Manly had a memorable weekend, winning 7 from 7 (including an outright in 2s), pushing us up to clear leaders in the Club Championships. All grades bowled well on Saturday to defend their totals from the previous week and dismiss the Easts batsmen, while both PGs and 1st Grade had convincing wins against Campbelltown in Sunday’s T20 fixtures.
4 Pines Brewery Player of the Round – Jack Ritchie
Jack Ritchie takes out the player of the round thanks to his great performances in first grade over the last two weeks. On day 1 against Easts, Cubby batted beautifully to notch up his maiden first grade tonne, scoring 110, and then he backed it up on day 2 to take 2-46, including the prize wickets of Warner and Neville. Cubby also bowled well in Sunday’s T20, snaring 3-17 as he bamboozled the Campbelltown batsmen.
Outstanding Performances
Tim Cruickshank – 48* off 31 balls (1st Grade)
Dylan Marshall – 5fa (2nd Grade)
Adam Gummer – 68 (PGs)
1st Grade vs Easts
Manly were sent in to bat on Day 1 of this 4th round fixture at Waverley Oval in perfect conditions.
After the loss of Nick Watkins wicket for 21 with the score on 54, the two Manly centurions namely Jack Ritchie and Tim Cruickshank proceeded to put on 210 runs for the 2nd wicket, which contributed largely to Manly’s highly respectable score of 367.
Congratulations must go to Jack Ritchie on his first 1st Grade century for the Club. His innings was built on sheer concentration and a joy to watch (255m 198b 11/4 ) and together with Tim Cruickshank who scored 144 runs (203m 144b 6/6 12/4 ) they completely dominated the Dolphins attack.
On Day 2 Easts were strengthened with the return from State duty of David Warner and Peter Neville and with Sam Robson and Tim Armstrong fielded a very formidable team.
Tim Armstrong 77, David Warner 66, Sam Robson 53 and late in the day Andrew Harriott 44 not out gave the Dolphins a great opportunity to reach the target score. Easts were eventually dismissed for 352 and finished 15 runs short. James Munting wound up their innings in the 5thlast over capturing 2 wickets with his last 4 balls.
Special mention must be made of the efforts of Corrie Boss, Andrew Lindsay and James Munting who toiled extremely hard all day and were ably supported by Man of the Match Jack Ritchie (2/46 13ov).
Congratulations to both sides on a great contest played in tremendous spirit.
The Observer
2nd Grade vs Easts
The Manly boys dominated Easts in 2nd Grade on Saturday with an outright win by eight wickets. After putting ourselves in a great position at the end of week one after rolling them for 82 and racking up 9/252, Easts were sent into bat for their 2nd innings still 170 runs behind. Easts started patiently and were batting well until the introduction of spin, with Dylan Marshall picking up 5 wickets and Ryan Bonner, although going wicketless, proving to be way too good on a lot of occasions. But no outright victory is meant to be easy, and we were made to work with a 70 run last wicket stand leaving us 62 to get for an outright win off 20 overs. This was done with ease to give the boys a well deserved outright victory and a spot in the top 6.
3rd Grade vs Easts
With 261 on the board on the back of an inspirational skipper’s knock the week before, the Main Grade returned to the atmospheric Trumper park looking to pick up 10 quick wickets and make an early start on Frase’s bank account. The warm up was the usual high quality, with touch having a newfound level of flare and creativity, most likely due to the fact McGrockin was sitting an accounting exam at the time.
Mickey Edwards opened up an showed us all why he’s recently been picked in the NSW U17s team, producing an awesome spell of pace, bounce and seam movement. He was ably supported by Mitch “Spughbicle” Pugh, who relished his call up to open the bowling by finding some quality areas. The Manly boys toiled hard up until tea to have Easts 4-105 off 42, but the deck was getting flatter and flatter and wickets were hard to come by all day.
After a delicious DIY spread, we continued on our way, with the match looking like it could well go down to the wire. The greatest bloke in Sydney was run out in a fitting yet comical fashion, with Genie dropping the guy on 50 mid back-spasm, only to run the non-striker out in the same play. The run rate continued to climb, however to Easts’ credit they continued to build partnerships, and some heavy-hitting from the lower order meant things could go either way. However, a few quick wickets with less than 10 overs to go saw the Main Grade dismiss Easts for 223, with Rabs taking a great catch off the Hoff’s bowling for the final wicket.
Another round, another 6 points for the Genie Little led 3rd Grade, making it 4 from 4 for the boys. Looking forward to adapting to 50 over cricket next round against Penrith.
Gumms
4th Grade vs Easts
Sitting at 7-282 from last week, skipper Max Burgess declared at the start of day 2 to give 4s a full day to grab the required 10 wickets.
As it turned out, the boys would only need 44 overs, dismissing Easts for 135 just after tea, with the pick of the bowlers being Taylor Beatty (3-24) and the wicket machine Sam Alexander (3-31).
Easts were then sent back in, and the day eventually ended with Easts on 2-73 off 24.
A great effort from 4s to pick up their second win from as many games.
5th Grade vs Easts
5th Grade got back to winning ways, with a 120 run victory over last seasons minor premiers. Going into day 2 in a commanding position (due to LA Anderson’s 201!) the thought of an outright win was certainly in everyone’s mind. Will Jonkers had blown away the Easts top order the week before to have the Dolphins 4 for 30, in a fiery opening burst.
Unfortunately, we had to work very hard for our wickets at Snape, with Easts putting up a reasonable show to deny the Tahs early wickets. 7 down at tea, the boys were reminded of our game plan (building pressure from both ends) and Gilly’s message of limiting errors in the field. Bowlers began to find better areas and it was only a matter of time before the 6 points were ours. Jonks ended up with 4 wickets, Jacob Graham 2, Josh “Ralph” Wigney 2 (on debut), Sam Gainsford 1 and Jordan “Gilbert” Daly 1. Special mention must go to Dave Gainsford who replaced the injury prone skipper after tea. Gains settled into the slips and took an absolute “blinder” to change the course of the match. A very pleasing stat was that sundries were kept to 9, with Stu Wiblin only conceding 1 bye late in the day, in his best performance of the season. All in all, a good solid way to bounce back after a loss and a lot of fun.
Dave
1st Grade T20 vs Campbelltown
Campbelltown won the toss and elected to bat in very overcast humid conditions.
After the loss of 2 wickets in the first 3 overs the Campbelltown Ghosts were under pressure early and although they continued to lose wickets they picked up the singles and had reached 86 runs when dismissed in the 19th over.
Outstanding bowling performances came from Jack Ritchie 3/17 (4ov) and Matty Mee 2/12 (4ov).
Nick Watkins was dismissed for 12 in the 5th over with the score on 29. Tim Cruickshank joined Cameron Merchant at the crease and with some excellent stroke play the target was reached in the 12th over .
Tim Cruickshank’s innings over the last 2 matches made him the third highest run getter for the club with 8314 runs surpassing Richard Fry’s 8126 runs. Congratulations Tim.
A great effort from the boys today.
The Observer
PGs Round 3 T20 vs Campbelltown
The undefeated PG’s boys trekked out to Raby 1 to play the also undefeated Campbelltown side on Sunday. Gummer lost the toss and the Manly boys fielded first. Alexander and Marshall both bowled well early but without luck, before once again the introduction of Taylor “the man” Beattie brought a change in fortune, picking up a wicket in his first over. At 1/70 odd off 10 overs the Ghosts seemed to have built a good platform but the Tah’s showed the fight that saw them get out of a similar position against Gordon the week before, taking wickets at regular intervals, bowling tight and putting pressure on in the field to keep them to 7 for for 130 off their 20 overs. McLachlan (2 wickets) and first grader Matt Mee combined well at the death, while Marshall (2 wickets), Beattie (2 wickets) and Alexander also bowled well throughout.
Pugh and Gummer set off chasing down the total with ease with Gummer setting the tone by gliding the first ball non-chalantly over the keepers head for four. Pughy cooked himself to be run-out a few overs later but Gummer kept the scoreboard ticking over, looking as fluent as ever. Gummer found an able partner in Tom Kaye, with the two hitting boundaries in between well run singles and twos the put the Tah’s well above the RRQ. Gummer was out with about 15 to win for an excellent 68 off no where near as many balls while Kaye (36*) saw the boys home after a slight hiccup with circuit king Sammy Webber at the other end with 10 or so balls to spare.
A great effort from the 21’s boys again to make it 3/3 for the first time in memory! Bring on Blacktown in the 50/50 next week!
Hoff/Duff-man
