Tasmania University Cricket Club

Latest News (12th. July 2007)

The 2007 Annual General Meeting.

Second Grade Captain's Report

The second grade team made a sluggish start to the season. Two rounds into the season the team had recorded two defeats. We lost to a young and undermanned Kingborough side at home in Round 1 and suffered a demoralising outright loss to South Hobart-Sandy Bay in Round 2 on a cold and miserable weekend at Ferguson Park.

Our first win came in Round 3 in a one day match against Clarence at the Crossroads. We batted first and our young guns Jack Boon and Sam Boxsell lead the way with the bat. They both batted brilliantly and scored half centuries. Jack's innings and, in particular, some of his spanking cover drives, lofted straight drives and flicks off the pad bore an uncanny resemblance, dare I say it, to the way his old man played these shots. Let's not put too much pressure on the lad though. However, I must say that watching Jack and Sam put a good Clarence second grade bowling attack to the sword on that sunny day in November would be one of the highlights of the season for me. Let's hope we see a lot more of these two at the club for many seasons to come. Of course, we would be just as happy to see them performing well for Tasmania as well. The wily veteran Graham-Smith chimed in with a quick-fire 81 not out, which kindled memories of past heroics with the bat, to lift us to a total of 240 runs from our allotted overs. We restricted Clarence to 7 for 211 from their 50 overs with some smart one day bowling and desperate fielding to kick-start our campaign.

A loss to North Hobart in Round 4 featured a fine spell of bowling from 'Twang' Parker. We then went on a three match winning streak against New Town, Glenorchy and Kingborough. The Round 5 win against New Town was highlighted by a innings of 91 from Heath Chick and some tight bowling from Matthew Dare and Nick Paine. Our bowlers dominated the Round 6 clash against Glenorchy at home. Tom Briscoe was on song with his left arm inswingers and claimed 4 for 33. Matthew Dare and Paul Hudson also bowled well claiming 3 wickets each. We probably played our best cricket for the season against Kingborough in Round 7. We knocked over Kingborough for 108 in their first innings. All of our bowlers bowled well and we fielded brilliantly. Andy Matthews was the pick of the bowlers claiming 4 for 15. Our batting was very consistent in this match and we racked up a total of 7 declared for 319 with Paul Hudson, Nick Grubb and Mike Graham-Smith all scoring half centuries and all of the other batsmen made useful contributions. We bowled Kingborough out for 144 in their second innings. Paul Hudson claimed 4 wickets and Josh Parker and Jackson Swain both bowled good spells.

Just as the season seemed to be looking up for the second grade team and a top-two finish seemed to be beckoning a loss in Round 8 to Clarence, a washed-out draw against Lindisfarne in Round 9, a tied match that we probably should have won in Round 10 against South Hobart-Sandy Bay and a loss to North Hobart in Round 11 meant that we would be fighting for a spot in the final four right up until the end of the season. Throughout this period of time several players continued to 'fly the flag' for the club. Ben Hickey prospered scoring a resolute 63 and 21 not out against Clarence and 42 against South Hobart-Sandy Bay. Paul Hudson had a productive period with both the ball and bat. Nick Grubb made a couple of useful scores, Robert Jubb batted well against the Bay scoring 61 runs and Josh Parker and Tom Briscoe continued to bowl well. Sam Boxsell had a good match against Clarence.

The Round 12 match against Glenorchy was one of the strangest games of cricket I have ever been involved with. The scoring rate was tremendous right throughout the match particularly from Glenorchy who seemed content in trying to hit everything into 'cow corner' for six! The wickets fell at regular intervals, once again, particularly for Glenorchy although we were in a precarious position in our first innings at one stage. Nick Paine who took 3 wickets in one innings and scored 80 not out took man-of-the-match honours. Josh Parker took 6 wickets for the match and Mike Graham-Smith scored 98 runs. In the end we recorded an outright victory and we looked certainties to play finals.

A good team effort saw us secure six points against New Town in Round 13 at the bike track. An outright victory was certainly a possibility at one stage in this match and if we could have secured the outright win we would have booked a finals spot. Paul Hudson with 5 wickets for the match, Tom Biscoe with 4 and Mark Fenton with 4 all bowled well. It was just a shame we couldn't secure the breakthroughs at the crucial time. All of our batsman chipped in and we looked towards the Round 14 clash with Lindisfarne at home in the knowledge that a win would see us play finals.

Unfortunately we let ourselves down in the last match. Our bowling, fielding and batting were all 'off the mark', other results went against us and we narrowly missed finals. This proved to be a very disappointing end to the season for, what I believe, was a team that should have done well in finals. In the end our batting let us down at critical times and we were left to rue a missed opportunity.

I have thoroughly enjoyed captaining the second grade team in the last couple of seasons as every player always tried to do their best. This young team still has a lot to learn and hopefully we can win that flag next season.

As I take up umpiring one of the things I am really going to miss is playing and captaining our second grade team. I had hoped to do this for many years to come but this opportunity has come up and I feel as though I must give it my best shot. I will follow the fortunes of this team very closely and no doubt I will catch up with you all out in the middle sometime next season. I wish you all the best with your cricket and I hope to see this team go from strength to strength in the next few years. Always remember 90% of cricket is played above the shoulders. It is your mental strength and willingness to 'take up the challenge' and play your best cricket under pressure that will see you rise above everyone else.

MICHAEL GRAHAM-SMITH
Second Grade Captain


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