First Grade
Wanneroo 152 (McGhie 54, Stumpers 38, Spangenberg 28) def. by Fremantle 2/153
It was back to 50 over cricket as Fremantle travelled to Kingsway to take on the Roos. After losing the toss we were politely asked by Ashton Turner to have a bat.
However, after an eventful first spell by Jhye Richardson and co, we were on the backfoot at 5/10 and looking like the game would be done before midday. Only once Connor ‘Heisenberg’ Spangenberg came to the crease did the game get going with a quick fire 28.
A special mention to newcomer Brodie McGhie who became best mates with Shaun Marsh after hitting a few runs (54) on debut. This led to a great partnership with Hayden ‘Stumps’ Stumper (38), together putting on 93 runs. Ending the innings with 152 all out, which was a strong rally from a bad start but still left us plenty of work to do with the ball.
The bowling started off pretty well with Matthew Dzodzos tying up an end and Deon getting a cheeky runout, followed up by a caught and bowled a few overs later. However this simply brought one Shaun Marsh and one more Ashton Turner to the crease who ticked over the remaining runs.
Unfortunately, on the day Freo were too good winning by 8 wickets. ‘til next season.
Second Grade
Fremantle 120 (Ardagh 3/18, S Jessani 3/23, Fryer 2/11, Billington 2/16) def. by Wanneroo 7/244 (Millar 60, Forssman 47*, Bonner 37, Billington 27)
No Report
Female B Grade 40 Over
Wanneroo 5/78 (Jesani 37*) def. South Perth 74 (Harvey 5/11, Stillitano 4/14)
Also losing the toss and being asked to bowl, the Roos might have felt they were in for a long day on Kingsway 1 after a very careful start from South Perth.
But four wickets between 28 and 37 swung things strongly in favour of the home side, with Emma, Buckets and Kristin (1/21) all in the action. Strong reward here for a full length, with lots of deliveries challenging the pads and stumps. Josie’s four overs for just four runs were a good indication of the pressure the Roos were applying! And another S.Jesani stumping did not go unnoticed!
South Perth persisted, reaching 74, before their last five wickets fell without another run being added. An unbelievable passage of play, with three bowleds and two LBWs. Buckets (4/14) made it ten wickets in two games, while Skipper Emma turned in career best figures of 5/11! Simply awesome!!
Chasing a relatively low total, batting wasn’t easy, with the Roos losing 5 in the chase. Shenae hit the ball powerfully at times on her way to 20 before falling to a very good catch, and Shayna continued her good run of form with a well-made 37*.
The Roos currently sit atop the table and travel to Melville for the final home and away game next week, with any of the top three sides able to make the GF. Let’s go Roos!
Female U17 40 Over
Wanneroo 4/112 (Williamson 43, Byrne 27) def. Midland-Guildford 111 (Williamson 3/23, Riches 2/8)
Losing the toss and bowling first against Midland-Guildford at Kingsway, the Roos got off to a flyer with the opposition 2 for 6 with wickets to the ever-reliable Aymie/Chloe opening combo – both girls on song and super economical. One of wickets these involved our debutant, Erryn Mayo-Hopkins, taking her first catch as a Roo – well done Ez!
The spin twins collected four between them through the middle order, Tegan with 3/23 and Layla 1/20 – the control, flight and line from both spinners was good to see. Emmersyn bowled a treat, and with impressive pace and bounce on her way the very tidy figures of 2/8, while Steffi looked all rhythm, challenging the stumps and claiming 1/6. It was fantastic to see Ez pick up her first wicket at this level, and with 1/0 she’s yet to register an average!
A good opening stand between Layla (10) and Tegan got the run chase away well, with the next partnership between Chloe (18) and Tegan building an identical score. At 2/58 we were well placed to run down the total. Soph (27) looked comfy in a 51 run third wicket stand, with the value of partnerships getting us past the required score with 13 overs in hand. Well batted to Tegan, finishing with a great hand of 43.
With this result the Under 17s have qualified for the 40 over GF in two weeks time, their fourth Grand Final in a row. This is a great indicator of the competitive consistency of the team over time, especially with a large number of girls ageing out into seniors at the end of last season. Well done team!!
Third Grade
Wanneroo 3/73 (Gardner 32*) def. Fremantle 10/72 (T Jessani 3/21, Slattery 2/11, Walter 2/14).
The 3s were back at Kingsway for the last home and away game of the 2022/23 season, Jordan ‘I don’t lose tosses’ Slattery won the toss and elected to bowl on a green Kingsway pitch.
Slattery and Alex “Fita’ Fitzmaurice were dangerous early putting the roos on the front foot having Fremantle 4/19 in the early stages of the game. The wicket taking trend continued with John Walter and Taz Jessani taking wickets regularly to bowl out Fremantle for 72 in arguably the best bowling performance of the season for the 3s.
Due to the work done by the bowlers the run chase was made simple for the batters as only needing 72 run-rate was not a problem. Marc Gardner lead the chase for the Roos scoring 32* getting the boys across the line the finish the regular season in 2nd place.
This was a great win for the boys to finish their regular season who will be looking to continue this form into week 1 of the finals where they will verse Gosnells.
Fourth Grade
Fremantle 8/232 (Walker 2/63) def. by Wanneroo 5/238 (Douglas 114, Williams 41)
Well the last round of the regular season has come and gone, and it came with plenty to talk about in the 4s. As some of the boys rocked up nice and early with the 2s on the bus, some did not take the bus as the “fourth grade lack heart and culture”. Anyway, the toss was lost yet again by Liam “3rd game after Christmas” Carroll and the mighty roos were sent in to bat. Prior to the innings starting, two things rattled many of us:
1) why aren’t the two grounds overlapping?
2) why has one of the umpires just said to us “the iPad is all set up, are you boys alright to live score?”
An umpire has never shown an interest in whether or not the iPad was working, let alone if we have enough pens to score in the book, what was afoot here. But we soon moved past this as we started piling on runs as if it were nothing, although we lost an early wicket, it just meant that Callum “Dinner Date” Douglas could get in earlier and find some form before finals as he notched up his maiden Wanneroo hundred, scoring 114 off 111 balls. Samuel “Fines Paid in Cas(tc)h” Williams just hung around and did his job from the get go to score an easy 41. A few handy additions to the score from both Kane “I’m in Half-Volley World” Pearce and Wides both scored 21. At the close of the Wanneroo innings, Fremantle were left with chasing 239 to win.
A quiet start as our opening bowlers set into their work, with Joshua “Quiet but Deadly” Quelch getting the first breakthrough by claiming the wicket of some guy who we had to make a tunnel for (supposedly he’s played a whole lot of games but I’ve never heard of him). Soon after, the man who had just made his maiden grade hundred, took his 100th career wicket to keep the spirits high in the Roo camp, Yad “what’s training?” Singh then took a wicket in the following over. But then things began to turn. Hopefully you’ll remember me mentioning the umpire asking us if we’re all good to live score, it turned out this was because he is the scorer for the 2nd Grade, but for some reason he’s decided to don the umpire attire (and genuinely a Fremantle hat) and attempt to get some decisions wrong throughout the day. After a few dubious non-decisions from his end, it wasn’t long until J. Quelch had a go at him, to which the umpire responded “I’ll talk to you after the game” which I’m sure gave many a player flashbacks of being told off at school “I’ll see you after class.” But eventually another breakthrough came through the likes of Jared “Rhys Walker According to Fremantle Scorers” Maunder as a man (Y Singh) who wasn’t supposed to catch a high ball, if you ask the batsman, did catch the aforementioned high ball to dismiss the legend O’Neil-King for 51. As the game went on, the momentum shifted precariously, with a lot of this shifting being caused by the lack of half decent umpiring. It was honestly a disgrace, bad decisions are bad decisions, but with the blatant cheating and lack of control over that game seen on Saturday, it just you wonder, how is no one staying on top of this. The game was in the balance, some one snicked off, wasn’t given, another instance of cheating, borderline reporting’s, it was all happening at the ground just above a power sub-station. But eventually, the month-and-a-bit long captaining hiatus from L. Carroll let him clear his mind to keep Fremantle under the required score as Owen “The Big Out” Brown bowled superbly at the death.
This win for the 4s cemented our spot in 5th, we look to play Midland-Guildford in the first final on Lilac 1, it is with this that we hope we can improve on last season’s finals performance and enjoy the prospect of seeing A. Hall keep his bar 1 promise. Will there be a greater standard of umpire’s, one can only hope.
U/17 Male
Wanneroo 94 def. by Fremantle 7/95 (Skouros 2/12)
No Report
U/15 Male
Fremantle 5/109 def. by Wanneroo 2/110 (Prance 55*, Deckert 28*)
No Report