Second Grade
Wanneroo 10/215 (Millar 91, Slattery 25) def. by Midland-Guildford 264 (Forssman 2/31, Fryer 2/38, C Billington 2/43, S Jessani 2/49)
In the first final of the season the mighty 2’s took on Midland-Guildford at Wanneroo’s home ground. The Roos were without the aid of skipper Adam Smith, so Paul Lucas MC, budding stand-up comedian and noted Carlton fan Michael O’Day was asked to take charge.
Midland-Guildford’s batting innings started strong, with their opening batsmen putting together a solid partnership. Wanneroo’s bowlers tried their best to restrict the opposition’s scoring, but they were unable to get the breakthroughs they needed. Darcy Forssman, Donavinn Fryer, Cody Billington, and Sharad Jessani all took two wickets each, but Midland-Guildford was able to post a challenging total of 264.
The batting innings was anchored by Kyle Millar who scored an impressive 91 runs, mostly while injured and with a runner. He was well supported by Mitchell Slattery who contributed 25 runs to the team’s total. However, Wanneroo lost wickets at regular intervals and was ultimately bowled out for 215.
Despite the loss, we move on to the next round with another chance given we finished 2nd. Adam Smith also returns.
Female B Grade 40 Over
Melville 10/136 (Stillitano 3/24, Quinn-Schofield 2/15) def. by Wanneroo 6/137 (Jesani 74)
Although sitting on top of the ladder, the log jam below them meant that Bs had to win against Melville, away from home, to secure their place in the GF. This turned out to be some game of cricket!
Batting first, the Roos were in trouble early, at 2/10, but a good stand of 30 between Shayna and Sarah got things back on track. Similarly strong work was done while Bron was at the crease with Shayna, with another 30 run stand building the score – way to go!! Then, as the overs whittled down, it was time to get going – Buckets and Shayna put on a 45 run stand for the 6th wicket, before Shayna fell for a magnificent 74 off 89 – well batted! Layla joined Buckets at the crease and the score kept ticking – with every run vital as it would turn out. The Roos finished with a respectable 6/137, but would it be enough?
Melville started strongly, and at 1/30 then 2/70-odd in pretty quick time looked to be on their way to the GF.
But our Roos never say die, and the game turned on its head. The team managed to pick up 5 for 5 in a stunning spell of bowling, with Layla, Kristin (1/32) and Buckets (3/24) picking up wickets, and Shayna combining with the Coach for a run out (as well as collecting another stumping – how many is that for the season?). Layla bowled a great spell of 8 overs during this part of the game, collecting 2/15, as well as two important catches – fantastic work mate!
Next came a dogged fight back from Melville, as some experienced batters rotated the strike. Josie rounded out a super economical 8 overs for very few runs to keep the pressure on, while the Skipper (1/19) picked up an important wicket in this phase. Melville edged within one run of a tie with two wickets in hand and seemingly hope was lost.
And then a run out was conjured by Sarah and Shayna, making it 9 fa, with Emilie (1/19) catching the batter plumb in front two balls later, to see the Roos win by a run!! What a finish, with some nerves certainly jangled along the way. Well done to our B Grade team, who this Sunday meet Perth in the Grand Final.
Female U17 40 Over
Wanneroo 54 def. by South Perth 2/55
The Roos hosted South Perth at a neutral JL Oval in a top of the table clash, with both sides already through to the GF the following week.
Batting first, the Roos found the pitch tricky, with the ball holding up a little. It certainly wasn’t our best performance with the bat as we were dismissed for 54. Chloe top scored but needed more support, while Abbster looked comfy and light on her feet once again in a long innings that made the bowlers earn it.
South Perth passed the score just two down, but not before the Roos put some more time into its developing bowlers, with Pottsy bowling tight and Emmersyn once again on song. Classy run out from Soph and Womby too let the opposition know we were still there.
Focus has already turned to preparation for this Sunday’s GF at Richardson. Let’s go Roos!
Third Grade
Wanneroo 2/67 (Gardner 38*) def. Gosnells 66 (Walter 4/20, Fitzmaurice 3/23, Slattery 2/15)
Finals!! The Kennel rocked up to the stomping ground of Kingsway 2 on a nice Saturday morning and gladly receiving the first win of the day with our ground all being set up. Jordan ‘tin man’ Slattery lost the toss and we got sent into field which we were more than happy to do. The Kennel Boys got off to a good start with Alex ‘Fitzology’ Fitzmaurice claiming the first wicket in the sixth over, after Slats was having some trouble keeping his foot behind the line and bowling an excessive amount of no-balls. Alex ‘too many nick names’ Fitzmaurice then continued his tear taking a second wicket with the help of some good field placement from Jordy and Mark. John ‘Walts’ Walter then came into the attack and in his second over made the score 3/14 after nice shnick to Tim ‘I took 5 catches’ Harris. Wickets kept falling quite regularly and Tim ‘ball magnet’ Harris just kept finding the ball in his gloves. We ended up bowling them out for 66 with Walts leading the charge with a nice 4/20 off 15 overs which put us in very good stead to see ourselves in a Semi Final.
Our batting innings started off patient as we had genuinely one and a half days to bat before Tom ‘Silver Lightning’ Blythman got trapped in front with the score on 7. Michael ‘unknown dots on his neck’ Kelsey then decided to bring Slatsball into play and chase a wide one first ball which was thankfully dropped by their keeper. After a bit of chirp and a few golf tips from their opening bowler and getting bowled off a no-ball, Kelso and Mark Gardner steadied the ship and flattened the Gosnells faithful before Kelso got out 23 runs short of the target. This brought out the ever-reliable Tim Harris to the crease, and together with Mark they were able to tick the score over to 2/67 before the Gosnells skipper had seen enough and decided a trip back to Kingsway on Sunday wasn’t worth the fuel money. Mark guided us through beautifully with a nice 38* and the Kennel go through to a home Semi-Final with some good momentum.
Fourth Grade
Midland-Guildford 10/200 (Douglas 2/30, Quelch 2/45, Brown 2/49) def. by Wanneroo 232 (MacDonald 74*, Pearce 48, Douglas 41, Quelch 39)
The boys arrived at Lilac Hill, surprised to see Wayne who instructed us with our warmup with a game of a soccer (pig). Liam won the toss and elected to bat first. We didn’t have the best start and lost both of our openers quicker than what we would’ve hoped. But we had nothing to worry about as one of the best batting partners at the crease Duggo and Kane stepped onto the field with some sensible batting leaving for lunch with 2/50. After lunch the partnership continued until Duggo copped a straight half volley on off stump, losing his wicket for a well-made 41 (going on to tell everyone he got the ball of the century). After losing another couple quick wickets we made our way to tea at 8/120.
After tea, Cam ‘saviour’ MacDonald and Josh ‘saviour’s assistant’ Quelch put together the best 9th wicket partnership in roos history, Cam Mac making 74* with 2 huge bombs and Q finishing on 39. Roos batted the whole day finishing with the score at 232.
Coming back on Sunday, day 2 of the match, we completed our biggest warm up of the season. Big O (Owen) and Q (Josh Quelch) opened the bowling not giving a bad ball to the batsman. Liam brought himself into the attack and soon took our first wicket of the day. Just before we thought it was lunch Douglas Callum sent down a half tracker down leg, the batter tried to hit it so hard he ended up falling into his own stumps.
After lunch we continued to build our dot bowl pressure creating a couple wickets of their key batters and the help of Kane taking one of the best slips catches you will ever see. After tea they needed around 5 runs an over with 5 wickets in hand. Q and big O got the job done both taking 2 wickets each and bowling Midland-Guildford out for 200, knocking them out of finals.
The only other thing of note was Cam Mac at mid-off dropping a dollied ricochet off Liam’s boot because he was still looking at the batsmen. No frogbox evidence though so didn’t happen. Onto the Semi!