Mixed Results from Round 2

Round 2, Saturday 30th October.

Asbestos Surveys Bloomfield vs Freyberg Cricket Club.

No games scheduled over Labour Weekend allowed us to recover from many of the early season niggles gained in round 1. Our game for this round was moved from Paneri to Ashhurst Domain which would be the first time playing there for most of our guys. The ground is very unique with an embankment around the entire boundary but the long grass on the outfield was the first thing that caught our eye.

Kurtis won the toss and Clifford decided we would have a bat. It was clear that Freyberg had done their homework, opting to open with spinner Sam Christophers in an attempt to combat the big hitting opener Warren ‘Trimmy’ Trim. The plan payed dividends immediately with Trimmy skying one straight to square leg. At 3-1 Clifford swaggered to the crease and started playing some shots. It became clear that although the outfield was quite long it played reasonably quick and Clifford capitalised. Twice. Two fours later he was sitting back on the boundary with a very classy 8 runs to his name. Bloomfield was in trouble and Big Doggs (Aaron) and Gaz were going to have to dig in.

That they did, putting together a 149 run partnership, batting through drinks to put us in a commanding position when Gaz went, run out by Alex Shepherd in the 27th over, for a hard grafted 22 off 54. We had some big name players with high “dinger ratings” still yet to bat and that allowed Big Doggs to continue his aggressive play. After yarning about the process of obtaining a “dinger rating” for the last hour, Jamie ‘Lazerjet’ Print, went into show how it was done. Even though he was bowled for a duck apparently he earned intent points. Craig Trim came and went and Kurtis put up a fight (23 off 14) before being caught by Jamie Wilsher off the bowling of Joshua Hawe-Muldrock.

Then Freyberg finally got the much needed wicket of Bigg Doggs, Caught by Alex Shepherd, bowled by Zachary Burns for 145. This is the single biggest innings by a Bloomfield batsperson since the 1st game of the 2019-20 season. The Wickets fell quickly after that with Damian ‘Dei Hamo’ and Craig going for 2 and 6 respectively. Ben, after hearing all about the Dinger rating was pretty keen to up his from 1. After flailing around for a couple of overs he was finally able to hit his first ever 6 in club cricket off the final ball of the innings.

Bloomfield 244/9 40.OV

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Freyberg would have been reasonably confident of giving our total a good crack. That was made less likely after a very unlucky start. Dan Bugden was bowled by Ben first ball of the innings and then two balls later Josh Gray went to hit Ben back over his head for 4 only for Ben to get a mitt to it. Craig Dawson was given the new ball at the other end and was able to snare the wicket of Ryan Mainwaring, caught at mid-off by Dei Hamo. Ben came back for his second to catch Usama Mukhtar in front LBW for 1. Freyberg was in all sorts of trouble at 1-4. Jamie Wilsher and Daniel Murphy were able to settle things down for a bit seeing out some tight bowling but eventually, with no runs coming and a large target on the board something had to give. Credit to Freyberg, they weren’t going to die wondering. In similar situations some teams have the tendency to shut up shop and drag the game out till its inevitable conclusion but Freyberg was still keen to give the target a crack. Tight bowling through the middle from Craig Trim and Dei Hamo got them 2 wickets each and made things very tough for the Freberg lower order. Kurtis then came on to take the final 2 wickets but not before Benny was given the defiant middle finger getting punished in his final over for 10 runs.

Freyberg 51/10 19.2 OV https://www.crichq.com/matches/958900/1st_innings

A really enjoyable day for the boys with great weather at a lovely ground playing against a great bunch of guys.

Asbestos Surveys looking swell in our new CODE kit.

Saturday 30th October

Accelerate Automotive Bloomfield vs PNBHS 4th 11

The afternoon started with Corey winning the toss and, taking note of the damp outfield and wicket covered in freshly cut grass, put Boys High in to bat.

After giving the wicket a quick sweep, the opening bowlers set about doing their job. The opening batsmen were both kept fairly quiet with some good tight bowling leaving them 14/0 after 10 overs. Corey, getting frustrated with the lack of run scoring and playing and missing from the batsmen, decided to take himself off and bring Zach in to the attack. Jason carried on at the other end to bowl out, finishing with figures of 19/0 after his 8. Rowan and Zach continued on till drinks with Randy running out Mr Y Patel and Zach getting Tyler Stewart caught out at mid-on. Boys High ending up 48/2 at drinks.

After drinks was definitely a little more eventful with the Boys High team talk obviously indicating they needed to pick up the run rate. The batsmen came out swinging, helping them get a little more runs on the board but also helped us nab a few wickets. 2 to Corey, 1 each to Zach, Rowan, Randy and Chris including a superb full reach catch to Rhys. Boys High finishing on 152/8. Extras top scoring on 35!!!

Here's a picture of the guy who was supposed to organise photos.

With yet another small total to chase, the batting didn’t exactly start according to plan. Chris saw the first over whereas Jason saw the first ball of the second over with a solid forward defence. Second ball was “There to hit”, and that it was...straight to mid-on. So, Jason out in the second over again for a second addition to his pair of ducks to start the season, bought Rowan to the crease. He and Chris batted well getting us through to 40 runs before Chris feathered another 1 through to the keeper off Campbell Wooley’s bowling. That led to a mini collapse with Randy and Greg going cheaply and Rowan also snicking one through to the keeper off, yet again that man, Campbell Wooley. Corey (Trout) and Sukh spent some time at the crease creating a partnership of 48 trying to gather the innings and seeing us through before Corey failed to pick a slower ball from Max Barber which sent middle stump cart wheeling. Unfortunately for us, the wickets then fell often and even a last-minute barrage from Steeeeeve Rowlett’s vault wasn’t enough to see us through to the target, falling short by 21 runs.

Accelerate Automotive 131-10 https://www.crichq.com/matches/959027/1st_innings

Accelerate Automotive in new kit porvided by our sponsor CODE.