FLANELLED FOOLS: 16 JANUARY 2018

Cricket Round-Up By GREG PRINGLE*

Country and Cudal record comfortable wins

The Oilsplus Cricket competition resumed after the Christmas/New Year break on Saturday with Country and Cudal seemingly headed for a Grand Final rematch.

At Hunter Caldwell, Freemasons got away to a good start with top-order batsmen Ed Twiss (27) and Max Pearce (48) laying the platform for a handy total.

But after those batsmen left the scene wickets fell at a rapid pace, with only Joel Packham (27 not out) troubling the scorers.

Freemasons were all out for 146 and unable to bat out their 40 overs.

Dan Toynton continued his great form this season troubling the Freemasons batsmen no end finishing with the great figures of 6- 28 from his 10 overs. 

Dan is this season’s pin-up boy for Country, much to the dismay of Andrew Heath.

Chasing the moderate total on the synthetic pitch was never going to be a problem for the competition’s top team and they finished their chase in the 29th over with Andrew Heath (41), Jock Brazier (70 not out) and Mark Frazer (18 not out) all prominent.

Bohdie Johnson bowled well on the synthetic, taking 1- 17 from five overs.

Country continue to cruise through the season undefeated. Despite being pushed in in a couple of close games they continue to have the ability to win even in tight situations, despite Joe Clayton, Andrew Heath and Brett Wykes all having ordinary seasons to date.

The much unappreciated Murray Wykes continues to shine in this superstar lineup.

Freemasons are playing okay but will need to record a win soon if they are to secure a finals berth.

At the Molong Rec, Cudal won the toss and elected to bat on a damp pitch.

Magpies had the opportunity to consolidate second position whilst Cudal were looking to catch them.

Cudal’s top order all got starts. Adam Clunes (30), Chris Douglass (35) Jock Huff (25) and Lee Cornish (43) all batted well on a difficult pitch. Cornish was brutal in his short innings hitting three sixes and three fours.

Magpies once again bumbled and stumbled all over the field dropping nine catches which conservatively added around 90 runs to Cudal’s overall total of 197 from 38 overs.

Tim Milne consolidated his excellent bowling with Magpies since moving over from Country taking 4- 48.

Adam Osborn also bowled well, taking 2- 33 despite having numerous catches dropped off his bowling.

In reply Magpies batting reflected their fielding and they were bundled out for 103.

Magpies failed to turn up for what was an important match and it will go down as one game they would prefer to forget.

Brant Mann continued his excellent season with the bat, scoring 21, and Glenn Meehan was batting very well before he foolishly ran himself out on 11 last ball before drinks.

Scott Barrett taking 4- 31 from nine overs was the pick of the bowlers for Cudal, being almost unplayable at times with the Magpies batsmen having no idea how to play his leg spin.

Great to see Scott is back to his normal self after losing the unlosable election.

In a huge blow to Cudal’s title hopes Barrett is about to go under the knife to repair a significant knee injury he suffered when he tripped over a shotgun left lying around by the Shooters & Fishers Party as Scott was leaving an exit from polling both at the last election. Molong Cricket wishes Scott as speedy post surgery recovery.

C Spratt (2-22) and Adam Ross (2-22) also bowled well for Cudal.

OILSPLUS TABLE

Country 61

Magpies 41

Cudal 41

Freemasons 37

Twenty20 Knockout Saturday

This Saturday will see the annual Twenty20 competition day at the Molong Rec.

Four games will be played, starting at 10am with Magpies v Freemasons. At 12pm it’s Country v Cudal, followed at 2pm by consolation final featuring losers of both games.

At 4pm it will be time for the Final with winners of first two games playing for the T20 trophy currently held by Freemasons.

*Greg Pringle is Secretary/Treasurer of Molong District Cricket. He plays for Molong Magpies but swears he is as hard, if not harder, on his own guys as the opposition.