Round 9 Senior Report

Round 9 v Belgrave at Home

Round 9 saw us host third placed Belgrave at home in a game that for us was a virtual finals game. What resulted was a most extraordinary days cricket, and one of the best games the club has seen in recent history.

We won the toss and batted on day one, and we were intent to bat our 80 overs and get a good score on the board. Chris Hill continued his awesome batting form and notched up a great 58. Chris and Tyden Latty (34) put together a solid top order partnership to get us off to a good start. We were cruising along nicely, but a couple of quick wickets just before tea saw us go to the break at 5/132. After tea we had a couple of useful partnerships, Nick Whitty (18) and Quentin Wells (19) both looked very good and joined Demo for 40 run partnerships. Demo finished on 57*, and we were bowled out in the 77th over for 227.

We went into day two very confident with the knowledge that whilst we didn't have a huge score on the board, anything over 200 would be tough to chase down against our bowlers. We went out there with an attacking plan and a very positive attitude, and what followed was something very special.

We got off to the perfect start with dour Belgrave opener Jon Levell being run out with the score on zero by a great bit of fielding from Pebble. Enter Scott Buckingham. Buckers had a day out, and bowled the spell of the season so far. The Belgrave batsmen had no answer as he ripped through the top order dismissing the top five batsmen. He broke the back of their innings and finished with the excellent figures of 5/30 from 12 overs. He was well supported by some great bowling from Dave Smith (2/36 off 9) and Chris Hill (2/16 off 5.2). After an amazing first session we bowled Belgrave out for 116 on the stroke of tea, and we knew it was our day. We decided to enforce the follow on and go for broke.

Dave Smith and Buckers opened up in the second innings and the Belgrave wickets kept tumbling. Smithy (2/41 off 11) bowled superbly, but it was Buckers again who was our main destroyer. He took 4/20 off 9 to give him the amazing match figures of 9/50 off 21 overs in one of the great performances for the season. We still had a lot of work to do as the last few batsmen dug in to try and save the day. Chris Hill's skill and experience ensured the day would be ours, he bowled a fantastic spell of 4/14 off 8 overs, giving him 6 wickets for the match. It came down to the last over of the day which Chris bowled, and a fantastic close in catch by Nick Whitty had Belgrave all out for 94, and sealed the outright win and one of the most amazing days cricket that any of us have played in.

We still have a lot of work to do this season, but at last we played to near our potential and have some much needed momentum. It's great to get that winning feeling back, especially in that fashion, and that win has reminded us all that when we are on, no team can stand in our way.

Two games and two wins to go - bring it on!!