1st XI vs Ferntree Gully @ Wally Tew Reserve On a beautiful Saturday afternoon we ventured to Wally Tew reserve to take on Ferntree Gully.

Skipper Jayden Bradbury won the toss and confidently chose to bat. I wasn’t that stressed about bowling first after a great display with bat and ball last week.

We started off quite well with Todd Burley doing his best Curtley Ambrose impersonation picking up 3 quick wickets and taking the edge on multiple occasions. It was almost like FTG had transported the WACA wicket to the ground. He was assisted by Adam “Beamer” Wild who bowled with control and they were able to follow the plan set and restrict FTG whilst also making inroads. At 4/12 we had real control over the game and we were able to continue to strangle the FTG batsman as they lost continuous wickets throughout the rest of the innings finishing up all out for 73.
Wayne, Nav, Meth and My boy Mitch all played a key role throughout the innings but it was Todd and Wilbur who set the game up for us and allowed the others to bowl with freedom and confidence.
Our ground fielding and catching was superb and has been a shining light in the first 2 games.

We then set out to get the runs with as little fuss as possible. Young FTG quick Tim Parker Bowled with a head full of steam and was letting them go early to try and get some early wickets, but Butch and I were able to get us almost halfway before Butch chipped one to leg gully. Jack Marget came in and batted well and was a handy foil for me. We were able to get us to within 8 runs from victory before jack was bowled by their Pommy spinner. Following on from last week this will be another great lesson for Jack in his development in to a top echelon batsman in the competition. Joe and I were able to get the 8 more for victory and we grabbed the points.

It was a great result for us and it was great to tick all of the boxes of the plans we set prior to the game. There was a huge improvement in our 1%ers from last week which was also pleasing. “Don’t forget your sunscreen”.

That’s 12 points from our early white ball stint and we look to the red ball this week and take on old foe Eildon Park at home. This will be a big challenge which we are ready to take on.

Also it was great to get back and watch the 2nds fight to the end against the gators. Hopefully the book shows we got the result we were after and we will take it to the bank.
‘Genius’ effort boys.

And to Wilko
“Your welcome”

Pete

2nd XI vs Mountain Gate @ Knox Gardens Reserve

Another scrumptious Saturday afternoon and once again playing on the lightning fast top oval, this week against those pesky reptiles beyond the gate.

Three changes this week after a disappointing first up loss and a chance to get that all important first win on the board. Things were made harder after once again losing the toss but a new look bowling attack this week gave us a chance to hopefully apply the squeeze and wrap up those gators.

Having just the two pacemen, well not ‘just’ the two, but some fine specimens in Fox Mulder and Drew ‘Fitbit” Withers we decided they would use the new oversized golf ball to see what they could extract from the docile top oval pitch. Similar to last week we couldn’t generate the early breakthroughs we so dearly desired but with the inclusion of Hollywood LS at short cover the opposition batsmen were far too distracted by the poorly manicured facial hair to fully concentrate.

The first wickets came along after some fine dabbing from Mr Young in tandem with the self-proclaimed king Josh McGowan. The two were superb creating chances while building pressure and if not for a bit more luck could have jagged a few each! The batting was reminiscent of a gator slowly stalking its prey, but we were able to capture the gators before they really sunk their teeth into any sort of run feast (God, that was awful…) Never getting away from us we toiled hard as a team and took our chances late to claim a swag of wickets including some brilliant catches and workman like run outs to restrict their bite to 9/168 off their 40 overs which we thought was under par. All the bowlers were great and fielding much improved.

Once again chasing we got off to a steady start against some decent bowling. Unfortunately, we kept losing wickets 31, 47, 67 and 98 which saw us still in a good position but with work to do. The departure of Gez for another solid 40 odd then a pretty lame 3 runs from the usually swashbuckling Dyl left young Callum O’Connor to fight with the tail for the win. Steady contributions from Myself, Trav and the young gun Cal still left us ‘10-15’ runs short depending which score we were reading. Extremely flaky tail enders “Dale Withers” and “Kingston” were left to hopefully edge our way to the total. Unfortunately, while they did just that, we were unaware that we passed the score until some days later with some inconsistencies in the scorebooks.

So, we end up claiming the points which are our first for the season after another at times sub-par performance knowing we can play better. Pleasing we can match it with teams in Decoite but hopefully after some long discussions post-match we can build ourselves into a top team leading up to the break.

Daine

3rd XI vs Mountain Gate @ HV Jones Reserve

We ventured out to the notorious H.V Jones Reserve to take on Mountain Gate who had been tamed by the Churches of Knox-Boronia last week. We welcomed back the inclusions of cricket fanatic Joshy Curnow and myself from the 2s, while we lost the King of Poowong Carlton O’Connor and Daine’s love child and gym junkie Josh McGowan who had been promoted to make their DeCoite debuts. 

Just like every other Wylde, the skipper Josh rocked up late as Dyl apparently took his keys, which meant the old fossil Rhys had the duty of going to the toss and luckily enough won it and decided to chuck the pads on...or for some of us those ugly clads. 

We got off to the usual start which the scoreboard read 0/13 off 1. Rhys 13*, Jay 0*. 

Jay-Z then ran himself out for 1, which brought the stand in skipper to the crease at 1/23. After crashing a few juicy full tosses to the fence he got himself to 19, before he was absolutely triggered by Nibby. That Steve Bucknoresque decision brought myself to the crease. Rhys and I put on 99 before he was caught by a blinder at short third man for 106 which left us in a great position at 3/164 with about 13 overs left. I brought up my 50 not long after with some Un-Reidesque shots by the man himself before i picked out the man at mid off for 55. A steady fall of wickets at the back end meant the runs dried up some what but contributions at the end by Reidy 18, Ben 9* got us to 6/228 off our 40 on what was a very quick ground.

After what can only be described as a tea for the ages, the Gators came out firing with some slogging before Hard Hitting Nibby got the key break through. Wickets were hard to come buy in the first 20 with some chances being put down and not enough luck especially Nix who’s figures read 0/39 off 6 but it didn’t sum up how well he bowled. At drinks the Gators were fighting hard at 2/92 with Curn the other wicket taker. Our bowlers must’ve really enjoyed the orange flavoured cordial as we ran through the middle order and skittled them for 131. Curn 3/24, Nibby 3/22 were ably supported by BDog Slims 2/22 and Mr. Reids 2/14. Another clinical performance although there can be improvements made in the field as we head back home for the first time in 2018/19 where we face the bloods of Olinda and a real shot at cementing our place in the 4 early in the year and go 3-0

Josh 'Morrison' Wylde

4th XI vs Monbulk @ Knox Gardens Reserve #2