Tasmania University Cricket Club
Scores and Reports
Season 2004/05
Third Grade
Round 8 v. Kingborough (1 day match)
Played at Pontville Oval, 19th. December 2004.
(Toss won by : )
Mike Bowman 2-22 Sam Perkins 22-26 Matthew Dare 2-32 |
Heath Chick 97 Ronan Fenton 20 |
On a windy and, at times, wet day the TUCC 3rd grade side made the journey to our 2nd home ground of Fergusson Park at Pontville. The deck was surprisingly hard given the overnight rain, and the outfield was in pretty good condition, so it was a pleasure to be back on turf after playing on that other rubbish the week before. Ronan Fenton was kind enough to take time out from training with the Tassie Devils to grace us with his presence for the 2nd time this year, although he only turned up 20 minutes before the start of play! Chicka was late too, but he was trying to start building his Donald Trump like empire and settle a highly valued real estate deal (well, he was trying to flog a house in Lauderdale at least) that morning and let Rocket know he'd be turning up at around 1:15. The Ladder was also back for a game, and Mike "The Enigma" Bowman was recalled into the 6 pronged pace attack! The captains met, and it felt just like an Ashes battle, as the opposing captain was a pom (what is it with Kingborough and foreigners - they have more imports than the Woomera Detention Centre!). Rocket called correctly and sent the opposition in to bat (no real surprises there!) and hoped it wouldn't be a rain interrupted game, otherwise the Huey Lewis or Carl Lewis or Hayley Lewis or whatever system it is that sorts out new targets would come into play, and being 3rd grade there's no chance of anyone having an idea on how to sort it out! Perko and Stuey A shared the new ball duties again, and kept the openers pretty much under control. The bowling was much fuller than last week, so the Knights just cruised along at a bit above 3.5 an over for a while. The weather started to turn a bit nasty though, and after playing in sleet, snow, and hail for about 5 minutes the umpires finally decided we'd better cover the pitch. During the delay, Perko noticed that the umpire was carrying the ball around in her hand, and kindly asked for it to be put in a pocket so it didn't turn into soap! Not bad thinking Perko - well done! After the delay, in which the hessian had to be untwisted and put on the pitch, then the covers untangled and pegged down (in very windy weather), then the covers taken back up and the stumps hammered in, etc, the umpires advised me that only 1 over of time was going to be allowed for due to the delay! Given that we bowl 40 overs in 135 minutes, that's less than 3 and a half minutes! Needless to say there was a fair bit of discussion that went on, but the umpires wouldn't revise things. Oh, and they wrote in the scorebook that it would now be 39 overs a side, but a few overs after resumption told me that given less than 15 minutes was lost we could bowl our overs by 3:25 and not be penalised and still have a 40 over a side game.......... It was all rather confusing being told 2 separate playing conditions for the 1 delay! Anyway, back to the cricket. Stuey and Perko bowled out 6 overs each and were replaced by Twang and Rocket. Twang struck in his 2nd over, with Chicka taking a good grab at 2nd slip. 1/54 from 15 soon became 2/54 after 16, as Rocket found the edge of the other opener and Fenna completed the task at 1st slip (note: Rocket struck after asking the umpire to remove the pile of cover pegs that they had kept out there and placed behind one of the sets of stumps - surely an occupational health and safety issue?!?!?!?!?). 2 fresh batsmen at the crease (and no cover pegs), and things were on the up for the Uni boys. Speaking of health and safety, Perko got a bleeding nose and was trying to stop the flow with the rag being used to dry the ball with (I hope he hasn't got any diseases). The female umpire of the day then offered to cut a spare tampon in half for him to put up his hooter to stem the flow - an offer that was graciously acknowledged, but turned down. Anyway, 'Fleur' headed back to mid-on to take up his fielding position and to stay free.......,sorry, stay loose, in case he was required to bowl. Drinks were called after 20 overs with the Knights 2/66. Unfortunately there were no drinks available to bring on the field, so the players requested to quickly head to the changerooms, only to be initially turned down by the umpires! Rocket spoke to opposing captain and both went to see the umpires, who finally relented on something and allowed us to run off and refresh ourselves. Twang (1/22 off 7) and Rocket (1/28 off 8 - should have been 2/28 but Perko dropped a catch even Darey could have taken!) bowled their spells straight and were relieved by The Product and The Enigma. The Product struck first, having the always dangerous Vaughan Allen caught at point of a leading edge by Streety (note: Rocket picked this as the exact way he would be dismissed 3 balls earlier!). The Enigma (2/22 off 3) then struck twice in an over - bowling a guy around his legs, and then producing a Girth like half tracker that the batsman smashed to cover, only to be caught by Rocket. The Knights were now 5/106 off 30 and in need of runs. The batsmen tried to swing, and were successul for a while, putting on 52 in 8 overs. However, The Product (2/32 off 7) rattled the woodwork of a batsman, and the reintroduction of Perko (2/26 off 8) led to a couple of quick wickets in the quest for quick runs. Stuey A (1/22 off 6.1) wrapped up the innings by dismissing the middle order slogger courtesy of catch #2 to Chicka. With only 10 players, Kingborough were dismissed for 162. Fenna and Chicka opened the batting...... eventually! The umpires walked out to the middle without notifying either team, so there was a small delay until all players were ready! These 2 combined brilliantly, with Fenna pushing 1's and 2's, and Chicka unleashing powerful pulls and cover drives to send the fielders scrambling. It was great to finally have 2 opening batsmen in the team, and the rate pushed up to 6 an over from the 1st 8. Scoring slowed a little bit after that, but the rate was maintained at about 5 an over up to over number 15. Fenna was first man out in the 16th over, bat...... sorry, leg before wicket for 20 with the score on 76. The Ladder walked out to the middle to carry on the good work, but was dismissed for a duck in the next over. The Product then took up the battle, and was told by Chicka to have a look and push for 1's and 2's. A bad shot selection 2 overs later, and he was out for a duck with the score on 83. Hickey then set about playing a defensive innigs and letting Chicka cut loose as he knocked up his 2nd half century of the season. With the score on 107, Hickey was adjudged lbw. Streety was next man in and carried on the defensive role to stop any further wickets falling. The score crept along to 125 before Streety got a leading edge and was caught at square leg. With 38 runs to go from 10.2 overs, it was going to be a closer finish than everyone thought. Rocket stepped up to the crease and combined with Chicka to put on 32 in 5 overs. With the score on 157, the amount of running in the last 5 overs had taken its toll on Chicka, and he was caught at mid on for well made 97 after trying to smash a ball to the fence. Stuey A joined the skipper at the crease, and Rocket took 8 runs off an over to pass the Knights total, and give the Uni 3's victory by 4 wickets with 21 balls to go. After the game there was confusion about the scores, as it appeared they only added up to 162 resulting in a tie, but I believe I've got things sorted out and the score of 6/165 for Uni is correct and should stand (the TCA should hopefully confirm this soon). I must say that ANY error in the scorebook is unacceptable, and I certainly hope the issue is satisfactorily resolved and we get credited with our win, particularly as my requests for those people scoring to concentrate on preceedings and to check the books continually added were met with remarks of being told to relax and that they were fine. It was a much better bowling performance this week, as we were fuller and straighter. However, a few ordinary efforts in the field to chase down balls and save runs meant we were chasing a fwe more than we should have been. From a batting perspective our middle order needs to concentrate on protecting their wicket a bit more, as a great innings from Chicka (who should be congratulated by all for his fine knock) was basically all that got us through. We hit the christmas break 1 game clear on top of the ladder after 8 rounds, which is more than we could have possibly asked for. Everyone who has played so far has contributed well at times. Special mention should to go Chicka and Simmo who have both scored over 200 runs at averages of over 40., and to Twang (13 wickets at 16.15), and The Product (12 wickets at 13.08) for their bowling efforts so far. Let's all refresh ourselves over the next 2 weeks, and come back in 2005 with the desire to maintain our position at the top of the table, and perhaps create some history for the club along the way. |
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