Round 3 at the Hill

Another week of mixed fortunes at the Hill, with wins and losses sprinkled throughout all men’s and women’s senior grade and the vets. The Men’s 3s, 4s and 5s, as well as the Vets Div 7 side, all got a win, while all other sides were very competitive.

Women’s 1st XI — Report by Bek Drake

The Women’s 1st XI ventured out to Caroline Springs to take on the undefeated ladder leaders. After losing the toss, we were sent to the field. Our solid opening bowling pair of Handsy and Junior started superbly, with Hannah building the pressure while Junior got a wicket in her opening over. Amy came on for the fifth and sent the stumps flying, leaving Caroline Springs 2/20 off 5.

Rex and Amy continued the stellar bowling display down the other end, with Rex getting a maiden in her second over. The pressure was felt after the next change of ends, and Handsy broke through with a wicket and Junior got another. Caroline Springs started trying to hit big, but struggled to find boundaries. Trouper took advantage of their attempt to increase the run rate with a caught behind.

The superb sisters (Han and Rach) were again outstanding in the field. We managed to finish the 20 overs limiting Caroline Springs to 5/95. All of the bowlers had outstanding figures (Handsy 1/20 off 4, Junior 2/27 off 4, Amy 1/14 off 4, Rex 0/10 off 4, Izzy 0/7 off 2 and Trouper 1/12 off 2).

Our opening batting pair of Rex and Izzy started well. The Caroline Springs bowlers were fast and accurate. However, our batters seemed to be getting in to the game when Rex was unfortunately run out on 12. Rex was backing up well when Izzy hit a beautiful straight drive. Well, it was beautiful, until the bowler got a fingernail onto it and it careered into the stumps. Unfortunately Izzy was bowled out not too much later for 11.

Trouper and Bobbie were at the crease for a short time before Trouper got caught and bowled. From there, Bobbie and Charlotte were able to form a partnership and to steady the team. However (by Bobbie’s own admission) she probably steadied it a bit too much, with the run rate falling dramatically.

With 5 overs to go and still requiring 44 for victory, Bobbie tried to hit out and was clean bowled. From there, Handsy came in and tried her hardest to finish the game off with Charlotte. Both of them perfected the sneaky single, but boundaries were hard to come by. We finished the game 4/78, with our top scorers Handsy (16*) and Charlotte (15*)

VIRTUAL CHICKEN: Our Virtual Chicken for best on ground this week, as voted by the players, goes to Handsy, for her great all round performance!

Women’s 2nd XI — Report by Sarah Catterwell

The women’s second XI hosted their first home game of the year against the young lasses from Keilor. With the weather clearing captain Razzle was able to win the toss and elected to bat first. It was a strange innings with Keilor giving away 52 extras.

However, to the opposition’s credit, when they weren’t giving away sundries they were taking wickets. Unfortunately we didn’t score many runs ourselves and let’s just say the “extras” top scored. On a positive note we were able to bat out the 20 overs for the second week in a row to finish on 9/71.

Trying to defend a smallish target we really wanted to put an emphasis on being switched on in the field. The opening batters for Keilor shared a partnership of 47 with great running between the wickets as well as some big shots. We knew the chances were going to come though, with a lot of balls being hit in the air.

The ever reliable Nanna was able to get the first breakthrough thanks to a great catch in the outfield by Bib. I do believe this was Bib’s first ever catch in her illustrious cricketing career! The Doc was able to finish with figures of 2/4 (catches to Bib — yes again — and B2) and mum was able to nab a wicket with a catch to yours truely. Unfortunately this wasn’t enough with the oppo chasing down the total with a few overs to spare.

In terms of what we are going to work on going forward one thing would be our running between the wickets. We need to be pushing out that first run quickly in the hope that we can run a second if that option is on.

VIRTUAL CHICKEN: MVP for this week was close but Bib was able to pip the bowling performance of Doc and the all-round performance of Mum. Bib had her best game yet for Clifton Hill with great hands in the field which really gave us a chance to steal the game late.

Men’s 1st XI

The Ones were at home to Northcote United, who won the toss and sent us in at Rammo. A solid opening stand between T-Rob and Nick Zajac (23) took us to 32 before T-Rob fell for 10. Wickets fell a bit too regularly from there and we slumped to 6/98 despite a good knock from Lou Burstin (23). Up stepped Eamonn Scott to the plate, and with support from DOC (21) and Sam Barrett (10), he raised our total to 9/194 with a magnificent half-century.

Eamonn then kept us in the match with the ball, claiming NU’s first wicket. With Nick Zajac also impressing with the ball, taking 3/27 off 7.2, we were in the game right ‘til the end but NU ran down our total seven down with four balls to spare. Eamonn finished with 2/24 off his eight and Malty was also excellent, taking 1/24 off 8.

VIRTUAL CHICKEN: Young Eamonn gets the invisible chicken for his 50 and 2/24.

Men’s 3rd XI

After a Round 1 loss, the Threes have hit top form and recorded our second win in a row on Saturday. Harro lost the toss (cut-and-paste, every week) and West Ivanhoe United sent us in to bat. We lost James Allen and Zac Wilson for a pair of quackers but Matty Tulk and Max Hudson steadied the ship until Huddo fell for 12.

Huddo’s dismissal brought second-gamer Mick Jones to the crease. Clearly having learnt everything there is to know about batting from his captain in the 6ths the previous week), the Better Jonesy put together a magnificent knock of 106 not out! Well backed up by Tulky (38), Fletch (26) and Matt Hobbs (23no), Jonesy took us all the way through the remaining overs as we racked up 5/231.

WIU were never really in the hunt chasing such a big score and they could only managed 7/138 in their 40 overs. Great bowling from everyone in our attack, especially Joel Clark, who took 4/24 off his 8. He had great back up from Boggle (Declan Niere — 2/19 off 7), The Tulkinator (1/11 off 6), Nails Parlane (1/19 off 6) and Huddo (0/20 off 6)

VIRTUAL CHICKEN: For his magnificent spell of 4/24 off 8, Joel Clark brings home the hologrammatic chicken.

Men’s 2nd XI

Monty won the toss and pulled his usual trick, sending the opposition in. That looked to be a pretty good move when the Victorian Cavaliers slipped to 2/6 but they gradually recovered from there to post 154. Lenny Dean was the star with the ball, taking 4/26 off his 8 overs. Half-Empty (Az Lanning) bowled well, too, taking 2/13 off 5.4, and Monty (1/19 off 8) and Sam Asdagi (2/29 off 6) were also very good.

Our chase got off to a bad start with Worthy falling for a duck, and when Sam and J-Ho fell soon after we were 3/22 and in “all sorts” as they say in the classics. Stan Mills (43) and Jake Castelow (29) staged a great recovery but after they were both out, only Monty (21) offered in real resistance and we got rolled for 134 to lose by 20.

VIRTUAL CHICKEN: Lenny Dean is unlucky not to be a Chicken Man for a second consecutive week but Monty has given the nod to Stan the Man Mills for his 43 runs and his good looks.

Men’s 4th XI: Gaz lost the toss and our Fours had a bat. Our top order never got going with only two batsmen getting into the teens. The tail wagged with some impressive batting at the end with Roy Girvan and Jack Barrett adding some valuable runs, with Roy finishing on 28 not out, as we finished with a total of 133 from our 40 overs.

Our bowling and fielding were great all day. Wickets were coming slowly, but so were the runs. It all came down to Mount Waverley Uniting needing 14 off the final two overs with Action Man and Tuffy to bowl them. Action bowled a good tight over leaving MWU needing 10 from the last.

The batsmen were swinging but Tuffy had it under control — or so everyone thought. With 4 required from last ball, The Tough Man sent down a flat half tracker. This confused everyone, including the batsmen. In the end, it resulted in a run out, giving the Fours victory by 2 runs in a thriller. Captain Jack Barrett bowled beautifully, taking 3/20 off his 8, while Roy “The Girv” Girvan took 2/17 off his 8. Action Man (1/23 off 8) was also excellent.

VIRTUAL CHICKEN: Gaz gave the virtual chicken to The Girv batting/bowling double of 28no and 2/17. Onya Roy!

Men’s 5th XI: Simon won the toss and the Fives batted first at Fairlea East. Mark Jones, stung by me referred to Mick Jones as the Better Jonesy a few paragraphs ago, came out swinging and clocked up a 89, while his opening partner, Simon “Jacko” Jackson, went even further, making 96. Stanton Kroenart joined in the fun, making 70, and we clocked up a huge 5/297 in just 35 overs.

All of our bowlers did a great job in dismissing Glen Waverley Sunday (playing on a Saturday) for just 131. Anthony Johnson (2/10 off 6), Pat Malone (2/18 off 4) and Gilly Northrop (2/26 off 4) each took a pair of wickets, with Stanton, Rhys Seakins, Daylon Seakins and Alex Smith each picking up one.

A great and well deserved win to the Fives. Well done to all, especially Skipper Skoblar!

VIRTUAL CHICKEN: Jacko gets the chicken for his great knock, in which he fell just four runs short of a ton.

Men’s Vets Div 7

Earlier this year our great mate “Pubby” Dave Sheehan passed away and Division 7 vets honoured ‘Pubby’ with a minute’s silence before the game. Big thanks to Glen Iris for joining in and paying their respects, too.

The Over The Hillers won the toss and thanks to fine knocks from Craig Harris (40 retired not out), Stan “The Man” Kroenart (43 retired not out) and Jonesy (37no), we compiled an excellent 7/204 in our 36 overs.

Glen Iris were never in the hunt and were all out for 141 all. Stan The Man (2/14) did it with the ball, too, as did Sal Ferrari (3/38), Jonesy (2/17), Pete Ryan (1/16) and The Garinji Express, aka Kevin Moore (1/16)

Men’s 6th XI: I won the toss (Harro could learn and thing or two from me) and decided to bowl (I could learn a thing or two from Chuck) on the smallest senior ground in the history of cricket. You know how some grounds get described as a “postage stamp” because they’re so small? Yeah, well Sir Arthur Rylah Reserve is a postage stamp ripped in half and folded in two.

Anyway, I opened up the bowling with the oldest man in the team (me) and the youngest kid in the team (12-year-old Lachlan Muraca). We didn’t do a bad job in keeping the run rate down to a manageable pace, mainly due to Lachlan, who took 4/30 off his 7 overs. On a normal-sized ground, this would have been 4/15.

About halfway through the innings I provided the spectators with some comic relief by getting under a high ball at mid wicket and trying to catch the ball with me eye. It didn’t work, and I headed off to the Austin for the second time in 14 months to get stitched up. While I was gone, Casey Filips, who hadn’t played for several years, took over the captaincy and did a great job. He brought on Craig Mawdsley who bamboozled all with his left-arm unorthodox spin. He took 4/20 as we rolled Northcote United for 187 off their 35 overs, a good effort on a tiny ground.

By the time I got back we had knocked off a fair bit of the target, with Rags (Raghu Sondhi) retiring at 50 and Hugo Northrop making a quickfire 24. Wickets started to fall but Max Sundram (17), Will Fiddes (10), Craig Mawdsley (10) kept the score ticking over. Lachlan and I added 34 for the 9th wicket to get us within sight of victory. Rags came back in and hit a mighty 6 and took us to within a couple of runs of a win. Unfortunately Lachlan, who had batted brilliantly for his 21, holed out and we fell agonisingly short, losing by ONE RUN!

CAPTAIN’S NOTE: This game was played under some very difficult circumstances, firstly because I had to get carted off to hospital and secondly because our opposition did not, shall we say, embrace the spirit of cricket, exactly. But under trying conditions, we fought to the very end and though the result in the book reads “L”, we won the match in every other way possible. Special thanks to Bruno Muraca (Lachlan’s dad) for taking me to the Austin, and to Casey and Raghu for showing excellent leadership under pressure.

VIRTUAL CHICKEN: I cannot sing the praises of Lachlan Muraca highly enough. At 12 years of age, he showed a maturity far beyond his years, and well beyond what we saw from the majority of players wearing the opposition colours. He bowled and batted magnificently, and he will one day need a extra virtual room in his house to keep all the virtual chickens he’s going top win.

Men’s Vets Div 3

Unfortunately the Division 3 Over the Hillers could only muster 10 players for our match against Kew at Victoria Park, Kew, but despite that fact, we put up a pretty good show. We lost the toss and batted and James Allen (22) and Paul Hodge (8) got us off to a solid start. With a fine 40 retired from Ian Nolan, and 36 from Harro, we posted a competitive total of 134.

With the ball Daisy (2/30 off 6) and Gigs (0/19 off 6) tied the batters down, and Harro (0/13 off 3), captain Tony Peake (1/10 off 3) and others all bowled well but, with only 10 on the field, Kew got the runs with a few overs to spare.

Bad luck old boys. Let’s get a full side together and a win at Rammo on Sunday week!

THE VIRTUAL TOM BELLIS

Some fine candidates for the Tom Bellis this week, but the clear winner was the New Improved Jonesy, Michael Jones. Well done, younger Jonesy!

This is Mick Jones

It might not be the Mick Jones that made 106 not out on Saturday, but we don’t yet have a photo of that Mick Jones. What we do know is that OUR Mick Jones answered THIS Mick Jones’s question — Should I stay (in) or should I go (out) — with an emphatic “STAY IN”. Well batted, Jonesy!

Enjoy your week and let’s go for wins in every grade in Round 4!

Cheers,

Gigs