Asbestos Surveys vs PNBHS 4th XI
Saturday got off to a rough start for our team but was probably far worse for our captain Anthony Cliff who was forced to withdraw from the match after some late night shenanigans went awry. That put Benjamin back at the helm much to Kurtis’ disgust. As usual Ben avoided the toss and sent the ever emotional, professional tosser Kurtis to go win it and put us into bat. That didn’t happen and we ended up in the field.
I think there's a catch in the background. Not sure.
Things started pretty well with Ben opening the bowling from one end and the non-bowling batsman and 2nd best Gary on the field, Gary Francis from the other. They both bowled very tight lines and made scoring difficult but were unable to take wickets. That was until the 5th over when Ben offered up the first bad ball of his spell, a full toss on leg, which was spooned to Craig Trim at mid-wicket. Gaz was bowling well so continued through picking up his first wicket of the season, trapping Michael Watkins in front LBW. Dei Hamo replaced Ben at the river end and continued the trend of tight bowling but was unable to get in on any wicket action. That meant it was time for Bloomfield’s spin twins Kurt Poppe and Craig Dawson. If the score hadn’t stalled before it certainly had now and the pressure took its toll with Daniel McDougall mis-timing one straight back to Kurt leaving Boys High at 52-3 at drinks.
Kurt and Craig continued after drinks. Their short runups making up for the time lost while Ben and the 2nd best Gary limped to the top of their overly long runups. Dawson was the next to strike with a lofted drive from Karlis Zvagulis caught by the very powerful Steve Rowlett. Boys High were in a bit of a pickle but with wickets in hand were surely looking to hit their way out. That looked unlikely however as another stunning catch by Craig Trim off Kurt’s bowling had Boys High back in their shell. James Pilcher came on to finish the game off from the city end and started well only to have a catch go down early on. Ben replaced Kurt at the river end and before his first ball Tony Smith called out a beer ball while driving past the ground in his ute. Rookie move as Bens first ball took out Jack Gordons leg pin earning the club a dozen beers. Alex Gordon and Thomas Fowell were apparently not pleased to be only 89-6 off 32 overs and decided to start hitting some runs. They managed a boundary an over till the 40th, putting together a much-needed partnership of 50 before Thomas was out caught and bowled on the last ball of the innings by James Pilcher, his first wicket for the club.
PNBHS 4th XI 139-7
The guy who was supposed to take photos but didn't.
Aaron and the 2nd best Gary opened the batting for us and on previous form we were expecting great things. Big Doggs decided to shake things up a bit though by getting cut in half by a pearler from George Simpson, out without scoring. James Pilcher replaced Antz at 3 and looked every bit the part. Some stunning drives through cover were only stopped by the huge amount of grass clippings on the outfield. Still, the runs were coming but I’m sure Gaz would have appreciated a little less running between the wickets. It wasn’t long before all that running caught up with him and he was run out with a direct hit at the stumps. Kurt came to the crease for his 2nd stint at 4. He didn’t seem like he was in much of a mood to draw the game out bludgeoning a quick fire 26 off 10 before mis-timing a ball from Jack Gordon to Alex Gordon at square leg. Never in the same place twice Ben came out at 5 and found that the banter was of such an appreciable quality he might just stick around to hear it. James thought differently and after hitting a few more boundaries off Thomas Fowell, was caught by Camryn Caffell trying to hit through square leg.
That left Ben and Craig Trim at the crease with 45 runs to win and rain on the radar. Firstly we had to get to 20 overs to make sure we could get a result. It involves maths and stuff but the computer said we were sitting sweet but a middle order collapse would change that. So Ben battened down the hatches for to get through to drinks but Craig didn’t appear to know much about battening hatches and continued to flail wildly at the ball missing each time. Eventually he did get hold of one though and hit it straight down mid-ons throat but luckily the 1st best Gary fumbled the ball and gave Craig a life. On 106 at drinks Craig got the go ahead to play his own game and that he did. He smacked some lovely boundaries going overtop of the infield including a massive 6 over mid-on. That onslaught was enough to win us the game and allowed Luke (Alpha Doggs) Hatton to breath a sigh of relief batting next at 7.
Bloomfield 140-4
An awesome game for us with all our bowlers improving. The fielding effort went up another level this week with special mention to Steve Rowlett, Luke Hatton and Craig Trim fielding well and not putting a foot wrong.
MVP- James 3, Craig Trim 2, Kurt 1
Trouts vs Freyberg CC
With the weather looking a little average in Palmy, we were given the delightful opportunity to play a round of cricket in the International Bowl of Ashhurst Domain. Winning the toss the Trouts decided to mix it up a bit and have a bat first, put a devastating total on the board.
Greg once again avoiding any team chats that aren't about politics
Jason and Rowan were handed the reins and got us off to a flyer. Jason’s objective for the day was to land the ball on the embankment on the full so he gave it a good shot. Not quite succeeding with it he still managed to hit a quick 33 runs including four 4’s and one 6 that didn’t quite make the embankment. Unfortunately, the lack of pace on the ball got him and Nyle managed to have him out caught. Rowan hung around for a bit and saw Chris do not much before he was out, bringing Trout (Corey) to the crease, looking to settle in and create a partnership. Unfortunately, the current was too strong and he was unable to swim upstream and got bowled by Hayden (the lads loved that). Sukh and Rowan spent some time in the middle before Rowan was out LBW for a well-earned 15 runs. From there no one got going and we didn’t see any scores above 10 other than Sukh finishing up on 24 from 52 balls. Good to see a couple of the guys getting starts including Daddy Trout (Mark Bary) and Matt finally getting a couple of runs but in the end Nyle Hubbard and Dan Murphy were too strong with the ball, bowling us out for 121
Bloomfiled 121-10
The captain showing us how it's done.
Corey and Chris opened up the bowling and set about their work. Freyberg worked hard and the opening partnership lasted until the 11th over before Corey bowled out Josh then got the number 3 batsmen Dan Bugden in the same over. Things were looking good for the trouts as not many runs were getting scored until Sukh and Corey ran out Dan Murphy, bringing Sam Christophers to the crease. That guy can hit a ball. He smacked a quick 23, which included four 4s, until Zach finally managed to bowl him.
Zach making wickets fly.
The other opening batsmen, Liam Wells, lasted until the 31st over when he thought now was the time to change his bat and score some runs. Things did not go to plan and the new bat saw 2 balls for no runs before Rowan clean bowled him. Thinking we got off lightly, Ryan Mainwairing showed us he could also bat and hit a quick 25 before he was caught out by Randy. Hayden came out for a bat but decided he wanted to get back and make a start on his crate day so skied one and got caught out for not a lot. By the 33rd over things were starting to get tight. Needing 24 runs to win, both teams were still in it. The wickets fell regularly while the final 7 overs went for 21 runs, Sukh took the final wicket in the final over leaving Freyberg short of our total by 2 runs. Nail biter way to finish a game that we probably should’ve lost before drinks. The sharp work in the field and the lads working hard with the ball got us the win
A weeks rest before we play the game the boys have been waiting for, Palmy Legends!
Freyberg 119-10 https://www.crichq.com/matches/974383/1st_innings
Rowan trying to prove that he can breakdance. He could not.
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