Round 2 at the Hill — Rise of the Virtual Chicken
Another fine weekend of weather and cricket has left most Hillers feeling pretty good. While the two women’s sides didn’t quite get wins they were very competitive and have much to look forward to.
The men’s teams did particularly well, with the 1sts, 2nds, 3rds and 4ths all snagging convincing wins while the 5ths and 6ths were in the hunt until the very end in their games.
Introducing…
The VIRTUAL CHICKEN!
While we can’t get back to the rooms for face-to-face match reports, I’ll be asking each team’s captain to nominate their best player of the game each week. That player will get approximately nothing, but to boost their egos (and to acknowledge their fine performance), they will be awarded a Virtual Chicken.
Men’s 1st XI
The Men’s 1sts have done a lot right since collapsing to be 4/4 at the start of last week, and the boys were rewarded with a great win on Saturday. Out at H.A Smith Reserve Ben Cap won the toss and chose to bat against South Camberwell STC. Openers Nick Zajac and T-Rob set things up beautifully with a 130-run opening stand. T-Rob made 55 while Nick made a fine 60.
From there it was Hiccup City as both openers and Ben cap fell in quick succession as we lost 3/2. Not quite as bad as 4/4 but not far from it. Wickets kept falling as the boys chased runs but a late undefeated 27 from Jamie Holton took us to 8/191 off our 40 overs.
STC also got off to a good start with the bat but once the first wicket fell at 40, they kept tumbling regularly from there. Eamonn Scott was at his brilliant best, taking 4/21 off his 7.4 overs, and he was well backed up by Ben Elevens — sorry, I mean Benny Levens — who took 2/26 off 8, Malty (2/38 off 8), Nick (1/14 off 4) and Jimmy Wright (1/28 off 7). STC all out for 151 giving the Hill a comprehensive win!
THE VIRTUAL CHICKEN: For his excellent 55, T-Rob takes home the 1s’ Virtual Chicken. Onya T-Rob!
Men’s 2nd XI
Another toss win to Monty, another decision to send the opposition into bat, and another metaphorical stab to the heart of former president Chuck. But right now it’s proving to be a winning formula so Chuck certainly won’t be complaining too much.
On Saturday it was Knox Churches who were sent in, and Monty’s men kept them to 9/153 off their 40 overs. Sam Asdagi went for 36 off his six overs but importantly took three wickets. Matt Sale took 2/15 off his six overs, while Monty was his usual wily self, taking 1/19 off his eight. Lou Burstin (1/21 off 6) and Az Lanning (1/28 off 6) each grabbed a wicket, too.
Micah Worthington and Lou B got the chase off to a great start, putting on 87 before Worthy fell for 35. Louis kept going, though, and by the time he was out for a brilliant 68, the game was well in hand. A pair of 13s from J Ho and Jake Castelow and a couple of not outs from Liam O’Connor and Monty saw us home by four wickets with six overs to spare. That makes it two from two for the Twos!
THE VIRTUAL CHICKEN: An easy pick for Monty — Lou gets the nod for his great 68.
Men’s 3rd XI
Harro’s Heroes put the disappointment of a first-round loss behind them, and came out all guns blazing in Round 2. Batting first our 3s openers repeated the efforts of the 1s and 2s, putting together a great stand. First man out was James Allen, who made a fine 47, having put on 64 with Lenny Dean.
With Lenny continuing as anchor, Harro smashed the Edinburgh bowlers to all parts, making 56 as he and Lenny took the score to 167. Fletch chipped in with 12 in his return from injury and at the end of the 40 overs, we’d racked up 5/207 with Lenny batting all the way through for a magnificent 72 not out!
Chasing our big total Edinburgh were never in the hunt, bundled out for 90 as all five of our bowlers dominated. Chief destroyer was Matty “Mister” Tulk, who took 5/21 off 6 overs. He was backed up beautifully by Nails (Jesse Parlane) 2/17 off 8. Joel Clark (2/19 off 3), Mitch Challis (1/14 off 5) and Dec Niere (0/9 off 5).
THE VIRTUAL CHICKEN: Another chicken to a batter, with Harro giving the nod to Lenny Dean. Well done Lenny, but Tulky, you were stiff!
Men’s 4th XI
The 4s batted first after Gaz won the toss and, although our openers couldn’t get the start our 1s, 2s and 3s openers had, the middle order men made up for a stuttering start. With Geoff Smith (16) and The President, Adam Lewis (34) both solid, Action Man (Adrian Bielenberg) and ETAC (Eddie Chiroiu) both scored blazing unbeaten 50s, with Empty (12) and Lachie Elmore (15no) adding some icing on the cake to take us to 7/227.
Empty (Andrew Lanning) then mesmerised the batters with the ball, taking 5/27 off 8 as we cleaned Kew up for just 89. The other ballers were all good too, with Toughy taking 2/14 off 8, Action Man 1/12 off 8 and Geoff 1/1 off 2.3.
THE VIRTUAL CHICKEN: Another unlucky bowler as Gaz overlooked the 5/28 from Empty (who he says will be too busy clearing another space at home for more trophies) in favour of Action Man’s 50 not out and 1/12. He splits the chicken with ETAC, who also cracked the half ton. Well done men!
Women’s 1st XI
Bek Drake reports that almost every player of the Clifton Hill Women’s 1st XI played their first game on a turf wicket against Melbourne University Cricket Club. We lost the toss and were sent in to bat. Izzy and Rex (Lauren) again got the team off to a good start.
After Izzy was unfortunately run out from a direct hit, Trouper and Rex continued to keep the run rate going. After Trouper got caught, Rex stayed strong as wickets fell around her. Unfortunately Rex eventually got caught out (to be fair, the catch was amazing). Wickets continued to fall as we finished out the 20 overs, setting a target of 64. The top batters were Rex with 20, Trouper (Claire) with 16 and Izzy with 12.
We set a difficult task for the bowlers, and Handsy (Hannah W) was up to the job, taking a wicket in her first over. We tried hard in the field and all of the bowlers were tight (Handsy 1/18 off 4, Junior (Bec N) 0/16 off 4, Trouper 0/16 off 3, Izzy 0/14 off 2.1 and Rex 0/4 off 2). Unfortunately we did not have enough runs on the board and Melb Uni ran down the total in the 16th over.
Special congratulations to Rachel Gray and Hannah Gray, who debuted in the 1st XI. Both batted for the first time ever. Hannah made her first ever run and nothing went past Rachel in the field.
THE VIRTUAL CHICKEN: Each week, a best player (BOG) will be voted by the players. This week, congratulations to Rex, who has been named BOG!
Women’s 2nd XI
Sarah Catterwell reports on how the Hillsters went this week:
The women’s second XI got off to a solid start and kept the Altona Roosters run rate to a minimum in the first 5 overs. Bec “Welly” Catterwell was enormous in the field saving numerous runs on the boundary with her well-timed slides (which I have on good authority she had been practising all week).
Nanna was spot on with her bowling but unfortunately we were only able to break through a couple of times with Razzle and Mum both grabbing a wicket each. The Roosters posted a solid total of 2/126 and unfortunately our run chase didn’t get off to the best start with the loss of 3 quick wickets.
Nanna and Vovo were able to steady the ship and compiled a partnership of 41. With the overs ticking down the batters were left with no choice but to try and play some big shots in the hope of chasing down the total. We continued to lose wickets frequently but on a positive note we were able to bat out the full 20 overs and got to 8/75.
THE VIRTUAL CHICKEN: MVP for this week saw Nanna win in a landslide vote. She had an exceptional all round game including top scoring with 25 runs, tight accurate bowling and some brilliant fielding efforts.
Men’s 5th XI
Simon Skoblar’s Superstars lost the toss and bowled first against Boroondara, and our bowlers did a good job in restricting them to 9/130 off the maximum 35 overs. We had some excellent performers with the ball, including Pat Malone (3/21 off 7), Anthony Johnson (3/18 off 6), STANTON KROETNER, who was the opposite of his anagram, a TOKEN NON-STARTER (0/12 off 7), Luke Williams (2/27 off 6) and Simon Jackson (1/25 off 4).
We got off to a good start chasing the total, with Mark Jones (the Good Jonesy) making another undefeated 50 (retired) and Simon making 15. The pair put on 37 for the opening wicket, and good efforts from skipper Skoblar (16) and Rhys Seakins (15) took us close to the target but we fell just short, compiling 6/124.
Bad luck boys; a win is just around the corner!
THE VIRTUAL CHICKEN: The Jones by takes home the invisible chicken for his undefeated half century!
Men’s 6th XI
I had the honour of captaining the newest Hill team this week and, after we didn’t quite have the numbers to get a side together in Round 1, we had a great bunch of boys and men this week. I won the toss and chose to bat (that’s the Chuck influence there) and Raghu (who made 26) and the ageless Jeff Burstin got us off to a solid start, putting on 38 for the first wicket. We lost a few quick ones from there but were rescued by our three senior debutants, 15-year-old Will Fiddes, 12-year-old Lachlan Muraca and Michael Jones (the Even Better Jonesy), who made a good-looking 14.
Will showed a maturity that I (as a 55-year-old) have not yet attained, and he finished with 27 not out. CaptainJack Barrett came in at the end and smashed a quickfire 15. In the end we finished on 7/125 off our 35 overs, a competitive total.
Captain Jack and I opened the bowling and we managed to tie down the Glen Waverley Cougars batsmen and before long we had them 3/34. They gradually got on top, though, and eventually passed us five down with a few overs to spare. Our bowling was excellent but we probably left about 30 runs in the shed when batting so couldn’t quite snag the win. I took 1/19 off my 7, Jeff Burstin took 1/30 off his 7 but could have had three other wickets but for some dropped catches (including by me at first slip), Hugo Northrop took 1/24 off his 4, Will Fiddes 1/21 off 4, Jack Barrett 0/29 off 7 and Lachlan looked very good in his one over, which went for just one run.
Lachlan was also great in the field and was not afraid to come up to me and suggest a field change. I took his excellent advice! Thanks to Lach and everyone who made my job easy. It was a great team effort and we did very well to remain in the hunt until near the end, especially considering we had three debutants.
THE VIRTUAL CHICKEN: Young Will Fiddes did it all on senior debut. He batted and bowled really well and his fielding — which included a direct hit run-out and a great catch — was top-notch. He gets what I suspect will be the first of many chickens!
THE VIRTUAL TOM BELLIS
NICK Z!
The virtual Tom Bellis Award for Round 2 goes to Nick Zajac. Nick confirmed the old adage that all the best cricketers have an A, a C and a Z in their surname by making a great 60 with the bat, followed by a great bowling spell that 1/14 off 4 overs. Onya Nick!
Overall, a good effort to get four wins from eight teams this week. Let’s go for five or more in Round 3. Enjoy your week Hillers!
Cheers,
Gigs/Tangles/Max/Chicken Man/Gigalicious/Gigatron etc (Andrew Gigacz)