C&S Wins the Highlight of a Poor Saturday
3rd February 2020
Saturday saw our grade sides lose in their encounters with Wests (1sts and 2nds) and Stockton (3rds and 4ths), putting pressure on finals qualification for our remaining 3 matches of the regular season. Our C5s and D2s sides got important wins over The Gardens and Adamstown BC to advance up their respective ladders.
1st Grade started their Saturday off with 184 on the board thanks to 95 from Jonty Durrheim, with Wests resuming at 2/80. Jono Twomey picked up his 3rd wicket, and Lachy Taylor (2/21 off 10 overs) got some further early breakthroughs to reduce Wests to 5/124 early in the day. Once the heat of the day broke, it was all Wests, with their 6th wicket stand remaining unbeaten as they chased down the runs.
It was a similar story in 2nds, where once again they had failed to get enough runs on the board in week 1. Wests need 40 more runs with 6 wickets in hand, and our boys were determined to go down fighting. In amoungst several breaks as the mercury went beyond 43C, David Sutherland (3/27 off 10) managed to get breakthroughs, and then Robert Hill (4/17 off 11) was introduced into the attack, with immediate success. Unfortunately these great spells of bowling came too late as Wests got there 8 down. We have now dropped to 5th spot on the ladder, in need of 3 wins to ensure a spot in finals.
3rds played a 1 dayer out at Stockton, and bowling first managed to keep Stockton to a moderate 9/142 from their 40 overs. The wickets were shared around with Michael Skelly (3/12 off 6), Jack Dundas (1/15 off 8) and Barry Davis (2/19 off 8) the pick of the bowlers. The batting effort was poor in response, with Grant Hines (45*) doing his best to get them over the line, but some poor shot selection from his partners meant that the boys fell 15 runs short, bowled out with 5 overs to go.
4ths had their worst day of the season, which saw them lose top spot on the ladder. Batting first they struggled throughout to reach 77 all out. Stockton chased it down quickly 4 wickets down. Tom Davies (2/15) was the best performer on the day.
The C5s won a thriller out on Waratah 4 in a reduced over match due to the heat. Batting first, they started well to put on 37 for the first wicket, before a collapse of 5/3 made things tough. Chad Cook (36*) steadied the ship but ran out of partners and they were bowled out for 111. The Gardens looked on track to chase it down for much of the innings, before Michael Monroe (3/14) took crucial wickets to leave the Gardens needing 11 off the last over. They were only able to take 9 runs from it, giving the boys a 2 run win.
Bear's D2s had another good win, which sees them shoot up to 2nd on the ladder. In another reduced match, we had another heart-stopped. Batting first Adamstown managed to get to 8/108 from their 20 overs. Drew Varnum (4/3) and Isaac Cruckshank (3/12) were exceptional with the ball in hand. The chase came down to the final ball with our guys needing 1 run to win, and a boundary sealed in to get the win at 5/112.
Sunday had the completion of the Summer Bash rounds, with results meaning that our guys miss the finals on percentage.
