Melbourne weather put on a show on Saturday, with all senior grades getting their season started. After a reasonable start last week, the First XI were unable to capitalise. Nevertheless, the other XI’s came through with the goods.
First XI
It was an exciting start to the season – the sun was out and we had 3 debutants (Jack Woods, Matt Brown (Pom) and Ben Howes). We won the toss on what we thought was an under-prepared wicket and decided to send Canterbury into Bat. Unfortunately our decision to bowl was not justified early with some poor bowling. While Canterbury were not making us pay with scoring, we were bowling 2 lengths and 2 sides of the wicket. Jackson came on after the openers and changed the game with his precision and discipline, claiming 2 crucial wickets. As the day progressed, our bowlers warmed into it and were able to get some valuable time in the middle.
Watkins was the pick of the bowlers claiming 4 wickets, while Jackson (2), Guley (1), Padbury (1), Howes (1) and Munro (1) all played a vital role in restricting and bowling out Canterbury for a total of 187 in the final over of the days play.
We arrived at MACC for day 2 of our match against Canterbury, excited by the opportunity to chase the 187 on the board. Our focus was to be positive and to build partnerships (2 x 50+ our aim at a minimum). Unfortunately we lost an early wicket in the third over of the day and it set the tone for the whole afternoon. We were unable to get any rhythm in our innings, losing wickets at regular intervals. Just when we looked like building a partnership, we would lose a wicket. Matty Brown looked composed at the crease, before he misjudged a quick single and was sensationally runout by their professional. The top partnership for the afternoon was only 29, which is not good enough and very rarely going to end in a positive outcome. The shining light was young Darcy Munro, who came in at number 8 and top scored, playing positive strokes all over the field and maintaining positive intent throughout his innings. We fell 20 odd short, which illustrated if you are 10-15% off in all 3 disciplines you are going to struggle to win. We need to work hard on the training track to turn the tables next weekend verse East Doncaster!
Second XI
The 2nd XI welcomed two new faces from last year in Prateek Singh and Nat Cutts as we travelled down the road to play Canterbury. Also in the side was Michael Daffey playing his first game back for the club in a number of years.
After winning the toss and electing to bat, our two openers, Jones (31) and Daffey (23) built a solid opening stand. Daffey was well supported by Cutts (48), their partnership allowing us to be only one down at the 20 over mark. After the break a middle order collapse of 5/7 left us in a bit of trouble but Fernandes (31*) and Power (20*) were able to steady at the end to get us to a defendable total of 191.
Our bowling innings started well with Thorn (2/18) and Power keeping it tight and Thorn grabbing two wickets to set us off. Canterbury had wrestled back some of the momentum during the middle overs until the introduction of Singh who bowled with great control taking 2 wickets and restricting Canterbury’s batsmen to just 21 runs off his 8 overs. After that, Cull (3/21) and Jones were able to finish off the innings clinically to ensure Canterbury did not reach our total, ending on 9/163. A solid start to the season but with a bit to work on as we look forward to East Donny next week.
Third XI
The Threes won the toss on a perfect spring day for cricket and decided to bat. In trouble early at 4/40, Reg (51) Minzy (28) and Kanny (34) dug in and got us out of a hole and helped us to a respectable 219 in 76 overs. Nobby got the new ball and had one over at them in the fading light and found the edge, only for it to fall short of first slip. Hawthorn are 0/4 off 1 at the close of play.
The threes picked up where we left off and struck early (and often) to have Hawthorn 8/80 at tea. After a short resistance post-tea we skittled them for 111 for an early finish. A great, even contribution from the bowlers (Bobby C 3/17, Dave Laird (Big Papa) 2/13 and Nobby 2/15) the standouts with good support from Connor and Minzy.
Fourth XI
4th XI kicked off their season with a resounding victory over Hawthorn at St. James Park. We lost the toss but somehow managed to get sent in to bat on a pretty decent wicket in the end. Molly and AB got us off to a flying start by putting on a big first partnership off not many overs. Molly departed just shy of his 50 while AB managed to achieve the milestone. We weren’t able to string together many partnerships after that until Wayne Harris and JD were able to hang around and stop the fall of wickets. Some late hitting from Casey Vollmer (24) got us to a fantastic score of 226 after 40.
We then proceeded to bowl Hawthorn out for 55 off about 21 overs. Ring-in player Roy Taylor was too good for the opposition, claiming 4 wickets. Young Lachy Smit bowled superbly and was lucky not to get more than the 1 wicket. Craig Vollmer chipped in with 2. While other ring-ins Kevin Wilson and Morgan Gason cleaned up the tail. A fantastic result and the most pleasing part was that every single player in the side made a contribution.
Fifth XI
The 5ths started the season well by winning the toss and electing to bat. Phil Boyd made his debut in the 5ths. He opened the batting and made his first run for the club. All batsman contributed with a special mention to Rahul who made 43 and went out trying to push the run rate along and was ably supported by Massey (20). Aaron (19 no) and Rufus (24 no) hit the ball well in the last four overs to bring the score to 4/223 of 35 overs.
Rufus hit a purple patch with the ball. His first ball of the season produced a wicket by hitting the stumps and by the end of the first over he had 2 wickets. After five overs Rufus had the figures of 6 for 8 and then his miserable captain took him off. Quentin then picked up 2 wickets to clean up the tail and Hawthorn were all out for 39 at the end of the 13 over.
It was a big win for the 5ths and an excellent start to the season but in the LOC grades we you never know what you are going to get week, so we need to keep working hard to keep improving our game.