First Grade
Wanneroo 187 (Holly 59, Swindells 50, Slattery 25) def. by Gosnells 3/188 (Eaton 2/44)
No Report
Second Grade
Gosnells 147 (Fryer 2/13, Ardagh 2/18, O’Day 2/28, S Jessani 2/42) and 5/157 (S Jessani 3/46) def. Wanneroo 10/112 (Smith 32) and 4/99 (McGhie 41)
This week, a trip to one of the most remote regions in WA was on for the all-powerful 2’s. Upon arrival at middle earth, the grimness of the surroundings was made evident by the changeroom-less Sutherland 2. The “better of the two wickets” pitch offered little insight for the tossing master, Adam Smith, who subsequently was forced to listen to the Gosnells captain say he would be inserting his own men that fiery morning.
A tight start from Donny “I love Temba Bavuma” Fryer and Adam “Sahara” Smith led to a cluster of Gosnells wickets. Sharad “grenadier” Jessani and Michael “I’ll do anything for a tray” Ardagh providing a bit of T&B and control for the roo boys, on what was looking like a very tricky wicket to play this terrible sport on. Wittenoom eventually being bowled out for 140 odd.
What followed can only be described as a complete shock for the mighty Magoo’s, with the “better of the two wickets” playing like Nagpur, leading to 6 Wanneroo wickets by the end of days play. Jack “who’s cousin isn’t he” McDonald and Michael “don’t mess with cats” O’Day offering some dogging, to close the day out.
Upon arriving at the Gay St attached Sutherland park, it was apparent the wicket had flattened right out. A Wanneroo miracle at Cooper Pedy? With Darcy “I’m Jack McDonald this week” Forssman and the cat man O’Day striding out to the crease, a feeling of hope was felt throughout the useless donga covering offered at Broken Hill. 4 overs later and 2 big wickets lost, the panicked whiting up was beginning. The long handle was put into effect, as Jack McDonald (Darcy), Smudge and Todd Murphy (Sharad) tried to reduce the deficit as quickly as possible. A stinker from one of the men in blue ended the innings, providing some momentum for the red capped heroes. Time to offer some life advice.
What followed after entering the field can only be described as a bad day’s cricket at its finest. With a couple of Gosnells batsman, deciding to give it the big ones, a question of bus availability and Gosnell player movements in March was regularly raised. This, along with a hatred for the sport, allowed the roo boys (particularly Adam “I’d like to gift this goose a hundred” Smith) to sit and enjoy one of the luckiest hundreds known to man.
A reinsertion of the roo men left an equation of 190 odd off 22 overs. Once Donny had been sprayed by a Gosnells hero on his way out to bat, Brodie “this thumbs broken” Mcghie strode out and proceeded to hit some massive horns. A reverse tang on the cards? No, not even close. The game petered out, with Wanneroo finishing 4 for not enough, taking home a tough loss. Aside from the loss, it was nice to get away from Wolfe Creek Crater.
Third Grade
Wanneroo 6/262 (Harris 63, Mcdonald 58*, Gardner 43, Marinovich 31, Kelsey 29, C Billington 26*) def. Gosnells 7/257 (T Jessani 3/71)
Back at Kingsway Two again for our third last match of the regular season, it didn’t start ideally with our skipper and king tosser Jordan Slattery losing one of his trademark tosses, which resulted in us fielding on a very warm day. The Roos bowling attack started in a very tidy manner, taking 2 wickets at just under 2rpo for the first 30 overs. What followed next was a very tough battle between bat and ball for the next 30 overs between two teams looking to go deep into finals. Tarun Jessani eventually came with the breakthrough which led to another wicket two balls later. After a strong fightback from the Gosnells players after tea, wickets finally began to fall and the Wanneroo bowling attack cashed in. The Roos bowlers finishing off the innings 7/257, Tarun Jessani with 3 wickets.
2nd Innings.
Day two rolled around and the Wanneroo batters were looking to chase a massive total, and hopefully land a spot in the top 3 coming up to finals. Despite not getting off to a super start at 2/7, as per usual the Wanneroo middle order fought back strongly, led by some quick runs by Michael Kelsey and Marc Gardner, followed by some very disciplined batting from Tim Harris, Jack McDonald and Jordan Marinovich; Harris and McDonald picking up half-centuries in the process. The game appeared to be in the balance before young speedster Cody Billington closed out the innings in style with some exciting power hitting, leading the Roos to a crucial win.
A brilliant all-round performance from the Wanneroo 3rd grade team going into the back end of the season. Well done boys.
Fourth Grade
Gosnells 10/142 (Skouros 2/4, Walker 2/20, Maunder 2/21) def. by Wanneroo 293 (Maraldo 96, Santich 53, Pearce 38)
In the Al Gore’s blockbuster between the Mighty Roos & Gosnells, Day one turned out to be one of the hottest days in the history of civilization.
Stand-in skipper Allan “The King” Hall promptly lost the toss and couldn’t believe his luck when the Gosnells skipper elected to banish his own team to the 40 degrees outfield..!
Jack “J-Mar” Maraldo and Xander “Glam” Glamuzina saw off 17 minutes of Gosnells firepower before the bowlers succumbed to the heat. J-Mar looked in control until he was struck down with what was originally thought to have been a career-ending thigh explosion but turned out to be a mild cramp and general softness. Nevertheless, he soldiered on with a runner and retired on 50 in scenes similar to David Warner retiring with cramp, admittedly with 150 runs less on the board and Candice Warner unsurprisingly absent.
The middle order kept building, led by Kane “Buzz Lightyear” Pearce (38) and supported ably by Hayden “Cleveland” Cavanagh (18) and Reese “The Piece” Walker (24).
Nick “John Belushi” Santich was the star of the middle order, lacing the fatigued attack to all parts of the ground on his way to 53.
Santich’s departure, however, had the team precariously placed at 7/221, with a score of mediocrity well on the cards. However, in miracles not seen since AD 27-29, Maraldo rose from his cold-pack and recommenced his innings, bludgeoning and bullying the shellshocked attack. Maraldo eventually fell for 96, a fine effort but technically only three innings of 30-odd…
As the sun set on day one, the Roos had posted an imposing 293.
On a much milder day two, WDCC were aggressive in their approach as we aimed for the elusive outright.
Josh “Q” Quelch and Reese “The Piece” made early inroads before the Gosnells middle order put up some resistance.
Our bowlers (all nine of them) regularly created opportunities but 17 dropped catches saw the flame of outright victory flicker out.
The flame of regular victory burned brightly, however, and Gosnells were dismissed for 142. The Piece took 2/20, Jared “Bin Juice” Maunder took 2/21, and Matt “Schooner” Skouros was unplayable at times, taking 2/4 off six overs.
This glorious victory sees the WDCC Al Gore’s sneak back into the top six, where hopefully we can stay for the remainder of the season before launching a ninja-like strike on our finals opposition.
Female B Grade 40 Over
BYE
Female U17 40 Over
Wanneroo 7/116 (Bartholomew 49*) def. Subiaco-Floreat 115 (Haddrill 4/31, Williamson 3/17)
Being asked to have a bowl against Subi at Kingsway, Aymie and Chloe (1/12) were right on the money early, picking up both opening batters with well pitched up deliveries that cannoned into the stumps.
Aymie then picked up a sneaky LBW to see the visitors in trouble at 3/6 – great start! It was awesome to see Abbster appeal loudly for a faint knick down the leg side, giving Aymie her third wicket.
The introduction of the spin twins Tegan and Layla put the brakes on, as the Roos stopped everything that was hit their way in the field, with strong throwing arms deterring singles and seconds. Great team effort to apply fielding pressure through this phase.
Tegan bowled really well to finish with 3/17, and it was awesome to see Layla use her variations and come around the wicket for long parts of her spell.
Spud rolled into the attack with some super control outside off, further restricting the scoring, whilst the captains kept the changes coming with the other members of the WDCC fast bowling cartel Em, Myla and Pottsy all hitting good lengths. Chops smoked an awesome direct hit run out from side on while Pots picked up the top scorer. Aymie collected the last wicket with a solid caught and bowled, giving her 4/31 for the match, with Subi finishing all out for 115.
Pots was promoted to the top of the order and did a great job seeing off the new ball. She shared a solid partnership with Chloe, getting the score to 2/32. Soph (12) looked settled, Tegan (10) got busy and Layla (14) batted with determination – all of which pushed the score on, but we needed someone to see it out with Chloe, who was building a great innings.
The opportunity was Spud’s – and with plenty of overs in hand, she focused on protecting her wicket and rotating the strike. The Roos passed the score seven down, with Chloe unbeaten on 49*.
Well done team!
U/17 Male
Wanneroo 9/234 (Skouros 100*, Gillespie 44) def. Gosnells 8/154 (T Jessani 3/16)
Captain Matt won the toss and elected to bat on a hot day. Lost a couple of quick early wickets which brought Matt (the run machine) Skouros to steady the ship with him and Riley putting on the good partnership with Riley just missing out on 50. After all the batsman played a small cameo and Matt (The Run machine), anchored the innings till the last over of the day to bring up his 2nd 100 of the year.
Second week
Gosnells were non for 25 before Rotham open our wickets account, and from there they lost 3 quick wickets with the golden arm of Xander, with a couple of run outs. Then the Better Jessani took over for 3 wickets. Very good fielding on the day with a few good catches and a couple of fine run-outs. But we could not get them all out.
Wanneroo won by 80 Runs
U/15 Male
Gosnells 10/153 (Redman 4/30, Furlong 2/7) def. by Wanneroo 5/222 (Prance 103, Redman 64)
After an early rise, the Roos headed bush to Sutherlands to take on Gosnells in a must win game to keep their finals aspirations alive.
After winning the toss, Josh Redman elected to bat on deck that showed some uneven bounce but proved to be a deck you could make runs on if you got yourself in on, and worked hard on.
Unfortunately, is was not to be for both the openers with Oli Hudson (2) and Lincoln Pugh (6) resting up in the sheds with the score at 2/25.
Dylan Prance and Redman then went about building the innings and in doing so put on a 162 run partnership characterised by purposeful running between the wickets and patiently waiting for their ball to put away. Prance posted his second century for Wanneroo for the second time (thereby bringing up his third Wanneroo ton) after a disciplined three-hour display at the crease that demonstrated how he is maturing as a batsman. Redman’s innings was once again a masterclass in reverse sweeping and a genuine joy to watch. Redman was the first to fall for 64 before Prance was adjudged LBW for 103.
Returning for the second day the following week, Gosnells got off to a solid start despite a very quick spell from Liam Deckert and good areas from Aiden Rawlins. Prance (1/13) and Mitch McArthur (1/24) then took the openers and at 2/116 Gosnells were well on track to run down 222 for the win.
Redman’s first three overs were lacklustre but then the game turned on its head when he found his mojo. It became a procession of Gosnells batsmen with Redman weaving his magic to end up with 4/30 and very unlucky not to take a five bagger.
Ben Furlong (2/7) and Oli Hudson then finished them off to see Gosnells collapse from 2/116 to be all out for 153.
Big game coming up against Perth who are in 6th spot and the Roos will be hoping to dislodge them from the finals with a win.
U/14 Male
Mount Lawley 7/217 (Chauhan 2/29, Furlong 2/33) def. Wanneroo Districts 7/153 (Prance 48, Kilgour 45*)
U/13 Male
Mount Lawley 5/115 def. by Wanneroo 8/147 (Harvey 55, Doepel 42)