Meatloaf was right, 2/3 ain’t bad!
4’s Vs Eastern Suburbs – North Sydney Oval
5’s Vs Penrith – Manly Oval
4 Pines Player of the week – Brad Wilson
With soo many spectacular achievements for the Manly Boys this weekend, it was pretty tough going to pick out just one star performance. Will Outred took his maiden club 5fa and the likes of Ahilien Beadle and Rowan Hamman both scored hundreds, so it was certainly no simple choice.
However, Brad Wilson took out the title this week with his sensational spell of bowling in the 4th Grade Semi-Final against Sutherland. Coming into the must-win game, with only a single days play due to a “washout”, Brad set the platform for 4’s to build a dominant victory ontop of.
Taking an incredible 6/35 off 15.4 overs, with 5 maidens, Brad showed the composure that could hopefully end up leading his team to victory in the Grand Final next weekend.
Well done Wilsooooon!!!
 |
Unfortunately first grade lost their semi final over the weekend.. Bowling first on what was amazingly a pretty good deck, we did quite well to bowl the dogs out for 190. Dan babula continued his terrific season with 4 wickets, while Steve o keefe again showed his class also picking up 4.
We had 23 overs to bat out at the end of the day and unfortunately disaster struck. We slumped to 3-7 and eventually finished the day at 4-40.
The next day started positively with beadle and babula both settling in and batting well into the middle session. This was a terrific effort from night watchman babula, while ab continued his awesome form from last week and was well and truly in the zone..
Unfortunately with the score on around 120 we lost 3 quick wickets and eventually fell 14 ins short. Ab was the star with an amazing successive hundred. He has really gone to the next level over the last 3 weeks and will hopefully get an opportunity to play some shield cricket next year..
Overall it was a shame to fall short but it was a great season for first grade and we can hold our heads high. Special thanks must go to juicy and Geoffro for all the work they did for us during the season.
Hope everyone enjoys their off season.
Jack
 Beadle flicking one off the pads |
 O’Keefe looking to beat the bat |
4th Grade – Manly 0/172 ( R. Hamman 113, M. Burgess 35) beat Sutherland 169 (B. Wilson 6/35, D. Marshall 3/42)
The first day’s play was “washed out” as Sutherland did not provide a groundsman for the day. He buggered off at 10.20am refusing to hand over a deck that would be playable by about 2 or 3pm. Fortunately, whilst the capt may have stewed on this overnight, the rest of the team turned up good and ready on Sunday morning needing to force a result within 104 overs. Things started well, winning the toss on a wicket that did not move sideways but had some bounce and slowness to it. Not easy to score runs on. Their opener chipped Toomey (0/36) to mid on 2nd ball for what should have been a wicket but the ball just sailed away from being grasped. Wilson (6/34) though got immediately amongst it clean bowling the opener with a late inswinger and then a few overs getting through the other opener to make it 2/19. Next ball, Josh Petersen battling through the pain of a freshly broken/dislocated finger took a full stretch leg side screamer. Just after drinks Wilson wasn’t finished yet and got the #3 chipping one to Jacob who took a smart catch. Evans (1/29) then managed to hold onto one to C&B their captain to make it 5/31. Then to Sutho’s credit they played their shots getting away with a helluva lot of balls either just going over (or through) the fingers and last ball before lunch at 5/101, Dylan (3/42) strikes by bowling out their dangerman to make 6/101 at lunch.
Dave Gardiner is on for Josh (Sam Hole keeping) and takes an excellent catch from a fizzing top edge at backward square to make it 7/108. The pitch was now flat and we had to work hard to make a dent at all into the sound looking #8 and 9. They progressed to 147 when I reckon the catch of the year was taken by Ross in the gully. It was a well timed cut to his left from Wilson and Ross at full dive snared it. An absolute screamer and could well be the catch that won the game for us. Cole then took a good one at mid off and the #11 looked solid before he scooped one into covers to complete a great day for Brad taking his first 5fa and bowling beautifully to finish with 6/34 off 15.3.
A tricky total of 170 was the target from 49 overs. Max(53no) and Rowan (113no) both batted beautifully with no chances. They built their innings, not getting frustrated with the tight early overs ( we were 6 off the first 7 overs) and then laying into anything in their zone and picking off plenty of singles that weren’t there to be smashed. Max in particular looked a different player from previous weeks (Rowan just looked his usual self – a bit like Clive Lloyd), really looking like he had a plan and he was going to stick to it and his role was superb. Well done mate!. As for Rowan he carved them up with 19 powerful boundaries and looked in complete control. Sutherland bowled 7 bowlers but nobody could contain him and we raced to victory in the 40th over.
All up our bowling was very good and our batting was excellent. Despite taking some great catches we really need to work on taking hundreds of balls this week. Each that is. Just do it boys.
Great win and well done on making the Grand Final.
Warren
 Brad after taking 6/35 |
 Max and Rowan after putting on a 170 partnership |
What a great weekend for the 5th grade boys winning an always tough match against the Randwick Petersham boys.
Saturday morning greeted us with a perfect batting deck but a water logged outfield, The run-ups were especially wet and muddy, and each umpire inspection provided us with a “we’ll inspect it again in another hour”. So a good day was had by the fellas, sitting around and talking a lot of nonsense. One thing that was noticed was that Billy Darcy continued with his usual banter, but was lacking the same wit from previous weeks. We were curious to know how this would translate to his on field banter.
Finally we got on at 4.30 for a 20 over session, with Randy Pete’s winning the toss and sending us in. Joel Mason fell early after trying to pull a half volley, and Hamish Ferguson hit a full bunga from their leggie to cow corner. It’s fair to say our 2 dismissals were off bad shots, something we need to address. Night watchman Ben Falconer and Billy made it to stumps, the boys at 2 for 20 overnight.
The next morning things started right on time, and Billy began to show his excellent array of shots. Falcs lost his off stump to a good one and then Jack Carden got a tough LBW decision, leaving us at 4 for 32. Toby Poole joined Billy at the crease and begun his fluent stroke play as per usual. The boys took us to 62 when Billy fell LBW again. At 5 down it was a precarious position, but Toby and new batsman Tom Kelly steadied the shit with a great 76 run partnership. Toby was hitting the cleanly, hit straight driving again a feature, while Tommy was getting set and playing every ball on it’s merit.
In general their running was good until a mix-up almost saw TK run out when half way down the pitch, only for the keeper to drop a sitter of a return catch. However the mix up’s weren’t done with, and Toby got run-out the next over for a fantastic 63. From there we lost constant wickets with only Zach Trewartha with 17 contributing to the score with 17. TK batted for over 2 hours for his 26 in a great effort. Sam Kelly remained not out to continue his run of not being dismissed yet in grade cricket.
We batted for 92 overs for our 170, which was more like 220-230 due to the very slow outfield. Randwick Petersham needed 171 in exactly 40overs, with the Tahs progressing to the GF if there was a draw due to our higher place on the ladder. They started very slowly, facing 8 overs before tea for 6 runs. After tea they came out swinging, however some good bowling was not letting them get away. Wickets began to fall constantly and the required run rate kept climbing. This was especially the case when Will Outred joined the attack. He bowled a great spell of leg-spin to claim his first 5 wicket haul for the club. Highlight of those wickets was a fantastic stumping from our 14 year old keeper Sam Kelly (the number 1 of all the Kelly’s), who is proving to have not just a great future, but also a great present.
A catch from Toby Poole off Will fittingly ended the match with Randy-Petes falling 54 short with 4.2 overs left to bowl.
So we progress to next week’s GF against Penrith, who have been the best team all year and will be a tough opposition. However we know that a victory is what we deserve.
Special thanks to Wrighty and Butch for their presence all weekend, as well as all the parents, led by Ian Ferguson, for their great help and support.
Joel Mason
Will at Mike Pawley Oval after taking 5/28
