Tasmania University Cricket Club
Scores and Reports
Season 2005/06
Second Grade
Round 12 v. South Hobart Sandy Bay (2 day game)
Played at the University Oval, 4th. and 11th. February 2006.
(Toss won by : University)
Chris Topp 3-5 Paul Hudson 3-21 Nick Grubb 2-33 and Chris Topp 5-21 Jo Hoang 4-18 |
Nick Grubb 34 Andrew Jackett 28 Mike Graham-Smith 26 Paul Hudson 45 and Robert Jubb 24* Remi Barley 19* |
(Day 1). The local derby is always a match to look forward to and this match was no exception. The Bay Twos were strengthened, before the match began, by the unexpected inclusion of their four state players to their first grade team due to the early finish of the Shield match against the Warriors. I would have thought one hundred 100 metre sprints might have been a better way for the state players to spend their Saturday afternoon after playing so poorly and robbing state cricket fans of entertainment on the weekend! That aside the Uni boys always relish a good challenge. A humid morning and a new and well-grassed pitch at Uni provided the opportunity to invite the opposition team to bat first. The captain just had to win his first toss for the season and fortunately he did - or rather the Bay captain lost it.  So the Uni boys took to the field with a pretty strong team although perhaps lacking one seam bowler. Early breakthroughs were required but they did not come. The opposition captain held up one end while the others batted around him. About half an hour into the match Joe Hoang, after switching from the University end to the river end, claimed the first wicket. Some good catches in the morning session were keeping us in the game.
 Jubby Jnr took a good catch at square leg, Jacko took a diving catch at point, Grubby held a well-hit caught and bowled and Remi took a good catch off the gloves of Paske.
At lunch we had them 5 for 103 but two of their better batsmen were at the crease so we needed to break that partnership soon after the break. The pace bowlers (Hoang, Campbell, Grubb and Hudson) had bowled through the morning session and used the favourable conditions quite well although it was the bad balls that had claimed the majority of wickets in the morning sessions.  After lunch it quickly became obvious that the pitch was flattening out and the seam-up bowling of Grubb and Hudson was becoming ineffectual. So it was time to turn to the spinners. Hudson, from the river end, and Topp, from the University end, took up the challenge. Petterwood was looking very streaky and by sticking to the game plan Huddo soon had him trapped in front right back on his stumps and low down.
 The wickets began to tumble and we were soon in charge of the game. Jubby Snr, at mid on, Hickey, in slips, and Huddo of his own bowling all took sharp catches. Hickey's was a blinder at first slip. Off the bowling of Topp the batsman went back to cut and flashed hard. The outside edge flew high and hard to Hickey's right (his sore shoulder by the way). 
His quick reflexes saw him thrust out his right hand and parry it up and he collected it on the second bite falling to the ground.
Huddo, who was as crook as a dog, ended with figures of 2 for 21 with his Roy-like combination of seam and off spin bowling. Grubby chimed in with 2 for 34 and Toppdog bowled an excellent spell to finish with figures of 3 for 5. The Bay were dismissed for 133. It seemed like a pretty straightforward task for us but on a deck suiting seam early and spinners later on it was always going to be a fight. Jubby Jnr and Sugar Barley saw us to tea safely with 23 runs knocked off the deficit. Remi was out shortly after tea and Jubby Jnr followed shortly afterwards. Jacko and Grubby were cruising and at 2 for 91 we looked to be in the box seat.  The introduction of off spin in Geason produced the breakthrough. His first ball was a half tracker that Jacko hit straight to mid wicket with his score on 28. Jacko had looked in fine fettle until this moment of madness. Grubby was batting with great control and with a cool head. Paske and his armies came to the bowling crease. Grubby got himself tied in knots and skied one trying to hit out and was caught out for 34 runs.
Jubby Snr and Hickster came and went and Cowboy X and Huddo came together to try and right the ship. A good partnership was formed with X hitting a few straight for boundaries. An arm ball from Geason had X stumped for 26 runs on the first ball of the last over of the day. Scotty Campbell saw out the last few deliveries and we finished the day on 7 for 124 requiring 10 runs for a first innings win. Some smart play next week should see us get over the line and claim a vital 6 points. (Day 2). Due to the inclement weather over the last few days the covers had been on the wicket since Wednesday afternoon and were removed at about midday Friday. As such the pitch was a little soft as the pitch had sweated under the covers. Nevertheless, our first task was to knock off the 10 runs required for first innings points. Huddo and Scotty managed to achieve this in 11 balls! Huddo was particularly severe on the off-spinner Geason in his first over of the day hitting him for 4, then 2 and for 6 off the 5th ball to bring up the first innings win. The winning moment was full of drama! Huddo swept Geason in the air towards the hedge and the fieldsman near the boundary took a great catch running back towards the boundary and fell over in the process. A prolonged period of silence from both teams followed as we all wondered whether the fieldsman had fallen over the line in taking the catch. It didn’t help matters that the fieldsman continued to lay on the ground for some time as we all held our breath. It soon became apparent that he had fallen over the line, the umpire raised his arms and the Uni faithful celebrated in style.  Still, the job was not over and the day had only just begun. Scotty was bowled by Geason’s arm ball and  Toppy walked down the pitch to the medium pacer, missed it and forgot about getting back to his ground and the keeper’s underarm throw hit the stumps.
Wake up English muffin! Huddo and Joey Hoang continued to tick the score over. Joey hit a six and then Huddo was caught on the square leg boundary for 45 runs. Joey had made a useful 13 not out batting at 11 and we had established a 57 run lead.
Scotty opened the bowling from the Uni end and bowled a ‘pile of poo’ to start with before ‘finding the handle’. Scotty bowled Davey and at the other end Joey was doing a fine impression of Uncle Scrooge. He started with 6 maidens from his first 8 overs and claimed the wicket of King along the way caught at the wicket by Remstar. At lunch the Bay were 2 for 31 and still trailing by 26 runs. The skipper threw the match ball, a beauty, to the umpire and this was the last time we saw it! We took the field after lunch and the umpire threw us a ball that looked as though it was 50 overs old, not 16 overs old. Of course, we took one look at it and threw it back. “That’s not the match ball”, we cried. The umpires went to look for the ball and could not locate it. Someone had gone into the umpire’s room during the break and stolen it! An 8 over ball was taken from the pill box and scuffed up a bit and the match continued. This ball, even though it was only 8 overs old, was not nearly as good as the one we had. An unimpressed Hoang took the ball and continued where he had left off. Joey took another couple of wickets both caught at the wicket and at one stage had match figures of 18-11-12-3. At one stage after lunch, our two left arm orthodox spinners, China and Toppdog, were operating in tandem and bowling very tightly. The Bay levelled scores 4 wickets down. It was at this point in time Toppdog took centre stage. In 16 straight overs Toppy took 5 for 21 including the wicket of ‘The Hero’ well caught by Grubby in slips. Joey finished off the Bay innings by having another batsman caught by Remi - 4 for the match – and finished with the impressive figures 20.5-11-18-4. The Bay had been dismissed for 99 runs. We would need 43 runs in about an hour and 45 minutes to claim outright victory. Jubby Jnr and Remi showed good composure in knocking off the runs and we won by 10 wickets. The song was enjoyed by all especially the “Roll over Hero” part and Toppy kept us all entertained after the match with his ‘Little Britain’ impersonations. The outright win helps us jump from 4th to 2nd leaping over Lindisfarne and the Bay. One first innings win in the last 2 matches will secure a finals spot for us but our aim will be to finish in the top 2. |
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