Jack Woods on his way to a mature 67 – Image: Peter Knox
Ravaged by injury and unavailability, MACC has had to dig deep over the past few weeks, turning to former players for brief cameos, and relying on the depth that has been cultivated over the past few years. Amazingly, the First XI has continued on its winning way during this tough period, highlighting the strength of the club and signifying what is to come in the back half of the season when injuries and unavailabilities start to fall our way. See below for our captain’s respective takes on the games from round 8.
First XI
We finally arrived back to our home deck for only the second time this season. We were treated to some good weather and a wicket that looked good for batting. We lost the toss and not surprisingly were sent out in the field. Howes and Jackson worked hard early without much luck until Howes broke through with the score at 33. It was tough going with Surrey digging in and the wicket not providing any assistance. Patel and Taylor bowled extremely well after the
The two Jacks walking off at Tea, with the score at 1/97. They ended up posting a 77 run partnership – Image: Peter Knox
openers, with Stothard providing some good assistance. Guley came on to break the second wicket partnership and did exactly that, which came at a crucial time, as Surrey looked to be piling on the runs. Surrey were 2/107 at tea and the score of 250+ looked on the cards.
We talked at lunch about persisting and bowling discipline areas for longer. Post tea was fantastic – we were able to take regular wickets and really reduce Surrey’s run-rate as they looked to accelerate. Surrey’s opener batted well for his 100 but we were eventually able to bowl out Surrey for 225 in the 76th over. Standouts with the ball were Taylor and Stothard with 3 wickets apiece and Howes and Guley with 2 apiece. Patel, while going wicket-less, bowled with great control and played a big part in our ability to restrict Surrey right when they could have easily taken the game away from us.
We knew that we were going to have to bat extremely well to chase down the 225 on day 2. The onus was put on the top 4 to bat time, build partnerships and have someone go big! Wright and Woods got us off to a great start, playing sensibly – running hard between the wickets and putting away the bad balls. The wicket was similar to day 1 – not much assistance for the bowlers and a little slow. As we
Drinks break at MACC. Image: Peter Knox
approached tea, it looked as though we might be having a bite to eat with the loss of no wickets, but unfortunately about 5 overs prior to the break, Wright was trapped in front for a well made 42 with the score at 76. 1 wicket down at tea for around 90 runs was a terrific start and we reiterated at the break that we needed to continue to build partnerships and go on with our starts.
After the break Woods continued on his merry way, passing 50 for the first time in his young career and displaying maturity beyond his years. He played to his strengths and gave the opposition nothing. He was unluckily dismissed from a leg-side stumping for a great knock of 67 and a partnership with Joslin of 77 runs. We lost another quick wicket but then able to consolidate and passed Surrey’s 225 in the 74th over only wickets down (3/229), with Joslin not out on 77 and Guley not out 19 (52* partnership). It was a terrific chase, with the highlights being young Woodsy’s debut 50 and the 3 x 50+ run partnerships! We take some confidence going into our final game of the year verse Ashburton in a 2-dayer at home!
Go Monts!!
Second XI
Battered and bruised from the unsuccessful weekend before, we took on Richmond City for the second time in a week.
While it was something of a relief to be back wearing creams and bowling with a red ball, injuries and unavailability really hurt us, and we were going to need something special with bat and ball which unfortunately we just couldn’t muster.
After a slow, but steady start, we were eventually rolled for 93 in the 50th over, at least 90-100 runs away from what might have been a competitive score.
Joel Guley (24) and super sub Frosty (21) batted well for their 20s, but outside of that it was pretty bleak.
We were tasked with bowling 27 overs at them before the close of play on Saturday. We managed to get them 2 down for 54 at stumps, Stoff taking them both, in a row might I add, when they were in the 30s, giving us a faint glimmer of hope that something special might happen. But, they consolidated and got through to stumps without losing another.
With only 40 to get the following week, we knew they would be aggressive and send us in again, we just weren’t sure when. They notched up the W fairly quickly, but we bowled bloody well, not letting them get away, taking regular wickets to halt any chance of a big partnership.
Orch opened into the wind and bowled 20 straight to finish with 3/55, a fine performance from our no. 1 spinner.
The ever-green Cully was as miserly as ever, finishing with 2/31 off his 19. Minzy kept the house down with two great catches and a stumping, and Chip and Bobby chimed in with a wicket each for their troubles.
Richmond declared at tea, 108 ahead and smelled blood. To our credit, our top order showed some ticker and we restored a bit of pride, in what has been a tough few weeks for us and the club.
We finished 2/52 in our second dig, in what ended up being a decent day for us, taking 7 wickets from them and not giving them a sniff of an outright.
We take on Ashwood next game with a few key players back and a big chance to get back on the winners list.
Up the Monts.
Third XI
Round 8 saw the 3’s host a strong Marcellin team at Elgar for our first home game since round 1 and not even I could find anything funny about what was to eventuate.
Marcellin won the toss and elected to bat on what was a beautiful day for cricket.
We started really strongly thanks to some wonderful bowling from our openers (Laird 2/68 off 22 and Smit 1/59), bowling tight lines with Dave picking up an early wicket, and with Udhav (1/58) snaring one, we had Marcellin on the ropes at 2/29. Unfortunately the rest of the day would prove to be a tough day in the field. With some decisions that didn’t go our way, the Marcellin batsmen batted well all day posting 5dec/348, leaving us 5 overs to survive the day. Wayne Harris and Ando did a superb job to see out the day leaving us 0/6 with plenty of work to do.
We started the day well and despite losing Noble and Ando early, we were able to keep Marcellin at bay. Barks (23) as always was leading the way and with some help from Jonny Mitch (21, looking as casual as Mark Waugh) at 2/50 we felt we were right in the game. Unfortunately after the loss of Barks the floodgates opened as we went on to lose a disappointing 8/44 to be all out for 94. Rather than head back to the club for a cool glass of ‘reflection’, Marcellin would send us back in leaving us to survive an outright loss.
Losing a handful of wickets early we had our backs to the wall at 3/17. But thanks to the composure and determination of Barks (29*), some entertaining ball striking from first gamer Daniel Tallariti (34) and help from Tim Noble (14*), in the final overs we were able to survive the outright finishing 6/108.
Not a lot to write home about unfortunately, but I have no doubt we will respond positively next week.
Go Monts ?
Fourth XI
The 4s were up against Donvale again this round and after a mad scramble Thursday night, we had 11 players to take the field. We lost the flick and were sent out into the field. Our bowlers toiled hard early on as Donvale got off to a flying start. They did a great job in tightening them down after that and keeping the score to a respectable 282 off 72, which I would consider around par for Donvale No.2. Michael Lee bowled a huge 22 overs to pick up 4/89 while young Rufus McLean bowled well to collect 2/44 off his 12.
We came back on Day 2 knowing that if we can keep wickets in hand and bat the whole day, we would go close to knocking this total off. A couple of early wickets meant we were 2/37, Ferdinands came to the crease and compiled a nice 29 to help us to be 3/130 odd at tea. Terry Smit and AB continued to press on to take our score to 173 where Terry fell for 45. AB kept going before being removed for a nicely made 91 while Michael Lee hit a quick 32 to edge us closer to a victory. Unfortunately, the run rate proved too much and we fell 36 runs short after our 72 overs. A great effort considering the stress on numbers for this round. Thank you to those who helped us out and hopefully the numbers can improve as we head into the new year!
If you have any photos, or are willing to take some photos (particularly of grades other than the 1s), please let either me (harveyj42@gmail.com) or Adgy (nickadg5@gmail.com) know.