Wins over the Weekend but Championships Slip Through Fingers – Weekend Wrap 13/14 March 2021

1’s saw the boys trying to find parking at Sydney Uni to take on the table leading students. Jay won the toss on a funny looking wicket and elected to bowl, the wicket proving soft and tricky to bat on. Hadley took the early wicket of Nick Larkin but it was Jack Edwards that really applied the pressure taking two wickets in two balls upon his introduction into the attack. SOK settled into his work at the other end, going for only a handful off his 10 overs and picking up 2 crucial wickets in the process. Despite the regular flow of wickets, Sydney Uni still managed 215. 

With Benny going out out to open the batting with Joel Foster after Jack pulling up lame, we looked to get off to a positive start, Joel hitting some crisp strokes out of the middle of the bat. We quickly lost both Ben and Joel in quick succession, but it seemed Cam Merchant was at his best racing into the 20’s before he was run out. It was Farrell that provided the anchor as he top scored with 52, but it was SOK, like he’s done so many times before (or so he tells us) that was the hero of the day. Needing 9 runs off 2 overs with only the one wicket in hand, SOK hit a low full toss for 6 to put us in a commanding position. He followed up with a two and a wide sealed a famous victory for the Waratahs. 

Onto finals we go. 

3- Steve O’Keefe

2 – Ryan Farrell

1- Ryan Hadley

Ryan Hadley

After sealing up the 2nd grade Minor premiership, the mighty tahs were eager and hungry to wrap up the final round in similar fashion to previous weeks. Led by Hicksy, the boys decided to bat and get stuck into some one day cricket. After losing two quick early ones – the team needed a partnership. Up stepped AB and J.Davies, a generation apart but more together than ever in the middle. They set up a solid total for the Tahs by playing both patiently and freely. It was exceptional to watch, with Joel falling for 83 and Abs for 57. At the end, contributions from Prowse (expansive hitting superstar) and Vumbaca saw the Tahs reach 229.

Once again, with the ball, Hicks took all the glory. The Tahs toiled extremely hard after a good start from Uni, where breakthroughs from Hicks and Seward set up Joel Davies to bowl a solid 10 over spell. Hicksy the star, with his 3rd 5fa in a row (5-37)! Accompanied by RBP bowling very solidly aswell.

The Tahs took 6 points and head into finals facing Blacktown. Go manly !

The lads rocked up to St Paul’s oval, in the heart of Sydney University, ready for a big day or cricket ahead. A win would secure a home final, and with vital club championship points up for grabs, it was a very important game.

A wet patch on the edge of the pitch due to some concentrated rain at the Uni overnight meant a delayed start, however thankfully it wasn’t long until the coin was tossed, and Manly was bowling. Toss won, good start to the day.

Things got better for the Tahs when Counsell struck twice in the first over dismissing the opener and the first drop, to have the students reeling. Some good bowling from both opening bowlers built pressure until the other Uni opener put on his cowboy hat and started lasooing the Tahs bowling, playing some very confident shots, and accelerating the student score.

Although a couple wickets at the other end seemed to fall around him, he raced to his 50 until an inspired bowling change from the Skip, and Lachie T took his wicket.

A great partnership of bowling between Lachie T and Jake Osborne ensued, building great pressure and taking wickets, as the run rate slowed. They both bowled ten straight and were fantastic with the ball, Lachie T taking 3, and Jakey very unlucky to not take a wicket.

Wigney and Bain came back on and wrapped up the innings, and the students were bowled out for 224. Despite a high score, the lads felt confident they could chase it down. A good batting pitch with a small and fast outfield, meant confidence was high.

The batting’s innings got off to a good start despite the early wicket of Hole (confirming that his helicopter shot needs some work), as Webber and Wheeler built a good partnership and were playing some positive cricket. At drinks the score was 1-50, and despite being behind the run rate, wickets in hand were key and the Tahs were definitely well in the game.

Unfortunately after drinks, things took a turn for the worse. A big collapse occurred and wickets fell fast, with only Jordan Daly able to counter attack effectively with a very well made 41. Unfortunately manly were bowled out for 111, well short of the target.

Despite the loss the lads are confidence we can bounce back next week for first week of finals cricket, where 3s take on Easts out at Waverley

Welcome to Graham’s reserve for the final round of the regular season for the 4th grade fixture against Sydney university. Although 4th grade were out of contention for finals it was the last game and looking to finish the season on a high. Captain Adam Gummer won the toss and chose to bat, after an early loss of wicket in the first over Gummer and Lucius came together for a short partnership before Lucius was dismissed for 10. After that the Sydney uni bowlers keep the pressure right on, before taking more wickets and dismissing Gummer for 19 and soon bowled manly out for 42 in 24 overs. With only 42 on the board the manly boys had to be well on from ball 1. Archer took the first of Sydney university’s wickets before it being all to late, with uni chasing the 42 in the 9th over. A very very tough day for the manly 4th grade team but they will be back and looking forward to next season.

Coyte

Even though it was not a clean sweep, 3rd grade managed to make a tremendous effort by fighting in the grand final against Gordon, which was the first season for our 3rd grade team to seek a spot in the grand final. We lost the toss and were sent into bowl where we managed to succeed two early runouts. After 15 overs we had them at 2/35, thanks to a couple of runouts assisted by Renee, Mia and Steph. Sallie’s bowling helped Manly get the two best batters out which also rewarded her by being the top bowler of the game. However, Gordon rose to the challenge and ended up with a strong score of 5/214. Mia and Jess opened the batting and had a strong start. Jess unfortunately had to come off for a little while due to a knee injury. The next few batters came in and unfortunately fell into the hands of Gordon. All hope was lost until Abby and Charlotte came in and formed an amazing partnership. The pair batting out there made the game more suspenseful and intense to watch. Unfortunately, it was not the day for Manly and we unfortunately were all bowled out for 168. Hopefully, next season the Manly Women’s 3rd Grade team can successfully take home the shield and claim a victory. Well done and high hopes for next season.

Steph Hughes

As the brewer team drove over to Birchgrove Oval, it was absolutely bucketing with rain. Staying mostly optimistic and consistently checking the radar, we waited and waited. After chatting to the umpires, who also were optimistic that the rain was going to stop at 12. We played some mafia (Scott was the worst Mafia ever), a few performances (including let it go by Chloe, Chels, Abby and Jazzy), lots of singing and about an hour of just dance (with getting the opposition to join in). We ate lots of food and ran around in the puddles a bit and did some more just dance in the rain. The outfield wasn’t a puddle, the run up was a bit muddy and the cover practically had a pool on it. We eventually got around to taking off the covers. We created a small ocean at the end of the boundary, which luckily dried quickly. The rain had backed off a lot and at around 1.15pm, the umpires made the call for us to do the toss at 2pm and start play at 2.30pm with a 25 over game to be played.

We got our kits from the car and began a warm up in the freezing cold, with the rain only at a light drizzle. Our normal jog, stretching circle and joke of the day warmed us up a bit. I finally won another very important toss (thanks Chloe and Ruby for picking heads for me) and we sent Sydney into bowl. Kate and Jess opened the bowling strongly, both bowling tight and limiting the runs. The fielding was also tight, with girls chasing everything after being at the game for 6 hours we were all itching to get out into the field. In the 4^th over, Kate then bowled a lovely wicket maiden with the wicket coming as a bowled wicket on the last ball. Chels then came into the attack and brought the pressure straight away. We had a few dropped catches and close run outs due to some cold hands in the field. A mix up from Sydney resulted in a easy run out with Chloe easily underarming it to Ruby at the stumps due to such a high amount of pressure and stress on Sydney. They began to get frustrated, as we were clearly on top and going strongly. Gemma Lacey then came onto the attack and made an affect straight away, continuing her good form from the last 2 weeks. The strong Sydney opener sky-highed one in the air, which was calmy taken by Kate after it looked like it nearly got to the sun. Mia came onto the attack for the next over, which turned out to be the last over for the game. We didn’t think the rain had gotten any heavier, but apparently it had gotten too heavy for play continue and the ground too slippery for play to continue. Sydney finish 3/54 off 14 overs when the match was abandoned. 

After having Sydney in the best position and things were looking good for us, feeling confident and having so much belief we could win, the rain got the best of the day and beat both teams. It was the worst way to end the season and the most disappointing way to finish, but the weather was out of our control and frustrating for everyone.

Nat Guyot