Local Cricket Thread 2018/19

We got sent the rules about the Extreme Heat policy before. If it’s 38 at Warrnambool Airport at 1pm, it’s cancelled for the day. Otherwise, you check every half hour and if it hits 40, you’re off till it drops back to 38.

First time it’s looked dodgy this year.

And I’m over at Koroit which gets hotter than Warrnambool and Port Fairy. By quite a few degrees. Although the airport the measurements are taken from is quite a few km inland.

Need to wait for the local BOM forecast at 5pm tonight but hovering at a predicted 39 currently. If it gets to 40 at the 5pm BOM site all tomorrow’s seniors and juniors are off

No cricket in Port Fairy anyway. Both the turf ground and the hard wicket are covered in marquees and the whole area fenced off with cyclone wire.

Folkie next weekend, and tragically, I’ll be in Melbourne for my nephew’s wedding.

We are called off if the Melbourne forecast is 40 at 10am tomorrow. We will be playing.

2 night hearing ruled in favour of our opponents. Now after the 2 day side finishes today it’s countdown to the Gold Coast cricket trip in a couple of weeks.

Our league’s on.

You’d think it’d be batting conditions, but 3 of the 5 batting sides are 3 down already.

Got the phone call at 11.15 telling me my game was forfeited and if I wanted to, I could do the last remaining match, between Allansford and Nirranda at Nirranda…not far from Port Campbell…a 65 minute drive.

Lasted 18 overs before feeling decidedly unwell…dizzy and seeing spots…so left the field never to return. Sat in Nirranda’s coolroom for 20 minutes and drank a poultice of water before driving home - without any further issues.

Finished 27 minutes late due to my soft-cockedness and extra drinks breaks. Allansford’s openers put on about 160 and finished at 5/315. One of the openers, a young bloke, made 130 odd and should have been caught first ball. Nirranda never looked like it ending about 7/175.

If the temp at Warrnambool Airport reached 40, we were to come off, and 90% of the game was played between 39 and 40 degrees, never topping 39.8.

Season came to an end yesterday. We had to win to make the finals. We were playing the top side and batted first. We scrapped to 150 off our overs. I felt really good until I snicked one on 7. Story of my season after round 2. We started off with the ball and had them 3/20. After that we just couldn’t pick up 2 wickets in a row. We had them 8 down and they still needed 20 but they got over the line. That’s our season done and the end for me. I’ve played for over 30 years now and just really struggled with motivation after Christmas. I’m a liability in the field now so the time is right to pull the pin.

Another game yesterday, an umpire had to pack it in after 52 overs, and rather than umpire themselves, both teams opted to stop play.

Our 1’s chasing finals, smashed the second bottom team last week making 250 odd, then skittled them for only 28, sent them in again only to miss out on the outright win by a solitary wicket and therefore miss out on the 2 crucial points to catapult them from 5th into the top four to 3rd. Hence they were in 4th by a bee’s ■■■■ of 0.002%. Percentage however was still gained by taking 19 wickets on the day.

Today their opponents were the top team and the team in 5th were playing the second last team Old Camberwell. Old Camberwell Grammarians guts out a total of 198 off 45 overs on the Mercantile Association website, meanwhile our 1’s bowled out the top team for 164, a total they chased down with 5 balls to spare and three wickets in hand. The ■■■■ up started as we awaited the result in which National chased down Old Camberwell losing 6 wickets and batting an over out, overtaking and making a total of 204, all the club’s wannabe mathematicians came out of the woodwork unanimously thinking we’d get pipped. Eventually a call made to league exec and so it was, our 1’s missed out by a total of 0.0086%

It just wasn’t meant to be, so the ‘what ifs?’ conversation came up as we plundered the Esky and in jest we looked for scapegoats such as the ex President and club legend who asked for a bowl a fortnight ago and went for 21 runs in one over. Gonna get a lot of mileage out of that, a good sledge for next season, costing the club a potential premiership. Presidents eh?..always looking out for themselves.

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A weekend of high dramas and that was just our u16’s!
Last minor round game concluded on Friday night and was heated out so our lads scraped in to the 4 by a bees appendage. The side who missed out carried on like prats and the coach demanded a hearing to decide the finals fixture. Being an association executive as well as an executive of my club I was excused from the hearing to avoid any conflicts of interest. Sanity prevailed and their protest was dismissed yesterday morning which wasn’t ideal preparation as the semi finals were today. We finished 4th so played the side who finished top and had won 13 of their 14 games and who are a very good side with 2 top order bats who average over 60 each this year. They won the toss and batted but after losing an early wicket they got to 1/60 before some brilliant fielding saw their gun run out for 44 and a few overs later their other gun was out LBW. The panic in the other kids eyes was evident and we ended up rolling them for 74.
We then had 52 overs to chase it down and after seeing off the new ball and being 1/20 off 20 we hit the remaining runs in about 8 more overs and are through to the GF next Sunday. I had been shortlisted to umpire the U16’s GF but now I can sit back, relax with a few beers and hopefully watch another flag

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Went down and watched a bit of our 1s, I got there 32 overs in, they had the other mob 5/145, with their gun still in on 102 from about 80 balls.
All over before tea, they lost 6/5.

Off for a frosty fruit rather than attempting outright, as that locked up top spot.

Lost. Couldn’t defend 194. Was a hot day and the ground was lightning fast. We had them 7/130 but they put on a decent partnership and got them without losing another wicket. We play the same mob in the semi-final, but losing meant we finished 3rd so it’s at their ground rather than ours.

Don’t know about your comp but with ours finishing top 2 is vital as in 10 of the last 20 seasons the semi final or final has been weather affected

Yeah, the weather does tend to turn south fairly quickly from here, but the conditions are forecast to be fine for the weekend so can’t see the weather being a factor. But you’re right, finishing top 2 does give you the advantage in weather affected games with the highest ranked side advancing in the event of a washout.

4 years ago our 1’s finished top and the semi final was heated out and the following week the GF was washed out so other clubs rubbish us with the “asterisk flag” moniker

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Rounds 1 &2 are basically write-offs every year, rather than the end of the year.

EDIT: plus there’s a reserve day for GFs. Not sure what would happen if both of the first days were write-offs.

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The VTCA plays 4-day Grand Finals spanning over 2 weekends, which I find quite bizzare. Plenty of examples where the top side wins the toss and bats 3 days by just shutting up shop and refusing to play shots but they recently added a rule where the innings must compulsorily close at 160 overs. I think it’s ridiculous. I still believe it should be a 160 over game (max. 80 over innings per team), but the 2nd weekend should be used only in the event where weather affects play.

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You’ve mentioned one of the many reasons the south division left the VTCA to form the Southern Bayside competition. The grand finals were an issue given they were different to every other game for the year. Bonus points which basically meant having to play out the second day was another issue.

BHRDCA used to have 120 over GFs over Saturday/Sunday.
80 overs over 2 saturdays throughout the season.

If you batted first, and batted the overs, the other side may as well stay home the 2nd day.

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