Round 5 Senior Report

1sts Vs Mountain Gate at Mountain Gate - A great day for the 1st XI saw us play our best day of cricket so far this year and get that all important first win on the board. With a fairly modest 200 on the board we were going to have to bowl and field very well to overcome a strong Mountain Gate batting line up.

We got off to a pretty good start with Demo getting the first wicket with 35 runs on the board. Knox Tavern Cup debutant Scott Buckingham took a few overs to get going and then bowled a magnificent spell in which he dismissed the number three and four batsmen both for ducks. He also got the vital wicket of Mountain Gate's best batsmen thanks to a spectacular catch from Chris Hill at mid on. Scotty had a great day finishing with 3/54 from 20 overs including 10 maidens. Tim Binks then came on and bowled superbly tight and put a lot of pressure on the batsmen and was rewarded with a key wicket for his efforts. Two batsmen then got a partnership together, and at tea the score was 5/108 with the game very much in the balance.

After tea Demo came back and took three quick wickets and the game was ours for the taking. He ended up with 4/43 from 18 overs. Sean Alston bowled very well and proved difficult to score off finishing with 0/11 from 7 overs. Some resistance from the lower order saw the last couple of wickets quite hard to get. We threw the ball around in an effort to finish them off, and it was Tim Emmett who got the breakthrough courtesy of a great catch in close by Sean Alston. Timmy bowled very well again finishing with 1/7 from 7 overs. Binksy got the last wicket giving him great figures of 2/20 from 11 overs.

This win was a great all round effort from everyone. The ground fielding and catching was faultless, and the mood on the field showed that our hunger for victory has returned. Like last year, again we proved that we are one of the most talented teams in the competition, and can beat anyone we come up against. Today's victory is step one in what will be another successful year for the 1st XI

.LCC 200 (T Latty 44, C Hill 39, W Peluso 29, T Emmett 24) def Mountain Gate 176 (M Dempsey 4/43, S Buckingham 3/54, T Binks 2/20)

2nds Vs Aura Vale at Aura Vale - After Azza & Deano Morris got us of to a great start at the end of day, we started the 2nd week at 2/82 and chasing 139 for victory. Well from a captain's & a team's point of view what a day it turned out to be. We were never troubled by the Auravale attack and the three batsmen who got to the wicket showed off their ability and skills. The not out batsmen overnight, Shannon Whitty & Steve Finch, put on 130 runs for the 3rd wicket to take the score to 3/195 after Finchy was bowled for one of his best digs for a while of 65. Shannon & Finchy passed the Auravale total in the 12th over of the day, scoring at 4.8 runs per over. When Finchy departed Shannon was on 58 with a century beckoning. Big Burgo strode to the crease looking for his first big score at Beaverland and he didn't disappoint. After getting himself in Burgo showed us all how good a bat he is and along with Shannon they smacked Auravale to all points of the ground - it was a pleasure to watch. At about 2.45 p.m. I had the pleasure of standing at square leg to watch Shannon play a shot off his legs for 2 runs to reach his ton which bought all the beaver boys to their feet in appreciation. Shannon went on to make a magnificent 125 not out in 127 minutes and included 14 boundaries and 1 six. Not long after Burgo made his first milestone for the club by smashing 62 not out in just over 63 minutes. I decided to declare our innings closed at 3 for 326, 187 ahead of Auravale's first innings score just before tea. The declaration bought to an end an unbeaten 131 run partnership between Shannon and Burgo and was probably the best team innings I have been involved in since I have been at the club. The most pleasing thing about the innings was, that apart from one partnership, whenever a new batsmen came in they pushed the ball around, gave the strike to the 'in' batsmen, until they felt comfortable, and then went on to make great partnership. Our great partnerships for the game were 63, 130 & 131.

After tea we took to the field in an attempt for an outright, which didn't quite work out. Everyone bowled well but things just didn't fall out way. Burdo got the first break through in the 6th over with the score on 10 when big Dravi took a catch at backward square leg and then Stumpy had their no. 3 caught behind in his first over, the 17th of the innings - 2/69. Tyson Jones was bought into the attack and clearly bowled his best spell since coming up to the 2nd's bowling with great flight and very well to his field. He was rewarded with a wicket in his first over when Shannon took a catch a short mid wicket - 3/91. Just to top the game off, Azza was bought on for a bowl in his 100th game and did himself proud with a catch behind on his second ball and very unlucky not to be on a hat trick with a big appeal for LBW, which was turned down - 4/104. Although he didn't get any wickets in the 2nd innings, Dave Smith bowled a really great line and length and was very unlucky not to have any scalps. Although no outright, a crushing win by the boys and a perfect lead up to a big game this week against one of the fancies this year in De Coite - Footballers.

Aura Vale 139 (S Burdon 3/28, G Dean 3/45, D Smith 2/15, S Whitty 2/30) & 4/126 (G. Azzopardi 1/3, G. Dean 1/23, T. Jones 1/32, S. Burdon 1/38) lost to LCC 3/322 (S Whitty 125*, S Finch 65, S Burgess 62*, G Azzopardi 39, D Morris 20) S. Whitty - 5 catches, N. Whitty - 4 catches

3rds Vs Knox at Knox - TBA

4ths - TBA

5ths - TBA