Clark makes his mark
The rain stayed away just long enough last weekend for all of our senior women’s and men’s teams, bar one, to get onto the park. Results were mixed but there were some great performances. Let’s get into them…
CHCC MEN’S 3RD XI vs Blackburn North United at Terrara Park
There’s good news and bad news to report about this match. The good news is that we didn’t lose. The bad news is that we didn’t win. In other news, the game was actually abandoned due to the state of the ground.
CHICKEN: Missing, last seen crossing the road. No one knows why.
CHCC WOMEN’S 1ST XI vs Holy Trinity - Match report by REX
After a long weekend without play, the 1st XI welcomed blue skies and sunshine for their second local derby of the season, this time against old rivals Holy Trinity. Captain Rachael ‘Razzle’ Jones won the toss and elected to bat.
With ample warm up time under their belts, Hannah ‘HG’ Gray and Isobel ‘Izzy’ Fenner opened the batting and settled into the first few overs. At first glance the long grass and uneven terrain in the outfield gave the illusion of it being a ‘1s or 4s’ kind of day. However, after a few singles and dispatching a poor ball for 4, the pair found a two before Izzy was tempted by one and was bowled for 13.
Coming in at first drop was Maya ‘Like Fire’ Harrington, one of our new recruits at the Hill for season 2022/23. It didn’t take long the trend to continue, and with Maya like fire’s quick running and calls, and the pair steadily stole singles and the occasional two. Unfortunately, a change of bowler got the better of HG, who found herself bowled for 8, leaving CHCC 2/25.
In next was Laila ‘Electric Train’ Rae, who was quick to dispatch a slightly short ball for 4. Seemingly unfazed, the bowler quickly corrected with their next ball to take the stumps once again. CHCC 3/29. Joining Maya at the crease next was Ash ‘Steam Train’ Murdoch, who ran well and found the gaps for a few singles to put on 11 together before a forgettable couple of overs.
Another change of bowler for the opposition left us in all sorts, with the scorecard reading: dot, wicket (A Murdoch, caught behind), wicket (R Jones, lbw), wicket (R Gray, run out), dot, dot. The next over, another new bowler joined the list, collecting Maya caught for 6. CHCC 7/40.
It wasn’t long until the bowler of the moment continued her haul, bowling new batter Rebekah ‘Bobbie’ Drake to have us 8/41. In next to join Jessica ‘Nan’ Aldridge at the crease was our opening bowler, Hannah ‘Handsy’ Watson, who quickly went to work getting off the mark with a firmly struck 4. Handsy and Nan worked well together and steadily added 12 to our total before Nan found herself bowled by the bowler of the day for 1. CHCC 9/41.
Last but far from least, Amy ‘Wolfie’ Howell joined Handsy in the middle and the pair set about making the tail wag. Both batters found the boundary and worked hard to find the gaps and rotate the strike. At the close of the innings, the pair finished not out (Handsy 19, Wolfie 7), having added another 18 runs to our total - CHCC 9/71.
After a little pep talk at the innings break and some inspiration from Rachel ‘Greyhound’ Gray who reminded the group of our past efforts to defend low totals, we took to the field. Cricket can be particularly fickle sometimes, and (from the sidelines, at least) Sunday seemed to be one of those days.
On an afternoon where wickets had fallen, they were suddenly hard to come by. Our bowlers worked hard to put the pressure on, but despite some serious dot ball pressure from Handsy, Wolfie and Maya, the openers from Holy Trinity were not going to crack. Not even the extra banter from Bobbie at deep mid-wicket could distract these two from the task at hand! Over by over their openers steadily found the gaps in the field, rotated the strike and dispatched the occasional bad ball. Ultimately our total wasn’t quite enough for us to defend, and Holy Trinity made the required runs in the 15th over.
Hannah Watson 19*, 0/13 off 4, Izzy Fenner 13, Amy Howell 7*, 0/12 off 4
BOG: unanimous, Hannah ‘Handsy’ Watson for an outstanding effort with the bat and ball.
CHCC MEN’S 2ND XI vs West Ivanhoe United at Rammo
Monty was up with the 1s but stand-in skipper Jesse Parlane did a very good impersonation of him by winning the toss and bowling. We didn’t have it all our own way in the field as WIU racked up a solid 5/201 in their 40 hours, despite the efforts of Joel Clark (3/47), Lachie ‘Kool J’ Elmore (2/23 off 7) and the skipper himself (0/12 off 4).
Our batters took up the challenge nicely, with ‘Cal Presidente’ (Cal Behmer, 49) and Ned Zajac (54) paving the way, along with Stan Kroenert (20). The loss of a few wickets put us under the pump but we were on par with the run rate required thanks to Lachie Muraca (11 in his 2s debut), Angus Grant (12 not out) and Joel Clark, whose 21 got us within 4 runs of victory before he was run out in pursuit a winning score.
With two balls to go and four to win, Captain Parlane came to crease. With nerves of steel, he nonchalantly flicked the first ball he faced over backward square leg to the boundary, securing a famous victory!
CHICKEN: Cal Presidente earned entry to the Poultry Party with his magnificent 49.
CHCC MEN’S 1ST XI vs Deepdene United at HA Smith Reserve
Meanwhile, Monty was joined in the 1s by debutant Daisy Mobilia, surely our oldest-ever 1st XI first-gamer. Undoubtedly to Monty’s chagrin, we batted first and compiled a slightly under par 150, with Sam Barrett making 70 to prove his hot form with the bat in 2021/22 was no fluke. He got good support from Malty (30), Cottsy (19) and Ben Cap(tain)likas (10).
Despite excellent bowling from debutant Daisy (1/25 off 7) and Monty (2/23 off 8), the 150 score did prove to be under par and Deepdene got the runs 6 down with a few overs to spare.
CHICKEN: Stinger’s 70 gets him the chicken.
CHCC WOMEN’S 2ND XI vs Werribee at Rammo - Match report by B2
Finally, we had warm and sunny conditions to welcome Werribee to Rammo, for our Round 6 match.
Having won the toss, we chose to bat, and started with a new pair in Sherin and Laura. Werribee's bowlers consistently bowled a very full length with pace and despite best efforts, within the first set of overs we had dropped our first wickets.
Sunday's match was Alex's very first game and with great support in the "stands", Alex stepped up to bat at number 4. Our talented junior, Annika joined B2 at the crease and we looked to steady the innings and take advantage of a faster outfield. Annika showed patience beyond her years and the good communication we always talk about amongst our group.
Kate is one of our new players this season and has looked more and more confident with each innings. This continued when she joined B2 at the crease and proved great support, taking chances and making a couple of handy quick singles.
Runs continued and with the more support from Mum, Georgia and Heather, B2 had made 36 runs by the end of our innings.
Total: 9/65, after 18.2 overs (10 players)
It was hot in the field! Which was a welcome change from our other matches so far this season. Again we looked to Heather to open our bowling, and again it was Heather with an early breakthrough, doing it all on her own with a great caught and bowled!
Alex, Tylah and Annika continued our attack with intent and variation (and committed fielding from each). But with a strong partnership and a little help from sundries, Werribee was able to overhaul our total in the 9th over.
We did have some unexpected, and uninvited, visitors while fielding, with a couple of teenagers on bikes/scooters taking it upon themselves to ride across the field during play. Not to be discouraged by our suggestions to please use the paths around the field, they returned, and deftly knocked over our stumps as they rode past. Perhaps they just wanted to get as close as they could to the match…
Their disruption was minimal and we quickly resumed play without any further incident.
Next week we have a double header to look forward to, and an opportunity to try some new positions and combinations.
Well done Hillers!
CHICKEN: This week's Chicken goes to B2.
CHCC MEN’S OVER 40s vs Ivanhoe at Chelsworth Park
Our Over 40s men bowled first against Ivanhoe and copped a bit of a battering from their batters. I guess that’s why they call them batters. Ivanhoe made from their allocated 36 overs despite the efforts with the ball of Daisy (0/21 off 6), Stan (0/24 off 6) and Harro (2/36 off 6).
We fell short with the bat, but Ben King (36) was a stand-out, while Stan (18), Sandy (16), Craig Harris (13), Harro (11) and Stephen Tanner (10) all made it to double figures but couldn’t go on with it. In the end we finished on 9/164.
CHICKEN: Ben King’s 36 gets him the Royal Rooster.
CHCC MEN’S OVER 50s vs Glen Iris at Sir Arthur Rylah
Our Over 50s went down to Glen Iris. I know the scores but that’s all. (CHCC 8/197 cc vs Glen Iris’s 4/201 off just 23. Certainly not a LOW GI score.) If anyone can provide further details, please do.
CHCC MEN’S 4TH XI vs Monash Uni at Frearson Reserve – A Tough(ie) Road(ie) to victory
Back to the Saturday games, and in the 4s we had a HUGE MILESTONE GAME, with Roadie plying his 350th game! What a fantastic achievement and we celebrated it in style with a crushing win over Monash. We made 140 with the runs coming from Jack Barrett (27), Jonesy (21), Skobs (17), Daylon Seakins (16) and Roadie himself (14). We then skittled Monash fot just 71, thanks to the bowling of ANOTHER MILESTONE MAN, Toughie, whose 4/23 off 6 included his 200th club wicket! He was backed by Empty (2/5 off 2), Jack Speed (2/12 off 4), Geoff Smith (1/12 off 4) and Jonesy (1/19 off 4)
CHICKEN: The finger-lickin’ chicken goes to the finger-lickin’ spinner… TUFFY!
ABOVE: Milestone winners are grinners. The winning 4ths team with 350-gamer Ian Roadnight front and centre, with 200-wicket man Jarrod Tough next to him giving us the thumbs-up.
CHCC MEN’S 5TH XI vs Northcote United at Sir Arthur Rylah
Limited info on the 5s as their scores are not in yet. What I know is that we lost after batting first and making 218.
CHICKEN: Neek got his first club chicken! I don’t know what he did to get it but geez it was bloody good (I assume)!
TOM BELLIS AWARD
The Tom Bellis Award goes to Joel Clark! Followers of a certain religion talk of a certain person with the initials JC as a saviour from about 2000 years ago. This week, the Hillers had a JC of our own who saved our 2s from defeat!