A truly dominant week of cricket across virtually the entire club means we’ve leapt to a 52 point lead in the hotly contested Club Championships, however another successful week in the coming one-day round is absolutely crucial to maintain our lead heading into the Christmas break. Go Manly!
4 Pines P
layer of the Week – Joseph Graham
layer of the Week – Joseph GrahamThis week it was youngster Jo Graham who took home his first 4 Pines player of the week award in just his fourth game of 4th Grade. Bowling his well-flighted offies he achieved his first 5 wicket haul for the club to steer 4th grade to a convincing victory over Western Suburbs.
Having finished his final season of Greenies last year Jo has come along in leaps and bounds both with the bat and the ball to move up the ranks into 4th Grade, where he is continuing to show great signs for the future. Perhaps more widely known for having the most haircuts in a single week or his ever-intriguing social media activity, it’s fantastic to see Joey continue to make his mark at Manly on the field as well, in what promises to be a long and prosperous career at the TravelSim Waratahs.
Great Work Joey, keep it up!!
1st Grade – Manly 4/128 & 3/144 (C. Merchant 59 & 43) def Wests 124 & 145 (M. Edwards 4/29 [18] N. McLachlan 3/17, L. Disserens 3/41, S. O’Keefe 2/19)
Having to complete SOK’s over Spiderbait Cox bowled the only 4 balls he will get in season 2014/15, however at the other end off season recruit Nic Bills (boof as flat thought he was called) struck with his very first ball trapping opener Paterson in front.
This was the only highlight in the first hour as the top notch standard we set ourselves and have set all year dropped off a little bit. It wasn’t until a “boof” inspired pep talk over a what can only be thought Juicy made cordial at the first drinks break sprung us back into action.
The next hour before lunch saw the manly boys apply pressure and wreak the rewards. Wayne Parnell Edwards struck getting their Pom caught at mid odd from super sub fielder Jimmy Munting. Luke “Story time” Diserens burgled a caught behind down the leg, before “Wayne” struck Captain Cook in front for naught. To cap off a great hour Nicko Maclockland struck with a suberb delivery to have Wests 5 down at lunch.
The middle session saw Wests apply no runs and go into “scoreboard lockdown” this brought about their demise with Edwards (4/29 off 18), McLachlan (3/32 off 18) and especially Bills (2/38 off 16) bowl fantastic spells to combine for 9 of the Wests dismissals.
Manly were set a a target of 142 off 29 overs for maximum outright points.
Out came the one and only unique dream Cameron Nappa Merchant who struck the ball with some of the cleanest hitting you will see anywhere in cricket. Luke Bomber Edgell saying all times saying “you won’t find that in the textbook”. Dreamer’s innings came to an end with him on 43 off 30 balls with the score at 54. This set the boys up to cruise the chase home with Bomber (28), Lenton (32*) and skipper Cruickshank (31*) all playing a role in sealing the 10 points.
A great result for first grade.
2nd Grade – Manly 5/336 (R. Farrell 94*, R. Hamman 81, J. Rawlings 70) def Wests 167 & 0/85 (T. Beatty 3/27, M. Visser 3/38, D. Marshall 3/47)
Defending 336, it was really important for 2nd grade to get off to a fast start on Saturday. Luckily, Michael ‘spearhead’ Visser delivered, taking a wicket in the first over of the game. 1-0! Despite a 2nd run 40 run partnership both Viss and Taylor bowled solid first spells and beat the bat on numerous occasions. It was the new captain that got our second breakthrough after a regulation catch by Sammy Webber behind the stumps.
After the openers spells, Dylan Marshall came on and bowled the majority of overs from one end for the remained of the innings. He did a phenomenal job and was unlucky not to take even more wickets. It was his ability to bowl maidens (8 in total) that lead to our pre lunch success. In the 20 minutes prior to the break, Marsh took one pole, while Mickey Visser (3-38) bowled another super spell and took a wicket on either side of lunch. Wests were struggling at 5-86. Viss’ 3rd wicket of the day was also his 200th for the club. An amazing achievement and I’m sure there’s many more to come. Well done champion.
The middle part of the innings was dominated by our spinners and saw Faz and Dylan bowl really well. Dylan took another two wickets as the score ticked past 100 to finish with 3 fa while Ryan could have taken a couple himself. 7-123. As the ball started to reverse, it was Taylor who took two late wickets, both with inswinging deliveries. The final wicket was a run out that would have angered Ricky Ponting. Our super sub and club coach Winga swooped from mid off, delivered a perfect throw and secured 6 points for the good guys. All out 167.
We had a go at 10 points, but were unable to take any wickets on a deck that continued to flatten out even further. Thanks to both Winga and Genie who filled in for the injured Rowan, great to see you both out there.
LG
“Dylan Marshall pushing hard for 2nd Grade“
“Mickey traps yet another in front“
3rd Grade – Manly 5/215 (J. Daly 96, T. Kaye 46) def Wests 206 (T. Kaye 5/39, S. Alexander 2/40)
With the continuation of the wet weather during the week we were somewhat unsure what would be presented at Blick. On inspection of the pitch it was definitely at the better end of the spectrum – fairly firm, some grass cover but if anything better than last week. The outfield though was a slow as you could imagine so the 207 target was a 260 target at Grahames. We were hoping to get a solid start with Cole (38) and Gummer (22) and with the help of an early chance for Gumms we didn’t lose our first wicket till the 29th over at 49 when Gumms tried to cut a ball a bit tight on him and gloved it through. Jordan (96) and Cole set about restoring our dominant position and things were looking good, with Matt hitting his straps with some great drives but just as he was getting on top, he top edged a half tracker to make it 2/69. Sam Hole (1) was brought undone by a good wrong un that squeezed from his bat to his foot and dribbled onto his stumps to make it 3/71.
At tea at 3/80 it was evenly poised. We had luck immediately after tea with Tom edging the wrong un first ball to 1st slip who spilt it and Jordan getting a a lucky break from the umpire with the slightest of tickles that was heard 122 yards away. Both boys put this behind them and built a superb partnership. Scoring was tough with the outfield but they weathered everything thrown at them and slowly got on top with a broad range of strokes. To put on 131 runs to win the game is a massive achievement. Jordan was dominant down the ground with some great lofted drives from the quicks and Tom was equally impressive with cracking drives.
Upon reaching the winning target in the 69th over we, in hindsight regrettably, played on to give both blokes a chance to reach their milestones but not to be with some easy dismals to see us finish at 5/215.
All up a great run chase. A good team chat at the end of the day should also help in our hope of having a good run with the one-dayers coming up.
3 Kaye
2 Daly
1 Cole
WE
4th Grade – Manly 258 (L. Stewart 87, E. Burgess 70, J. Ritchie 57) def Wests 179 ( Jo Grahame 5/30)
The boys rocked up to Graham’s without their skipper who was running a little late after the work Christmas party the night before. We got things underway getting get the wicket and ground ready, Eddie B surprising responsive this week after unusually getting a solid 8 hours shut eye. The lads produced a quality warm up which set the tone for the day. Falcs started things off enjoying the howling southerly at his back pushing him through the crease whilst wiggers bustled up into the breeze. After Falcs snared a cheap wicket with the batsmen skying one to Joey at mid off we swapped the bowlers around with eddy b bowling a quick, encouraging spell in between. The magpies put on a brief partnership before eddy got the batsmen to chop one on and then Joey graham got his first, getting the batsmen stumped after a few overs of good off spin. A couple more quick wickets from Joey after drinks had Wests capitulating with eddy bowling tight and holding up the other end. With tea looming and Cubby enjoying the banter from Billy Darcy the boys were tightening things up in the field and managed to strangle Wests into losing another wicket. The new batsmen came out and was caught plumb on the toe first ball to the disagreement of the umpire (the first of 5 chances this batsmen offered) and so tea was taken with the magpies struggling at around 5/120.
After tea, JP threw the ball to Zach, who bowled good lines with the batsmen looking to get a move on with the required run-rate hitting 5 an over. Zach producing the perfect off-cutter taking the batsmen’s leg stump. Eddy took care of the other bloke, with JP taking a screamer down the leg side, obviously thinking it was an airborne schooner.
Will Outred was brought in tandem with Joey and despite a bit of lower order hitting, Joey and Will were getting enough turn off the deteriorating wicket to trouble the batsmen. Some exemplary fielding from digits (getting his body behind it) helped their cause and the boys had the pies 8 down and it was only a matter of time from there. Will was especially unlucky not to get a wicket after bowling well, the umpire seemingly forgetting that a LBW is still a legitimate form of dismissal.
Josh Wigney was brought back in to terrorise the number 10 and 11. Joey snared his 5-for at the southern end leaving wiggers to claim his first as a reward for good bowling throughout the day.
Another win from the lads keeps the undefeated run going leading into the one-day season which we can hopefully maintain. Special thanks to Wrighty and Mrs Graham for their help during tea and throughout the day.
5th Grade – Manly 141 (J. Mason 32, M. Burgess 28) def. by Wests 149 (R. Bishop-Perrett 3/55, M. Burgess 2/10, I. Vumbaca 2/11, A. Bain 2/24)
5th Grade returned to Punchbowl confident of being able to chase down the 150 set by Western Suburbs the previous week. Resuming at 0/3 Maso and max got us off to the perfect start us past the 50 run mark. Boundaries were rare and hard to come by to due a slow outfield.
After a few good shots Maso unfortunately fell for a well made 32. Maxie (28) then departed not long after and wickets continued to fall quickly. With Tom Kelly, Hamish and Joel Wood all departing with not many runs. Jack Pickering and Liam Lawless put together a small partnership, which got the run chase slightly back on target.
Both Batsmen unfortunately departed after reaching double figures. This left us 7 wickets down requiring a further 50 runs for victory. With Aiden Bariol and Izzy at the crease the boys were nervous but still confident we could chase down the target. Aiden played some brilliant drives through the covers to reach his way to a well made 21. Hopes of a dramatic win were soon dashed as both Izzy and Aiden were snicked off just needing a further 14 runs for victory. This left Alex Bain and RBP to score the required runs. The target was reduced to just 9 runs before RBP gave an easy catch to midwicket, ending the game.
The boys were left feeling shattered after a game we felt we should have won. We will be looking to bounce back next week with a big win.
Ryan Bishop-Perrett
Poidevin-Gray Shield – Manly 1/109 (J. Rawlings 54*, T. Kaye 32) def Mosman 108 (D. Marshall 2/20, B. Wickham 17)
PG’s showed up to Allan Border determined to put the disappointment of the Parramatta game behind us and get the season back on track. With the toss lost as usual by Taylor, Mosman opted to bat on a deck where only the previous day 355 had been successfully chased. Despite their 0/4 record we were wary, knowing the importance of this game for our season. Through a combination of appalling shot selection and steady, patient bowling from literally all who were thrown the ball we rolled Mosman for 108. This was a particularly impressive feat given the absense of spearhead Mickey Edwards who had earned himself a call up into a Sydney Sixers trial match to be held that evening.
Jordan
