Round 11 VS Burwood
WCC 5-159 def Burwood 157
First grade got the call early on Saturday from Scotty Ryan, back from his break and keen to play some cricket. Down to Franky to get the ground ready. A torrential downpour on the Friday night was looking to jeopardise the whole rounds play in Sydney.
The boys worked tirelessly for three hours before the scheduled start with 3 super soppers, 2 hot blowers, hessian, sawdust, you name it. The only thing missing was Rory's chopper. Unfortunately there was just too much water, and after much deliberation it was decided to come back the next Saturday. Looking back, the Burwood skipper, 8 points out of the top 6, may regret the decision not to start on the first day. Apart from the fact other teams got on which ruled out one day bonus points, Warringah's skipper was ruled out mid week which would have left the green men a man down for a long days cricket come week two.
Louie Mac stepped up once again winning the toss and electing to bowl, figuring we had a better chance of bowling Burwood out that way, and to take whatever was in the wicket early to assist.
An excellent opening spell from Lenny (1-35) and pick of the bowlers Guy Davies (3-29 off 17) saw both openers and the #4 gone with the score on 24. Ethan (2-30), Bug (3-28) and BJ were then able to pick off wickets at regular intervals while keeping it tight, the visitors reeling at 8-105. A decent 9th wicket resistance saw them climb to 150 only to be broken by Louie Mac, Ethan finishing the job, Burwood all out 157.
Some early jitters for the chase, Louie Mac out for a quick-fire 13 after looking dangerous, and Jordy out without troubling the scorers, Warringah in early trouble at 2-15.
Cuz, filling in for the pirate, and Tommy C then steadied the ship and made an invaluable stand of 64 - Tom's highest partnership batting with a midget in first grade - ending when Cuz holed out for 24. Tommy went for a well compiled 51 with the score on a hundred and Eth transgressed also leaving Warringah 5-109 with 50 required off the last 13 overs.
The Bug (32*) hit well into gaps, and was dropped a couple of times later also, and with the sensible TabRat (29*) at the other end WCC didn't lose another wicket. 6 more important points and still a chance of a home final.
Lee Furlong
WCC 177 def by Burwood 8/182
So we rocked up to Rothwell and it so happened to turn out that we would be the only grade to get on for a full days play, even though there was an hour delayed start due to wet deck and drizzle.
After losing the toss again, Tip Rat was told to make his troops pad up and Buzz and Robbo got us off to a solid start putting on 20 or so while the deck was doing alot with the conditions. After that things started to fall off the rails, we lost them both without the score changing and from then on it was Freddy that played the steady knock, hitting 34 of about 130 balls. Billy, Tan and Bourkey all didnt hit double figures which had us reeling at 5/69, until Raj came in and was able to hit a quick fire 35 to relieve some of the pressure. Freddy was still in and there was hope, from the sheds we were feeling as though 180 would be a good score. Quick wickets fell again and we were struggling at 9/126. Things weren't looking good until D-Mack and Wills put on 51 for the final wicket playing really well, D-Mack smashed 33 and Wills ended up on 20*. This we felt was defendable the next week if conditions stayed the same.Coming back the next week proved difficult as the sun had been out all week and all of Saturday for the deck to look perfect for batting and the outfield considerably quicker. Really tight bowling however proved the conditions had nothing to do with it when we had them struggling at 6/80 with D-Mack and Rory taking 2 each, and Bourkey bringing himself on to snare 2 valuable wickets in his first over to put us in the box seat (Bourkey ended with 4 for the match). However a strong partnership between who we felt were there 2 best batters proved to be the difference as they took the score to 156, at this stage they were cruising and it felt as though they had it won. 2 quick wickets however changed this and put us back in it with 2 new batters at the crease and the score at 8/163. This is how their wickets columns stayed though as they knocked off the tricky final 15 runs.
Notable mentions for the match are Bourkey with his 4 and Freddy, Raj and D-Mack for their 30+ scores on a difficult deck and very slow outfields. This loss means Burwood jump us on the ladder and we now sit 4th. A good win against GR next week will all but secure us a finals birth and hopefully a home semi.
Good Luck to all grades next week and lets hold 3rd spot on club champs
Raj
WCC 1/80 Def Burwood 74 & 8/107
Day 1 wash out meant a long 120-over day out at St Lukes. We sent Burwood in on a good batting pitch. D Reynolds (5/28) bowled 17 overs straight. Next leading wicket taker was run outs with 2. Heath, Pecar and Chapman picked up one each. Burwood all out for 74 at lunch.
After the loss of an early wicket, Tom Kelly (34no) and S Grobbelaar (28no) made easy work of the chase. Warringah declared at 1/80 in search of outright points with 54 overs to play.Burwood got off to a steady start in their second dig but suffered a bit of a slow motion collapse, going from 0/22 after 10 overs to 5/28 after 20 overs, with Chapman (3/39) picking up 3 of those wickets. From their our fielding let us down. Too many dropped catches cost us any chance of bowling Burwood out with enough overs left to chase the runs. Reynolds (2/24 of 17 overs) was again relentless. Burwood finished on 8/107 when we finally called it a day.
A good result for third grade but once again we were left wondering what might have been if we had taken all of our chances.
Chappo
Burwood 111 Def By WCC 2/137
As the first week of our campaign was rained out 4th grade turned up to Burwood for a 120 over match on a deck that got flatter as the match progressed. Roger lost the toss and Burwood batted. C.Berry and J.Graham kicked us off. Graham bowled tight and was unfortunate in a few opportunities but once again Berry was the pick of the bowlers bagging another amazing 5-wicket haul. Berry bowled quick and accurate to claim half of the Burwood teams’ scalps, another great performance by our opening bowler. Berry finished with 5-41 from 14 over’s a long and arduous spell. Graham finishing with 2-19 from his 8 over’s; well bowled. Alexander was brought on first change and got a stumping courtesy of Scotty Akmal behind the stumps. Curry and Jonkers were brought on for second change with Jonkers bowling economically for 0-12 off 6 over’s and Roger claiming the last wicket, bowling him out and finishing with 1-13 off 2.5 over’s. I cannot end our bowling performances without mentioning J. Cockstains direct hit run-out from mid-on to send their opener packing and his diving screamer at gully to send their number on his bike. Of course this could not have happened without the weekly fielding practice courtesy of our own S.A.S second grader.
Well, we were up to the task of batting on a flat deck with Cockstain and Jake Fraser opening the batting. Cockstain was on fire on Saturday because he was off the mark with a four and was looking good, he batting wasn’t looking to bad either ;). Unfortunately Fraser was out for 1 C&B and P. Dolby entered the arena. Cockstain fell in the tenth over for a quickfire 14 and G. Tomlinson walked to the crease. Gordo and Dolby batted magnificently to guide us to a win. Gordo finishing on 63 n.o and Dolby 51 n.o. Gordo unable to resist got a 6 away, same with Dolby. We are now sitting in second place after some great wins.Essay
