Local Cricket 2015/16

Thought I’d get another thread going for the upcoming season. Had 2 sessions with my new club Aberfeldie Park CC having just moved into the area. Good bunch of blokes and decent turnouts for both sessions at the indoor centre. Missed the whole of last season so really keen to get stuck in! Anyone else play VTCA? If you’re in the Essendon area and keen for a hit we are keen to get new players on board!

So… anyone excited for the new season? I am, however our ground is in terrible nick and the wicket won’t be up for this week. The VTCA will be meeting this Wednesday to ascertain if enough ground are ready for Round 1 to go ahead…

Will try to play for Oak park in the NWCA again this season.

How’s the season started. We are 2-1. Due to the grand final being a week late we had to play Saturday and Sunday this weekend. Not good for an unfit old man. Paid for it today. I batted poorly on Saturday. Got put down 5 times and made 27. Got 27 on Sunday and batted heaps better. Into the 2 day stuff this week.

Not a great start to the season by me, scores of 7 and 5. This week we won the toss and fielded on our home deck (Aberfeldie Park) which looked terrible and we had Pascoe Vale in trouble at 4/60, but they got a partnership together and ended up declaring at 9/210 with 6 overs left. We then had to face those remaining overs before the close. I thought I was batting in the middle order like last game, then get told by the skipper as we are walking off the field that I was opening. Wasn’t ready, had just a 10 min change over and in a bit of a scramble. Not surprisingly I’m already back in the shed and we were 1/10 at stumps.

Patchy.
Captaining 4s this year, club as a whole have about 15 guys unavailable across the grades and they’re all guys who bat up the order… end result my entire top 4 is up in the thirds and trying to scratch a side out of the under 16 & under 18s bowlers…
We were 6/39 on saturday, 6/66 at tea and fought back well to end up with 163 (and had to bowl 7 overs). One of the older blokes made a great 65 or so.

1s are having a tough run, they were done for 78 and other mob are 2/105 or so. Doesn’t look good.

Patchy. Captaining 4s this year, club as a whole have about 15 guys unavailable across the grades and they're all guys who bat up the order... end result my entire top 4 is up in the thirds and trying to scratch a side out of the under 16 & under 18s bowlers... We were 6/39 on saturday, 6/66 at tea and fought back well to end up with 163 (and had to bowl 7 overs). One of the older blokes made a great 65 or so.

1s are having a tough run, they were done for 78 and other mob are 2/105 or so. Doesn’t look good.


Were you the ‘one of the older guys’ HAP?
Patchy. Captaining 4s this year, club as a whole have about 15 guys unavailable across the grades and they're all guys who bat up the order... end result my entire top 4 is up in the thirds and trying to scratch a side out of the under 16 & under 18s bowlers... We were 6/39 on saturday, 6/66 at tea and fought back well to end up with 163 (and had to bowl 7 overs). One of the older blokes made a great 65 or so.

1s are having a tough run, they were done for 78 and other mob are 2/105 or so. Doesn’t look good.

HAP you could just as well be describing my problems.

I’m captaining the 2nd grade, I have a 41 and a 42 year old, 2 18 year olds, and 6 Under 16’s.

We got rolled for 80 last week, and opposition 2/82 at Stumps last week. Expecting them to send us in and try and roll us outright. Hoping they declare. Easier to sell “We can win from here”. Gut feeling is they’ll bat on for 30 overs and give us 50 to survive.

Patchy. Captaining 4s this year, club as a whole have about 15 guys unavailable across the grades and they're all guys who bat up the order... end result my entire top 4 is up in the thirds and trying to scratch a side out of the under 16 & under 18s bowlers... We were 6/39 on saturday, 6/66 at tea and fought back well to end up with 163 (and had to bowl 7 overs). One of the older blokes made a great 65 or so.

1s are having a tough run, they were done for 78 and other mob are 2/105 or so. Doesn’t look good.


Were you the ‘one of the older guys’ HAP?

Not the one who did anything! I say ‘one of’, I now count back and we had the one older bloke (45 ish), I’m late 20s, we had a couple early 20s guys and all the rest are U16s or U18s.

Ended up losing, we bowled well & fielded OK, we did drop 1 chacne but it was the only chance in the first 30 odd overs. Just didn’t create the chances.

Of their mob, they bowled 5 blokes, 4 of them (and the keeper) batted in the top 5. So they had 5-6 kids in pretty much as specialist fielders.

20-30 runs short in the end, lost ourselves the game last week.

Rather lose with kids getting opportunities, than have old blokes do everything. We’ve got a couple of kids who’ll be pretty good, but they’re all in their first or second year of seniors.

We lost, I had a very boring day as I was dismissed overnight so had a reasonably lengthy stint as square leg umpire. A couple of times we threatened to get a good partnership going but a costly run-out (absolute roasting!) and some poor shots broke partnerships at crucial times. We were all out 165, then had to bowl 13 overs to close the game and we got them 2 for not many. Pacco had 3 players and their president reported, lots of dissent after a number of lbws were turned down carrying on, charging the umpire, it was pretty ugly. Then one of our boys gave a stumping correctly not out (we were sitting side on to the wicket) and they called him a cheat and other names. They also dawdled through their overs, only 34 bowled by tea when it is an 80 over day. They fancy themselves, bought all of East Coburg’s best players so they have a bit of coin, I didn’t think they were that much better than us…

Do you have 1 paid ump and do square yourselves?

Do you have 1 paid ump and do square yourselves?

Yeah that seems to be the go from the 2 games I’ve played in the comp. North B1 is the lowest 1st XI comp so I’d say higher up they’d have 2 per game…

Dunno if anyone’s been following this, from our comp:

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/leader/east/doncaster-cricket-club-coach-suspended-over-social-media-posts/story-fngnvlxu-1227567059052?sv=7c96a05d1c0ccc2631199cd1bb2d3a5b

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/leader/east/sam-noble-has-12-month-ban-for-social-media-posts-cut-to-eight-matches/story-fngnvmqa-1227578634258?sv=31367157724ab093f5ef949128dfed5f

Someone started a private FaceySpace sledging/banter group - there’s been a few different incarnations on private forums over the years, nothing too bad. People were dumb enough to name folks on the association, and have a go at them, some sneaky person created a fake account, joined, took screencaps, players suspended summarily, appeals, suspension cut, yada yada yada

The funny bit was some guys were initially banned for 12 (calendar) months… ie they miss the whole season… and some were banned for 6 (calendar) months… ie they miss the whole season.

I know most comps now have a Social Media policy. I know that PVCC made some disparaging remarks about the state of our wicket last Saturday on their FB page, they tried to distance themselves from having a shot at us and more at the curator. It was green and the odd one did something, but given they made 214 it can’t have been that bad. Where do you draw the line? Is it OK to have a go at the groundsman, but not players/umpires? Obviously that situation it was meant to be private, but somehow it has been exposed. I think 8 matches is far to steep, let alone a full year. 2-3 games as a first sanction, any further transgression then yes hit them hard…

Stupid cabbie!

Been avoiding the game this season , work and family stuff primarily. But the vets boys have been lineball for numbers, agreed to cover for some today. Good news, we had a win. I managed a very (very, very!) scratchy 40 retired. I timed a few drives, but the cross bat shots (formally a strength) were horrible. Anything short seemed to skid through and i sliced /misshit most. Still, ugly wins are still wins. But i am abominably sore already. Doubt i will be able to move tomorrow.

Been a poor start to the season for me, been playing in the 1s throughout but being picked as a specialist batsman batting at 8. Not a great position to be in, I batted for about 15 overs Saturday but was as scratchy as all hell, previous to that I came in with 2 overs left and got 5 not out, then the previous game to that was rained out both weeks, so it probably was my first real stint at the crease for a good month or so. Made 9, fell just short of Flemington’s 170 after being 3/103 and in control. Their pitch was very dry and started to play tricks late on and it was hard to get started or play with any timing. They ended up 3/20 after we had to bowl 11 overs at them to end the day, so at least they struggled too…

Been a poor start to the season for me, been playing in the 1s throughout but being picked as a specialist batsman batting at 8. Not a great position to be in, I batted for about 15 overs Saturday but was as scratchy as all hell, previous to that I came in with 2 overs left and got 5 not out, then the previous game was rained out both weeks, so it probably was my first real stint at the create for a good month or so. Made 9, fell just short of Flemington's 170 after being 3/103 and in control. Their pitch was very dry and started to play tricks late on and it was hard to get started or play with any timing. They ended up 3/20 after we had to bowl 11 overs at them to end the day, so at least they struggled too...

Thats just madness.

Been a poor start to the season for me, been playing in the 1s throughout but being picked as a specialist batsman batting at 8. Not a great position to be in, I batted for about 15 overs Saturday but was as scratchy as all hell, previous to that I came in with 2 overs left and got 5 not out, then the previous game was rained out both weeks, so it probably was my first real stint at the create for a good month or so. Made 9, fell just short of Flemington's 170 after being 3/103 and in control. Their pitch was very dry and started to play tricks late on and it was hard to get started or play with any timing. They ended up 3/20 after we had to bowl 11 overs at them to end the day, so at least they struggled too...

Thats just madness.

Yeah it’s not the greatest situation to be in. I did get dropped 2 games ago in order to get a proper but a late withdrawal due to injury saw me stay in the 1s, we had a good win and they went with an unchanged line-up for this game. One of the boys in the 2s tonned up Saturday so I wouldn’t be surprised if I got dropped this time. Part of me wouldn’t mind going back and getting a solid hit under the belt. I think the skipper likes me in the side because I’m one of the few blokes in the side who is a decent fielder and isn’t completely immobile. We are carrying a few that are not very agile due to age and/or a lack of fitness, you can only hide so many…

Came in chasing quick runs to set up an outright on Saturday. Had three balls to face, and I walked in to face a hat-trick ball - so I belted it for 6 to cow corner. Cop that.

Or so I thought.

The ball landed inside the boundary, the fielder knocked it back - and I took a jogged single to finish 1 not out. We then had 34 overs to bowl opposition out for the second time - had them 6/30 but couldn’t finish them off - they ended up 9/138 chasing 148 for victory.

Cricket is more fun when wickets fall - though I wouldn’t advocate rolling out wickets like we had to play on. Enormous cracks, bare patches, bumps in the turf - and it already slopes anyway. I stumped a bloke after he went up the pitch to one, and it hit the pitch and rolled past him. Probably could have been called a no ball…