|
 Colts Report vs UNSW
With University exams and a spate of injuries within the
club, the Colts were looking a little undermanned and a couple
of Rocket’s pommy mates and the ever faithful Rod MacDonald
were called upon to fill in for the weekend. This wouldn’t
stop Macca from enjoying his Friday night, messaging Millar at
4am to confirm a lift to the ground in just a few hours time.
(James Ellison in action)
The toss was lost, almost a formality these days, and the
UNSW captain chose to don the pads and have first use of a
great looking batting track. After a warm-up that involved
more introductions than actual physical activity (much to
Macca’s delight), the Colts took the field with Clifford and
Skins sharing the new rock.
Skins bowled an inspired first spell conceding only a
handful of runs in his first 5 overs and picking up the
important wicket of the UNSW captain. It was a display that
wouldn’t have been out of place in 3rd grade and
set the Colts towards victory.
Clifford unfortunately struggled to find his rhythm and was
replaced by Ellison after a few overs. Now a high school
graduate, Ellison bowled tight consistent lines that troubled
the New South bats and, in partnership with Ranney, kept a lid
on the run rate.
 Ranney looked a little rusty -
delivering 6 full tosses in the first over – but confused the
New South batsman into playing all 6 gently to cover. After
that he found his length and restricted them to only 20 runs
from his full allotment. It was a great spell and was unlucky
not to be awarded a bagful of LBW’s by the UNSW umpired.
(Skipper Dave Millar in
action)
After Ellison exhausted his age restricted overs, JRJ was
thrown the pill and continued to starve the New South batsmen
of runs on a top quality batting strip.
The problem came towards the end of the innings with 12
overs that needed to be found. Clifford was expensive early
and Millar was dispatched to the fence on numerous occasions
before Skinner had taken a marvellous catch running around
from mid-off to take a one handed specky at mid-on (who knows
what Ranney was doing at mid-on, but he was nowhere to be
found). Unfortunately, Skins pulled a quadricep in the process
and was unable to back up his first spell. Hence the dilemma.
Millar took one end and kept it fairly quiet – even bowling
a maiden in the 50th over – and Clifford took the
other before being replaced by Ellison for his final two. A
few loose deliveries saw the New South batsmen creep over 200
and a few dropped catches and a handful of missed run outs
meant that UNSW posted a score of 6/233 - well past what we
should have got them for.
 It was going to be a hard chase
and the Gordon batsmen needed to get off to a good start –
Weaves didn’t let the captain down.
In true Weaves fashion he chanced his luck and played a
well constructed one-day innings. A couple of cheap early
wickets fell - Ben “Rocket’s mate” Linfield bowled for 6 and
JRJ caught playing at a wide delivery for 14 – before Tom “The
Pom” Stretton settled into his innings and began to dominate
the bowling.
(Jason Russell Jones in
action)
The pitch remained true and the two men continued to pile
on the runs and frustrate the New South bowlers as they
consistently found gaps in the field. Weaves (92) was
unselfishly dismissed trying to secure a bonus point and
Stretton (78) fell a couple of runs short of the target which
left Selby to get the Colts across the line with 6 overs to
spare.
The only thing to tarnish the day was the way in which the
UNSW captain failed to really congratulate our boys after a
comprehensive victory by all 11 players.
It was a real team effort. Everyone stood up to be counted.
It was a dominant display that will hopefully be repeated this
week against the grand finalists from last year.
With the news that all of the other 5 grade sides had
defeated Wests, the song was heartily sung and the boys
retired to the Greengate to celebrate in style.
Congratulations to all those involved in such a successful
weekend and thanks to Tiddles and others for the generous bar
tab that assisted all those in enjoying their Saturday
evening. Let’s hope this weekend brings much of the same!
UP GORDON, GET FAH YOU BAH
Dave Millar
| 
