Round 3
Round 3 saw a beautiful Spring day – hopes were high, teams were picked, performances were promised.
First XI
Playing Ashwood at Brighton due to Ashwood’s ground suffering the same fate as ours, Skipper Burto lost the toss and out in the field we went. In a shock to all Jared “Horse” Seagrave opened up into the wind, with Dev taking his rightful spot with the wind. An early wicket to a high ball to fine leg got the lads up and about with Horse taking a well timed and somewhat hard to believe catch. After that, partnerships were few and far between. Aside from a couple of young Ashwood kids sticking it out (well done to them) the Nodders attack was able to restrict them to 134. The bowling was lead by Hugh Paulus who bowled a super 6 over set in the middle for only 12. The actual wickets were shared between Wombat (3), Deviln (2), Horse (1) Tommy Riley (1) and Burto with a single pole to go with the enormous six he was hit for.
From all reports the fielding was not of the highest standard with a few chances shelled – some that may see some senior men doing some extra slip fielding this week.
With the bat, Brendan Wales & CDP opened up. A quick fire 30 run partnership was had before Wales nicked off bringing Burto to the crease after a rare fail the week before. All week the feeling was Ashwood may pay for this and in a matter of time victory was achieved with Burt 62* off 55 & CDP continuing his great start to the year with the bat finishing on 55*.
Second XI
Also playing Ashwood, Hummer won the toss and had a hit. Really solid batting with 4 key contributions – Luke Byrnes 47, Ruegs 31, Rohan Jayaweera 36 + Liam Goodger spanking a quick 36. A competitive total of 176 pleased the hard to please skipper, though losing the last 5 wickets for sweet FA was disappointing.
A first ball wicket to Hummer (with the wind like a good captain), had Ashwood on the back foot. Wickets fell regularly and the 6 points were easily collected with Ashwood out for 72. Best figures were another Boronia recruit in Luke Biddau 3/10 and Rohan completed a great game with 3/10.
Hummer was quoted as saying “fielding was great – led by Haydos and Jamo. Batting was great, bowling was great. I was happy to get the 6 points “
Third XI
The well oiled machine that is this Dress lead unit was asked to start at 11:30 as Deepdene had a 100 year celebration that night (congrats to them – a great achievement). Now you need to start way earlier than 11.30 to catch this team out . Bowling first the 3s ran through the Deepdene team for 64, with Harry Ghuman picking up an amazing 5/10, Winston and Trif both ably backing him up.
The returning Luke Rose and the rejuvenated Matt Quinn opened up and past the meagre total in 17 overs without loss. Rosey with a swashbuckling 37 and Quinny with the opposite to swashbuckling 17*.
Dress’s mob have yet to lose a wicket in two games, meaning we have no %, and there is some serious pressure on the next opening combination. Great start lads.
Fourth XI
Playing away to arch rivals Burwood United the Goose army batted first and posted a very competitive 6/195. The youth policy middle order of Morley 44, Procter 44 and President Raymond 26* along with promising Jono Hendricks 26* were the pick of the batsmen.
In a very tight tussle unfortunately BUCC were able to add 30 runs for the 9th wicket and get over the line with 4 balls to spare in what was a shattering loss. Jono Hendricks finished a great individual game with 3/42 and returning club great Tim Bourbon produced the figures of 2/24.
Goose has demanded change at the selection table and this scribe knows he will get his way.
Fifth XI
Dave won the toss and decided that posting on the soccer oval was the way to go. Unfortunately the batting line up never really got going. Aside from stellar contributions from Daniel Huggins 74* and Saranga Chandrasena 30, the team mustered only 138 from their 35 overs.
This total proved to be little challenge for the experienced Clifton Hill side who passed the score for the loss of only one wicket in the 23rd over.
What is fantastic from this 5th eleven is their desire not to just accept this result but to learn from it and get better – that is a real credit to the skipper Dave Di Domenico.
This week we saddle up again:
Ones on Sunday v Mt Albert
Twos v Mulgrave
Threes have a bye – maybe a game v the English team is in order
Fours v Boroondara
Fives v Trinity Wilson
Go Nodders