Hi all,

Prior to going into the match reports I just wanted to extend a huge well done on a fantastic night for the club celebrating its 30 years. Bails and co did an amazing job in preparing the rooms and turning our clubrooms into a KGCC museum. It was great to see a mixture of old faces and new ones. Congratulations to the inaugural inductees into the clubs hall of fame. These functions do not go so well without the special help of many people so it is a credit to Bails and his team on getting this off the ground. SW.

1^st XI – By Murph

Losing the toss against Monbulk was very handy , with Monbulk batting first this was a fantastic test for our blokes to dig deep and bowl well. Monbulk started really well being 1/107 until Scotty took the wicket of Cosstick (69). After tea Scotty and Shan got together in a really good display of tight pressure bowling , Scotty finishing 13 overs 2/26 and Shan 13 overs 3/25. Both these boys changed the tide of the game with Zach coming on late to finish with 2/5 off 6. Monbulk ended the day on 168 after 73 overs.

Needing a win we opened with Shan and Boof, taking the game on and upon themselves we lost our first wicket at 140 with Shan making a fantastic and well deserved 83. Boof was next to go just before tea making a just as well deserved 46. We ended up 3 down with Scotty 29* passing them in the 59th over.

It was the win we needed , now from last we have shot up to 5th on the ladder with 2 wins 3 losses and a very important game coming up before Christmas.

Well done boys and good to be back on the winners list.

2^nd XI – By Sean P Reid

When Rhys slapped the first ball of the day to the boundary I felt a twinge in the upper right side of my abdomen. I wasn't sure what it was. I passed it off as mere nerves. However, this feeling grew stronger as he raised his bat for his 50 and moved his score along quickly from there. It was at this point I realized what it was; my liver (as with many other members of the Garden Army) was getting itchy!!! Rhys faced up on 96 and the Garden Army held its collective breath. As Rhys guided a leg glance to the boundary it was clear that the members of the Garden Army would have a Saturday night filled with free beer and good times followed by a Sunday filled with a hangover and regret. All thanks to the great man Rhys Marget! 

The rest of the team batted well to set up a very handsome total of 296. Jezza batted well and made an important 34. The Pig braved an injured trotter to compile a hard hitting 36. Reidy was back to his swashbuckling best with a typically cavalier, run-a-ball 28. The second top scorer for the day was THE HAWK! He strode to the wicket with the score on 7/213. From there he discovered that he possesses an amazing pull shot which saw countless deliveries travel to 'da bowwwndray'. He was struck a nasty blow in the testicles but he was able to  tough it out and score a valuable 47. The highlight of the day was to see the unbridled joy on Mitch 'Bombs' Gregory's face as his best mate Mohammed Drewsouf was caught off the first ball he faced. Mitch squealed with delight as his good friend trudged off the field. 

The second week saw some very uninspiring cricket from Monbulk. They made no attempt to get near our score, with their only goal seeming to be to occupy the crease. It was as though they knew we had an important function that night and were trying to make us late! Speaking of top blokes, Shane Turnin (Daine) sent down 19 overs of quality spin bowling, claiming a wicket in the process. All of the bowlers bowled tight lines with special mentions to The Hawk, 'Bombs' and JC (who is getting better every week). The pick of the bowlers was definitely Drewy Drewy Moi Moi who took 2/18 off his 16 overs. An extra special mention to Mungy who returned to the bowling crease in his new guise as a tweeker. 

The Grand Final rematch against The Basin awaits us next week 

3^rd XI – By Benjamin Q McLean

Day 1 saw us lose the toss and be sent in, overcast conditions and a slow outfield.  Wilkinson fresh off 88 in the 4's, copped a rip snorter first pill and had his bat tucked under his arm after gloving one through to the keeper.  Lamby was solid as a house, hitting 20 but was bowled off his back leg.  Dos had studied up on the 'play & miss' and had it nailed for 35 overs until getting a little too close to one and edging to the keeper on 14, 3/78.  Ben hit a crisp 36 and Jason Buljubasic, 28, worked with the tail to get the score along to 142 off almost the full allotment of overs.  Whilst not a massive total, we felt like we'd ground out a good enough score to defend.

Day 2 saw Lamby strike in the 2nd over, and a 15 over dry spell saw just 18 runs added before Lamby slid a peach through the gate. A further partnership of 33 and Lamby was back in the action, this time pouching a catch off Nixon.  A long spell of 17 or so overs until tea saw no break throughs and steady scoring, 3/106.  2 strikes from Cliffy shortly after a sandwich and we had a sniff that we were back in the contest.  5/122, A further strike from Lamby and another from Cliffy, 7/132 and the game was gonna be a close one.  A good nut from Cliffy and a classy catch from Zandt in the gully and Upper Gully were 9/141.  A single of Cliffy's last ball had the scores tied at 142.  A maiden from Lamby and then first pill Cliffy struck with an LBW and the game was completed with the scores tied.

Man of the Match was clearly Lamby who hit 20, 4/16 from 19 and 3 catches.  Cliffy took 5/45 from 22.1 and Nixon 1/35 from 9.  A number of tough chances were put down throughout the day that might've seen us take the game easily, however this will be the case in most games and when the chips were down we fought our way back and managed to split the points and maintain contact with the top 4 on the ladder with a good percentage.  Next week we have the bye and following that we play last place Ferntree Gully which should hopefully see us in a comfortable position into Christmas.

4^th XI – By Gregory Bakker

Another round and another opportunity to welcome some players back to Knox Gardens CC with Scotty Christianson and Braet Adams keen to don the whites again. Also back for his first run of the season was Thommo who, with Pottsy, was only available for 1 week each which we were only too happy to accommodate.

With Mountain Gate sitting in 3^rd position on the ladder, we were expecting a tough contest in what was our first home game of the season.  Losing the toss, we were invited to field first.  Having taken 7 wickets between them in the last game, the new ball honours went to Alex D’nop and Juzzy who started off steadily but didn’t really threaten the experienced openers.  A quick change of bowlers saw the screws tighten and several chances created but none taken until Lachy timed his run beautifully to take a very good catch low down at mid-on. A solid bowling and fielding effort leading up to drinks saw us restrict them to 1/35 off 18. A great bit of team work by Juzzy and Brent on the boundary soon after drinks saw the Mountain Gate skipper run out. Wanting to take further advantage of the pressure we had built up, the ball was thrown to Braet who didn’t take long to blow away the cobwebs with wickets in consecutive overs. Coming back after the 30^th over of the innings to bowl out the day, Juzzy also managed to get a couple of wickets that saw them finish on 6/81 from their allotted 35 overs.

For the third match in a row, we went with a different opening combination with Scotty joining Pottsy at the crease with Mountain Gate naming 13 players but only able to field 9 players this week.  In a good sign for the remainder of the season, it didn’t take Scotty long to hit his straps with some lovely shots and some great running between wickets that got us to 0/68 off 18 at drinks.  Scotty departed to his 1^st ball after drinks (how often has that happened to a batsman!!) after a hard hitting 44. Pottsy had been building his innings and started to assert his influence more as Brent (10) came and went before Lachy joined in with a 50 run partnership.  Pottsy who was either going to retire out after 35 overs or hit out and get out was unfortunately run out in the 31^st over for a well-made 62.  Anthony (6) tried to push the score along in the remaining overs but holed out leaving Ty to finish the day with Lachy (23no) and a score of 4/156.

Although we were well placed with a 75 run lead, we knew Mountain Gate had 3 players turning up in week 2 with a couple of them having some serious credentials making lots of runs over the years in Divisions 1-4. Despite that, we knew we had the 75 run buffer and plenty of fire power ourselves in Braet, Chris and Thommo……not to mention Lachy and Ty still at the crease.  We also had an unexpected bonus with the junior not out batsman from the previous week a ‘no show’.  That left them at 7 wickets down but with 2 top order batsmen at the crease.  As expected, Mountain Gate looked for quick runs with some big shots and quick singles but our bowling and fielding efforts were restricting them to no more than 4 runs per over. Thommo was then thrown the ball and, with his very first ball of the season, knocked over the stumps of the ‘gun’ batsman - welcome back Thommo!  Devo who had bowled a beautiful line and length without luck then managed to draw a false shot from the new batsman to get a well deserved  first wicket in his last over.  Braet then came in and cleaned up the last wicket to finish with 3-fer in a handy comeback for him.

Mountain Gate: all out 177 - Braet 3/14 (9 overs); Juzzy 2/15 (10); Thommo 1/12 (6); Devo 1/25 (11); GB 1/31 (9)

Needing 22 to win, Lachy went ‘bang’ in the 1^st over smacking a 2 from the first ball followed by a maxi over backward square to get his score to 31.  Ty then took charge racing to 14no to get us the win from 3 overs.

Knox Gardens: 4/182 - Pottsy 62; Scotty 44; Lach 31no; Ty 14no

Another solid team win with all players contributing either with the bat, ball or in the field in what was a great weekend for the club with 3 ½ wins and an almighty 30 year celebration function.  Go Gardens #oneclub