come back to bite us as we finished less than a win out of the top 4, where this side could have beaten anyone.
4th Grade toiled hard, but were unable to defend their 203 from last week, with City chasing it down with 4 wickets in hand. Sean Lynch was the pick of the bowlers with 2 wickets to go with his 56 scored last week. A special note should be made to skipper Steve Christie, who has mentored many promising young cricketers in 4th grade this season. Players like Sean, Olivier Koehn, Matt White, Daniel Redpath, Jenson Barker and Sam Guy will no doubt be pushing for higher grade selection in no time at all.
Results
1sts: WM 316, NC 164
Shebak Khan 3/26
Jonty Durrheim 3/26
Jono Twomey 2/41
Nathan Robins 1/39
2nds: WM 123, NC 215
Will Palmer 28
Mitchell Hunt 25
3rds: WM 139, NC 91
Tommy Sheehan 5/14
James Carathanassis 3/16
David Sutherland 2/21
4ths: WM 7/203, NC 6/205
Sean Lynch 2/43
