Sadly, in consultation with Jimbo, I’ve decided to enter a forfeit for us for this Saturday. In the end, we didn’t even come close to getting a team, even with the late addition of Jordan.
It puts a fairly big dent in our finances for the season, to say nothing of our finals hopes, but I guess that’s the Gladstones. Still out of a playing list of 30, less than 5 players is pretty poor. Thanks to those guys who made offers of putting off other commitments to play – much appreciated.

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The Gladdies acquitted themselves quite well in Saturday’s game, but sadly, it was enough to get us over for another win. We won the toss and batted on one of the coldest sunny days I can remember. Roseville had a pretty good bowling attack, including one Bilkey-esque quick. Runs were hard to come by, but Lach and Dan knocked it around and built an excellent platform. 1/65 at drinks meant more opportunities in the second session, and so it proved, with Dan, Lach and Tex all making it to 40, with enough time for others to hit out, and Dan to come back and bring up his maiden 50 for the Gladdies. 6/202 seemed like quite a creditable result.

Sadly, Roseville had quite a lot going for them in the batting department. 3 early wickets had it feeling like it was in the bag, but they then proceeded to clock up 4 retirements, smashing out of the park with somewhat regular monotony. There were a couple of aberrations, but frankly our bowling and fielding was actually pretty good, (including Dan’s efforts as a first time keeper)… Roseville just had too much batting talent. In the end it was more just a case of when, rather than if, and while we held them up for a while, the winning runs were brought up in the 32nd over.

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Sorry for the long report below, but winning against the Blue Raiders is always something to savour, let alone when you have to play the first part of the game short a couple of players.

A brief discussion about the state of the pitch, with both sides expressing some reticence about playing, was succeeded by a lost toss from the Gladstones, and the prospect of fielding on a very wet outfield for an extended period of time with just 7 players. It quickly became apparent why the Blue Raiders had reluctance of their own to play, as they only had 6. However, two of their guys were allowed to bat again (as per the comp rules), so their lack of players wouldn’t come home to roost for some time.

Early on the Gladdies were right on top, with Rob jagging an early LBW and Lach knocking over the other opener with his first ball. But their number 3 got to 40 off about 20 balls, and we didn’t take another wicket for 15 overs. At 2/122 at drinks, it was looking ugly, and the ‘injustice’ of the lost toss was starting to bite. But not long afterward J.Ryan, flushed with the success of completing his first full semester of uni in, well, more years than the Gladdies have been going, was injected into the game, and the tide started to turn. Jimbo’s wicket tally was benefited by one of the most outstanding catches in Gladdies history by Chris Le Lievre, Andre picked up a couple, and the scoring rate was significantly pegged back.

The two Raiders retirees came back, but despite a couple of boundaries, no really great damage was done, and we bowled em out for 192, with Rob chiming in with 2 more wickets, Chris chiming in with the wicket of their slogger, and Tex chiming in for a couple of overs in the field and, more importantly, the availability to bat. It was chime time.

Some tight bowling early meant the Raiders were pretty well on top for the first quarter of our innings, but after over 9, the Raiders lack of personnel finally took its toll, and Rob and Kunal slowly accelerated, taking advantage of the gaps to turn 1s into 2s, and absolutely dispatch some balls to, and over, the boundary. After Rob’s retirement, Tex scored a quick fire 32, and despite losing a few late wickets, Kunal deservedly brought up the winning runs in the 33rd over, albeit falling 1 agonising run short of a maiden Gladdies 50. Rob gets the 3 player votes, finishing unbeaten on 53 for his maiden Gladdies 50.

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Sadly the weather killed the momentum we’d built up on the back of one win, and we now have the June long weekend off to think about it a little more. Hopefully the weather will improve too.

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The Gladdies put a huge dent in their 2017 lower division ambitions today by racking up another victory for season 2016. Sent in to bat, we got away to a quick start with Rookie (filling in at late notice) and Charlie finding the boundary repeatedly early. After we lost them, Lach and Kunal dug in, safely getting us to drinks and beyond. We lost our third wicket in the 23rd over, and for once the parachute drop didn’t eventuate, with pretty much everyone contributing something as we slowly ratcheted up the scoring rate. Lach scored an excellent 31, before some lusty swings got us to 7/144.

Nick gave us an almost perfect start with a wicket off the second delivery, and we never really let the Apaches get settled with Lach, Rob, Jimbo and even me picking up a brace each. Gladdies home by 39 runs after an excellent bowling and fielding performance.

On the upside, we’ve only 1 win per division, so sharp work there boys.

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Thanks to those who made it to Waterworth on Saturday. I haven’t got the details*, but it sounds like we played pretty well in the first innings, restricting the Chargers to 187. Unfortunately the batting wasn’t quite up to it, falling a little less than 100 short. A special thanks to those who had prior engagements, but gave up half their Saturdays just to give us a full squad for part of the day. Champs.

*web editor’s note – no need for details after drinks in the chase.

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The little ray of sunshine on season 2016 was pretty thoroughly shut out yesterday when the Gladstones were smashed at Waterworth Park. Our first 16 overs with the ball were excellent, holding the Super Kings to just 3/48, but after that it all went pretty south, pretty quickly. They had two retirees, one of whom came back to notch up a 100 off the last ball of the innings, having belted us for his last 65 runs off just 6 overs. 206 was the damage in the end. Not an impossible task, but pretty f.ckin close to it.

We were up to our foxing best with the bat too, losing 3 for 13, then 2 for 4, and finishing off with an impressive final collapse of 4 for 16. Dave provided some light relief with a 6 and a few 4s in amongst all that, but the winning margin of 121 runs was about 50% better than our total score.

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The Gladdies are back in the winner’s circle after a solid win in the haze yesterday. After losing the toss and bowling with a rapidly sodden ball, we put in a very solid bowling effort, with everyone keeping it tight, and catches being held as Soloman, Rob and new recruit Chris each bagging a pair. Chasing 138 seemed like a pretty fair chase on MP4.

Charlie and Andre got us off to an absolute flyer, racking up 0/61 off 8 overs. Everything seemed to easy until the Rebels tightened up the bowling, and all of a sudden we were 5/76 off 15. But calmness prevailed, with Soloman and Rob seeing off their best bowlers, and just knocking it around until we got within shouting distance, before Rob finished it off, finishing 30 not out.

A top all round effort to have the season looking a whole lot better.

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The 6ths got their campaign underway yesterday with a marginally better performance, although really only on net run rate as opposed to outcome. Losing the toss and bowling, we were able to hold Red Sun in check for extended periods of time, with almost all bowlers going at less than six an over, and very promising first spells from debutantes Jordan and Andre. Some tight fielding paid off too, with run outs to Junior and Dave, and Kunal bagging (I think) his first stumping for the Gladdies. 168 seemed a big score given our efforts, but still gettable.

Or at least, it would have been gettable had Red Sun not turned out an extremely tight bowling performance more or less from start to finish. It was not through any lack of application that we were 2/14 after 12 overs, just quality bowling. Wickets fell steadily throughout our innings, despite resolute resistance from Andre at one end. Lach and Dave swung a bit at the end, but we were never really in the hunt, finishing all out for 107 off 35.2 overs.

So, disappointing, to be sure, but the crowd (!) certainly got better value for money from us than the first game.

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A jovial but fairly unsuccessful start to the season for the Gladdies. The rain held off long enough to get through most of our 36 overs, thanks largely to an outstanding effort from number 9 by AJ Jnr. Marooned at 8/31 (for real), he then proceeded to outscore each of our other batsmen, then all of them put together, then all of them put together plus sundries, finally falling with the score on 65. Congrats to Biscoes for providing some good running. Mostly.

Although it didn’t look good at that point, the very, very long grass at Bedlam Bay meant there was at least some hope of holding out Edgemasters for a bit. That hope was dashed, if not within a couple of overs, then certainly within 7, because they brought up their 69 in a grand total of 6.4 overs. On the upside, as Rob said, we didn’t drop a catch!

So, let’s put that down as another triumph of SMCA grading and focus on enjoying the long weekend (no cricket) and the first game in 6ths.

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