LATE REPORT

VINTAGE  OVER 60s ROUND 7  v SOUTHERN HIGHLANDS    AT CHATER OVAL, MITTAGONG ,   ON SUNDAY 13 FEBRUARY 2022 : REPORT BY PETER ROLLS 

La Nina once again threatened the round with rain leading up to the weekend. The groundsman did an amazing job to get us on.

Sunny skies on a damp pitch. Peter Rolls won the toss and decided to bowl. The outfield was wet in places so hard for balls to reach the boundary. Ambient temperature 22°C with little humidity in the Highlands. We welcomed Jim Hadley for his first game in Vintage Cricket.

The Highlands openers were patient and played well on a slow variable pitch and Joe Scarcella and Paul Georgiadis bowled without luck. It took Mick McCormick in the 17th over before we got a wicket. 1-50 off 17 overs. John Finucane and David Wright shared the keeping with 20 overs a piece and did a great job on a tricky pitch.

Enter Pete Jensen and the strategy was to have Stuart Ridge have a crack at him as soon as he came in and the planned worked! Stuart in his second over bowling him for 8 with a beautiful in-swinger. The first time Pete has been out in 3 seasons of Vintage cricket! 2-58 off 19 overs. Stuart followed up a few overs later to also bowl Rod Van Beek who was settled in. 3-89 off 28 overs.

Jim Hadley bowling his leggies claimed his first wicket in Vintage bowling the batsman after tying him down. 4-104 off 31. Jim snared his second wicket from a well judged catch by Paul Georgiadis. Frank Baliotis got a freakish run out throwing the ball to the bowlers end while still on the ground.

Greg Brooks bowling well then chimed in with 3 quick wickets. The Southern Highlands’ retired opener came back in and did some damage in the last couple of overs. 9-151 off 40 overs.

Peter Rolls  and Jim Hadley  opened and Jim dispatched two full tosses to the boundary in quick succession. But in the 4^th over Jim tried to smash a loopy off spinner with the ball popping and edging to the keeper. 1-12 off 4 overs.

Peter Rolls edged one to keeper and John Finucane hit a powerful shot but a great running catch at deep mid-on by Pete Jensen removed him. 3-22 off 10 overs. Jim Robson was looking good until he clipped one straight to square leg. 4-74 off 17 overs. Greg Brooks showed a master class of power hitting with 3 sixes and a four to soon retire at 30*.  Tight bowling by The Highlanders made scoring slow. Mick McCormick was patient then hit out with 3 fours. We lost Frank Baliotis, Stuart Ridge, Joe, Scarcella,Paul Georgiadis  and David  Wrightin quick succession but this helped bring back big hitting Greg. 9-103 off 29 overs. Greg hit another four and looking good for the final chase but then disaster with Mick hitting over the top of a slow loopy Pete Jensen to be bowled to have us all out for 113 with still 8.4 overs remaining and only 39 runs to get.

A disappointing end and if only we had a couple more batsman ‘in the bank’. Shows the value of getting a couple in the bank early in the innings. Greg left to ponder “what if”.  It took a few minutes after the game for the steam to subside from his ears. Then Greg kissed and made up with Mick. That’s cricket!

Still an enjoyable drink after the game in beautiful country surroundings in The Highlands.

The Team was: –  Jim Hadley 10, Peter Rolls (c) 4 , John Finucane 6, Jim Robson 21, Greg Brooks 36*, Mick McCormick 22, Frank Baliotis 5, Stuart  Ridge 1, Joe Scarcella 1, Paul Georgiadis 1, David Wright (w) 1

The Result was: –

Southern Highlands: – 9-151 (40 overs)

Defeated

C.C.N.S.W.: – 10-113 (31 overs) ()

By 38 runs

FoW: – 1-12 (J. Hadley); 2-20 (P. Rolls); 3-22 (J. Finucane); 4-74 (J. Robson); 5-83 (F. Baliotis); 6-85 (S. Ridge); 7-96 (P. Georgiadis); 8-103 (J. Scarcella Snr); 9-106 (D. Wright); 10-113 (M. McCormick);

The Bowling was: –: J. Scarcella 7-1-14-0; P. Georgiadis 6-1-21-0; G. Brooks 7-0-26-3; M. McCormick 7-0-27-1; S. Ridge 7-0-23-2; J. Hadley 6-0-36-2

The Fielding was: –

Stumpings: – Nil

Catches: – Two to J. Scarcella and one to each of P, Georgiadis and J. Hadley

Run outs: – One to F. Baliotis

Player points (awarded by umpire): – 3 points to G. Brooks; 2 points to M. McCormick; one point to  J. Hadley

CITY & SUBURBAN ROUND 18  v BEAVERS   AT CAMPERDOWN OVAL, CAMPERDOWN ON  SATURDAY 26 MARCH 2022

Cancelled by rain.

CITY & SUBURBAN ROUND 16  v  PADDINGTON AT CAMPERDOWN OVAL, CAMPERDOWN ON  SATURDAY 12 MARCH 2022

Cancelled by rain.

MASTERS  OVER 40s ROUND 9  v GEORGES RIVER     AT BLAND OVAL, RIVERWOOD  ON SUNDAY 13 MARCH 2022 : REPORT BY MIKE WEAVER 

CCNSW Masters were hopeful of a good result to end their season in their final match at Bland Oval, hosted by Georges River. 

Blues captain Ian Allmey won the toss in conditions which made scoring, via more conventional means at least, difficult. The pitch was quite normal for a Bland Oval track and the outfield, as could be reasonably expected, was thickly grassed and boggy in some areas. Good to stomp around on though! Sincere thanks to the Georges River club for the efforts they made to get the ground prepared up to a playable standard, considering the previous weeks’ record deluge of rain. 

Stuart Ridge and Tim Croft opened the bowling with Tim steaming in from the car park end. ‘Crofty’ had been chaffing at the bit for a run, his recent CCNSW net practice efforts testimony to that. And he didn’t disappoint. Operating at very good pace he soon had Georges River opener Hillman caught at mid off for 2 and number 3 Doran ‘nicked off’ to wicketkeeper Scott Wells, for a duck, to have Georges River 2 for 2 after his first over and just the second of the innings.

‘Ridgy’ was keeping things tight at the other end as the opposition crawled along to consolidate. A bowling change for the tenth over saw Paul Nash collect the wicket of Smith, snapped up in the gully by Mike Weaver. ‘Weaves’ managed to hang on to the chance at his second attempt after the ball flew to his outstretched right hand. Unfortunately Paul strained his calf and could not continue his one over spell. 

With CCNSW well on top, a relatively easier chance given by Georges River batter Gerard was put down off Paul’s replacement Lee Witherden, also in the bowler’s initial over. Never the less, both sides went to drinks with Georges River battling at 3- 29. Andrew Dadswell had replaced Stuart Ridge from the far end and had bowled extremely well. He was very unlucky not to  obtain a wicket on the day, keeping the Georges River batters guessing with his very accurate, very subtle and very tricky changes of pace and flight. 

In the ‘second stanza’ things changed around a lot as the ball got older and a lot softer. Georges River opener and Over 50s Australian representative, Todd  O’Keefe, accelerated his very watchful and responsible start and began to hit the Blues bowlers around. After he retired on 42* , CCNSW couldn’t take advantage of a run out chance and although eventually having Gerard caught in the deep by Ed Cross, off Soren Hughes, were unable to take any other wickets. Georges River batter, Mag, attacked the bowling ruthlessly to also retire and see his team to a very respectable 4-154 at the close. 

The CCNSW bowling fell away markedly in comparison to the first 20 overs and in the entire process another three catches went down, one off GR batter Whittall’s first ball faced, to rub salt into the wounds. A half hour rain delay after 37 overs ended up reducing the match to a 39 over per side affair. The rain had softened the pitch up a little as well, which was not to Cricketers’ Club’s advantage. 

This could not be held as an excuse though. The Georges River bowlers attacked the stumps and off side lines relentlessly with maybe only one or two short of a length deliveries that could have been hit, over the whole innings. It was an impatient batting display by CCNSW overall. Some batters seemed  not prepared to knuckle down enough to avert a batting collapse, after two very good deliveries knocked over key men Allmey and Nash for ducks. Tom Robertson was also adjudged lbw for 4 runs in what was possibly an unlucky decision for him. ‘Nashy’ received a ‘rip snorter’ of a ball, that swung very late from middle to off stump, to knock out his off stump high up. 

Scott Wells and Mike Weaver both seemed in good touch yet both were unable to get full value for shots played right along the ground, aside from Scott’s nice hook to the short fine leg fence. Scotty, in an abnormal dismissal for him, holed out a drive to mid off.

And in pursuit of his sixth single run, Weaves tried in vain to nurdle a ball to the onside, which straightened from leg to off and lobbed off the back of his bat, for a sharp catch at second slip. It was an impatient shot in the conditions and situation. 

Ed Cross and Soren Hughes both had their castles knocked down with the score on just 25. Lee Witherden then hit his first ball received straight to mid off to be caught for a golden duck, with again no addition. It was definitely difficult to score at this point, for all the wrong reasons. It seemed Lee had been rushing to get his pads on, to get out to the middle in time, as he obviously, and perhaps justifiably, wasn’t settled at all by the situation. At this stage the CCNSW boys might have been thinking about finishing the game off early, to get to the local Riverwood Tavern, to watch the NRL. 

Fortunately for the Club, Stu Ridge isn’t that interested in NRL and at 8-25, Tim Croft was simply not going to give his wicket away. Both men demonstrated a proud, stubborn application and resolve that had been missing from most of their team mates.  

Stu chewed up 48 balls for 8 runs, finally looking to gain some kind of ascendancy, before getting himself caught, dancing down to the wicket to try to gain the said ascendancy. Last man Luke Holman succumbed to the second best ball received during the innings, unluckily bowled, to record the fourth Blues duck on the score sheet.

So Tim was left defiantly stranded, unbeaten on 21*, his highlight a booming six over the far mid on boundary of the back foot, to complete a fine match performance for himself. The final team score of 57 runs just managed to beat the record lowest club score in Masters and Classics. So well done boys…

In what can only be described as a difficult Masters season for so many reasons, CCNSW were again well led by their skipper Ian Allmey on the day and the team accepted the defeat in typical good grace. 

As…there’s always next season !!!

The Team was (playing 12): – Tom Robertson 4, Ian Allmey (c) 0, Mike Weaver 5, Paul Nash, 0 Scott Wells (w) 7, Ed Cross 5, Soren Hughes 2, Tim Croft 21* ,  Lee Witherden 0, Stuart Ridge 8, Luke Holman 0, and Andrew Dadswell (dnb)

The Result was: –

Georges River C.C.: – 4-154 (39 overs)

Defeated

C.C.N.S.W.: – 10-57 (27.5 overs) (T. Croft 21*)

By 97 runs

FoW: – 1- 5 (T. Robertson); 2-5 (I. Allmey); 3-6 (P. Nash); 4-15 (S. Wells); 5-21 (M. Weaver); 6-25 (E. Cross); 7-25 (S. Hughes); 8-25 (L. Witherden); 9-57 (S. Ridge); 10-57 (L. Holman)

The Bowling was: –: S. Ridge 7-1-30-0; T. Croft 8-2-24-2; A. Dadswell 8-0-23-0; P. Nash 1-0-5-1, L. Witherden 9-3-32-0; T. Robertson 2-0-17-0; S. Hughes 4-0-20-1

The Fielding was: –

Stumpings: – Nil

Catches: – Two catches to E. Cross and one to each of S. Wells (w) and M. Weaver.

Run outs: – Nil

Player points (awarded by umpire): – 3 points to T. Croft; 2 points to A. Dadswell; one point to L. Witherden  

VINTAGE  OVER 60s ROUND 9  v LINDFIELD     AT CAMPERDOWN OVAL CAMPERDOWN   ON SUNDAY 13 MARCH 2022 :   

Cancelled by rain.

SOCIAL  v  THE BRADMAN FOUNDATION XI    AT BRADMAN OVAL,  BOWRAL   ON SUNDAY 13 MARCH 2022 :  

Cancelled by rain.

LMS T20 (8-a-SIDE) EASTERN SYDNEY MIDWEEK DIVISION 2  ROUND 5 v ‘THE BATS’ AT MP 5 ROBERTSON ROAD, MOORE PARK ON WEDNESDAY 1 DECEMBER 2021: REPORT BY JIM HADLEY 

Continue reading C.C.N.S.W. MATCH REPORT No 6: LMS ‘THE BATS’ AND KNOX OLD BOYS AND BURWOOD : WEDNESDAY 1 DECEMBER – SUNDAY 5 DECEMBER 2021 →

LMS T20 (8-a-SIDE) EASTERN SYDNEY MIDWEEK DIVISION 4*  ROUND 1 v ‘FLARIES’ AT MP7 ROBERTSON ROAD, MOORE PARK ON WEDNESDAY 27 OCTOBER 2021: 

Continue reading C.C.N.S.W. MATCH REPORT No 1: LMS ‘FLARIES’ AND OLD ALOYSIANS AND LANE COVE AND GEORGES RIVER: WEDNESDAY 27 OCTOBER – SUNDAY 31 OCTOBER 2021 →