1st XI

 

Winning the toss and electing to bat the side was keen to continue the positive momentum from their strong win against Upwey. Butch and Shan got us off to a steady start until Butch(19) got a leading edge and departed with the score on 37. Murph, trialling himself at 3, was ruled LBW on 4 and a partnership was needed to steady the ship. Nav and Shan batted well for 10 overs until Shan was caught on 27.

 

A big partnership was needed but unfortunately the wickets fell fairly regularly with Nav 28 and in form Josh Gregory 65 being the only highlights of what was a fairly sub par performance. The lads managed to get to 194 on a tricky deck and that was certainly a defendable score if we bowled well.

 

Having 13 overs at them that afternoon a wicket would have been fantastic however they finished the day well on 0/13.

 

Wilba struck early on day 2 and looked to wrestle the momentum back in our favour. From there it was very cautious batting until the 35th over of the innings where Wilba struck again with the score on 48. He then took wicket number 3 & 4 to have the home side reeling at 4/52. At that stage Wilba had the outstanding figures of 20 overs 4/16. He was well supported by Travis Parsonage at the other end.

 

At tea the score read 6/90 after wickets from Scotty and Trav. I can’t say too many great things about what occurred thereafter. At 8/135 the game should have been there for the taking. The Upper Gully tail wagged and in the end a good partnership of 65 saw them over the line. The disappointment was evident on the players and it is important to remember that in the tough times that the core group stick together and support one another. As Murph says – One Club

 

2nd XI

 

RI Marget won the toss and elected to bat and in the searing heat it looked like a massive score was on the cards in the early overs. Rhys and Morro got the positive momentum going and were finding the boundary regularly on the fast KGCC surface. Rhys was first to go on 30 which brought Zach Flintoff to the crease, Zach relished the opportunity to bat in the higher order and took his attacking game to the Upper Gully attack. Morro departed 1 run shy of his half century and that brought the Big Show Thommo to the crease. At the 25 over mark it looked as though 400 would be a chance with the score at 2/135. Thommo departed and made way for Tim Flintoff to bat all arvo with his son – unfortunately for Tim he didn’t trouble the scorers and was visibly disappointed in his dismissal.  Matt Young and Zach saw the innings through to tea and the platform was set for a big afternoon.

 

Zach picked up where he left off and brought up his 50 after tea and then was caught for 59. Ben McLean followed soon after for 7 and Sean Reid joined Youngy in the middle. Mungey continued to play his shots and brought up a well made 50  before failing on 56. The often reliable scorpion tail failed to really fire and in the end the side was bowled out for a credible 277 off 76.4 overs. Reidy (17) and Hawksy (14) showed good fight in the later overs. Credit to Upper Gully who fought hard in testing conditions.

 

In much more comfortable settings on day 2 Rhys opened with Zach and Drew Withers. Zach was first to strike with the score on 15. Upper Gully then dug in and were determined to not make it easy for our attack but suffered a middle order collapse losing 3/0 and were reduced to 4/43. Again they dug in but lost another 3 wickets in the 80’s to have the score at 7/87. They tail came out swinging and their number 9 made a quick fire 47 – once he departed the lads accounted for the final 2 wickets and the points were in the bag bowling Upper Gully out for 169. Bowling figures were Daine 3/27 (14) Zach 2/59 (20) Reidy 2/12 (5) Hawk-eye 2/25 (10.2).

 

The lads sit proudly atop the ladder undefeated.

 

3rd XI

 

Jase won the toss and elected to bat against Upper Gully on the bottom oval. Gerard and Pottsy opened the batting and Gez was first to go with the score at 21. In form Matt Lambrick made a blistering 13 and when Pottsy was LBW and then Jason caught the score was 4/65. Dylan Wilde and Jack Marget then saw the team safely to tea and the game was begging for a quality knock. That knock came from young gun Jack Marget who batted flawlessly in the afternoon session to record his maiden senior 50. Supported well by Nathan Montague (36) and Ian Jongen (26). Jack was removed on 57 and the side ended up with a very defendable 226.

 

Day 2 was a wicket fest with Ian Jongen starting the rot removing the opener for 0 in the first over. Only the other opener showed any form of defence with our bowlers ripping through the upper, middle and lower order. Best figures were Matt Lamby Lambrick with 6/13 (13). Other wickets were shared with ol Lamby being the highlight.

 

Jase sent Upper Gully back in for an outright and the boys were sensational in throwing everything at it. In the end they fell short by 2 wickets – Lamby as he prefers to be known as claimed another 2 to make it 8 for the day and Gez Jongen claimed a couple of scalps. Well done to Jase who have now won as many games as they did last year and sit on top of the ladder.

 

4th XI – By Greg Bakker

 

Buoyed by wins in each of the last 2 rounds in Division 7, the 4s headed to a neutral ground (Lewis Rd #3) to take on Eildon Park in hot windy conditions. It was one of those occasions where winning or losing the toss didn't matter - we were happy to bat or bowl first. As it turned out, we lost the toss, were asked to field first and quickly reduced them to 3/12 off 8! In what was an unusual approach, particularly in Div 7, EP effectively shut up shop and refused to play at anything not needing to be played at. We mixed up the bowling and left inviting gaps in the field to encourage any attacking shot but to no avail. EP finished their 35 overs on 3/71.

 

Chris and Haydos went out and quickly set about building a score in the conditions that, while cooler than before, were more difficult, particularly for the EP bowlers coming up the hill into a southerly gale! Defending the good ball and flaying the increasing number of loose ones, the partnership rocketed to 100 before Haydos (24) was out in the 22nd over. Haydos is now looking more comfortable with his role in senior cricket and, with Chris at the other end, are becoming a formidable opening pair in this grade. Sam joined Chris who, as always, played his natural attacking game, retiring on 101 with the score at 1/168 in the 33rd over. That's 2 tons for Chris in successive seasons, both against EP. Sam (30*) and Brent (9*) saw the day out with us 1/183 from 35, a lead of 112.

 

The 2nd week started in the best possible way with EP losing a wicket off the 8th ball of the day to be 4/78 but,  unfortunately a few dropped catches marred an otherwise great bowling and fielding performance that saw a couple of run outs and the other wickets shared as EP were dismissed for 179 still 4 runs short of our mid-innings score. We used 11 bowlers across the 67.3 overs with Jimmy Tanner the pick of them with 3/32 off 14 searching overs. Alex D was incredibly unlucky with a couple of unrewarded spells ending with 0/22 from 11 and Spencer continued his development with a probing 7 over spell that almost netted his 1st senior wicket, finishing with 0/19.

 

Even though we already had the win,  we decided to invest some of EPs time in getting some time in the middle for our batsmen. We ended on 3/237 with Sam (38) and Brent (38) allowing Josh  (10no) to finally get to the crease having been bridesmaid in a few games this season. 

 

So, while we're on a bit of a roll with 3 wins from the past 3 games, we have a tough game next round against UFTG who are in 2nd spot. We have won convincingly in the past 3 (best % of all at 2.48) so hope that momentum and confidence will hold us in good stead.

 

Go Gardens #oneclub

 

Simon Wilkinson

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