First Grade
Wanneroo 132 (McGhie 28) def. by Scarborough 175 (Poulter 4/35)
The first game of the new year brought Scarborough to Kingsway with the boys feeling refreshed and ready after the Christmas break. The gulls won the toss, opting to bat with Lachy ‘superspreader’ Poulter and Caiden opening the bowling. The pair of lefties bowled well and were both quite unlucky, beating the bat a number of times for no rewards until Matt “Squirtle” Carroll was able to break the partnership. Some tight bowling from the three spinners meant that the gulls could never really get away from us as we were able to take regular wickets. A brilliant piece of fielding from Strawb and some good bowling from Lachy at the death meant Scarborough were bowled out for 175. Lachy finishing with 4.
The run chase began positively with Brodie and Strawb taking the attack to Scarborough in the power play. Once they both departed, some good bowing paired with some poor batting meant we regularly lost wickets, before being bowled out for 132. A disappointing second half considering the position the bowlers had put us in earlier in the day. The ones look to bounce back next week as we host Willetton.
Second Grade
Scarborough 122 (Farquharson 3/38, Smith 2/5) def. by Wanneroo 9/235 (Holly 95, Fryer 52)
The Magoo’s travelled along the coast as they took part in the Davey Warner sorry, I mean Adam Smith farewell game. With a massive turn up full of friends and family, the skipper won the toss and chose to bat which was a nice change from the previous 4 games. Things started off beautifully as per normal for the 2s. Blake, gone. Ricardo, gone. Bonner, gone. Jake, gone. Moogs gone. 5-40 before you could blink. 2024 rolling just like the end of 2023. In came Donny to join Skipper (Riley Holly not Adam) as he was watching this all unfold at the other end. The partnership began to build beautifully. Riley showing more control than he does on the punt and Donny playing for his national captain, Temba!! Controlled hitting with exemplary strike rotation saw the score grow and the belief growing in the team. As the boys crossed 200, Riley knocked one down a fielder’s throat for a wonderful 95, with Donny hitting a very controlled 50. Some late striking from our departing skipper, the 2s got to 239 (serious effort from what it could have been).
With the ball, things began wonderfully with Silent Billington and Donny giving absolutely nothing away. A sneaky run out had Scarbs 1-14 off 10. From here, wickets continued to fall, and the run rate continued to grow. Sharad, the club’s best slip fielder continued to swallow them, with wickets coming from Adam (wonderful hands Donny), Marcus (Lord Farqhuad) and Sharad himself. Scarborough were rolled for just over 100 with plenty of overs to go. From 5-40, it was a serious comeback to not only get back into the game, but to get the win.
We were able to farewell our fearless skipper and chair him off the field (it wasn’t easy). Adam has put years of service into the club and hope he can enjoy his retirement by the garden at Edgewater primary. We will miss you Adam!
Female A Grade
Wanneroo 148 (Devchand 30) def. by Midland Guildford 227
Third Grade
Wanneroo 208 (Farrant 61) def. Scarborough 184 (Slattery 4/42)
The boys were in high spirits coming into this game, looking to put their last game behind them and storm into the New Year with a win over the Gulls. Early on the were signs of positivity with the boys getting really aggressive in the PIG warmup with Kealey and Sam being on the wrong end of this aggression.
Onto the toss, which the Gulls won and decided to put the Roos into bat on what looked to be a green seamer. The Roos got off to a great start with Kane “The Tornado” Pearce whacking a six straight back over the bowler’s head in the first over while Sam was ticking them over nicely at the other end. Their opening stand ended at 43 which began a top order collapse, losing 4/13. After this collapse in came Kealey who decided it was his day after getting off the mark with a perfectly timed straight drive. This well and truly took the lid off, he hit 6 sixes in his knock of 61 off just 42 balls, each six clearing the boundary with ease. For the rest of the boys, it was a story of starts but starts that were much needed to keep the score ticking over. With this and some unreal running from Tarun ‘The slowest man at the club’ Jessani the boys managed to get to a very defendable score of 208.
After lunch the boys came out firing with Alex ‘20 Nicknames’ Fitzmaurice taking a wicket in the first over and then Skipper Jordan Slattery taking another to make it 2/25 which could’ve been better with Kealey ‘Butter Fingers’ Farrant dropping what most would call two regulation catches. Despite these mishaps and a solid 3rd wicket partnership the boys were able to settle back in, strangling the opposition into slow run scoring which led to regular wickets. Jordan was the pick of the bowlers taking 4fa with the other bowlers doing a handy job. Someone else who did a handy job was Yusuf ‘Cheat’ Zain when he broke the stumps seconds before the ball hit them for a direct hit runout but in the end, it was given which helped us on our way to bowling the Gulls out 24 runs short of our total, a great way for the boys to start the new year.
Fourth Grade
Scarborough 8/239 (Maunder 3/36) def. by Wanneroo 7/241 (Marinovich 53, Gillespie 50, Quelch 43*)
2024 began at Abbett Park with the 4’s having a bowl after Liam lost the toss. A slow start with the ball saw Scarbs none down until the 13th over where the U17 pair of Jayden Rotham and Oliver Hudson knicked and caught one of the openers for the first wicket of the year. The ball was regularly escorted to the boundary by the other opener until he was bamboozled with a seed from Riley Gillespie and chipped a sitter of a catch to Kai Richards at mid-wicket. Scarborough appeared to have superglued the bails down as Yudah spun the ball through them and they somehow remained unmoved. Although the bails stuck, the stumps definitely weren’t as Mr Liam Carroll taught off and middle peg how to cartwheel. Wickets fell consistently as runs still flowed until the final 45th over with a 240-run chase ahead.
Riley opened the batting with Hamza who went hard early. Unfortunately, Hamza was caught in the 3rd over for 6. Kai then dismissed for a slow 14 runs bought in form allrounder Jordan “Slippery” Marinovich to the crease looking for another big knock. Riley soon raised the bat for a run a ball 50, then in the same over guided one to the keeper for the simplest of catches. Small cameos from Ben and Liam saw Gordo to 53 whose wicket couldn’t have come at a worse time, only 2 balls after the skipper departed. Jayden and Oliver came to the crease following these wickets. Jayden got a little too confidant after hitting his second ever 6 for Wanneroo which led to his downfall and bought the ultimate 4th grade cricketer Quelchy to the crease. Not too long after his arrival, gulls turned monkeys scaling the fence trying to fish cricket balls out of the swamp, hit over by the best number 9 in the comp, Josh Quelch. Q ended with 43* off 27 deliveries and finished the game in style hitting 3 massive 6’s in a row to see the 4’s home 8 down with only 8 balls to spare.