Tasmania University Cricket Club

Latest News (8th. December 2005)

Twenty20 hits the TCA - a match report.

The circus which is Twenty20 cricket came to the University Oval for the first time last night and the academics who founded the club in 1898 must have been rolling in their graves!

The weather was perfect all day (although a little windy) and the temperature hit 30 degrees in the middle of the afternoon!

However, the cricket gods must be on a very long lunch this season because you can guarantee that as soon as a TCA match is about to start this season it will piss down! In fact Scott Godfrey was even claiming last night that he could personally break any drought simply by scheduling a TCA match.

The curtain raiser match between the Science and Engineering faculty and the Rest of UTAS had finished, ABC radio were halfway through their broadcast of the Drive Show, the announcer Graeme Paine had arrived via limousine, the players had completed their warm ups, a very healthy crowd (for A TCA match) had assembled at the ground in readiness to take a catch in the crowd and win $50, the formalities at the toss had been completed, the umpires were in position and everything was in readiness for the match to commence. Then it rained! Months of planning down the drain!

The covers were put in place and the teams retired to the change rooms to contemplate another lost day of cricket. No sooner had we sat down in the change rooms we were told we were on in 2 minutes. Now we were still in warm up kit and some of our blokes can’t get themselves organised and ready for cricket in 2 hours let alone 2 minutes! As it was a lot of our blokes were still pulling on shirts, caps, boots, trousers and jockstraps as we ran onto the field.

Play got underway shortly after 5:15 p.m. – was that Bob Cotgrove’s dulcet tones ringing out across the University Oval? (Bob’s interview with Louise Saunders could be heard perfectly in the middle of the ground thanks to the PA system from McCann’s Music)

In the 4.2 overs bowled by Hilf and Dags before rain drove us off the ground the North Hobart Demons had made a reasonable start through DiVenuto and Mizzen and were well-placed at 0 for 25.

We were off the ground for about 45 minutes and it looked as if play would be abandoned – who would go on to the next round then?

The skies cleared and ABC radio had gone off air by this stage so this left Graeme Paine to take up the duties as ground announcer. Painey soon let everyone know that Joe ‘Hung’ had 4 balls left – lucky Joe! The match had been reduced to 13 overs.

Josh Bean’s introduction to the bowling crease triggered off frenzied activity. Smithy couldn’t keep his feet on the wet grass on the hard square and managed to fall over three times within 10 seconds chasing a ball just off the square. Flicker went for 16 off his first over but bounced back in his second over going for 8 runs. But the ground announcer was sensing weakness in Bean and went for the jugular – I thought you blokes were great buddies!

Scotty Campbell and Joey Hoang bowled pretty well at crucial stages of the innings. Scotty even managed to find time to give Diva the death stare and a few choice words (respect son!) before picking up the wicket of Mizzen spectacularly caught by Ben Hickey at mid off who caught the well-hit ball cleanly whilst falling over.

At the end of their allotted overs the Demons had fought their way to 1 for 111. We would require 112 runs off 13 overs to win. Our batting was a little under-strength as Lockdog (who had scored a magnificent 167 runs in the Second XI match the day before against NSW Second XI at Bankstown), Painey and BT were all unavailable but we held high hopes.

After 6 overs Kingston, Bakes and Cunningham had taken the score to 1 for 48. Kingston was dismissed in the 5th over for 6 runs. We were behind the required rate at this stage of the innings and the rain was starting to fall quite heavily. If we came off now, we would lose according to some formula which makes Duckworth and Lewis look like kindergarten mathematical minnows!

A greater intent was required and it was forthcoming. Cunningham and Bakes took 12 off the seventh over to take our score to 1 for 60 but we were still marginally behind on the Twenty20 whizz-bang formula and it was starting to bucket down now.

Big gave Diva the ball and his over changed the face of the match. Richie took 22 runs off the over (.6466X) and took himself off the ground with the match well under control now. We were well in front of the required rate now so the Demons had to stay out there and hope we lost quick wickets – which we did! Bakesy, Nessie and Huddo all perished in the run chase but it was always in hand and we won with an over to spare thanks to some ‘Keystone Cops’-type fielding from the Demons at the end. BT had turned on the floodlights by this stage and the match concluded under low cloud and eerie light.

Should we sing the song after Twenty20? What the heck? After all, a win is a win and we haven’t sung the song much this season to this point.

For the record, the team that made some part of Uni. cricket history -

G Cunningham
JE Kingston
SNB Bakes
D McNees
P Hudson
NR Grubb
BP Hickey
MW Graham-Smith
BW Hilfenhaus
J Hoang
JA Bean
SJ Campbell


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