D-grade Match Report
The Bears made their way out to the edge of the world, also Radico's backyard, Bonner to take on The Tigers in a must win battle. Azz and HP surprisingly arriving in one piece despite the stories of HP's fight with the GPS. Spooner got things to a great start with his second successful coin toss of 2015 and after a long delay (actually thinking of a GT-directed sledge), elected to bat.
After a bit of discussion, 50 game veteran (and first game since becoming a father), Damo opened up the batting with Azz. Damo seemed to be riding his luck early, caught off a no-ball (thanks Ohms) and surviving a close LBW shout (thanks Tijo). After copping some sledging about the run rate from the opposition, Azz and Damo settled in their opening partnership fell 1 shy of 50 when Azz was dismissed for 22 for second consecutive week.
Radico joined Damo out in the middle and saw things through to drinks @ 1/70. After lifting tempo somewhat after drinks, Radico was dismissed out of nowhere for a well compiled 32. With Damo showing signs of slowing down, GT joined him and put to use of his best skills (talking) and helped Damo reach a magical milestone. Damo becoming the first Bear to score a 50 in his 50th game, easily eclipsing his previous best of 29. Having reached his 50, Damo opened up a bit only to be dismissed for 61 a short time later.
Meanwhile, the hospitality of the north was on display, with Josh cooking up a storm on the BBQ available at the ground. We even had shelters and a playground, hospitality you just don't get in the South.
Damo's demise triggered a mini collapse, as GT, Drady and Josh all fell in quick succession, before Ads and Ohms (who had been a late call up to the Bonner match following the mysterious disappearance of the named debutant) showed off their Faulkner (finishing) skills bringing the score up to 6/191.
Following his customary apology, Drady got us off to great start with a rip snorter of an LBW and another castle destroyed - although Drady's celebration second time round, nearly destroyed his own hamstring. Drady missed out on a third when Radico put down the opener (formerly of EC's XI), although this wasn't the only time we put down the opener as a number of Bears missed chances from him. At the other end, Rankin was his usual moving the ball both ways, but no luck when it came to wickets.
Azz and HP were brought on next and I lost count of the number of half shouts that Azz had during his spell, there were a couple that were more than just half shouts including dubious not out stumping. HP was incredibly miserly from the other end, somewhat frustrating the opener who seemed to be getting nine lives. He very nearly had a 10th life, when Rankin had to have 2 goes at snaring a catch off HP. Spooner was secretly hoping that Rankin would drop the catch so that he could return the mouthful that Rankin had given him the previous over.
At this point our attention turned to the South that was no longer visible as a storm circled Bonner, with lightning seemingly striking directly over GT's head at every chance, was this a sign that the gates were closing and GT would be trapped in the north for good. Or was this HP's doing, given his desire to have the Bears all move to the north and make Bonner our home base.
I digress... GT and Tijo were brought on post drinks for short spells, before the return of HP and Drady. Drady, who by this stage, was almost delirious with his sledging, sticking out his big mitt, to claim a contender for catch of the season. With the game in the balance and the Tigers seemingly having lost their index finger, we eventually went down with a couple of overs to spare.
Whilst it was a loss, Damo's knock certainly provided one of the season highlights, who knows when he'll get to turn out for game #51.
C-grade Match Report - courtesy of Sha'neeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeoooooooooooo
The day started off in vintage Spooner 2014 form with Shane losing the toss and the Redbacks deciding to have a bat. Both teams were down players at the start of the game but thanks to Jono and Armface the Bears were able to string together 11 by the end of the first over with Armface claiming he misplaced his keys. I’m not sure dropping them in a big bowl on Saturday night is ‘misplacing’ them and it was duly commented on for the remainder of the match.
Right from ball one the Bears quicks, Buttsy and Shaneeeo had the Redbacks in all sorts and they would have been the star speaker at a Gastro convention with the runs all but drying up, but the Redbacks were resolute in defence. The run of singles came to an end as the first boundary of the innings came off the last ball of the 8th over (a top edge) and the Redbacks were able to see off the new ball bowlers without the loss of a wicket at 0/10.
Jono and DB were next to torment the Redbacks and before long Jono was rewarded when he got the first of his wickets. A second shortly followed and the Redbacks went to the drinks break at 2/58 with Jono claiming both wickets with fast, tight bowling.
The Redbacks came back with a different attitude after the drinks break and were aggressive and looking for quick runs. Chook continued his fine spell and was on target as he claimed the wicket of dangerous opener LBW. Some more good bowling from Chook was supplemented by late call-up and Polar Bears debutant Dave Gray, who was more concerned with starting Year 7 the following day than bowling to players 3-4 (or maybe 5) times his age. Dave got his first Bear wicket on debut when the batsman tried hitting out but instead of finding the boundary he found the perfectly placed fielder. A fantastic show of support as Polar Bears ruffled the youngens hair, of course we were all jealous!
Some more quick runs from an aggressive left-handed Redback saw the Captain call Buttsy’s name once again and he came on for his second spell and was rewarded with 3 wickets in the spell. He noted pre-game that ‘nothing gets through these hands’ and it was proven with the red hot contender for catch of the year as he nonchalantly caught an absolute rocket sent to destroy us all in his right hand. It amazed the opposition and every player on the field (including the two batsmen and the umpires) came to shake his hand on a job well done.
That piece of Buttsy magic was the beginning of the end as Buttsy, Jono and DB cleaned up the tail and brought the Redbacks innings to a close with a Gribbs catch, the only time his hands got anywhere near the ball the whole game. They ended with an incalculable 183. The pick of the Bears bowling attack were Jono with 4/28 and Buttsy 3/39 with some good support from other bowlers.
There was good fielding from the whole team, especially Gribb’s shin, stomach, chest, knee and well, any part of his body bar his hands and new Bear Steve “Lightning McQueen” Cochrane , who impressed the old heads of the team by continually throwing himself around in the field to save many boundaries, much to the surprise of the Redbacks. We may have a end of season race to organise with Timmy ‘The Beer Baron’ and Steve “Lightning Mcqueen’ similar in pace (too fast for the rest of us) .They say catches win matches and the Bears would have been in with a good chance because of catches to Rocket, Gribbs, Dave Gray, Magnum, DB and the aforementioned best c&b you'll ever see from Buttsy.
Unfortunately this is where the journey ends as the rain started coming down and after 30 minutes the game was abandoned. Big thanks to those who filled in as well as Dave Gray (or la la as Zoe called him) and DB’s son Heath who braved the torrential downpour to collect the cones and stumps (Redbacks gave them a drink). Also to Steve Gray who cooked the BBQ for us.