Day One

Not many fielding teams can boast being capable of not only completing 50 overs in less than 2 and a half hours, but also being able to restrict the batting team to 50 runs off the bat at the same time. With last weeks dismal performance a distant memory, our boys travelled again to Palm Beach, this time sending the home team in with outstanding results. Sam Whitelock was the best with the ball claiming 2 wickets for 4 runs off 5 overs whilst Tom, Tim, Dean, Sam Scrocca, Riley Dunn, Steven and Luke Van Veen all took a wicket apiece. Riley Fletcher took two catches and Tom another at square leg.

Riley Dunn and Steven Davoren opened up our innings. Steven, our star batsman from last game, copped a ripper delivery first up and was cleaned bowled for a golden quacker. Not a good start to our chase, however Sam Whitelock joined Riley and the boys went well until Sam was caught by a one-handed catch worthy of winning any classic catches comp. Tim came in and was struck a hefty blow to the chest by a full toss. Tim showed great resilience and courage to be there with Riley at the end of the day. We finished Day One at 2 for 19 runs off 10 overs.

Riley Dunn was our player of the day. Returning from the under 14s last match, Riley showed good skills fielding in close and saving valuable runs and then batted with a great sense of the situation. Both Tim and Riley have the capability of making the further 64 runs needed to win our first match for the season. Good luck boys.

Day 1

Under 13s travelled to Palm Beach to play Palm Beach Currumbin Gold. Dean won the toss and elected to bowl. The pitch was in good nick but the outfield was riddled with tufts and bumps providing a very uncertain run of the ball. The boys started well bowling very tightly without much luck until the first wicket fell to Fletcher in the 22nd over with the score at 65. Dean pulled off a magnificent diving catch off the bowling of Luke Van Veen picking up our second scalp 10 runs later. Wicket number 3 did not fall until the 43rd over and then Tom and Dean combined to take the next five wickets and have the home side 7 for 182 at the completion of their allocated overs. Tom finished with 2 wickets for 8 runs off 6 overs and Dean with 3 for 5 off 5. Joel bowled accurately without much luck. Sam Scrocca showed most improvement with his more consistent length and Jake Thompson was quite tight towards the end of the innings. Stephen was great again behind the stumps. As the boys were super quick with their changeovers between overs we were able to get through the 50 overs well before 11.30am. Bay then opened their innings chasing a reasonably gettable target of 182. Riley Fletcher and Luke Johnson came in first and Luke got a good ball first up that got through his guard. Nick Cotter came in and joined Riley and after resisting for a few overs finally fell without score. At 2 for 3 runs Sam Scrocca played out the remaining 4 overs for the day. Both Riley and Sam looked solid and will carry on next week to make some valuable team runs. At stumps on Day one we are 2 for 6 runs off 9 overs. Needing 174 off 41 overs whilst the task may appear daunting we have a very strong lower order with proven run getters. After witnessing a good overall team effort on Day One I am confident the boys will have a red hot crack next week. Good luck boys, see you all for some intensive batting practice at training on Wednesday.

Day 2

A damp outfield and soaked pitch met us on arrival for our chase of 182 runs with 8 wickets remaining. Unfortunately the boys didn’t cope with the slippery wicket and many were bowled by balls keeping low. While our overnight opener Riley hung around being the sixth wicket to fall, the others all fell cheaply with the exception of Stephen. Stephen trained brilliantly on Wednesday and followed up with 26 runs before being adjudged lbw. Joel was the only other batsman to get close to single figures and was the last wicket to go as we crumbled to be all out for 74. Palm Beach had no hesitation in sending us back in. Our second innings showed we really hadn’t learnt much from our handling of the low skidding ball in our first knock, as we were bowled out for a disappointing 42. Stephen was once again the only batsman to reach double figures returning a handy 12 runs and easily winning up our player of the match trophy.

We welcome Riley Dunn back this week from playing in the under 14s. This week we are back playing at Palm Beach again whilst the under14s are playing at home. We will offer 2 of our team to play with the under 14s again this week. Training on Wednesday night will commence earlier at 4pm to allow some extra net batting practice. Some of us really need to concentrate of breaking some bad habits if we want to start showing improvement with our results, Lets show Palm Beach we are better than our last effort.

Day 1

Under 13s travelled to Palm Beach to play Palm Beach Currumbin Gold. Dean won the toss and elected to bowl. The pitch was in good nick but the outfield was riddled with tufts and bumps providing a very uncertain run of the ball.

The boys started well bowling very tightly without much luck until the first wicket fell to Fletcher in the 22nd over with the score at 65. Dean pulled off a magnificent diving catch off the bowling of Luke Van Veen picking up our second scalp 10 runs later.

Wicket number 3 did not fall until the 43rd over and then Tom and Dean combined to take the next five wickets and have the home side 7 for 182 at the completion of their allocated overs. Tom finished with 2 wickets for 8 runs off 6 overs and Dean with 3 for 5 off 5. Joel bowled accurately without much luck. Sam Scrocca showed most improvement with his more consistent length and Jake Thompson was quite tight towards the end of the innings. Stephen was great again behind the stumps. As the boys were super quick with their changeovers between overs we were able to get through the 50 overs well before 11.30am.

Bay then opened their innings chasing a reasonably gettable target of 182. Riley Fletcher and Luke Johnson came in first and Luke got a good ball first up that got through his guard. Nick Cotter came in and joined Riley and after resisting for a few overs finally fell without score. At 2 for 3 runs Sam Scrocca played out the remaining 4 overs for the day.

Both Riley and Sam looked solid and will carry on next week to make some valuable team runs. At stumps on Day one we are 2 for runs off 9 overs. Needing 174 off 41 overs whilst the task may appear daunting we have a very strong lower order with proven rungetters. After witnessing a good overall team effort on Day One I am confident the boys will have a red hot crack next week.

Good luck boys, see you all for some intensive batting practice at training on Wednesday

As reported last week our first day against Broadbeach Robina at their home ground at Merrimac High School resulted in Broadbeach making 218 for the loss of 7 wickets from their allocated 50 overs.

Today, the second day of our two day game, we started well with our opening pair of Stephen Davoren and Tim Cahill seeing out a number of overs before the loss of our first wicket.  Broadbeach were grand finalists last year, so we knew we were up against a quality team and chasing over two hundred in long grass was always going to be a huge task.

Captain Dean LeJeune joined Steve at the crease and they carried the score to 22 before Dean was run out to a direct hit from the outfield.  Sam Whitelock came in and tried to force the scoring with Stephen who went out caught for 10.  Stephen will share the captaincy role with Dean for the season as he has obvious leadership skills and a natural cricketing ability.   Sam fell to a good catch soon after Stephen was out.  Sam shows good strength and control with both bat and ball and will be a great asset to our side throughout this season.

Tom Bromley came in next and turned on 22 runs top scoring for our team and adding valuably to our total score.  Riley Dunn stayed with Tom and batted sensibly for 10 runs.  Riley is a real character and provided plenty of entertainment for the other team offering many catching chances.  Luke Johnson came in at number seven and held up his end before hitting a catch off what appeared to most as a no-ball.  Sam Scrocca connected well with a few as did Riley Fletcher and Nick Cotter.  Joel Moar as the last man standing holding his end up exceptionally well as we were all out for 83, some 135 runs short of Broadbeachs total.

Fletcher Roberts and Luke Van Veen came on after the result and both showed good flair with the bat knocking a few around much to the approval of onlooking teammates.  Overall not a bad effort first up.  Best Bowling was Nick Cotter 2-19 off 6 overs, Dean Le Jeune with 1-5 off 2 overs and Tom Bromley 1-8 off 4 overs.  Best Batting was Tom Bromley with 22 runs and both Stephen Davoren and Riley Dunn with 10 runs apiece.  Thanks to Mel LeJeune for scoring for us.