Tah’s in Tough Battle with Boys from the Shire – Sutherland – MN RD6 D1

Coming off the back of an excellent round against the Stags, Sutherland were always going to be a tough club to back up against, especially with the likes of Shane Watson turning out for their 1st Grade side. Despite performing quite well across the grades especially at the start of some games,  slightly weaker finishes at the back end of the day has left it evenly poised if not with Sutherland just in front in a few grades.

1st Grade worked hard and bowled brilliantly to restrict the visitors to 201, however with our innings left at 6/91 there’s still a lot of work to be done by Taylor Beatty and Cameron Merchant who remain at the crease. 2nd Grade also toiled hard on a flat wicket to bowl Sutherland out for 238 led by Joe Graham’s 4fa, however losing four wickets for the acquisition of only 58 runs leaves us with work to be done next week. 3rd grade fought hard for every run in their 176, led by a brilliantly chanceless 61 by Will Akhurst who managed to remove himself when a calf seizure saw him dislodge the bails. Having taken the crucial wicket of the Sutherland skipper, it will be a great contest next week. 4th Grade look relatively in control at 0/61 in reply to Sutherland’s 197 as Glyn Archer took an impressive 4-31. 5th Grade were led by Dan McKenna’s crucial 4-62 and managed to restrict Sutherland to 285 on a belter of a wicket at Mike Pawley.

With plenty of similarly worthy performances over the weekend it was tough to decide one individual performance over another. Special mention to Joe Graham for his 4fa in 2nd Grade and Will Akhurst for notching up his first fifty in 3rd Grade en route to a crucial 61, however they miss out this week as Glyn Archer is named this week’s 4 Pines Player of the Week.

Glyn played a pivotal role in restricting Sutherland to only 197 on Saturday, showing great patience and consistency to draw the error from the opposition batsmen. With 11 wickets from his last two 5th Grade matches, Glyn finally got another chance to show his wares in 4th Grade and did not disappoint!

Great work Glyn keep it up mate!

he lads turned up to a beautiful sunny Saturday at the iconic manly oval. After losing the toss and being sent in to bowl plenty of optimism circulated around the group as noticeable grass on the deck could offer plenty to the lads.

Vi$$ steaming in from the ‘Sydney Road’ end decided he’d take a scalp first rock of the game leaving a great platform for ‘watto’ to enter the paddock. After bombing Vi$$ to all parts ‘watto’s off stump was obliterated, leaving nothing but kindling to maintain Manly’s fiery and efficient start. Shane Considered DRS but after a consultation from the non striker he was happy to decline.

After terrific bowling from the opening attack it was clear the tahs were on top. Sutherland showed glimpses of a rebuild, but a powerful partnership between Chris Green and Taylor Beatty proved to out class their batsmen and command our dominance on the game.

5/150 in enters ‘Toes’. Nothing but pure destruction and sheer superiority from this tall breath of fresh air left Sutherland chasing their tail all out for 201, sub par at best. With 37 overs left in the day it was fair to say the tahs had the upper hand.

However, Sutherland did their homework. With Dwarshius bowling thunderbolts up one end and and ‘old mate’ bowling dibbly dobblers down the other we found ourselves in all sorts of shambles (6-89). With Taylor Beatty and Cameron Merchant red ink at the end of days play we will have plenty of work to do in order to walk away with 6 points and maintain a strong presence in the competition.

Regards,
Anonymous

econd grade lost the toss on the weekend and were sent into the field. We didn’t get away to the best of starts with the ball with the Sutherland bats riding their luck and us being a touch inconsistent. The introduction of the ever reliable Jake Carden (1-34 off 13) was a game changer as we built some pressure and ended up taking 3 wickets before lunch with Tom Kaye (2-42 off 14) getting in on the act too.

It was a similar story in the middle session as Sutherland put together a sound partnership before the introduction of spin in the form of Graham (4-45 off 15) and Gainsford (1-19 off 4) broke through. Graham cleaned up the tail with 4 wickets as Sutherland finished up their innings just after tea for 231.

We had 26 overs left to bat and it would be fair to say we didn’t quite get away to the start we were hoping. It was great to knock 60 runs off the total however losing 4 wickets was definitely more than we were hoping. We will have to bat well next week, however we have a great middle order and it’s a fantastic opportunity for all our all-rounders to push their claims for a spot up the order in coming weeks.

Go Manly!

Jack Ritchie

he main grade returned home to the atmospheric Graham’s Reserve on the back of three impressive victories and some serious Butcher’s Café momentum.

The side welcomed a plethora of changes with the unavailability of inspirational skipper Javed Badyari, opening batsman Billy D’Arcy and right-arm slow bowler Uncle Drew Jamieson. In their place stand-in skipper Sam Webber welcomed debutant Jacob O’Sullivan and the experienced duo of Jarrod Walter and Brad Wilson.

‘Schwebs’ tossed the coin on a fine day at Graham’s, the Sharks skipper called incorrectly, and the Waratahs injected themselves into the fixture with willow in hand. Hole and Walter opened up and took the score onto 23 before the dashing young right-hander Hole (7) thrust his pad down the wicket and was adjudged LBW to get Sutherland’s ball rolling. ‘Walts’ played with great composure, timing and class for 31 of the great runs before some how getting caught at 2nd slip off an inside edge to make it 2/43. Skipper ‘Schwebs’ (9) and in-form ginger Jordan Daly (3) also came and went in reasonably quick fashion to leave the mighty Waratahs in a spot of bother at 4/57.

Enter young studs ‘Sully’ (31) and Will Ackhurst (61), who batted with great patience to guide us out of trouble on a wicket that was difficult to start on. The young men found the boundary when required and also picked off the singles to frustrate the Sutherland bowling attack for 69 blissful runs until Jacob played the leg-spinner onto his stumps. The loss of late-arrival and ale-enthusiast Jimmy Crombie (0) along with Ben Watts (0) compounded the pressure however some fantastic lower-order batting from Ryan Bishop-Perrett (19*) pushed the Waratahs up to a competitive 176.

9 cheeky overs late in the day produced the crucial wicket of the Sutherland skipper, who ran past a Ben Watts spinner to give us a real shot at 6 points next week with 167 to get and 9 wickets in the Sutherland bank.

Overall it was a solid day for the Waratahs with plenty to play for next week. Special mention needs to be made once again to Will Ackhurst who was all class in making 61 and was unfortunate to depart when he smashed a pull-shot as his calf seized-up and through him onto his stumps.

Thanks also need to go to Ground Manager and All-round Club Legend Alan Wright who organised the troops with his usual calm persona throughout the day. Similarly, thank you to Dave ‘Lozza’ Gardner and MattyWhite who fielded late in the day as troops dropped left, right and center due to injury and Schoolies related incidents.

Go Manly.

Russell Arnold.

T he Mighty 4’s lost the toss on a very flat wicket at Sutherland oval, and we were sent into the field.

Glynn and Counsel opened up and bowled very good areas, troubling the young Sutherland openers early. Glynn picked up two wickets in his first spell which was exactly the start we needed. Bain and Bennett came on and bowled well, however we knew it was going to be tough work as there was very little movement 10 overs in. Sam Alexander came on and bowled well without luck, and he was well supported by the bustling Jacob Graham. Graham picked up a crucial LBW, bringing in ex 1st grader Hughston, who Manly lower grades have had trouble with before. He got on top early, however some quality fast bowling from Counsel saw him top edge a short one, skying it to Bryn behind the stumps. We were on top from here, with Alexander, Glynn and Bain picking up wickets at regular intervals. Archer was the pick of the bowlers, finishing with 4 for 31, as we bowled them out for 197.

We had 15 overs to negotiate with Gummer and Cohen opening up. The boys were looking to be none down at stumps, however the favourable batting conditions meant runs were easy to come by. We finished 0-61 at stumps, with Gummer 19* and Cohen 41*, the latter looking in ominous touch for day 2.

very young 5th grade turned up to Mike Pawley and were treated to an excellent looking pitch. Unfortunately stand in skipper Will Outred lost the toss and Sutherland elected to Bat.

DMac and Jarrad Ninness opened the bowling. DMac started things off with 3 early wickets. A great runout from Lachlan Molyneux had Sutherland in all sorts at 4-20. Jordy Brewster was brought into the attack and picked up the 5th wicket to have Sutherland 5-50 and in deep trouble at tea time.

After tea the pitch flattened out and the Sutherland batsmen started to score with a bit more ease. Runs started to flow and both batsmen looked very comfortable. DMac was brought back into the attack and got the broke through. It felt like Sutherland had reversed the order as the number 8 and 9 came out and blasted a very quick 50 each to put Sutherland back in control.

Wickets continued to fall and Sutherland were eventually bowled out in the last over for 285. All bowlers including Joel Davies, Lachlan, Jack, Wazza and Jordy bowled well without much luck.

DMac

he PG’s boys had one of their most comprehensive wins down at the picturesque Manly Oval on Saturday led primarily by yet another dominating performance by Ollie Davies. In a bit of a trouble early with the loss of some early wickets at 2-30 and 4-74, Ollie settled in and began to control the innings. Despite losing partners with disappointing regularity, Ollie continued to steer the Manly innings unperturbed, and when he was finally dismissed with the score on 235 he had scored 163 of them! Joel Foster continued to play an active innings and was run out for a well made 37 pushing the Manly boys towards their final score of 265.

With runs on the board, the lads were confident a strong bowling performance would see them home, but with some quality sticks in the Randy-Petes side it was never going to just happen.

After the break the Randy-Petes openers got off to a solid start that was broken only by young Luca Franks with the score on 41. Again the visitors regrouped and it wasn’t until Jack Edwards came on and tore through their middle order to leave them reeling at 4-74. The introduction of spin with Sam Gainsford and Joe Graham combined to suffocate the batsmen, and inevitably the pressure translated into wickets, with Gainsy taking 2-7 and Joey 3-16, while Alex Bain finished with 1-8 off 4 as he continues to impress at the PGs level.

Great to see the lads toil hard and grind out an emphatic victory – the last 7 wickets were taken for a miserly 34 runs. Also worth noting that both sides were at similar points in their innings at 4-73 (Manly) and 4-74 (R-Ps), it’s safe to say that Ollie Davies proved the difference on the day. All up a brilliant win and one that will give the team great momentum going into the Christmas/New Year break. No doubt they’ll return fresh and raring to go against Northern Districts in their next PGs fixture at Waitara on 7th Jan.

Go Manly!

Jordan

t was a beautiful morning at Centennial Park for Manly’s first ever ladies grade cricket game. It was an historic occasion for the club, and coaches Simon and Ross were justifiably proud of the group of young ladies they had assembled and put many hours of work in the practice nets with the team. Universities won the toss and elected to bat.

Jasmin and Gemma opened the bowling, with the breakthroughs coming early, with each getting a wicket in the first over. Universities were 2/6 after 2 overs, a very promising start. The next partnership proved difficult to end, with their opening batter in particular batting solidly. Being the first game, the coaches rolled through the bowlers, giving each of them 3 over spells. Despite some nice balls from Sienna, Amelia and Kate, the breakthrough did not come until Genevieve, bowling some tidy leg breaks, bowled their batter in the 18th over, with the score on 64. Universities then picked up the pace, and despite some nice bowling from Mia, Robyn and Chloe, the opposition reached 127 in the 36th over before Amelia got the breakthrough. Sienna and Gemma picked up a couple of late wickets, and universities ended on 147 after 40 overs. First Nat, then Hannah, did some very tidy keeping behind the stumps to keep byes to a minimum. While the bowling was tight in patches, the coaches will be looking for a more consistent bowling performance from the team next match.

Nat and Mia opened the batting for Manly, and they started off positively. 0 for 17 off 4 overs was above the required run rate, and both looked solid. Unfortunately both fell in quick succession, both bowled, Nat for 4 and Mia for 10. This brought Robyn and Genevieve to the crease, and the pair put together what looked like a match winning partnership. The girls put together a 78 run partnership in 22 overs, and when Robyn was caught in the 28th over, the score was 102. 46 runs were needed in 12 overs. Unfortunately, the wickets kept falling regularly from this point. Genevieve eventually fell for 32, the top score, the following batters could not quite manage to put together the partnership needed to get Manly over the line. Manly were all out for 117 in the 39th over.

While not a win on the day, it was absolutely a win for Manly cricket, the coaches, players and the other fantastic supporters of girls cricket within the Manly Club. It was a day were everyone left feeling proud to be part of something that will grow to be something very large and successful in the very near future.