First Grade
University 181 (Poulter 5/68, Sabburg 4/29) and 2/7 def by Wanneroo 197 (Varsani 44, De silva 35, Swindells 33, O’Day 27) and 5/77dec (Swindells 29)
Day 1 started off with a toss win for Deon so the Roos went in to bat. Openers Sam De Silva (debut innings) and Michael (Moog) O’Day started steady, opening with a 50-run partnership before Moog was dismissed for 27. Harry Swindells and Sam then steadied and got the boys through to lunch. Unfortunately just after lunch Sam was dismissed for 35, with Chris Sabburg soon after. Aryan came in to bat making a very steady 44 however wickets unfortunately fell at a steady rate alongside some questionable umpiring decisions (not the most questionable thing to occur this week) leading to the Roos to be dismissed by an unknown spinner for 197 (Varsani 44, De Silva 35, Swindells 33). Coming to the end of day 1 after being dismissed on a tough to score wicket we found ourselves bowling. To our shock, they sent out two night-watchmen to start, second ball of the innings Lachy Poulter struck removing the first night watchman LBW. New batter in, another nightwatchman (unusual stuff from UCC), the Roos continued with aggression and challenged the batters every ball, with a good joint spell from the 3 quicks. Uni CC finish the day at 4/13 with Bailey Richards removing the skipper with his first ball after taking over from Caiden due to injury. Poulter 3/10, Richards 1/0.
Day 2 comes around, the boys are ready to go at the actual opening batters who wanted to wait for ideal conditions instead of doing their job to see off the new ball late on day 1. It was a struggle early with UCC getting off to a good start and the quicks struggling with the task of bowling on the Mitchell Freeway Southbound. The breakthrough then came at 4/126 from the hand of Chris Sabburg. The Roos then began to squeeze, Sabburg and Poulter/Richards with a good bowling partnership either side of lunch seeing 4 wickets fall (all to Sabburg). With UCC 8/180 chasing 197, Lachlan Poulter came on removing the last two batters in 3 balls leading the Roos to the win. Poulter 5/68 (first premier cricket 5fa), Sabburg 4/29.
The boys were tasked with batting again in the lead up to tea and lost a couple of wickets meaning Uni felt in the hunt and wanted to continue to bowl. Harry Swindells and Riley Holly (gaining Pujara status with 8 off 64) defended well to bat Uni out of an outright sniff. The Roos declared after being made to bat for most of the afternoon taking 2 wickets off 2 overs to end the day.
Special mention to Aryan Varsani who goes to the U19 champs this weekend. Go well AV!
Second Grade
Wanneroo 8/356 (M Slattery 136, Bonner 61, Forssman 59, Holly 27) def. University 335 (Stumpers 4/86, Billington 3/36, Forssman 3/80)
The two’s boys lead by Joel Charles in the absence of Smudge rocked up to Kingsway eager to bat first on a flat Kingsway one track (shock). Starting the Roo boys off were Jacob (hates a 100) Bonner and Mitch (CC) Slattery, the two looked unphased as they both made their half century’s without a chance. The partnership came to an end when Bonner decided he didn’t feel like batting anymore. Mitch decided to take the load and double up scoring a fantastic 100. With the help of Darcy Forssman scoring a quick fire 50 against his best mate pinky. The mighty roo boys ended up on a total of over 350.
The next week Charlsey exclaimed that we should all be looking forward to these next 90 overs. With a slight chuckle everyone thought the game would be over by tea… especially Kyle funky Millar. Our complacency caused a day in the dirt and we watched a student make 170. Charlsey under the pump (and possibly concerned about the spray Smudge would give him) decided to take the new ball after the 80th over. Hayden took it upon himself to get the first ball to swing all game and take the big wicket of Edmondstone (fair play, well batted). With the help of Cody Billington the two of them skittled the rest of the tail for nothing. Securing the roo boys another win and continuing the undefeated run.
Third Grade
University 207 (Walter 6/55, J Slattery 3/42) def. by Wanneroo 262 (McGhie 80, Harris 43, T Brown 36)
Day One of the 8th round rolls around as Wanneroo shapes up to play University in the penultimate game before the illustrious Christmas break, a time sought upon by many a bowler. With a few Roo boys’ enjoying a spectacular sight at a pre-game brekkie (cheers Nic), it was seeming like the morning was won – implying the rest of the day was to be won as well. Rocking up to the awful sight that is UWA Sports Park (East) it was with an alarming surprise that the marked wicket was being used as a runway for an unsuspecting father and his child with their respective remote-control airplanes. It was only as the few of us that were there at an unusually early time went down to inspect the wicket that they realised the game of cricket, which is played by upwards of 550,000 of the adult Australian population, involves the use of the grass/clay combination more commonly known as a wicket or pitch. The warm-up began and the Top Six vs Bottom Six (Five) ensued with surprising technical abilities with the final score Top Six 1 – 4 Bottom Six (Five) as Maunder notched 1 assist and 1 goal as he headed the ball straight down into the bottom corner, nutmegging Kelsey in the process. Slattery with 1 assist and 2 goals however missing a very open chance skying the ball over the crossbar only 5 metres out. McGhie did receive a yellow card for the unsportsmanlike conduct of booting the ball into Walters’ face, inducing blood from the bridge of the nose.
Eventually the toss was won and it was decided Wanneroo would bat first. A nice start to the first session as Sam “Panklet” Williams and Tom “Bali XI” Blythman kickstarted the run-scoring mission. Both of the openers lost their wicket with slight indecision in their shot and movement between wickets respectively which lead to the Roo boys’ heading into the first break 2 wickets down. With the nearest food outlet being at least an estimated hours drive away (round trip), Brodie “No Lunch” McGhie was desperate for some form of sustenance, so he turned to one man who would always be on standby to come to the rescue, one of 12th man-ing nature, Jared “the 12th man” Maunder in pursuit of a very well made egg and lettuce sandwich. It was the sandwich that would be key for the next session as B. McGhie and Tim “Open the Face” Harris went on to add 120 runs to the tally. Unfortunately T. Harris decided to sky one the over before tea, but in the process of this partnership B. McGhie was successful in attaining his half-century milestone, eventually being dismissed for 80. A steady addition of runs was added to the score throughout the rest of the day with Michael “Race 2 at Morphetville” Kelsey and Tyler “Tin Man #2” Brown adding 27 and 36 to the score. Single digits are synonymous with the rest of the batting line-up as in the 79th over the 3rd grade were finally dismissed for a total of 262.
The following week rolled around and the mighty 3rd grade side was mentally prepared for a day in the field at what is yet again a poor excuse for a grade cricket ground. The pre-game involved the second leg of the world game affair with the Top Six failing to increase the aggregate with final score Top Six 0 (1) – 3 (7) Bottom Six (Five) as Maunder (1G 0A) opened the scoring with a mistimed back-pass from opposing player Harris, Slattery (1G 1A) once again getting his name on the scoresheet with another goal and to round it out, Singh (1G 0A) put his name up there with a superb finish.
Once we moved to the cricket half of the day, Jordan “Slender Western European Country” Slattery opened the bowling. Scoffing at the idea of going over 2 runs an over for the whole day he got us off to a very handy start in compliment with John “J. Maunder Apparently” Walter, who likewise appeared to have rocked up to the ground with the same dream of not going above 2 an over in his opening spell. Unfortunately wicketless for all three bowlers before drinks with a replacement at the into-the-wind end of J. Walter by Jared “Into the Wind Specialist” Maunder a few overs prior to the thirst-quenching intermission. Chances aplenty in the spells of all three bowlers as J. Slattery continued (selfishly) with the wind for a few more overs until swapping ends (selflessly) and finally providing a breakthrough, leaving the batsman to ask the umpire if he is allowed to be out clean bowled.
The lunch break shortly follows and because the three pace bowlers hate runs being scored off their bowling, University were sitting on 42 runs from the first session. At the interval, Brodie “Fan of the Egg and Lettuce” McGhie requested yet another sandwich in the hopes it would teach him how to catch. The middle session began and it wasn’t long until spin was introduced through the likes of Yadwinder “Wake Up Please” Singh and Nicholas “Have You Seen His Cousin?” Santich. A beautiful bowler/fielder partnership was created with N. Santich and Cameron “Suspicious Stain” MacDonald as this one batsman found C. MacDonald at cover point anywhere between 20-40 times during the spell. Wickets fell for J. Walter and J. Slattery prior to the tea break making it a tricky chase for the students at University (A.K.A. Wanneroo medium-pace bowling clinic).
We will skip right over tea and head back into the third session where wickets fall nicely as J. Maunder (10.4-3-23-1) picked up one wicket and then unfortunately suffered what can really only be described as a career ending side strain which forced him to stop bowling mid over (just as he was informed by the great Portuguese leader that he would finally get an over down breeze) and forced him out of an event in Northbridge later that night. This brought Tom “His Protégé” Blythman on to bowl, who did a very handy job into the gale-force winds as he somehow finished wicketless (5.2-1-26-0). J. Walter was settling in, sun setting, shadows on the pitch, tail-enders facing, safe to say he was in his element having already pocketed 4 wickets, he would then go on to take another 2 and finish the day with 6 (20-2-55-6). The day finishing with none other than that man who left a mark at 452 Rua do Breiner, Porto, Portugal J. Slattery taking the 10th and his 3rd wicket (23.5-7-42-3) bowling University out for 207 runs and resulting in a hard-fought victory and very well sung club song.
P.S. It may be noticed that the tea break went undescribed and was skipped over, this is a direct result of the tea being supplied by the players only and must not be subsidised by the club as it was very much Woolworths-biscuit/dessert-aisle heavy with lamingtons, pikelets, a bag of popcorn, and almost every kind of Arnotts biscuit available on a Saturday morning.
Fourth Grade
Wanneroo 205 (Skouros 72, Hall 52) def. University 9/198 (De Villiers 3/33)
..And for the last 2-day game until the Christmas break the 4s looked to finish with a bang.
Liam won toss which looked like a beautiful batting deck (which it was), but things panned out poorly to start with the Uni bowlers tearing through our top 4, resulting in a score of 4-14 before the game reached a hour of play. But no need to worry with one Allan Hall steadying the ship with a gritty 52. However the main batter of the day was none other than young Matty “the better” Skouros with an impressive 72 which brought momentum back for the fours batting innings. With some late handy runs by grade debutant Hayden ‘Cav’ Cavanaugh the Fours were bowled out for a competitive 205. With still some time left in the day the fours had 23 overs at the Uni batters before the day was called. Uni mostly shut up shop, with Skipper Liam taking the one wicket over night as Uni crept to 1-14 at stumps.
Day 2 started off with an interesting twist with pretty much half of the fours team going MIA due to reasons that we can’t explain, so we knew that it could be a long day in the dirt. Nevertheless, the day started off positively with the fours getting a much-needed run out (ball did hit the stumps first BTW).
From here the grind began for the four’s bowlers. With limited bowling options the Uni batters’ approach was attritional, hoping to wear down our stocks and cash in late. With SAS level physical and mental endurance, the four available bowlers kept it tight right to the end of the day, with Uni unable to chase 205 within 102 overs in the dirt on a Kingsway 2 wicket.
Another fourth-grade debutant Nathan De Villiers (are you related to AB by any chance??) was the pick of the bowlers taking a well-deserved 3/33 after 15 overs. Liam Carroll and Josh Quelch each took one, but although not breaking through for wickets scraped the mighty Troops across the line in the end with supreme fighting, grinding performances. Liam, Josh, Nathan and Hayden Cavanaugh bowled 94 overs between them. Josh Quelch with a mighty 15 maidens.
With one more game left off before the break the Fours will continue this momentum going into the last game before a well-deserved present from Santa.
Female B Grade T20
Perth 1/156 def. Wanneroo 10/105 (Quinn-Schofield 38)
Female U17 Grade T20
Rockingham-Mandurah 5/87 (Bartholomew 2/7) def. by Wanneroo 1/90 (Williamson 48*)
U/17 Mens
Centurions 6/191 (Gillespie 3/31) def. Wanneroo 156 (Skouros 54)
The boys headed up to South of Geraldton for a top 6 clash against Centurions.
We lost the toss but got the result we wanted as were sent into bat. Losing a wicket early, Cavanaugh and Gillespie started to rebuild and worked ourselves into the game until we unfortunately also lost Cavs. The Roos boys 2/47 at this stage but still in a good position with plenty of fire power to come. Matty Skouros and Chips Gillespie dug in and continued the fight on until Chips was dismissed at 3/82. Unfortunately from then onwards the boys lost wickets at 10-20 runs intervals and finished the day at 155 with 2 overs remaining. Matty Skouros pick of the bats as he continued his great season with the bat again finishing with 54 of 69.
Centurions faced the last 6 overs of Day 1 and finished 0/17.
Day 2 – The Centurions opening pair continued to bat on with the Chips finally getting the breakthrough we needed at 1/63. The other opener was dismissed by Jayden Rotham at 2/93 but with the boys making a small total on a fast outfield, 156 was always going to be hard to defend. Centurions finished the day 6/191 with Chips Gillespie being the pick of the bowlers. 10 Overs 2M 3/31.
Next week finds the Lads heading past the zoo and onto a T20 Clash against South Perth.
U/15 Mens
Wanneroo 9/172 (Prance 50, Pugh 46) def. by Centurions 10/179 (Redman 3/25, Hudson 2/5)
In perfect conditions to play cricket, the Centurions won the toss and elected to bat. After early wickets to McArthur (1/28) and Rawlins (1/18) the Centurions settled in to steadily accumulate runs with the aid of a barrage of wides. Harshil Halai (1/23) broke a productive Centurions partnership at 3/106 before a reasonably steady procession of wickets saw the centurions all out on the final ball of the innings for 179.
Josh Redman bowled well for 3/25 off 10 overs, with Dylan Prance and Liam Deckert also picking up a wicket each whilst Ollie Hudson used his opportunity with the ball taking 2/5 off his 3 overs.
Greeted by perfect conditions again for day 2, the Roos began their run chase by losing Hudson early for 4. Lincoln Pugh (46) and Dylan Prance (50) consolidated the innings before sharply accelerating the run rate after some motivation from Andy Billington. Whilst both of these batsmen fell in quick procession, the required run rate had been reduced to a manageable 4.5 an over and at 3/123 a win looked like the logical outcome.
Unfortunately, apart from a handy 20 from Kane Gosltlow, the innings fell away and the Roos fell 7 runs short.
U/14 Mens
Wanneroo Districts 139 (Prance 46) def. by Centurions 3/187
Another home game this week and after winning the toss, the Roos elected to bat first. The Centurions managed to get on top early, having the boys at 5/54 at the 20th over. Some great shot making by Brock Prance managed to keep the score board ticking over but he unfortunately fell on 46. Liam Mayo-Hopkins played a great role making 22 but the boys weren’t building partnerships, eventually being bowled out for 139 in the 46th over.
With Centurions having some big hitters in form, the Roos had to be sharp in the field to defend 139. The opening bowlers, Aiden Rawlins and Jace Von Bergeim, started strong with maidens but unfortunately the horror run of not making the most of opportunities continued. After three catches missed, the boys were still in the game when Blake Jones and Ben Furlong got their openers out in consecutive overs, the visitors were 2/47 in the 17th over. The inform pair from Centurions had a couple of lives again but the Roos didn’t take them and the game slipped away.
The boys need to have a good break over Christmas and come back to firing in the New Year. They have the talent but just need to fire together on the same day.
U/13 Mens
Wanneroo 4/117 (Harvey 50, Ferguson 41) def. by Centurions 8/123 (Van de Velde 2/15, Young 2/17, Bloxsome 2/19)