Monday News – Rd 13 v Blacktown – Day 1

A solid day v Blactown day one. Blacktown are well placed in the CC and are in the mix in 1, 2 and 5s so it would be great to knowck them off. 1sts battled hard to have them 7/219 in a delayed start, 2nds gave back the momentum with late wickets to have them needing something special, 3rds are well placed, 4s are very well placed having already racked up 6 points and 5s are on top. Given all this we should get away with some points this coming weekend  – let’s give ourelves a chance by having a couple of hard sessions during the week.

4 Pines Brewery Player of theWeek –  Matt Cole    

In a day where not a lot happened for the Manly Boys, Matt Cole deservingly gets player of the round for ensuring 4th grade got an early win with a hard fought 43no on a big, slow oval. Matt is enjoying 4th grade with his scores of 17no, 50, 47 and 43no in recent digs. He hits the ball well and nothing fazes him. If we bat on next week he will have a chance to rack up a big one. Well done Matthew!

1st Grade – Blacktown 7/219 ( N McLachlan 3/44  A Beadle 2/44, M Edwards 2/59

First grade had a solid day against Blacktown. Due to the wet weather overnight and a few downfalls in the morning, play did not start until around 2pm. Crossy won the toss and bowled on a deck that looked like it would do a bit. We bowled solidly throughout the day, picking up two quick wickets to Mickey Edwards and a further three either side of the tea break to Nicko’s to have Blacktown in trouble at 5-123. Their lower order rallied however and ended the day at 7-219. AB took the other two wickets. 

 It wasn’t a bad effort by any means, however we probably struggled to build pressure early on against one batsman in particular who was looking to get on with it. This bloke ended up making 78 in pretty quick time whilst profiting from a dropped chance from the first ball he faced. 

 At the end of the day however we are in a pretty decent position. Obviously the aim this week will be to knock Blacktown over as quickly as possible. It will be then up to the batsman to get the job done! 

Jack Ritchie

2nd Grade – Manly 4/55 v Blacktown 242 (D Poskitt 2/22, S Gainsford 3/56, R Davis 2/37)

After a surprisingly short car trip, in which the musically deprived Sam Gainsford was introduced to Stairway to Heaven and Bohemian Rhapsody, to name a few,  2s turned arrived at a very dewy joe McAleer and got sent into the field.

 After one of their openers was dropped 3 times in the first hour and with the deck beginning to flatten out, things weren’t looking too great. But as he has a knack of doing, the great Ronnie Davis took matters into his own hands and removed the lucky opener soon after. This a brought their big-talking and evidently big-eating No. 3 to the crease. As one can imagine, it didn’t take too long for Ben ‘ smitta brah’ Smith, Captain Aidan Flat Baker or Ronnie fresh off a wicket to put him back in place. Luckily he didn’t last long, but in the space of his 3-run innings he talked enough crap to help get some fire back in the bellies of the somewhat complacent manly boys before “theFlat shnicked him off”. Then when Nelly grabbed an LBW to take us to drinks things were starting to look up.

 Despite our positive end to the last session the deck further flattened out after lunch, our bowling became a little wayward and our fielding didn’t improve much. Although we still managed to pick up a wicket here and there, it was usually only after they’d created 50+ run partnership. More opportunities were grassed and before we knew it, shortly after drinks (which could’ve done with a dash more water for the ratio)  the score was at 5-200 and one batsman on a hundred.

 To our credit we pulled together really well from here and took all our chances. Tommy Kaye jagged a wicket just before tea (don’t listen to what he says, the batsman just missed a straight one), Sam Gainsford removed their centurion, Ronnie took a couple and Smitta finally gave Nelly Poskitt a well-deserved 2nd. Blacktown all out for 240odd.

 After being good boys and getting through our overs quickly, we were rewarded by having an extra few overs to face out, making 22 left in the day. Opening with Flat and Lance ‘Digits’ Stewart, we didn’t get off to a great start, losing Flat bowled by a jaffa 3rd ball. From here however smitta and lance batted really well, waiting for the right ball and offering no chances at all. It was only a stinker of an LBW call against Benny that ended the valuable partnership. This happened with about 7 overs to go, bringing Javee to the crease. Unfortunately both he and Tom Kaye came and went without troubling the scorers much and we slumped to 4/51 with 4 overs left to face out. Despite the blatant and quite tactless sledging, Lance and Jordan managed to face out the last few overs without incident, Manly finishing at 4-55.

 With some hard work and discipline at the crease, there’s no reason we can’t bring home the 6 points next week.

 JD

 3rd Grade – Manly 0/37 v Blacktown 156 ( A Virdi 3/45, C Little 2/16,  L Grant 2/48, S Alexander 2/29)

Grahams was a little overcast and drizzly when Genie won the toss and Manly elected to bowl first in our round 13 clash against Blacktown.  The captain himself and Ash Virdi opened the bowling and found consistent lines and lengths with the batsmen struggling to score. It was Little who secured the first breakthrough, caught at point by Arshdeep. After good opening spells from the boys Blacktown was 1-20. Enter S. Alexander. For the second week in a row, Sam took a wicket in his first over having the number 3 dance down the wicket and stumped by Tommy Sky by about half the pitch. He was joined by Luke who bowled from the other end, keeping it tight in his first spell. Eventually he too got a breakthrough caught by Jarrod at the ‘haunted’ second sip. Blacktown were 3-40 odd. Shortly after, Sam had his second after taking a sharp caught and bowled. At about 4-50, we looked firmly on top. Sam finished a 16 over spell with figures of 2-29; a great spinning performance.

 However, a partnership had began to form with Blacktown seemingly either playing and missing or bottom handing it away for 4. Brad Wilson bowled 9 tight overs and it was he who got the breakthrough when he had his man caught at slip by the skipper. Blacktown were 5 down with around 120 on the board. Still the number five continued to ride his luck when Luke and Ash were reintroduced into the attack. The new batsmen however had no luck at all. After a thick edge of LG, Jarrod stuck out the right mitt (eyes closed) and pulled off one of the catches of the year again at second slip. However, his fantastic catch was overshadowed by his sneaky fist pump. This gave Luke final figures of 2-48 off his 17 overs. Meanwhile from the other end Ash did an amazing job in his second spell. He had the slogging number 5 out for 49 caught by Tom and then continued to take two more including a caught behind off a slower ball and an LBW. 3-45, a super job from Mr Consistency. Blacktown had slumped to 9-150, when Genie Little took the last wicket LBW to bowl the visitors out for 156. He finished with 2-16!  A pretty impressive performance by the bowlers backed up well in the field.

With 9 overs to bat Jarrod and Max strode to the crease and immediately looked in control as the runs flowed. They played their strokes despite the difficult situation to steer us to 0-37 at the end of play. Max on 20 odd and Jarrod 13. Both looked cool under pressure and can hopefully build a good score next week.

The day belonged to the Manly boys, but there is plenty to do and to play for on day two. Up the Tahs!

LG

4th Grade – Manly 3/99 ( M Cole 43no, A Gummer 25) v Blacktown 93 ( J Trickey 4/15, W Evans 2/13) 

4s v Blacktown day 1

Jim Hanshaw must have had a huge presence as the ground named after him would  be close to the biggest in Sydney. Combined with a very slow outfield it was never going to be a big scoring day. Nevertheless, given previous experiences at this ground, it was great to have a full day’s play on a nice, hard, well prepared wicket.

Blacktown won the toss and had a bat. Sheedy was back and he and Jonkers opened up and both bowled well to have them 2/8 from 10 overs care of a Jonkers snick and Sheed’s LBW. The Blacktown boys showed zero intent and pottered around for a while not achieving much. Evans broke through the defences to knock back off peg to make it 3/20. Sheeds was very unlucky not to get a wicket caught behind and something tells me Falconer was the lucky recipient of a make up call when he got his bat pad LBW. Trickey came on and showed his intent with a ferocious beamball. This unsettled the opposition who surrendered their wickets quiet easily to James’ accurate outswingers. He was unlucky to not have a triple wicket maiden, needing to settle for a double only. This was care of a C&B, a great snare from Matt Hole in the gully and then, inexplicably, someone in the gully (no names) dropped a sitter next ball after taking a great snare the ball before. We weren’t made to pay and Blacktown were in all sorts at 7/39. Trickey with the fine figures of 4/15.

Their #8 came out swinging and hit well for 33 (worth 60 at Grahames – eg, one ball that would have been 6 plugged for 2). This gave some respectability to the score. Sam Hole collected a wicket along the way and Evans finished them off for 93 right on the stroke of tea.

We had 34 overs to bat with the intent of winning on day one. Gummer, like a fine Bordeax wine, showed what a good bat he is with a surprisingly well crafted 25. It felt more like 12 or 15 watching so that’s always a good sign. He hit a half tracker to mid wicket to have us 1/39. Holeand Cole then fought through for a while before Sam clipped one off his legs to backward square to make it 2/60 odd. Cole batted with great sense (occasionally riding a bit of luck)and finished the day at 43no. Bossy was caught in a game of brandings with their big tough guy throwing the ball at him from 8 metres on his follow through. I think this got Bossy’s blood boiling and it may have contributed to him smacking another half tracker to mid on. Toby Poole (6no) and Mat saw the day out without incident, ensuring we got the points. First thing Bossy mentioned after getting out was that the guy throwing was their opening bat and he would love a go with the new ball. Hey Winger, do we want to fitness test Bossy for a few overs with the new ball next week?

Well played boys, if the weather holds up and we have a good hit and field during the week we should be in for another good day this week with plenty of options available to us in our quest for 10 points.

Wazza

5th Grade – Blacktown 8/169 (T Nicholl 4/24, Z Trewartha 2/30)

Fetch me some slippers !!

That headline could be the theme for the day. We dropped 2 catches in the first over, and then 2 more within half an hour. Had Bossy not been promoted to 4s he would have been very tempted to make a return to the bowling crease. The wicket had plenty of grass and was hard, offering good bounce and seam, while overhead conditions helped the ball swing also.

After dropping 3 catches in Zach Trewartha’s opening spell, and 1 more off Andrew ‘Sac’ Glassock, the slips cordon was alternated somewhat by days end. 

Zach eventually took matters into his own hands and ran out the opener, while Tommy Nicholl decided a fine nick to the keeper, and bowling the guy was the best option, grabbing 2 in his spell.

Glassock knocked over the castle of their number 4, first ball and despite the 4 chances Blacktown were still struggling at 4-40. A few semi-solid partnerships, before Zach returned to bowl their number 5, and then we finally took a catch ! Knighty went past the outside edge a thousand times, while Harry Rogers actually found the edge, Benny Wickham actually took the catch, but the umpire actually didn’t hear or see anything, despite the batsman actually starting to walk ! Alas he survived making 71no.

Tommy Nicholl slipped back on and the big fella claimed 2 more wickets in two balls as Blacktown reached 8-167. 

All the bowlers used the conditions beautifully and Blacktown rode their luck at times, thrashing at anything wide, taken toll of anything short, and just hoping to survive the plays and misses. A good lesson for our batting next week.

Zach Trewartha (2-30), was obviously unlucky not to have 5 wickets, while Tommy Nicholl, in only his second game bowled great lines to claim 4-24. Sac Glassock swung and seamed the ball for 1-28, and Knighty was his usual consistent self, with 10 overs 0-20. Harry Rogers bowled probably his best spell of the year (13 over 0-34), despite being wicketless (officially at least).

A final word on the opposition, the Blacktown team helped us do the super soppering, helped dismantle the sightscreens at days end, and would probably bring afternoon tea next week if we asked them ! Maybe its part of their master plan to be nice to opposition, to put us off our game, then again, maybe they will bowl fullies all day next week…..regardless…it certainly made for a good day on and off the field, irrespective of the scoreboard.

cheers
Roscoe