MDCC Grand Final Wrap 19/3/16 - 20/3/16 - 25/3/16

 

A Grade (Managers Report) 19/3/16

 

The boys played Cricketers Arms in the Grand Final at Waratah oval. After loosing the toss Cricketers Arms chose to bat first.

Lyle McGuigan coming back from injury took the new ball and didn't disappoint ( w 2 w w w . ) That's right 4/2 of the first over of play including a hat-trick! amazing!!.

The boys took all there catches this week and with one run out from Brad Davies, Cricketers scrambled together 58 runs.

 

Best of the bowlers was Lyle McGuigan (6-19) & Dylan Stuart (2-19).

 

Special mention to our W/K & skipper Jason Holt who led from the front with an excellent catch down leg side on the first ball of the day and even better stumping of one of our quicks when Cricketers Arms were fighting back in a partnership.

As you may be aware the A grade boys don't do things the easy way, so with keeping up tradition we lost a wicket first over of the day and all though in control we never had the game properly in our grasp till Brad Davies hit a cut shot for 2 to win the game 7 wickets down.

 

Brad Davies carried his bat with 23* in a very mature dig that needed to be done and Jason Holt was next best with 10.

 

Merewether also won the Minor premiership as well and only loosing 2 games all season out of a possible 21 so congratulations on a superb season couldn't ask for a better bunch of blokes .

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1st Grade

 

Day 1:

 

Newcastle District Cricket Association First Grade Grand Final for the 2015/2016 season was to be played against Hamilton-Wickham this past weekend and a game of cricket couldn’t have much more in it then what was given from both sides.

Out in the middle the toss was won by Ham-wick’s skipper and he elected to bowl first after there had been some concern as how the pitch would play after last weekends semi produced an outright victory.

However our boys were not worried as all reports showed the pitch was a much better one then the one played on in the semi final.

Some impressive bowling from the Hamilton-Wickham bowlers lead by Sam Webber had our guys in a little bit of trouble early on with the pitch providing a little help for the new ball. Our guys lost 4 early wickets before a well needed partnership of 40 runs between Pat Darwen & David Celep got us back on track before another grouping of wickets fell leaving us 7 for 116 with our tailenders needing to wag a little. Trent Bush and Tim O’Neill both getting 20s lifted up to a final total of 146 to defend. And 33 overs left for Day 1.

 

Best with Bat: Pat Darwen (53), Trent Bush (24), David Celep (20) & Tim O’Neill (20)

 

The remainder of day 1 saw stumps called at No1. With Ham-wicks 4 for 71, still 75 behind our teams total. Mark Cameron and Josh Geary both having 2 wickets next to there name.

 

Day 2:

 

The day couldnt of started much better for our guys as they took another 2 wickets with Hamilton-Wickham only adding 8 runs to the total. Mark Dries looked to be leading Ham-wicks home, however our bowlers were able to keep breaking partnerships. As the total was getting extremity close our skipper called upon his veteran spinner Timothy O’Neill with Hamwicks needing 3 runs to win with 1 wicket in hand a single off the first ball got the game right down to the wire but the cool headed bowler now having the number 11 on strike worked his magic after 2 dots he was able to bowl the perfect ball hitting the front pad of the batsman in front of middle and enable the side to claim 1st innings points by only 1 run.

 

Best with Ball: Josh Geary (4-40), Mark Cameron (4-63), Tim O’Neill (1-12) & Sam Palmer (1-28).

 

With still 70 overs left in the day we could not celebrate just yet as the game was to continue as we went back out to the middle for another bat and hopefully see out the day.

The start defenatly showed Ham-wicks were not done fighting as again with the new rock Sam Webber ripped open our batting order taking 2 wickets with out a run on the board and only 1 run by the fall of our 3rd wicket. Again Pat Darwen was in the middle toughing out the new ball with an injured hand he picket up in the first innings. After a little partnership of 38 we then lost another 2 wickets together and we were 5 for 39 and in a little bit of trouble.

A sixth wicket partnership between Mark Cameron and Ben Egan got us to Tea on day 2 with the total 5 for 66 of 40 runs had us reach a total of 79 before we lost our 6th wicket and the Hamwicks created another 2 wickets with a run out and lbw in quick time we fell to 8 for 80. Tim O’Neill, Sam Palmer sneaked out another 11 runs before Courtney Moulton joined Tim out in the middle and just when we thought this game had not had enough action the rain decided to join in and the lads were off for a rain delay with us on 9 for 97 and 29 overs still left to play confusion spread around the spectators with what was to happen if there was to be no further play and talk of a 3rd day started to spread. But rain cleared and the game was back on Tim and Court batted for another 10.4 overs before we lost our last wicket on 110. Again Sam Webber was Ham-wicks best bowler taking another 5 wickets giving him 10 wickets for the match and creating lots of headaches for our batters.

 

Best with Bat: Pat Darwen (27), Ben Egan (22) & Tim O’Neill (21*).

 

The game was now set up for an exciting finish with Ham-Wicks needing 112 runs to win and only 18 overs left to play. Aggressive running between the wickets from Hamilton-Wickham created to run out chances that our boys were able to take and with Mark Cameron and Josh Geary bowling well taking 1 wicket each we had Hamiton-Wickham 4 for 37 off 8 overs. After the games umpires came together they decided they needed to stop the game for bad light and after a fair bit of discussion with players still on the ground spectators again were confused and wanting a result, However the Umpires made the call and a 3rd day was now needed for a result to be declaired for this seasons Grand Final. Ham-wicks still behind by 75 runs with 6 wickets in hand and 10 overs to play.

 

Day 3: (Good Friday)

 

Day 3 started with the players coming out to electric atmosphere as numbers of spectators on the Friday would of matched if not bettered the total for both day 1 and 2 together.

10 overs to play our attack was lead by spear head Mark Cameron and Josh Geary and the game was in the balance as Hamilton had made another 22 runs off 3 overs without the loss of a wicket. And now needing 53 off 7 overs to win the break through was to come in the 4th over of the day as Geary was able to trap Hamilton’s skipper in front with the score on 69. The next over went for 10 runs and now 33 runs were required off 5 overs. And much like the first innings Simon turned to Timmy O’Neill and straight away a break through occurred. Scud followed this over and what could over been the quickest over of the match he was able to take another 2 wickets getting out the danger man S. Webber and leaving Ham-wicks tail having to handle the pressure.

The next over ended up being the last of the match in a fitting way Tim O’Neill was to bowl it and he proved to good for the tail taking the final 2 wickets last being a skied ball to skipper Simon Moore ending Ham-wicks innings and making history with an impressive 5 grand finals in a row for the team.

In a game with more ups and downs then a roller coaster I think this game might just go down as the best of the 5.

 

Best with Ball: Tim O’Neill (3-16), Mark Cameron (3-43) & Josh Geary (2-26) 

 

Man of the Match: Sam Webber (5/52,14,5/31,22)