1st Grade
Perth 286 (Richards 4/17, Poulter 2/43, O’Day 2/56) def. Wanneroo 66
The 1s travelled to the home of cricket to take on Perth in a big clash with 2nd playing 4th. Perth won the toss and had a bat with the message of the day being to go out and enjoy the WACA. The debutant, Michael “Moogs” O’Day got things going early, wrong dogging the opening pair within a couple of overs before the hard graft kicked in.
Was a tough toil for the boys with Perth running their luck with edges falling short, going over the top or chances being missed. Matthew “Cold and Flu” Dzozdos very stiff with edges constantly falling short (speed related). Wickets kind of gradually fell as Perth were 5 for 150 after “The Big Chicken” Lachlan Poulter grabbed a couple to spark some life into the Roos. The boys cracked in without luck until Rob “Retired from Cricket” Richards decided to extract some life out of the wicket which none of the other fast bowlers could do. Perth collapsed at the end of the day for 286 with “Cho” grabbing a sneaky 4fa in his final game.
This left a sneaky 11 overs for the lads at the end of the day to bat out. Unfortunately, some high quality fast bowling left the boys in trouble at 4/20 at stumps with Connor Spangenberg holding tough in his second game.
There was a sense of optimism as the group rolled up Sunday. Unfortunately, this was wiped very quickly as Perth continued on from the previous evening’s events rolling through the Wanneroo bats. Jimmy “Box Lid Pig” Newnham was the pick of the bats with 22 but with 35mins left till lunch the optimism picked up as Covid had struck again. You could hear the roar around the stadium, especially from the “SACA Cowboy” Kelvin Smith, who thought he was off the tools for the week. Unfortunately once again, the bubble was popped by Perth with O’Day 18no and the boys rolled for 66.
Not the result the group was after as things just didn’t go their way. Stay safe everyone, let’s keep the train rolling when we all hit the track in the very near future.
2nd Grade
Wanneroo 184 (Holly 42, Varsani 32, Douglas 25) drew Perth 2/98 (Millar 2/31)
The Two’s boys won the toss and batted on Kingsway 2. We got off to a steady enough start, before losing wickets fairly consistently. With no real standout performer, a lot of starts which we’ll be looking to improve on. We were eventually bowled out for 184. With several overs to bowl on day 1, we made one early inroad with big Leeroy getting one in his first over.
We came back the next day and fought well to have Perth 2-98 at lunch when the game was abandoned. Shared points for the twos.
3rd Grade
Perth 4/106 def. Wanneroo 104 (Harris 25, McDonald 25)
It was a beautiful day at Fletcher Park as skipper Smudge won the toss against Perth and elected to bat. A little bit of added excitement was added to proceedings with a live-stream camera set-up in anticipation of a high class 3rd grade cricket match against the undefeated Perth.
As the game got underway we unfortunately lost debutant Keagan early but Jack “old” McDonald and Tim “lofted drive” Harris recovered, and then attacked, getting us to 1-62. Unfortunately with this launching pad set we could not capitalise. Tim got out trying to hurry up the run rate and Michael “close the gate” Kelsey followed soon after for 0. After that you can’t really describe it as anything else other than a classic batting collapse with no-one else making 20 against a capable Perth attack. Highly disappointing result, all out for 104.
Needing early wickets to have a chance Adam ‘Could-you-not-interrupt-me-while-I’m-speaking’ Smudge and the John Lloyd Jnr. opened the bowling, as Perth made their intentions clear immediately playing some extravagant shots. Smudge bowled well and took the first wicket, well caught just off camera. Youngster Cody “Rocket League” Billington collected a wicket and young Matt “WACA” Carroll collecting his first 3rd grade wicket thanks to a beautiful stumping by Tim. However the pick of the bowlers was probably John “slips” Walter. He ended up with only the 1 wicket but had several hard chances dropped. Perth comfortably chasing down the runs in the 24th over and Winning by 6 wickets.
4th Grade
Wanneroo 149 (Quelch 61) def, by Perth 4/150
This week the roos were back home for the last one dayer of the season against Perth. Wanneroo lost the toss and were sent into bat on what looked like a good deck. After losing an opener in the first over, a top order batting collapse was to follow until Jayden “WACA Expert” Rae steadied the middle order. Some more wickets were to fall until Josh Quelch and Sharn Bandara posted a tenth wicket stand of 40 runs which helped the boys get to 149, Quelchy earning himself a 60 in the process.
Perth’s innings started off strong until the debutant Owen Brown took the first wicket for the innings. Perth continued with skilful batting until some magic in the field by Josh Quelch broke things open again. Ultimately Perth chased down the target of 150 quite easily, winning the game by 6 wickets.
Seventeens Men
Perth 6/148 def. Wanneroo 8/90 (JR Maraldo 38)
Maraldo did ok with the blade. No further comments.
Fifteens Men
Wanneroo 9/109 def by Perth 7/116 (O Brown 2/15, Marinovich 2/26)
Winning the toss our bowlers led by O Brown 2/15 R Walker 1/16 and J Marinovich 2 wickets held Perth well however with catches and run outs missed Perth were able to reach 116 with cleaver batting and putting pressure on the field.
Our chase started well with B Holly 19 (21) however we couldn’t maintain partnerships which hurt our run rate in return. To their credit Perth’s fielding was very good preventing strike from being turned over. Late order hitting from R Walker 20 (23) O Brown 16 (6) and B Carmignani 12 (6) wasn’t enough to reach the target needed.