LMS T20 (8-a-SIDE) EASTERN SYDNEY MIDWEEK DIVISION 3 ROUND 6 v ‘SUB PAR CRICKETERS’ AT MP 8, ROBERTSON ROAD, MOORE PARK ON WEDNESDAY 7 DECEMBER 2022: REPORT BY JAMES MURTHA
It was an overcast afternoon, the opposition won the toss and elected to bowl, we fielded a strong side albeit only with 7 players.
Their openers got off to a solid start and both appeared to be heading towards a 50* retired before Soren Hughes (‘Sooz’) playing his first LMS game of the season, struck a double play (Editor’s note: the LMS playing conditions adopt this rule from baseball), taking a high catch off his own bowling and having the presence of mind to throw the stumps down before the non striker could make his ground; it was a very impressive piece of cricket.
Adam Durant and Jim Hadley (also playing his first LMS game of the season) bowled exceptionally well without luck. David Craig grabbed a key wicket and Jamie Murtha bought a wicket at the end thanks to an excellent boundary catch by Craig. Solid bowling and fielding kept them to a relatively modest 5-162.
CCNSW started the chase losing early wickets: Jamie Murtha (1) was bowled playing a dirty slog across the line; Scott Williams nicked off and scored his first ever LMS duck (after c. 140+ innings ); Adam Durant (7) and Rod Shone (10) both dug in early but couldn’t go on with it.
At the other end Sooz was hitting boundaries for fun and retired on 50*. David Craig and Jim Hadley steadied and built a solid partnership before Dave fell for 30. Jim went up a gear and found the boundary regularly, requiring 24 off 10 balls Jim scored 18 off the first 5, taking the equation to 6 off 5.
A fast and accurate over took it down to the last ball requiring 1 to win, a leg bye was misfielded by the keeper and Sooz made it safely to the striker’s end for a single to win the match!
The Team was: – Soren Hughes 56*, Jamie Murtha (c) 1, Adam Durant (w) 7, Scott Williams (w) 0, Rod Shone 10, David Craig 30, Jim Hadley 55*
The Result was:-
Sub Par Cricketers: – 5-162 (20 overs) ()
Lost to
CCNSW: – 5-163 (20 overs) (S. Hughes 56*; J. Hadley 55*; D. Craig 30)
By 3 wickets
The Bowling was: – A Durant 4-0-24-0 S. Hughes 4-1-23-1; D. Craig 4-0-39-1; J. Hadley 4-0-20-0; J. Murtha 2-0-23-1; R. Shone 2-0-32-0;
The Fielding was:-
Stumpings: – Nil
Catches: – One to each of D. Craig, J. Hadley and S. Hughes
Run outs: – One to S. Hughes
Player points (awarded by captain): – 3 points to S. Hughes; 2 points to J. Hadley; 1 point to D. Craig
JACK PACE ROUND 5 v SYDNEY UNIVERSITY LIONS AT CAMPERDOWN OVAL, CAMPERDOWN ON SUNDAY 11 DECEMBER 2022: REPORT BY HARRY BRIDGE
Spirits were high as our C&S team was finally at Camperdown for the first time this season. The weather was perfect and the square was finally playable, but its surprisingly dry, cracked and crumbly condition would prove more suited to Sydney University Lions. We made a convincing start with Tom Robertson’s 36 a continuance of his consistent form in the first half of the season, and Jamie Murtha coming off some big scores and looking comfortable for 15, their partnership taking us swiftly to 59 before both quickly fell. Murtha was the first victim to the Lions’ new off-spinner, who found the conditions ideal and went on to dismiss four of our top six batters in his 4-16, decimating our middle order as we lost our final 5 wickets for 20 runs. The only other resistance was Karthick Subramanian’s punchy 28, as we reached a below par 10-142.
Toby Forbes and Soren Hughes struggled to find their lengths early on; however Forbes found a crack and cut a ball in to bowl the Lions’ best batter, giving us a brief sniff of being in the game. Adam Khamis caused some difficulties with his spinners, and both Adam Durant and Craig Kitson did well taking a couple of wickets each. At six wickets down and looking brittle, there was a feeling the Lions may have struggled if we’d posted another 20 runs and were able to apply some pressure, but in the end their top scorer’s slowly compiled 50 guided them to a solid win by four wickets.
We look forward to the return fixture at St Paul’s college in Sydney University on 8 January next which (unlike this game) will be played for the Brooks-Manning-Moorhouse Shield. Hopefully conditions will not be quite so spin-friendly.
The Team was: – Tom Robertson 36, Jamie Murtha 15, Karthick Subramanian (w) 28, Dan Turner 9, Harry Bridge 11, Toby Forbes 0, Adam Durant 9, Adam Khamis 5, Craig Kitson 6*, Peter Constantinou 1, Soren Hughes (c) 4
The Result was: –
C.C.N.S.W.: – 10-142 ( overs) (T. Robertson 36)
Lost to
Sydney University Lions: – 6-145 (33.4 overs)
By 4 wickets
FoW: – 1- 59 (T. Robertson); 2-60 (J. Murtha); 3-91 (D. Turner); 4-105 (H. Bridge).5-107 (T. Forbes); 6-122 (A. Durant); 7-129 (K. Subramanian); 8- 134 (A. Khamis); 9-135 (P. Constantinou); 10-142 (S. Hughes).
The Bowling was: – T. Forbes 6-1-19-1; S. Hughes 4-0-26-0 ; P. Constantinou 7-0-30-0; A. Khamis 7-1-27-1; A. Durant 5-2-15-2; C. Kitson 4.4-1-11-2
The Fielding was: –
Stumpings: – Nil
Catches: – One to A. Durant
Run outs: – Nil
Player points (awarded by captain): – 3 points to T. Robertson; 2 points to K. Subramanian; one point to A Durant
CLASSICS ROUND 6 v OLD IGNATIANS AT RYDE OVAL, RYDE ON SUNDAY 11 DECEMBER 2022: JOINT REPORT BY ANDREW DAVIS AND MIKE PINTER
La Niña must be a thing of the past as we arrived at the ground on a very hot Sunday, winning the toss was now very important for us two reasons 1) errr …. it was very hot, and 2) one of our eleven “Mick” Tarrant was still 90 minutes away due to being called into work. With our regular Captain Scott Wells out due to injury Mike “Punter” Pinter stepped into the role of Captain and fortunately he called correctly with “Tails never fails in New South Wales”; hence we won the toss and elected to bat.
On the ladder before the game. Old Ignatians (“Old Iggies”) were sitting in fifth spot with three wins and one washout and CCNSW down in ninth with two wins and two losses – so this was a very important game for both teams to win before the Christmas break. We didn’t have a number of regulars due to injuries and seasonal engagements; thanks must be given to “Gerry” O’Shea, Jed Wesley-Smith and Sam Skoulis for stepping in and we also welcomed back Brett James (who had just been selected to represent the Australian Over 50s Cricket Team in the upcoming Over 50s World Cup in Cape Town next March).
There was a cautious start to our innings by Gerry O’Shea Ed Cross as the pitch visibly had a few gremlins with the odd ball staying low at one end and sharply kicking up at the other. Gerry was the first wicket to fall being caught for 10. This brought in our stand-in Captain Punter to join Ed who was doing a great job of punishing all loose balls, smacking six boundaries on his way to retiring at 30*. A nice partnership was developing with Punter and Brett James with both turning over the strike and both running quickly between the wickets, converting the ones to twos and the twos to threes. However Punter tried to take on the field once too often for a quick single that wasn’t there and was found well short of his ground to be run out for 20. The score was now 2-77 in the 18th over. Andrew “Dee” Davis then joined Brett James and again a nice partnership was developing between the two with both batters hitting the pickets before another call for a quick single saw Andrew Davis also short of his ground again- run out for 22 in the 25th over with the score now 3-125.
Around about this time, a call came in from Tommy Robertson from Camperdown Oval (some 40 minutes away from our ground) apparently some knucklehead (of course … apologies to said knucklehead) had accidentally locked the Camperdown sheds with the kits and keys inside. To paraphrase the infamous words of the Robot from Lost in Space “Danger Tommy Robertson”.
With 15 overs left we were looking to up the rate and close in on 200 runs. Brett was joined by Greg “Brooksy” Brooks and unusually Brooksy started cautiously, to watch Brett retire on 30*. Now with two in the bank Brooksy was joined by David ‘Dutchy’ Craig, who once again played a reverse sweep off his first ball for three runs much to the surprise of the bowler. The pair pushed the score along to 3-163 before we lost three wickets for 12 runs (Brooksy c and b 23, Dutchy c and b 13 & Jed Wesley-Smith bowled 1). All were selflessly trying to accelerate our innings to get us over a 200 total. The score was now 6-177 with five overs remaining. Enter Andrew “Bach” Bachelard.
Quick runs were needed and Bachelard had been given the licence to thrill – and thrill he did! In the 37th over he launched his assault hammering 18 runs with two massive sixes with two brilliant cricket shots, one over the cover fence and the other over deep long on. Mick Tarrant was Bach’s wingman for the onslaught, and Mick was our 7th and final wicket to fall at 7-202. Sam Skoulis then joined Bach in the 38th over whilst Bach continued to plunder the bowling. Bach retired soon after on 30* with four balls remaining in our innings. What a knock – one of the best by anyone in the team this season! Sam was joined by Ed Cross who managed to get seven more runs off the remaining four balls to finish on 39* (well done Ed on another great innings this season). Our innings closed at a very defendable 7-220 with eight bowlers to choose from.
After the tea break it was our turn to take the field in slightly cooler conditions with Brett James and Mick Tarrant opening the bowling. This was one of the first opportunities Brett has had with leather in hand since being selected for the Australian Over 50s Team. The opposition knew about Brett’s selection and they knuckled down and relished the challenge. Brett and Mick bowled well and regularly troubled the openers however without success. There was a very fast outfield and most balls that passed the infield made it to the fence. Brett and Mick did exactly what was required to restrict Old Iggies to 0-40 after 10 overs, this partnership helped add pressure as the run rate required increased from 5.5 RPO to 6.0 RPO.
Punter then decided to make a double change and toss the ball to Bachelard and Davis – this is where we turned up the Bunsen burner. Bach started with a maiden and it just got better from there for CCNSW with some brilliant fielding by Gerry O’Shea in and around gully and point and Sam Skoulis proving to be very valuable in close at square leg and cutting off singles. Adrian Schwager (one of their opening batters) retired soon after for a very well made 30*. Lttle did we all know however that was as good as it was going to get for any of the Old Iggies batters today.
Over the next 10 over spell between ‘Bach’ and ‘Dee’ we managed to rip the heart out of the Old Iggies batters to take 4-36 by drinks. I hear you ask “How did that happen?” Well funny you should ask … this is what transpired. In each of their second overs Bach firstly disrupted the timber 1-46 in the 13th over and Dee then changed his pace nicely to see their No. 2 loft one to Mid-On. Score 2-50 in the 14th over.
This saw the very dangerous Neil McLeod stride to the crease. Then Punter (channeling Hannibal from the “A-Team”) developed a plan with Bach to drop a single man back deep at long-on and tempt McLeod. Back you go Mick. The temptation was too great for McLeod and within a couple of balls he struck one high and deep close to Mick Tarrant who had to cover a bit of ground to get to it and take the first of two magnificent catches. McLeod out for 4. Score 3-53. This brought another slogger to the crease in Nick ‘Garlo’ Garling. As usual ‘Garlo’ plundered everything within his hitting zone and raced to 15 runs – before a second plan was struck between James and Bachelard for Bach to slow one down and roll his fingers over a delivery. ‘Garlo’ was early on the shot and it was again lofted towards Mick Tarrant in the deep; obligingly Mick gobbled his second catch. Score 4-70. Don’t we all love it when a plan (or two) comes together!
So, at the drinks break Old Iggies were 4-76, now requiring 7.25 RPO off the remaining 20 overs for the win, with one in the shed and their two of their most dangerous batters out and not returning again today. At drinks Bach had the very impressive figures of 5-1-8-3 so he deserved the opportunity to bowl his allotted nine overs today. All fielders did their jobs extremely well and continued to apply the pressure right around the park in particular Mick Tarrant and Brett James were our boundary riders on opposite sides of the pitch and each played a pivotal role in cutting off boundaries. ‘Dutchy ‘Craig and Ed Cross were at mid off and mid on for most of the game saving many runs with some sharp fielding, and our Keeper Jed Wesley-Smith conceded no byes (compared to 14 byes conceded by their keeper) on a very up and down pitch. Bach finished up his spell with the extremely impressive figures of 9-4-16-4 what an outstanding effort! Score 5-96 after 27 overs, with Old Iggies now requiring 9.62 RPO for the unlikely win.
Without downplaying their contributions Greg Brooks (6-1-30-1), David Craig (7-0-23-1) and Ed Cross (3-0-10-1) also rolled their arms over and all continued to bowl tight lines with each bowling to their fields and the fielders stopping just about everything. It was a comprehensive display of bowling, ground fielding and catching – full stop. So after their 40 overs Old Iggies were restricted to 8-148.
A special mention to some outstanding efforts. After bowling his nine overs Bach found his position at one end at short fine leg still chasing the odd ball and cutting off boundaries and saving many runs. Lastly Punter, was everywhere in the field, out in the deep, in close, changing sides and chasing that little red ball around the park. In the huddle after each wicket he gave us a few uplifting words to help encourage us all that every wicket and great effort in the field was bringing us one wicket closer to victory.
After the game both teams enjoyed a well-deserved beer or two after a long day in hot conditions. What a fantastic team result where everyone contributed, and what a way to finish off 2022 by beating one of the top teams in the competition. With five games remaining before the Finals we will need to continue this form and win most of these games to have a chance of making the top four.
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to everyone. Let’s continue our winning ways in 2023.
The Team was: – Ed Cross 39*, Gerard O’Shea 10, Mike Pinter (c) 20, Andrew Davis 22, Brett James 30*, Greg Brooks 23, David Craig 13, Andrew Bachelard 30*, Jed Wesley-Smith 1 , Mike Tarrant 5, Sam Skoulis 1*
The Result was: –
C.C.N.S.W.: – 7-220 (40 overs) (E. Cross 39*; B. James 30*; A. Bachelard 30*)
Defeated
Old Ignatians 8-148 CC: – (40 overs) (A. Bachelard 4-16()
By 72 runs
FoW: – 1-23 (G. O’Shea); 2-77 (M. Pinter); 3-125 (A. Davis); 4-163 (G. Brooks); 5-174; (D. Craig); 6-177 (J. Wesley-Smith); 7-202 (M. Tarrant)
The Bowling was: – B. James 5-2-22-0; M. Tarrant 5-1-18-0; A. Davis 5-0-26-1, A. Bachelard 9-4-16-4; G. Brooks 6-1-30-1; D. Craig 8-0-23-1; E. Cross 3-0-10-1
The Fielding was: –
Stumpings: – Nil
Catches: – 2 to M. Tarrant, one to E. Cross and one to J. Wesley-Smith (w)
Run outs: – Nil
Player points (awarded by umpire): – 3 points to A. Bachelard; 2 points to E. Cross; one point to B. James