Stove catches Fire and Presidents light up the Oval…

What a weekend of action for Burnside West cricketers and teams – with some remarkable events, performances and results across our club.

Following the horrific events of the previous Friday most of us just sought a touch of normality – and the opportunity to get out on the park and get into some action.

PRESIDENTS FOXES:

For the Foxes that park was Hagley Oval & the unused Test pitch as they took on Easts Gold as part of the Presidents Grade Day hosted by St Albans. Batting 1^st our men compiled a reasonably competitive 173 all out in the 40^th over.

Skipper Robertson, fresh from receiving the ‘Club of the Year’ award at the swanky NZC Awards do in Auckland (in a suit by the respected Paris fashion designer – H’Alan Steinz), settled in to top score with 45 as they appeared well placed at 104/4 in the 27^th over.

But the loss of his and 4 other wickets in quick succession suddenly saw the Foxes capitulate to 125/8 and in danger of wasting the rock hard surface.

Luckily Jeff Roy showed both patience and urgency in equal measures to post 35 not out and see the side through to that 173.

In reply Easts started well and got through to 73 before losing their 1^st wicket to a one-handed diving underarm run out by P-Shack. Things were evenly poised just before drinks but then suddenly we lost our length and Easts took 25 from the next 3 overs to take the break at 97/2 and in good position.

Mike Wheeler bowled 8 straight from one end to stifle the flow somewhat (0/26) and Gibson chipped in with 2 wickets – as a couple of comical run outs threatened to derail the Easts reply.

But despite the loss of former Premier stalwart Craig Gibb – who played some gorgeous square cuts in his innings-anchoring 81 – Easts got home with 3 wickets and 6 balls to spare.

PREMIERS:

Canterbury Opening Batsman Steve Murdoch – nicknamed “Stove” – was relegated to the No: 3 spot on Saturday as our Premiers batted 1^st against Sydenham. Sitting just 2 points behind Lancaster Park in the 2-Day competition our lads had a simple agenda – bat 1^st & get plenty then try and roll the Sydenham lads twice to have a chance at the Premiership.

And the 1^st part of the plan went well – despite losing Heenan early on a Burnside 1 surface offering good pace & carry. Murdoch initially added 87 for the 2^nd wicket with Tom Zohrab (46) then continued with Carl Huyser & JJ Naude – who each struck run-a-ball 20’s – to see the lads well placed at 178/4 in the 36^th over.

Matt Hay wandered out at 6 & really started the fireworks with a (41-ball) boundary studded 78 – including 8 massive sixes. No Sydenham bowler was spared in the carnage as Matt took a particular liking to former Canterbury Off-spinner Tin Johnston, who ran a 10.6 an over through the innings.

Meanwhile Stove was ticking away nicely himself – striking 17 fours and 6 sizes in a tremendous 153 (off 133 balls) – his 1^st century for the Club. He’d added 111 with Matt & then 63 with little Brother Mitch Hay (26) before finally being dismissed at 352/6. Skipper Huyser finally ending Sydenham’s misery at 363/8 declared in the 56^th over.

Part 2 of the plan was then initiated with Jackson Lathan (in his Cap game) keeping the heat well and truly on with 3/34 off 12. Joel Williams took 2 very sharp catches in under the helmet as the spinners turned the screws – Sam Carlaw unlucky (0/7 off 7 overs) and Matt Hay 1/0 off 2). Retiring paceman Scott Inglis grabbed one and so did Zohrab as Sydenham will look to continue to dig in next week – ending the day at 78/7 and with their backs against the wall.

Competition leaders Lancaster Park are looking dominant against Grade-strugglers Marist Harewood, but compiled inferior batting points to us, so a win next week by an innings might see the Burnside lads grab the 2-Day competition win for the 1^st time since the early 1990’s…

CHAMPIONSHIP:

Meanwhile over at Burwood our Grade leading 2^nd’s took on their Easts counterparts – and looked to extend their lead in the competition with another outright victory.

And that they did – in spectacular fashion! Alex McDuff (4/27) and Josh Peake (4/16) quickly reducing the 10-man East line-up to 48 all out within 17 overs. Josh Peake, with his parents in town for his 21^st celebration the next day, had also got one to lift sharply on poor Easts No: 3 – Myran Moore – who took a heavy blow on the glove and had to retire hurt with suspected broken fingers.

Into bat with almost an hour to go before lunch and Tinus Huyser decided to work up a hunger with a punishing 81 off 57 balls (13 fours & 2 sixes). But Easts had their moments – dismissing 6 other Burnside batsmen for just 15 runs between them. However – now that Peako is 21 – he’s much more mature and he played the perfect innings at No: 8 to muster 53 from 43 balls – making for a pleasant day out for his watching parents.

Gus Harman also slapped 29 not out off 16 balls allowing Burnside to declare at 201/8 off just 29 overs.

Easts certainly put up significantly more fight than in the 1^st di as their openers alone put on 82. A 2^nd wicket partnership of 85 wiped the 1sdt innings deficit and, despite now being down to 9 fit players, the Easts players might have felt more confident. No need though as outside the top 3 only 9 other runs were scored off the bat – seeing them capitulate to 197 all out as Will Kennedy (at 3^rd change) ran through them with 6/11 off 6 overs. Peako topped off his day with another wicket and Hugo Howard warrants a mention – simply for the fact that (for the 1^st time this season) he didn’t warrant a mention.

45 required for the “outright win in a day” prize and despite the loss of Dunlop & Kennedy the runs were wiped off in under 6 overs – Alex Tait finishing with 22 not out & Gus Harman suggesting he’s found some form – with his 20 not out giving him 49 for the day without being dismissed.

This means the 2^nd’s lads have won the 2-Day competition for the 4^th consecutive year and we will be looking for something to keep them occupied next week so they don’t celebrate too hard before the Prize-giving on Saturday night. Well done Alex McDuff and the lads!!

DIVISION 1:

I don’t want to talk about it – suffice to say the opposite result to the 2^nd’s as late withdrawals and unavailability’s left us with just 8 players (I’m told) and we got beat up bad by MP 2^nd’s…

DIVISION 3 – CANNONS:

Things were looking reasonably peachy for our Cannons over on Burnside 2 as they dismissed the Halswell Norsemen for just 107 inside 35 overs. It seems appropriate that our own Viking practiced a bit of the Norse ritual of human sacrifice himself by taking 3/9 of his 8 overs.

Lenny Otte was quite as miserly but still took 3/19 and Dilla Smith (who looks a bit Viking like himself) grabbed 2.

Chris Bradley had an unusually tidy game with the gloves taking 4 catches – no doubt at least 3 of them were crocodile style though….

In reply the Cannons stumbled to 7/2 before Tom Batty righted the ship with 24 – and there was cause for optimism as our men reached 50/3 inside 14 overs. But 3 quick wickets reduced that to 53/6 and suddenly the Norsemen were contemplating a human sacrifice or 2 of their own…

Other than Bradley & Smith’s dual 12’s there wasn’t much left to write home about as each of the tail-enders threatened to win the game with an appropriate innings but got out just as they started to look settled – the Whangaparoa men falling 10 runs short with 8 overs still available to them.

DIVISION 4 – BOOMERS:

The Boomers took on the Sydenham Goats adjacent to Brougham Street and were quickly on top as Regan Wilson (2/19) and Ajay rana (1/12) opened up. O’Brien, Reed & Cremer each took 1 wicket as only the Goat’s number 4 in Ollie Philpott (35) offered significant resistance.

But the star with the ball for the Boom Booms was Tony Edlin – who’s 3/15 off 8 overs ripped the heart out of the Sydenham middle order.

In reply our Men looked to make the run chase as difficult as possible for themselves as the top 6 batsmen were all dismissed for low scores as follows: 6, 1, 3, 11, 1, 1…

Luckily Tony Edlin was still fairly pumped from his bowling efforts and he made it look easy at number 7 – using the short straight boundaries on Sydenham 3 to his advantage with 5 sixes in a quick-fire 45 not out. Regan Wilson (18) stayed with him long enough to have the job almost done and they completed the win 8 down with overs to spare.

DIVISION 5 – STRIKERS:

Nothing in Cricket HQ from our Strikers men & I see our Club Cricket Operations Manager is chasing the result on behalf of Metro as I write…

T20 ROUND-UP;

Both the Holstein Boys & the Believers were out of action through defaults involving Heathcote sides this week – one by us and one by the opposition – which all seems a bit silly. Hopefully the Believers get a game in next week and attend prize-giving in good numbers while the hybrid Holstein version 2.0 are done for the year.

On what should have been a pretty good Burnside 4 wicket the GhettoHustler’s skipper Brad Reid confused everyone by assigning himself the wicket-keeper symbol in Cric HQ then taking the 1^st 2 wickets to fall with his right-arm medium-fast. He then took a stumping off Duncan to record the 3^rd dismissal and have me genuinely scratching my head…

Toye the only other wicket taker as the Richmond Porkers also had a couple of batsmen compulsory retiring and posted a competitive 127/4 off their 20 overs.

In reply Taylor Reid (33) and Ben Vincent (20) got us away nicely before Brad himself (16), Mearns (13) and Toye (26) did the bulk of the remaining damage. The GhettoHustlers rocked home 6 down with nearly a half a dozen overs to spare. Not sure on Vodka Cruiser consumption in the club rooms but will advise…

Over a Halswell domain the home side posted a challenging 138/4 off their 20 overs and then restricted our Dubai Diamond Traders to 125 all out to take the chocolates. No further details in the system for specifics but perhaps that allows an opportunity to re-visit the DDT’s encounter against the Riccarton Hogs from a couple of weeks back.

That weekly round-up never went to print with the events of the week – but a report in from Luke Moore warrants mentioning.

They were soundly beaten reaching 55 all out in the 1^st innings – which was run down by the Hogs pretty comfortably for the loss of only 3 wickets. But those 3 wickets were all taken, in consecutive deliveries by, Ranui Luke. The hat-trick is described as – “1^st one flashed to point, 2^nd one caught behind and 3^rd one bowled clean through the gate…!”

Luke further reports that this is the 2^nd hat-trick achieved by a member of the DDT’s team and on both occasions they have been the only 3 opposition wickets to fall….!

JUNIOR SPOTLIGHT:

After the excitement of the Junior Prize-Giving at the Club on Friday night plenty of young Burnside West cricketers would have been out looking to emulate the Tom Latham & Steve Murdoch’s by covering themselves in cricketing glory on Saturday.

One of the biggest games for our juniors loomed at Medbury School where our BWU 2 team met Medbury 1. Our young men were just one win behind the grade leading Medbury boys – with a chance to draw equal if we could get the W.

Junior cricket (with the retirement and wicket number rules) is a little hard to follow in Cric HQ as the fall of wickets column suggests Medbury were in trouble at 3 down for 2 runs – but yet the batting column shows the top 5 batsmen all fired as Medbury reached an imposing 216/11 in their 30 overs.

In reply the Graeme Turner coached side knew they would need their top guns to fire and everyone else to be on top of their game if they were to have a chance.  Finn McCormick-Young continued his good form this season with 29, Max Burford scored 27 and top ranked Junior in the Club MVP ladder – Tom Turner – managed 21. But the strength of the Medbury attack was a little too much on this occasions and, backed by some good fielding, they were relieved to restrict BWU to 155/13 off their overs.

Hard luck for our BWU 2 lads but a great season all round and you’ll be itching to get back on the Park no doubt…!

See you all at the Senior Prize-giving next Saturday night!

Yours in cricket