Penrith Pounce in Mixed Results – Round 3

With the first week of Round 3 washed out due to the rain, all matched turned to one day mode where the Tahs battled Penrith. Sunday also saw our PG’s boys tackle two T20s on our home turf, whilst our Women’s 3rd Grade side took on Campbelltown-Camdem. In a rain affect weekend, the Styleness Waratahs ended up coming away with 2 strong wins, and 3 narrow losses against Penrith. First grade fell 55 runs short of chasing Penrith’s 6/280, getting bowled out for 226 in the 45th over. Second grade had a resounding victory, setting 9/181 the bowlers did their job, bowling out the Panthers for 81, winning the game by 100 runs. Third grade also took home the points, restricting the Panthers to 9/147 off their 50 overs, then mowing the runs down, passing their score only 3 wickets down. Fourth grade lost a close battle out west, posting 143 before grabbing 8 wickets in the field to lose on run rate in the 39th over. Fifth grade went down in a close one at home, posting 145 on a tough deck, the boys toiled away however were passed 7 wickets down.

Our 3rd grade women’s side unfortunately left empty-handed also, losing the toss and being asked to bowl, the girls restricted Campbelltown-Camden to 7/160 off their 40 overs. However, the opposition proved too strong, bowling our girls out for 84 in the 24th over. 

On Sunday our PGs side returned to Manly Oval in two T20 games against Gordon and UNSW respectively. Batting first in game one against Gordon, the boys posted 131 in their 20 overs. However Gordon proved too strong, winning a thriller on the last ball of their allocated 20 overs, only 5 wickets down. Game 2 against UNSW saw the Manly boys bowl first, restricting the oppositon to 157, however much like the previous game our batting let us down, falling 10 runs short in the last over. 

Highlights of the weekend included a match-winning knock of 65* by Ned Hole in 3rd grade, two 50s for Ollie Davies in first grade and PGs, and 55 to Max Webber in second grade.

Ned Hole is the deserving winner of the 4 Pines Player of the Week award this week, with his match winning knock of 65* propelling 3rd grade to a resounding victory over Penrith at Grahams Reserve. Ned opened the batting and led from the front, carrying his bat to the end of the game which snapped up all 6 points for the Manly boys.

Ned has worked tirelessly at the back end of last season and the beginning of this season on his batting, after rupturing his ACL at the beginning of last season. He is also a champion off the field, numerously being the 12th man for teams last season and helping out around the club whilst he was injured.

Well done Ned! Hopefully plenty more runs ahead for you this season!

With our first game of the year at Manly oval and no play due to rain the week before the boys were keen to get out there. After winning the toss and sending our opponents Penrith in to bat they got off to a good start with there two opening bats getting off to a classy start. At 0-157 it looked as though the visitors were looking at a large total but some good bowling in the middle overs by our spinners Greeny, Faz and Joey got us back in the game and allowed us to keep them to 280. We started our run chase and everyone chipped in with a few starts, but no one went on to score a big one like we knew we needed to happen to win this game of cricket. With a constant flow of wickets falling and no partnerships apart from a good 75 run stand in the middle from Ollie and Greeny it was always a tough ask. Stand out innings was Ollie Davies with a 50 off 48 balls to keep us in it and some clean ball striking by our lower order got us to a total of 226 with Penrith too good on the day.

3 – Chris Green

2 – Joel Foster

1 – Ollie Davies

Joel Foster

The manly boys rocked up to Howell Oval looking to post our first win of the season. Losing the toss on a sticky wicket we were sent in first to bat which we knew would require patience and grit to post a defendable total. Max and Sam Webber opened the batting and toiled hard to get through the consistent bowling of the openers from Penrith. Losing Sam early, Max and Tom Kaye continued to get a read of the pace of the pitch and consolidated well through the early overs of the game. After a mix up between the couple, Tommy was run out and Gainsy came into bat presenting a positive style of batting including a monster six into the stratosphere. Max batted extremely gritty and proved to the team that patience is the way to score runs as he collected his first fifty for the boys in blue. Ash and Jake Carden paired well in the ending overs of the game, ending us on 181 to defend.

The Penrith boys came out hard early on and Hamish Starr and Andrew Jamison toiled hard on a length to try and collect early wickets. After being 1/30 off 6, Tommy Kaye’s first change bowling changed the momentum of the game taking three quick wickets putting us right on top of the game. Consistent bowling from Jake Carden and Jamo saw the Penrith batting line up struggle greatly and an impressive run out from Issi Vumbaca had Penrith 7/81 before rain and lighting ended games play. Great way to start off the campaign for the 2’s boys.

3 – Max Webber

2 – Tom Kaye

1 – Jake Carden

Jacob O’Sullivan

Well after a rain affected two weeks, what a day it was for cricket. All the boys were keen to get out on the park and this was shown in the warm up. Nickos, as usual, lost the toss, which saw us fielding first. To Nickos luck it was the toss to lose, with Counsell and Nickos opening the bowling in what was a great display of discipline, Counsell picking up 2fa from his 9 over spell set the game up perfectly for the rest of the seamers, all the boys RBP, Somers, Jesse, Taylor, Sam were keeping it tight and building pressure before Tay and Nickos finished the clinical death overs with Nickos finishing with 3fa, Penrith ended up on 147. After the deck baked for an extra 45mins at lunch, it was time for Ned Hole to show his class hitting a 65no to steer us home, supported by Zac 12no, Alec and Sam also contributed whilst Taylor hit 48. That’s the first win under the belt for us this Season and the feeling is something the boys are keen to keep rolling into next week and the rest of the year.

3 – Ned Hole

2 – Michael Counsell

1 – Taylor Beatty

Andrew Sommerville

The lads turned up to Cook park raring to go after last week’s washout, eager to build on our round 2 victory. Gumms lost the toss and the Penrith captain sent us in on a tacky wicket but with the boys focused on batting deep, in partnerships and playing our brand of tough, gritty cricket we were all keen to get stuck in. Openers Cohen and Gummer got off to a watchful start, moving to drinks with the score at 45 before Cohen was dismissed soon after for 23. Unfortunately, Wheeler was dismissed soon after, putting a bit of pressure back on the lads. Crombie and Gummer then moved the score to 80 before Gummer was run out for a well made 41. Unfortunately, there were no real partnerships for the remainder of the innings with wickets falling in clumps around Jimmy who was eventually dismissed for a classy 37. We managed to crawl to 143 but with a strong bowling lineup we were confident of defending our total on a low and slow wicket with a wet, long outfield.

Wigney and Wilson opened up with the ball hitting good areas, however one of the opposition openers came out and threw the willow from ball one, getting a few streaky boundaries away as well as some clean strikes. The introduction of Hicks paid immediate dividends; snicking off the other opener for not many, leaving the score at 1-63. The score crawled to 93 with momentum slowly shifting back to the Waratahs and with Graham dismissing the danger man for 71, it was game on. This sparked an excellent fightback from the boys with Hicksy and Yak taking another wicket each bowling tight line and lengths giving nothing for the batters to get away. The introduction of Bain was then a masterstroke with the pod taking a wicket with his first delivery, and with Yak taking his third Penrith were reeling at 6-102. Credit needs to go to Yak here for bowling an outstanding spell finishing his 10 overs straight with the tidy figures of 3-33. Crombie picked up right where the Yak left off taking 2 quick wickets leaving 2 wickets for a win with 15 runs to play with. Unfortunately, the tailenders scraped to within 2 runs of an unconvincing victory before the umpires adjudged the weather too dangerous to continue resulting in no more play and a Penrith win. The boys fought back incredibly well after such a strong start by Penrith, showing plenty of good signs moving forward into our 2 day game against Mosman next week.

3- Jimmy Crombie

2 – Jacob Graham

1 – Adam Gummer

Nick Cohen

On a dampened morning at MPO, skipper Dylan Marshall won the toss and elected to bat on a surprisingly well prepared deck after recent weather. Openers Osborne & Franks saw off the new ball to offer a steady start in a positive brand of cricket before losing their wickets. Charles came to the crease and got of to a great start but couldn’t go on with it which turned out to be the theme for the day with Bennett also getting off to a great start hitting the ball to all parts for respectable 34 before also losing his wicket. Unfortunately runs were scarce as no one could post a recognisable score as a low total of 145 was posted to defend.

Ben Falconer and Glyn Archer set the tempo with firey spells, with Falconer picking up a needed early wicket, Archer bowled extremely well, applying great pressure and deserved a wicket but unfortunately couldn’t jag one. Aidan Bennett came on at first change to steal the show with 2 quick wickets to leave Penrith reeling at 3/22. Penrith then knuckled down and formed a strong partnership, putting manly on the back foot before Osborne broke the partnership with a sharp caught and bowled with the score at 4/81. Unfortunately another partnership formed and manly were in trouble before Marshall came on and took 2 quick wickets making the score 6/126. Penrith then cruised home to a 3 wicket victory as the manly fightback had come too late. Overall it was a good stepping stone for the boys, leaving plenty to improve on for the rest of the season. Hopefully the boys can come out all guns blazing next week against Mosman.

3 Points – Aidan Bennett

2 Points – Dylan Marshall

1 Point – Ben Falconer

Jake Osborne

The PG’s boys rocked up to Manly Oval early Sunday morning eager to have a good day out on the field in our first home T20s of the season. With two games scheduled for the day, the first game saw us taking on a strong Gordon line up, and captain Joel Foster won the toss and sent us into bat. We started well with Foz and Ollie building an inning defining partnership after the loss of Brewster early, with Ollie bringing up his 50 before we lost him and Foz (30) with the score at 3/88. Wickets continued to fall and we failed to continue the momentum gained from the previous two bats with only Isaiah’s (18) late hitting ensuring we reached a competitive 7/131 off our 20 overs. Our bowlers started well with Foz and Sommers taking the new ball and keeping the batsmen tied down. The introduction of spin paid an immediate dividend with Ollie grabbing the crucial wicket of their opener and Hamo knocking the stumps over left Gordon 2/34 which became 3/34 when Jake Carden took a good catch off Sommers. We let it slip after this stage as Gordon built a strong partnership with both batsmen scoring in the 40s to take them to 3/126 before Ned Hole took a one-handed catch in the deep to get us back into the game. With 8 runs required off 2 overs, Foz bowled the house down to restrict them and bring the game into the last over. Unfortunately, we went down on the last ball of the game, however positive signs leading into the second game gave us a strong belief we could get the job done and get back on track.

Game two saw us take on UNSW and losing the toss we bowled first. Sommers and Starry took the new ball and strong hitting from the UNSW openers allowed them to get off to a strong start. Nothing seemed to be working for the Manly boys with the UNSW opener hitting the ball to all parts of the ground and at 0/115 off 11 it looked like we would be chasing a mammoth score. Alex Bain found the key breakthrough and the Manly boys put the pressure on to grab two quick wickets from Joey and Bainy again. At 3/127 we were back in the game. We continued to restrict UNSW and further wickets slowed the run rate, as they posted 8/157 off their 20 overs. We went about the chase as usual, with Brewster and Foz hitting the balls to all parts of the ground, before a few quick wickets put us on the back foot. We struggled to get back into the game until late hitting from Isaiah (29) and Sommers (25) gave us a chance but we fell 10 runs short of our target. We’ll take away lessons on T20 cricket which we can use next game against Fairfield-Liverpool and hopefully get our season back on track.

Alex Bain

After two weeks of solid rain, the Manly third grade women’s team finally managed to take to the field for their historic first match since 1985. The sun shone down and the threat of thunderstorms did little to dampen the enthusiastic spirits of the team. Captain Esme Cooke lost the toss and we were sent out to field, with a strong bowling attack prepared we were ready to face the opposition, Campbelltown-Camden. 

Mia Waddington opened the bowling with a consistently strong line, length and pace leaving little opportunity for Campbelltown-Camden to score runs. Keeping the batters working hard to get runs, our first breakthrough came with a badly timed call from the batters and run out at the wicket keeping end with a throw to our keeper Jess Kaye. The team kept the pressure on the opposition, showing some attacking fielding and an impressive catch by Kristie Crawford at mid-wicket started a flurry of wickets.

At 20 overs, Manly were looking strong keeping the opposition at 3/66. Some missed catching opportunities hampered our attack but the team showed resilience throughout the innings. Sarah Gordon showed an impressive bowling attack, having only started playing cricket this season she took her first wicket and Kristie Crawford bowling 3/13 helped to steady the middle overs. With the Campbelltown-Camden batters becoming comfortable, they began an attacking batting display finishing the innings on 7/160.

After an impressive lunch spread, we began our preparation to chase down the overs. Nat Guyot and Mia Waddington took to the field to open the batting. A strong start with three runs off the first over looked promising for Manly. Our first wicket fell in the sixth over, but with the run rate on track Manly continued the chase. Nat was bowled in the 11th over but maintained the high score of the day of 20 runs. As the sky darkened the pressure of maintaining a high run rate showed, a bad call from the captain ran Olivia Hough out who had been looking strong throughout her innings. The team struggled slightly against a loopy spin bowling attack and as the lightning storm drew nearer Manly conceded defeat. Finishing on 9/84 in the 24th over.

Despite the loss, the team showed incredible promise, skill and determination. Every member of the team attacked the ball and kept lively throughout. With a number of teams playing their first ever match of cricket, it was an impressive display in the true spirit of the game. 

Thank you to our coaches, the skills of our team are a testament to your hard work and to all of our supporters and helpers who really made the atmosphere of the day very memorable.

Esme Cooke