After a disappointing start to 2018, with only 2 wins coming from the year’s first fixture, the Tah’s were looking forward to bouncing back against the Bees.
And bounce back we did, with strong performances ending us on top in the top 4 grades grades, whilst the inexperienced 5th Grade side were thoroughly outplayed.
First Grade had a great victory thanks to an unbeaten century to stand-in skipper Cameron Merchant and 5 wickets to Joe Graham.
Second Grade enjoyed their first win in 4 rounds as they posted a very solid total of 250, Jack Ritchie showing his class with a superb 78* and all other batsmen chipped in nicely. UNSW ended up on 216 but in the end it was a convincing win to the Manly boys.
Third Grade scraped hard to 163 thanks to some vital lower order partnerships. Alex Bain and Jacob O’Sullivan helped steer the innings to what ended up being a defendable total. Jimmy Crombie led the charge with the ball taking 4 wickets to help see 3rd Grade to a much needed victory.
Fourth grade bounced back from an unexpected loss last weekend thanks to a brilliant hundred from Jack Pickering and 73 from Zach Trewartha, while Michael Counsell was the best with the ball with 4 for 25.
Our young fifth grade side was not good enough unfortunately and were well beaten, not making enough runs with the bat.
Our 4 Pines Player of the Week is Jack Pickering for his match winning century in 4th grade on Saturday.
Jack has been in fantastic form of late, hitting his 2nd century of the season in 4th grades total of 240 off their 50 overs.
A former Green Shield skipper, Jack has always had immense talent but in previous years he hasn’t quite converted his starts into big scores. However he has really come of age this season, hitting 2 centuries among his 324 runs at an average of 64.80.
He came in on Sunday at a tough time. Batting at number 3, we lost a wicket first ball of the innings but he proceeded to bat with intent and aggression to get the Tahs to a defendable total. He held the innings together until a few overs before the end, and was the main reason for the match winning score.
kipper Cameron Merchant won the toss and decided to bat in our clash with the Student.
After loosing the early wicket of Ryan Farrell we steadied the ship in the middle with Adam Crosthwaite and Ahillen Beadle both getting starts.
James Crosthwaite stayed around and showed his class with some beautiful shots to all parts of the ground for a well played 61.
At 4-109 the game looked evenly poised and the next hour was going to be crucial. With Skipper Cam Merchant and James both putting together a crucial 67 run partnership to get the Tahs back on the right track.
After losing the wicket of James the skipper stayed around and batted alongside a few different partners as Ollie Davies (34) showed a positive intent as he has all year.
Debutant Aiden Bariol looked good to start then soon departed caught behind for 5.
Cameron Merchant was all class and got better and better as the day went on. Partnering with Joel Foster, Cameron batter the rest of the day showing us to stumps at 7/322 with the skipper bringing up his 14 hundred for the club and first as skipping in an incredible captains knock.
With the Tahs believing in their bowling attack and with a good total on the board with a slow outfield we declared overnight.
Michael Visser made early inroads again as he has done so well previously alongside Joel Foster the two got the Tahs off to a good start having the visiting side 3/7. The bees then steadied the ship putting on a 78 run partnership but the Manly boys stayed persistent and Joe Graham got the breakthrough with a great catch from Ryan Farrell.
Continuing his form from a great hat-trick last week, Joe bowled with great control and variation putting lots of doubt in the batsmans mind taking an incredible 5 wickets to close the game out along with Michael Visser putting pressure on the tail.
With rain around and 3 wickets still needed in the last session the Tahs really needed to dig in, and we did to get another win, making it 2 from 2 after Christmas with great momentum heading into the back end of the season.
3 Points – Cameron Merchant
2 Points – Joseph Graham
1 Point – Joel Foster
Joel Foster
econd grade arrived at a fairly flat looking David Phillips, and skipper Sam Gainsford won the toss and sent us in to bat.
Openers Weston (42) and Rawlings (28) got us off to a great start seeing off the openers whilst scoring at a quick rate. Once the spinners came on the boys looked to continue the assault with Logan hitting some big shots back down the ground.
Unfortunately we lost both openers in quick succession which saw Ritchie (78*) and Kaye (31) enter the middle.
These two continued right where the opening pair had left off, rotating the strike and putting away the bad balls to the boundary with some classy sweeps and pulls from Ritchie.
Unfortunately Tommy got one that stayed low and was out LBW which brought Webber (22) out to the middle. He consolidated well with Ritchie as the two continued to pile on the runs and work the spinners around the ground.
Webber was eventually caught in the deep and Skipper Gainsford (12) came out and hit a couple of boundaries towards the back end of the innings but was unfortunately bowled with with few overs of the innings left.
This allowed Virdi (18*) to come out and take the bowlers for few boundaries to take our total past 250 at the end of our 50 overs. Ritchie finished 78 not out and batted extremely well in hot conditions.
We were confident we could defend 250 if we bowled smart and used some change ups on the flat wicket.
Tom Kaye (4-24) opened the bowling with an amazing spell of swing bowling. He grabbed a wicket in his first over nicking the opener to Gully and managed to grab another two in his opening spell with a catch in the covers and sharp catch off his own bowling.
White (0-47) backed up Tommy brilliantly at the other end bowling with good pace and tight lines to keep applying the pressure. Bishop-Perrett (1-40) and Wigney (0-34) then followed up with Wiggers bowling quick and dangerous at one end with RBP bowling cutters and change ups at the other.
Gainsford (2-31) and Ritchie (1-21) were also rotated into the attack with the pair picking up crucial wickets throughout the innings halting UNSW’s progress whenever they looked like building a partnership.
Kaye came back on and removed their in batsmen grabbing his 4th capping off a great day for Tom with the bat and ball.
UNSW finished 8 down and unfortunately we couldn’t grab the last couple of wickets but the win is great result for the second grade boys now looking to turn around the results prior to Christmas.
Go Manly!
3 Points – Jack Ritchie
2 Points – Tom Kaye
1 Points – Logan Weston
Ryan Bishop Perrett
rd grade arrived at Grahams to sunshine and the prospect of 6 points in order to bounce back from a tough defeat last week. The covers were rolled back to reveal a green deck in which we strategically lost the toss and batted!
Sam Hole and Billy D’Arcy opened up and after some demons in the pitch we found ourselves 2-14 early. Dom and Jacob combined to grind us to 3-42 with Jacob batting well for (27).
Akhurst and Crombie came and went after receiving what was described by the umpire as two very unfortunate balls to face early on, taking us to 5-43. Brewster and Vumbaca were not able to add much before being bowled and caught behind respectively.
At 8-80 the Manly boys were staring down the barrel of defending 100. Enter Alex Bain and Brad Wilson who belted the students bowling attack and made it look easy. Wilson (21) and Bain (39) accompanied by a handy knock of 19* from Glyn steered the Manly boys to a very defendable total of 163.
With our tails up it was all Manly. Wilson and Glynn opened up and bowled well and tight, as their opening batsmen got lucky. A change in the bowling saw Jimmy Crombie take 2 wickets in his first over in tandem with Bain the pair grabbed us 4 wickets in their first spell, having them 4-35.
Tight bowling from O’Sullivan, getting a tidy wicket, as well as good bowling from Isaiah saw UNSW under the pump. The Manly boys continued to grind to take wickets and ended up winning by 29 runs with Jimmy Crombie the pick of the bowlers with 4-27, Bain 2-18 and Jacob 2-19.
A crucial 6 points as Third Grade march towards finals.
3 Points – Alex Bain
2 Points – Jimmy Crombie
1 Point – Glyn Archer
Matt Brewster
he boys rocked up to David Philips oval, however we lost the toss and werw sent into bat.
Despite losing a wicket first ball, we got off to a solid start with Pickering and Gummer forming an important partnership.
The wicket of Gummer brought Zac Trewartha to the crease and along with Pickering, they created a match changing partnership
Both Pickering and Trewartha passed their fifties and continued on punishing the bowling. Trewartha fell for 74 but Pickering continued and brought up a brilliant ton, which helped the Manly boys to 5/240 after the 50 overs.
We opened up with the ball with Ninness and Counsell. They both helped build up dots, and the pressure resulting in the opposition crumbling, losing wickets and struggling to score. Ninness, Bennett and Graham all got 1, but the pick of the bowlers was Mickey Counsell with 4/25 which left the UNSW boys 7/171 after their 50 overs and gave the Manly lads a great victory,
3 Points – Jack Pickering
2 Points – Zach Trewartha
1 Points – Michael Counsell
Brynn Mendel
ifth Grade welcomed UNSW to Mike Pawley Oval and despite the wicket having green tinge they elected to bat first.
Osborne and Lucius got us off to a decent start but both fell when set. Joel Davies looked like he was going to carry on from last weeks 75 but fell to a great catch at deep backward square leg for 16. Molyneux followed soon after and we were in trouble at 4-37.
Dignan was run out for two and Brewster after a flurry of boundaries threw his wicket away caught in the deep for 25. A series of cameos (Seaward 10 not out) saw us limp to a below par 131 all out in 45th over.
We needed a good start with the ball and got a decent start with a wicket to Mackay and Molyneux. Brewster grabbed the third wicket to have UNSW 3-47 but from then on we never looked like bowling them out. A wicket to Osborne and Davies were the only successes we got after that, and despite 4 tight overs from Seward Uni finished us off in 30th over 5 down.
The 5’s are having a good season but we need to bat with more application next week to keep ourselves in the top 4.
3 Points – Jordan Brewster
2 Points – Josh Seward
1 Points – Joel Davies
Jordy Brewster