Weekly Wrap
Bobcat Purrs and Squirrel goes nuts
The impact of the return of Steve (Bobcat) Gannell to the club was quite evident in Saturdays match against Ferntree Gully with Mick able to employ a twin spin attack at the crucial stage of the FTG innings both tying up the FTG batsmen as well as racing through the overs. Defending 152 of which Mitch Hewitt and Jake Evans both scored 47 the wickets came early with FTG 2 for 9. A good partnership then followed and had FTG at 2/81 and looking poised to reach our target. Bobcat and Jake (Squirrel) Evans then came into the attack and between them took 6 wickets with Jake Evans taking 4/11 in a fantastic spell. Steve Gannell took 2/19 and all the other bowlers took a wicket apiece. We ended up getting FTG out for 129 to give us a great win before the Xmas break and has us equal 4th on the ladder behinf Knox Gardens on percentage. Jake Evans was the highlight of the match with a great 47 with the bat and 4/11 with the ball.
The 2nds took on FTG at the Dome and batted first. Jordy Taily and James Dobbie-Hayward opened the batting and got us off to a good start with an opening partnership of 80 before Jordy went out. James was then joined by Dain How and they put on a 118 run partnership before James tragically went out only a few balls before the end of the innings for a very well made 73. The boys ended up making 2/203 with Dain Howe top scoring with 76. The boys then bowled well against a team that was aggressively chasing the runs whcih made it a great game to watch but eventually the pressure put on by the bowlers started getting wickets and we ended up gettimg them out for 140. Shane Cross and Pup took 3 wickets each.
The 3rds had an enthralling encounter with Johnson Park on the littel back oval at JP and made 4/178 in their knock with Nick Somervaille making a fantastic 70 and Chappy making a 52. Small grounds create strange situations and as well as we bowled JP were able to claw there way past us with some lusty hitting towards the end of the innings making 8/179 with an over to spare.
The 4ths were badly outnumbered with many players unavailable so dads were dragged in from all corners of the planet to field a team. We made
110 with Peter Ruddock making his second 50 in two games but it was never enough against a full strength Gully side
JUNIORS
Friday night say our U/13 Black Team took on the very strong Rowille side and with a number of available U/11 players were able to make a good score of 38. Unfortunatley this wasnt big enoughto protect and Rowville got past the target score.
The U/13 Yellow team travelled to Johnson Park and were set a target of 137 by JP. Lachie Jansen took 2 wickets and the other wickets were shared around amongst the bowlers. In reply we made 5/104 with Jai Sheehan continuuing his good form making 23. Rex Sinclair made 18 and Mitchell Stokes made 15.
The U/17 boys took on Monbulk and batted first and had a great opening stand of 90 runs between Nick Smith (34) and Liam Hunt. The boys then batted well around Liam who retired on 50n.o and we eneded up with a score of 141. The boys then bowled to their plans and fielded exceptionally well to keep the pressure on Monbulk and we eventually restricted them to 7/82. Marty Bass took 2 wickets in a good return to form and the rest of the wickets were shared around amongst all the bowlers.