Round 5 was played as a 1 dayer on Saturday as torrential rain prevented any games being played in week 1.

The first XI travelled to undefeated Eildon Park and won the toss and elected to bat. Our openers look composed early but the strong Eildon Park unit removed the in form Shan Small for 9. Honors were shared in the first hour but our middle order failed to capitalize on the good start and after some tight spin bowling the innings seemed to stall at 6/82

Opener Jarrod Butcher was the only score of note posting 44 before skying one. With the innings seemingly slipping away Matt Young was joined by Adam Metherall and slowly clawed back the momentum.  Matt Young’s innings came to an end on the penultimate ball of the day but not before he and Metherell had put together a remarkable partnership of 78 taking the score to 7/163 after 40 overs.

The lads came out hungry for early wickets and their wishes were granted when Simon Grasser knicked off Cody Morris in the second over of the day. Eildon Park didn’t allow this to slow the play and to their credit played some high quality cricket that showed why they are top of the table.

At 1/61 KGCC needed a quick breakthrough and what transpired in the following few overs was quite remarkable. Wayne threw the ball to the ever reliable Adam Wild and be preceded to turn the game back in our favour. Wilba at one stage had 4/4 from 3 overs including an absolute gem that skittled Snyman. The old Fox Trav Mulder chimed in with a couple of wickets and a sharp catch at slip to have Eildon Park reeling at 7/71.

Unfortunately for the Falcons the wickets dried up and were replaced by runs by the Eildon Park number 8 Steve Pimm who combined with their number 5 anchored the innings through to pass us in the 36^th over. The pair batted remarkably well and proved why they are the team to beat this year in NRS. Our first XI have certainly bridged the gap in the competition and wins are not far away.

The 2^nd XI faced Eildon Park at home and in what was an atypically aggressive day of cricket where bat dominated ball. The falcons got off to a flyer with Rhys Marget and Brett Morrison both posting 50’s before Marget was removed for 57 with the score at 114 in the 18^th over. Brett was joined by Dovey Hay and the scoreboard continued to tick over. After 40 overs the home side had poured in 230 runs and one would have been safe thinking that the game was in our favour.

Dovey Hay continued his good form with a solid 30 & Scotty McInerney notching a half century which included a 6 off the last ball of the innings.

The first over from Daisy Adams was a maiden however that was about as good as it got for the home side as the Eildon Park batsman proceeded to dismantle our bowling attack and getting the win with a couple of overs to spare. Understandably there were very few highlights from the bowling. All in all there were 460+ runs scored in the 80 overs bowled in what, for the very least, provided to be an extremely entertaining day of cricket.

The 3^rd XI did it tough against Eildon Park with the side being bowled out for 62. The only real resistance came from youngsters Sam Bakker, Jack Marget & Gerard Jongen. Eildon Park chased the runs comfortably and passed us 1 down.

The 3rds have suffered a similar hard loss earlier in the year and bounced back with a win. Let’s all get behind them again and ensure they can turn it around quickly.

4^th XI match report compiled by Greg Bakker:

Apparently the sign that the bottom oval will be slow to score on is the presence of daisies. We didn't need the daisies to tell us that. It was thick, lush and moist underfoot in places. Losing the toss, we were asked to bat first. Getting off to a solid start, we lost our 1st wicket at 56 off 18 overs and our 2nd at 86 off 25. A solid platform to build on, or so we thought. Unfortunately, in something that is becoming a regular occurrence for the 4ths, we collapsed to be 7/109 off 36. Some hard running and lusty hitting from Tesh (12no) saw us finish at 8/130. The star of the innings was Nibby Jongen who, after opening the innings was unfortunately run out for a delicious 45 out of 4/100 attempting a 2nd run that, earlier in the innings, he would have made comfortably. Also of note was the senior debut of Adam Wylde who was, as always, completely composed in holding out the oppositions best bowler until having to swing the bat in the 2nd last over. Well done Adam on a nicely made 8 runs. I have no doubt Adam will flourish in the 2 day games given more time at the crease.

Thinking that our 130 was more like 150-160, we thought that another solid bowling and fielding performance would put us in with a show. Despite Jeff's continuing sensational form with the new ball and Dylan's fiery opening spell, we couldn't buy a wicket. Jeff was particularly unlucky in both of his spells to finish with 0/6 off 6. Nibby almost completed a sensational caught & bowled that saved him from being cut in half but got his revenge shortly after. Thihan held up one end as Chris Stuckey terrorised the batsmen at the other end finishing with 2/18 off 5. At 4/76 off 22 we were still well in the game......but again, so we thought. The no. 6 took a few overs to settle in but then piled on 43, including 17 off the last over to get them to 4/135 off 32.

While the scores indicated a fairly comfortable win for them,.we bowled very well and without luck. A couple of dropped chances and many that were close to going to hand - if only......... The difference between the teams was that they had bigger hitters than us who had no problems with the slow outfield. We scored a total of 6 4s. They scored 11 4s and 3 6s. That was the difference in the end.

Lets make sure that we all get to training this week and turn our focus to the upcoming 2 dayer. Ladies day on Saturday so let your girlfriends, wives, mothers, daughters, Aunties, nieces & Nana’s down for an afternoon of chick stuff.

Go Falcons!

Simon Wilkinson

JUNIOR VICE PRESIDENT.