All VTCA games were called off yesterday, something like 70 grounds unavailable! Filled in for the 4ths on the matting and had a win, standard was nothing special. Pretty much first real game for 12 months or so after not playing much last season, so it was good to get back into it
They've been wasting their time scheduling the first Saturday for years now. Councils don't even bother preparing the decks for Day 1.
It used to be there was a reason we didn't play day 1...no more! There was a season in the early 90s or late 80s we got in 5 days before Christmas.
I remember that year - it was ridiculous! I think I'd made less than 5 runs by Christmas and was considering taking up bowling...
Meant to be playing today for a vets team short on numbers. Tried that once last season, top scored, compulsory retired, game won in last over, pinged a hammy badly, eventful day. Apparently they have gone up a division for this season. Kinda hoping weather saves me today…
Played seconds this week as the first went to Tully (about 2 hours down the road) on Saturday and I work untill 1030 am saturday so I was no chance of getting there on time. Captain lost the toss and bowled. Play against Atherton, we bowled them out for 214. I even got to turn back the clock and have a bowl taking a not to shabby 3/32 of 12 overs. We batted for three overs and finished the day 1/12.
After the opening game I got dropped (nicked one early for 1) so I was pretty disappointed with that. We played Bedford-Morley at College Park, won the toss and fielded first. We dropped 8 catches, their opener who make 40 four times. We rolled them for 140 but it should’ve been far less than that. In reply we were in early bother at 3/15. I was one of the three, out lbw to a ball that pitched outside leg and hit me well above the knee-roll, again for 1. Pretty ■■■■■■ off with that given the numerous lbw shouts we had turned down in our bowling innings. The umpire proceeded to give two more stinkers that were worse than mine. Despite that we were relatively well-placed at 4/70 after 20, so halfway there with half the overs gone. At that point umpire trigger finger intervened and we collapsed to be all out 108. Not a great start to the season but the weather looks good this week so hopefully the decks firm up and they are nice to bat on.
Great day for us yesterday, we batted and made 8/299 dec, had 3 overs at them last night and got a wicket final ball of the day to have Wembley 1/17. I got back amongst the runs with 77, all week at training I was hitting them beautifully and felt very confident despite the fact I’d made 2 runs in 2 hits prior to yesterday. The wicket was flat, outfield reasonably quick and the bowling attack fairly pedestrian after their openers, who bowled well early but once the new ball wore off they became easier to play. I was 74 at tea and a few overs after the break I creamed a pull straight down deep backward square’s throat. Three other blokes made 50s in the top six, so the batsmen well and truly did their job, then to get a wicket late in the day capped off a near-perfect days cricket.
I’ve had “near perfect day’s cricket” absolutely re-defined recently!
Again at a wedding, (people really ought to think about others!) our 1s rolled heatherdale ,who are almost always a powerhouse, for a tricky but gettable 235.
I've had "near perfect day's cricket" absolutely re-defined recently!
Again at a wedding, (people really ought to think about others!) our 1s rolled heatherdale ,who are almost always a powerhouse, for a tricky but gettable 235.
If they can make 425 no wicket down, 235 has to be a walk in the park?
Played seconds this week as the first went to Tully (about 2 hours down the road) on Saturday and I work untill 1030 am saturday so I was no chance of getting there on time. Captain lost the toss and bowled. Play against Atherton, we bowled them out for 214. I even got to turn back the clock and have a bowl taking a not to shabby 3/32 of 12 overs. We batted for three overs and finished the day 1/12.
Second week started 1/2 late due to the pitch being damp(not rolled all week either, as the roller broke down). Finally got a roll and with most of our team very uncomfortable about how the pitch would play we pressed on. We made the runs without much trouble, declaring with 1/2 hour to go at 4/222. Good win for the seconds, now hopefully back to the ones.
We won as expected yesterday, but made harder work of it than it otherwise should’ve been. I think we put down about 6-7 catches, including a hat-trick of dropped chances off the one bowler 3 deliveries in a row. One hit to point, regulation although it had a bit of slice on it, diving chance at mid-on 2nd which would’ve been a blinder, and our stand-in keeper spilt a regulation nick behind next ball. They did threaten at tea being 4/150, halfway to our score, but we struck early in the post-tea session and as they had an unavailability they only batted 10 and they were all out for 177. We stuck them in again hoping for an unlikely outright but they managed to be 3/70 at the close. Bowlers were really good in batsman friendly conditions to crest the chances they did, had we held onto those chances we may have given ourselves more of a shot at an outright.
good for day us. Won the toss and elected to field. damp wicket and had an A grade bowler playing for us ( I co-captain the one day side for us this year) he scared the ■■■■ out of them. He took 2 for 14 off 9, i got 2 for 11 of 6 and another guy ended up wih 5 for 16 off 6. We rolled them for 78. We got the runs comfortably. 1 for 83, i finished 63 not. Lost the opener for a duck and the other opener batted for 20 odd overs for 14.He faced 85 deliveries, including 41 dot balls in a row......we are 3 and zip. Great start to the year.
Adelaide turf smooth. LOD. Not the highest standard of cricket, but it’s our 5th side. Due to commitments I play when I’m available, otherwise I’d be playing 2 day cricket.
Back in the ones this week, playing the last placed Innisfail. We won the toss and put them in. Rolled them for 112, just after tea and finished the day 2/51.
Made a comeback of sorts on the weekend. After 2 years away from the club were I played 12 seasons at and just 3 matches last year it was good to get back into it. I was given the responsibility of captaining the club's newly formed social/6th XI. The 10 players I had comprised of 3 players who played in the 80s and 90s, 4 current players and 3 players from my era - the 2000s. Fortunately my brother performed with the stick scoring 59 in his first hit in over 18 months to give us 170 to defend. Three early wickets saw us on top but a big partnership turned the game back in their favour. Fortunately one of the other wiser heads managed to get the breakthrough and then he and I ran through them to give us the win.
Personally I was happy to finish with 3 wickets. Its fair to say my 14 with the bat was very scratchy!
Got pantsed by undefeated Whitfords yesterday in a 40-over game. Have to say we played on the worst wicket I’ve ever seen, not helped by the fact that Under 12s had scuffed it up all morning. It was falling to pieces by the time we got on it. We won the toss and batted under the rationale that it would only get worse as the day progressed. We were all-out 97, I got just 5, bowled by a short of a length ball that didn’t get above shin height. We only batted 10 as our curator who usually plays in our side was busy renovating the wicket of out 1st Grade ground. He was told to be at our game by 2, enough time to clean up and get his gear, but as the wickets fell he was still a no-show. One of the boys knew where he lived and dropped into his house down the road, doors wide open and found him on the couch… how do I put this… having a “self love” session whilst watching a “Paul Bongiorno”!!!
Anyway he made it back to open the bowling and we had them 4/30-odd, but this guy came out swinging, took 16 and 22 off consecutive overs and they passed us without further loss. Unfortunately we have another game on that ground next week, can only hope the pitch is better than what we had yesterday…