Weekend of mixed results for the Tahs – Weekly Wrap Rnd 2 Day 2 + Womens 3rd Grade Season begins + an Exciting T20 Double Header

Round 2, Day 2 saw the Styleness Waratahs take on Mosman in a disappointing and rain effected weekend. 2s, 4s and 5s all resulted in a draw, with 2s getting agonizingly close to victory. 1s had a disappointing loss getting 24 runs away from victory. 3s had a solid victory, bowling the opposition out over 20 runs away from their score. Womens 3^rd grade unfortunately started their season with a loss, going down to the very strong St George-Sutherland. An exciting T20 double header was played on Sunday against Gordon, with PGs in the morning and first grade in the afternoon. We ended the day with 1 win for each club, with a great win for first grade.  

This weeks 4 Pines Player of the Week is awarded to Kristie Crawford, one of the leading players in the women’s program. Although the 3^rd grade team lost, Kristie had an outstanding game and shined with both bat, ball and some exceptional fielding. Kristie bowled 6 over and kept the run rate down in a critical part of the game, only conceiving 17 runs and getting 2 wickets. She also saved many runs in the field and helped keep up the energy with her calm and steady head.

Coming into bat after a early wicket, she steady the platform. She kept the run rate on track with some smart running and hard hitting boundaries. Leading the charge, she put on an 100 run partnership with Nat Guyot, and kept the teams hope of victory alive until the very end.
Well done AK and keep up the great work!

An excited first grade arrived at manly oval, with the two night watchmen having hit 2,000 balls a day each. Visser (16) and Hadley (18) went about their work and got us off to a handy start, playing the opening bowlers with relative ease. Hadley fellat 3/47, bringing the batters into the game. From there Mosman attacked hard and operated with spinners from both ends. With the ball turning, runs were becoming hard to come by. It was not until AB came to the crease that Mosman were put on the back foot. He took on the bowling, and did not allow them to continue attacking as hard as they did. AB made a classy 42 before top edging one off the spinner. 

From there, more wickets fell, with the wicket becoming tired and low. Joel Foster once again showed some resistance against the whales, coming in at 8-98, making 37 ground out runs. The last wicket partnership between M.Edwards and Foster took us from 142-189 before the Whales took the new ball, and had Foster controversially trapped in front. 

A tough day for the Tahs but plenty was learned from the day. Live by the sword, die by the sword. 

Hurricane Edwards

3- Steve O’Keefe

2- Ahillen Beadle

1- Joel Foster

Fielding 1 – Joel Foster

After no play on Day 1 at Alan Border Oval the Manly boys turned up ready for 120 overs of solid cricket. Unfortunately, the weather overnight again played havoc, meaning a delayed start to the match. The recent relaying of turf and wet practice wickets were the main causes of concern.

At 10:45am the umpires agreed to start the match at 11:30am with a maximum of 107 overs to be played. Manly won the toss and chose to bowl on what looked to be a very good cricket wicket. Both captains discussed playing for points, which lifted the spirits of the visiting side.

The Mosman innings started steadily with the top order looking to occupy the crease, rather than bat positively. Manly opening bowler Taylor Beatty (4-65) was the chief destroyer, taking the first three wickets in his opening spell.

Mosman continued to bat in a steady manner with all the Manly bowlers doing a great job in creating pressure. Two wickets each to Jake Carden and Elliot Herd had Mosman in huge trouble at 7-77 after 45 overs. Herd’s second wicket involved one of the greatest catches ever seen, taken by the ever-cool Ash Virdi at first slip. ‘The Deep’ was full stretch to his right, taking a ball in one hand that never got more than 10cm off the ground. A couple of the more experienced Manly players were quoted in saying, it’s the best they’ve seen.

Some strong resistance from the tail, put Mosman in a commanding position to take the score to 8-170 after 56 overs. At this stage it looked like a great time to push on for a couple of overs and then declare, unfortunately this didn’t happen. The next 10 overs saw some strange cricket from the hosts. The batsmen decided to ‘shut up shop’ and with another rain delay, we lost 20 minutes of play. Mosman decided to again come back out after the delay and block out another 3 or 4 overs before finally declaring at (9/191). This left Manly with 36 overs to chase the total with time running out and the weather making things difficult.

Elliot Herd was promoted to open with Max Webber with both players getting through a difficult period in the opening five overs. Another rain delay and a message from the coaches saw both players up the tempo by starting to put pressure on the Mosman bowlers. With only 26 overs remaining the 6 points seemed a long way off.

What happened next can only be described as amazing. Herd (73no) and Webber (57) smashed the ball to all parts of the ground to put the Manly boys back in the game. Both players were sensational in extremely difficult conditions. The poor light and constant rain made it difficult to score. Somehow the opposition were allowed to change the ball, which wasted 10 minutes. This proved crucial as it was a race against time with no play permitted after 7pm.

After Webber was dismissed the hard-hitting Sam Gainsford (32no) joined Herd and the two continued to plunder the Mosman attack to all parts and bring the Manly side closer to victory. The highlight were some huge sixers over cover and mid-on that had the supporting teammates going crazy in the stand.

In absolute farcical scenes the umpires called the game off at 6:45pm for ‘bad light’ with Manly needing only 17 runs to win the match. The conditions had not changed in the last 20 minutes leaving both the players and supporters felling hard done by when play was halted so close to victory. That said the team should be proud of a fantastic effort that will no doubt build confidence going into round 3 against Sydney Uni.

 

3: Elliot Herd

2: Taylor Beatty

1: Max Webber

Fielding: Ash Virdi

Jamo

Precipitation. Lots of precipitation. At least that’s what the main grade expected to arrive to on a gloomy Saturday at the ever-atmospheric Graham’s Reserve. Contrary to the Daily Mail article the skipper sent out reminding us of record rain inbound, we were met with a slab of perfectly poured concrete that forced some to question there Friday night plans.

After reflecting on the ethical dilemma of Mosman’s #4 batsman doubling as the groundsman, the Waratahs set about defending an imposing 294. Captain McLachlan took the new ball and proceeded to find the middle of the openers bat on ball 1 as it disappeared to the point boundary. 

An omen for what was to follow? Well sort of. Brad Wilson bowled with the usual control we have grown to love and quickly found the edge of the Mosman cowboy to get the ball rolling. However, McLachlan’s men were not quite at there best throughout the first session, leaking boundaries to the composed #3 who kept the score moving at well over 4 runs/over.

It took an inspired spell from the beautiful Guava himself Tom Kaye to remove the gritty opener and groundsman to wrestle back control of the fixture moving towards the tea juncture.

With our smorgasbord of seam bowlers getting a crack at the set batsman, it was the plucky Isaiah Vumbaca who strangled a breakthrough with a smart catch from keeper Brewster.

Tea time (the score was 4/142 if you’re counting), and what a tea it was. Special thanks must always be pointed towards Fi Brewster who once again delivered a dip for the ages, amongst a fruit platter that Julius Caesar would have been proud to devour.

Back to the cricket, and the Waratahs knew they had to step it up to get a result against the Whales. Enter Alex Bain. Who, after quietly reminding the skipper he hadn’t had a bowl yet, found the upper thigh-pad of the set batsman twice to grab a crucial breakthrough.

Manly were much improved in the period after tea, and after captain McLachlan decided to bring himself back on to bowl some slow left arm patisseries, we grabbed a few more questionable scalps to leave Mosman needing ~100 runs with 3 wickets in the bag.

After a few more well-mixed cordials from the one and only Will Gustafson, Manly attempted to keep the pressure up as the Whales captain started moving the scoreboard along with some clean striking.

Michael Counsell returned to the attack and bowled with fantastic pace and control to jag a couple of crucial LBW’s that left 65 runs and 1 wicket to take the biscuits.

Some sloppy fielding from your author kept the skipper at the crease, and after he passed 100 with 25 to get, Tom Kaye took the deciding catch off the Mayo man Bain to finally finish the job for the Waratahs.

At the end of the day it was 6 points to the good guys, however the side knows that there’s plenty of areas to work on if we’re to challenge the Students next week.

Onwards and Upwards for the cowboys. 

 

Yours Truly, 

Russell Arnold

 

3 – Griffin Lea

2 – Tom Kaye

1 – Michael Counsell

 

Chicken Shack Outstanding Fielding Performance of the Week – Michael Counsell

4th grade arrived at Rawson expecting to find a swamp but instead found an outfield in great condition. Unfortunately the umpires disagreed which resulted in a 35 minute delay, but that only inspired the Manly boys even more!

After a great game of touch, where the top 6 were finally able to not get beat (0-0 draw), the boys had a good warmup and were ready for play.

Lachie Kerr and Josh Wigney opened up and both built great pressure and had a great partnership. Wigney took 2 in balls, which really lifted the boys. A couple over later, Wigney took another one, and Manly had Mosman 5-37 and struggling. Kerr and Wigney continued to drinks, and then got a well deserved rest after what was a fantastic opening partnership.

There was some good quick bowling from Hamish Starr, as well as some nice spin from Lachlan Trewartha and Jake Osborne before tea was called, with Mosman at 5-60.

After tea unfortunately the rain came. Although it wasn’t that heavy, it was enough for the umpires to call a break in the game.

Some fantastic shed cricket ensued, with some great opposite hand batting, and some great turn out of the changing room floor. Unfortunately this shed cricket went a bit long, and despite there being hardly any rain, the match didn’t resume until 540, with 22 overs to play.

Despite a valiant bowling effort from Wigney and Starr, with some really good pressure, the Mosman boys were able to bat it out and the game was called at about 630, with a draw the result. Unfortunately, despite a great bowling and fielding effort, the rain cost the Manly boys. No doubt 4s will take the disappointment of this into next week.

3 Hamish Starr

2 Josh Wigney

1 Lachie Kerr

Fielding- Lachie Charles

No play due to rain

A glorious day was upon us to kick off the Kingsgrove Sports T20 cup against Gordon. After a tough loss against the Stags in the morning PG’s game, we were raring to get one back on them. Jay elected to bat, and what followed was truly incredible, going at more than 13 for the first 8 overs. Jack lead the way with some incredible ball striking amassing 35 off only 12 balls. Vintage Jay Lenton (79 off 43) batted the house down with some shots that had the church in danger. Merchant then continued this trend with 52 off 39, whilst cleaning his glasses and doing his shoelaces up every 27 seconds. Some selfless batting then ensued from the rest before the close of the innings to bring out total to 208.

Bowlers started reasonably well, with a wicket in Edwards and Gainsfords first overs. From there, Jack bowled with smarts, Hadley bowled with venom, and Foster bowled with shin splints, all earning themselves a wicket each. Pick of the bowlers though, was AB, with figures of 3-45 off his 4 including 11 dropped caught and bowled chances. 

Gordon continued to lose regular wickets, and the mighty Tahs bowled them out for 174, and celebrated with one of the all time non explicit team songs. 

Hurricane Edwards

Manly Women’s Third Grade turned up to play St George Sutherland on an overcast day at Gifford Park in Penshurst, won the toss and elected to field.

Though we struggled to adjust to the double left-handed opening batter combination who took full advantage of the short boundary when a few loose balls were thrown their way, we found their feet and were able to take wickets at regular intervals. Sarah Gordon took two wickets with one great catch on the boundary from Renee Hough. Kristie Crawford then came in with a good spell and took two quick wickets to continue the fall of wickets with a run out. Manly continued positively with another catch from Renee and a stunning catch from Isabelle Keene running from backwards point 20m to take a catch at full stretch, and, without any high scores until St George’s eighth batter came in. Nevertheless, Manly finished the innings in style with one wicket from Gemma Lacy and with Sallie Molyneux ripping an off-spinner through the gate to hit top-of-off.

Manly came in to bat with a bit more sun than the first innings. Despite an early wicket, Nat Guyot (46) and Kristie Crawford (50) kept up the run rate and put us in a good position. After Kristie’s retirement, we struggled to maintain this initial momentum, with wickets falling at regular intervals. Despite some solid resistance in the tail of the batting order from Sarah, we could not meet the required run rate and the total started slipping away. We finished on 142, defeated in our first game but still with a positive outlook toward the rest of the season.

Player of the match; 3 points to Kristie Crawford for her 50, 2 points to Nat for her batting and 1 point to Sarah for her all-round performance. The fielding award went to Renee for two great catches.

3-Kristie Crawford

2-Nat Guyot 

1- Sarah Gordon

Fielding 1- Renee Hough

The PG’s boys arrived at manly oval ready to start their campaign for the season. The bottom 6 outclassed the top 6 to take a 1-0 lead in touch footy heading into next weekend. Gordon won the toss and elected to bat with Joel Davies making his debut.

The boys started well with Hads and Jack getting the new ball to talk. Hads took 3 wickets in the power play to leave Gordon reeling early. We continued to bowl and field well with Joel asserting himself with a run out from the boundary. The wickets continued to flow with Bain, Davies and Foster claiming one each with Hads and Brewster knocking over the stumps to add 3 more run outs for the game. Gordon finishing 10/125 after 19.4 overs.

With the bat it was a tale of two stories. We raced out of the blocks to be 0/45 after 5 overs. Jack and Brewster combining well with elegant stroke play and cowboying over the top. The fall of Brewster led to a flow of wickets. We could not restrict the dot balls bowled by Gordon and ended up losing wickets at crucial times. Needing to go at 10s and 15s in the final few overs was too much for us, finishing 8/112 off 20 overs. Jack top scoring with 34, Brewster with 21 and Ned and Issy chipping in as well.

A lot to take out of this game and a lot to learn. We have a chance to rectify and kick our campaign off next weekend in a one-dayer against North Sydney on Sunday at home.