Last weekend the two WDCC grades still in the contest played out their elimination finals. Firstly, congratulations to both the Three’s and the U/17s for reaching finals – this does not happen every year is in itself an achievement and reward for effort throughout the season. Unfortunately both teams bowed out – in what was ultimately a moot result given that all finals were cancelled thereafter (unlucky Baysie).
Third Grade – Elimination Final
Bayswater-Morley 8/279 (Yaseen 2/52, J Walter 2/55) def. Wanneroo 110 (Hall 40, Walter 31*)
After defeating Joondalup in a do or die final round, the Trust Tree was full of leaves when arriving at Bayswater for their first final. After Yas finally turned up, we headed out for our warm ups. The energy was high, the mood was up and Mitchell ‘Ian Healy’ Slattery’s finger was suspiciously injured.
Due to the law of averages John Walter won the toss and elected to bowl. The Roos were inconsistent with the ball early, Bayswater-Morley punishing us to reach 50 none down. Enter the spin frenemies Micheal ‘dagger’ Ardagh and Matthew ‘Peter’ Dzodzos who quickly pulled back the momentum our way, both picking up a wicket. Ardagh was especially tight, bowling 21 overs for 35 runs (including being hit for 10 off his final over by the Toddler). John Walter and Yaseen finished with 2 each as Bayswater-Morley made a very respectable 8/279. To add a little insult to a long day Donavinn Fryer succumbed to the old mans injury, deciding to shred his calf muscle late in the day!
We rocked up on day 2 full of confidence as our batting lineup was strong and deep. Strength and depth were challenged by the straight one however, as we were quickly 5 down for not many. Allan ‘Barry’ Hall batted brilliantly, muscling his way to 40 until he succumbed to the ‘lets just play it safe for a while’ trap. John ‘Ellyse Perry/Keith/Ellen/Pantene Pro-V’ Walter swatted at the spinners for a while to make 31*, but in the end we were bowled out for 110.
Disappointing way to end the season but this team battled amazingly all year. Very rarely did we have the same team on the park 2 games in a row. A great effort to make it to the finals, but beaten by a better team on the day.
And then the WACA went and cancelled the season anyway so taste it Baysie.
U/17 Mens Elimination Final
Gosnells 5/266 (Haddrill 3/82) def Wanneroo 6/265 (Santich 107*, Dargie 44, Spangenberg 33)
Ah yes finals. Loving, caring finals. Lets get into it. Skipper Jack Mac goes for the lucrative toss for possibly the last time this season. With regular season form of 6/14 tosses won (42%) I think we know how this is going to go. Coin gets flipped and skip calls heads, surprise surprise it’s tails. Aaaannnndddd we are batting.
Day started off dare I say perfectly, with a Sam “Formula one Drive to survive” Williams playing a glorious cover drive for 4 off the third ball of the innings, and Mr Hard Hands Dargie joining in the following overs with many strokes that made the bowlers look like bowling machines dishing out HV’s. Then over 12.3 happened, when the ROOS lost their first wicket at a score of 21. Hard Hands and Jayden “Addict” Rae continued the attack for the overs to come before Jayden was stitched up by Andrew Mollat for a well made 28. The attack continued and wickets still fell with Dargie departing for 44.
But then, and I mean then, NICHOLAS “DISTRICT HUNDRED NUMBER ONE” SANTICH JOINED THE CREASE. OH MY JUST FORGET EVERY ONE ELSE, THIS KID IS ELITE. Labuschagne who? Some late hitting from Connor Spangenberg and the hottest, funniest lad alive, Jack “jmar” Maraldo contributed gorgeous cameos to the masterclass of Santich. The Roos finally ended up on a very very respectable 265 with ‘Santwobbler’ ending up on 107* off 86 balls. After a tea that lacked desert options but was still a solid 7/10 Wanneroo took to the field, with Cody “better brother” Billington taking the new ball.
After an elite first over from Billington, Nick “Part time leggy” Santich steamed off a long run up to send thunderbolts down to the shaking openers (eye witnesses suggest that one even backed away). After many chances Gosnells finally lost their first wicket with a catch by the gorgeous J-mar, bowled by the even more beautiful Jesse “the quiet kid” Hadrill. But from then things didn’t go to plan, as Gosnells settled in and a gruesome quad injury was sustained by the ever so gorgeous J-mar. Down a player things went from bad to worse with Kade Povey and Kyle Richardson taking us to town both making 50 each. Even with a few late wickets it wasn’t enough for the boys in red, as Gosnells chased 265 in 58.3 overs.
Well that’s that, season done, weekend wrap done (sorry not up to Cameron MacDonald level). I Would also like to quickly say on behalf on the 17’s thankyou to Dave Bebb for scoring our final and a big thank you too to Andrew “Biggest Slats” Slattery, Jacob “Second grade” Bonner, Dave “Papa” Spangenberg, Mike “Likes grass” Dargie, Shane “Retirement Home soon” Maraldo for all your efforts this season to help us achieve the goal of finals. Thanks 19/20 see you all next season.
For full results visit our latest results page at https://www.wanneroodcc.com.au/results/