One of the more ridiculous finishes to a game the secretary has ever participated in. And we remind you, he’s played a lot of park cricket.

Gladdies won the toss and batted, and despite some annoying rain, wet outfields, and a painfully slow over rate (as if that would come back to bite anyone), posted a reasonably competitive 124. Despite quite a lot of airswings, Brendan and Marky put on 67 for the 5th wicket, which certainly helped. Most importantly, the top 8 batsmen all registered a batting stat, putting us closer to getting a very decent squad qualified for the finals.

Edgemasters made a terrible start, with Rookie claiming wickets from the first two balls of the innings. But they then put on some solid partnerships of their own, with Soli and Brendan picking up key wickets just when it looked like they’d run away with it. When Jimbo took their 7th for 108 with 3 overs to go, the match was well in the balance, with us maybe just ever so slightly in front. Unfortunately, that happened at 12:30, so the umpire just decided to stop the game then, because, you know, it was time.

F.F.S.

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Pretty good effort week one. Plan B started pretty well, scoring freely on MP4, but that stopped abruptly when Hirak pulled off a sensational run out, before Simon followed up with a bowled. Only one other batsman troubled us, as we methodically knocked them over with a total of 155. 0/11 at stumps and all is set for week two.

A bit of day out was had week two, with the boys racking up some serious runs (particularly courtesy of 60s to Jimmy D and Centejas… new career bests for both!) and then having a bit of fun chasing an improbable outright, but getting darn close. The win keeps us on track for a berth in the finals for 3rds. Watch out NBA.

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Jimmy congratulated for getting 69 *hehe hehe*

Another very solid showing week one has our season very happily rolling along. Stand in tosser (the regular tosser running late) Jimmy did a rock solid job and allowed Marty to finish his short stint up here with another hit out with the ball. Fat lot of good that was though, with both Marty and Flossy finishing wicketless after 7 overs a piece (it was pretty darn good bowling though). Jamie and Winnos took over the attack, and after a couple more quiet overs, things started falling our way. From 0/78 in the 21st over, things happened quickly, with the Gladdies netting a team hat-trick and breaking the back of the Malabar resistance. Winnos kept it tight at one end while the wickets kept falling at the other, and with some very solid catching all round they were 7 down and Jamie had his first 5 fa. Jimbo and Brendan made short work of the tail, and all out for 142 was the damage. 7 overs were left to face at the end of the day, and Centellas and Lupton faced them off without chance, ending at 0/16.

Week two saw us turn in a mildly disappointing performance to finish the year. I think we all turned up expecting that a win wouldn’t be too hard to come by, but it just didn’t turn out that way. There were a few poor shots, but mostly it was just really tight bowling and solid catching that got Malabar home… kind of like us last week. We started down due to Tim’s secateured hand, and despite some solid middle order partnerships where everything looked in hand, the wickets just kept falling slightly too often. Brendan played a solid hand scoring 38, but when he holed out at long on, we finished up 24 short. Bummer.

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A pretty good result on a f.cking hot day at Centennial Park week one. Fine Legs turned up to the wrong ground and, quicker than you can say “we don’t want to be d.cks, but seriously, you guys have no players here at 9, and, in this heat, can we claim the toss?” they won the toss and elected to bat. Fug it.

So we bowled in a hairdryer for a while, with Flossy generating some serious heat of his own and Hirak moving it sharply. The Fine Legs best were at the top of the order though, and they dug in to get to 0/73 off 22 as Winnos and Brendan chimed in with more tight spells. But eventually, one team had to crack, and thank f.k it was them. Soli got the first breakthrough, and a few more to finish with 4/13 off 6. The wheels really came off and Brendan, Jumpin and Simon all picked up sticks to have them all out for 103 off 38 overs, albeit 2 men down.

Sadly for them, that meant there were plenty of overs in the day left, and despite them being desperate for us not to play on, we, finally, were d.cks, and said, no, we’ll take the extra overs, thanks. Jimmy and Centejas capitalised, and we are already 1/51 with a further 50 overs to play and the distinct possibility that Fine Legs will turn up short again. Solid.

An excellent result was achieved week two, without being a complete drubbing of Fine Legs. We made pretty short work of the remaining 50 odd to get first innings points, and then Flossy and Winnos unleashed to propel us very rapidly to a comfortable 100 run lead by drinks, with Flossy registering a brutal ton, and Winnos finishing just 3 short of a 50.

With 10 men, including some additions from last week, 22 overs was always going to be touch and go as enough to knock them over, and they proved significantly more resilient in any case. Marty showed months of lock-down hadn’t slowed him much, and was unlucky to only finish with 2 for. We grabbed a couple more here and there, but there Kiwi import made the loose balls fly, and finished on 58 not out with Fine Legs only 4 down. The catching wasn’t quite up to scratch for us – not looking at anyone in particular, mainly because I’m acutely aware of all the eyes on me. Still, at beers after the game it was agreed that Fine Legs are too nice a bunch of guys to really deserve to lose outright so probably the best result at the end of the day.

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Tough day in the week one sun for the Gladdies. Certainly a toss we would rather have won, as we started without a regular keeper, and a man down because Parramates are the most disorganised group since… well, us, a lot of the time. So we bowled. Gus was FAST and Dan, Jimbo and Lach all bowled well early to keep the runs down for the first 34 overs. But unfortunately we grassed a few chances and they really, really made us pay, with one guy getting a ton and another a 50. Simon did a great job standing in behind the stumps and the effort was great around the field, but a lot of shots just trickled over the boundary and a lot of skied shots fell right between players. They used their wickets in hand well, and despite some great death bowling by Brendan, the final score of 238 was a pretty disappointing outcome given the efforts we made. Anyway, plenty of runs out there week two.

Amazing scenes at Jellicoe week two as the Gladdies got the Spartans hoodoo off our back by scoring more than 160 odd against them for the first time in 12 months. The fact that we fell a solid 60 runs short of victory is neither here nor there. Gus took out the trash early, hitting the only 6 of the day, before Jimmy and Dan had a solid 60 run stand to have us right in the game. As usual, Dan ruined it for everyone, top scoring for the innings with 42 but sparking the collapse that put us out of touch. Classic Dan. A few others got starts, but 238 was a lot to chase at Jellicoe, and 180 was the final score. Solid effort, but a loss we had to have.

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Mixed bag Saturday. I think most people were assuming cricket would be impossible having driven through reasonably heavy rain on the way to he ground, but other than some fairly minor surface water, things looked pretty much ok. Broomsman Dan fixed the puddles pretty quickly, and, at 9:30, we got underway, having chosen to bat in a fixture reduced to 45 overs a side.

Being only able to use one end made the overs actually go pretty quickly, and the Parramates bowlers were fresh, if not express. With plenty of humidity in the air, nicking off was fairly common, and despite some early boundaries from Lach, it was left to Flossy and Dan to rebuild from 3/54. Which they absolutely did, playing sensibly to take us steadily to 128 in the 25th over, taking advantage of some pretty cod ordinary fielding. Sadly, the one time they fielded well, they caught Dan short, and, even more sadly, the Gladdies middle order then, well, did its usual thing. Before we knew it, we were 9/153. Ouch. But the indefatigable Jamie came out and made the most of his ‘promotion’ to 9, and slapped an excellent 25 to take us to a quite respectable 188.

Hirak served up an absolute jaffa second ball of week two to leave Parramates at 1/0. Jamie also took an early wicket, before Parramates put up a bit of resistance to get to about 60 before the introduction of Rob, and then Jimbo started a steady decline. We, for the most part, held our catches, and eventually the sheer weight of runs on a large and slowish outfield built the pressure, and Jimbo and Rob each nabbed 4 fors (including an outrageous catch down the legside for Kunal off Jimbo), as the Parramates collapsed to be all out for 119. Tidy day’s work, and still top of the table.

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Honours were pretty even after day 1 v Summer Hill. It looked grim early, when they invited us to bowl and proceeded to struggle not in the slightest against our best bowling attack for some time. They posted 64 for no wicket in the first 12 overs, and looked well, in the wrong grade, but then Gus got the breakthrough, and the Gladdies got to work. Despite plenty more boundaries on the small MP4, we stuck at it, and the introduction of Flossy brought an immediate result, with Rookie taking an outstanding catch on the fence to remove their Bradman for 46. A couple more before drinks had us right back in the game. They were looking pretty solid at 4/144 in the 29th, but all hell broke loose after that, with the Gladdies taking 6/42 off the next 7 overs. Rookie got two, Jamie one as the Summer Hill innings fell apart, with Rob showing off to the family to finish with 3/2 off 1.1 overs. Tidy.

We looked very good early doors starting the chase, and at the end of our 10 overs had 50 on the board already. But with Flossy, Dave and Gus all back in the pavilion (well, park benches), it’s an intriguing day two coming up.

The Gladdies have started season 2020-21 like a house on fire, racing to a first innings victory in week two before the threat of rain halted proceedings and any chase for outright. We looked good early, with Rob picking up where he left off last week, but a couple of quick wickets had us slightly more nervous. Enter Grimm, who batted like we were heading for a washout, and creamed 43 off 13 scoring shots, including 3 hefty sixes. Along with some errant Summer Hill bowling, by the time Simon went, we were pretty much there, and Dan and Jnr saw us home. A four wicket win then, and (probably) maintaining our spot at the top of the table.

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The Gladdies showed little to no mercy to a brand new team to the comp, the Charlie Sheen Cricket Team, who were certainly not winning their first SMCA fixture at any point during the day. An indoor cricket team, they showed up with 8 players and used practice balls, and generally had to be coached through the entire affair. Special thanks to Tim Lupton, who appeared to single-handedly hold their scoring together throughout our bowling performance.

While we conceded a few wides, and the short boundaries helped, 74 probably flattered the CSCT batting performance. Only two guys made it past 7, and every bowler got a piece, with two each to Flossy and Rookie, and 1 to Hirak, Simon and Jamie.

75 was never going to be a challenge, and soon to be Melbourne bound Binya made pretty short work of it, knocking up 48 before the indoor fielding skills finally showed up and he was run out from a side on direct hit. Jimmy D and Tim got the rest.

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Sadly, the Gladdies did not win the 4th grade premiership. We played hard, and we stuck at our task from start to finish, but yet again, the f.cking Spartans were able to chase down 160 odd.

They sent us in to bat, which turned out to be pretty smart, as the wet outfield provided no value for shots. As is often the case, Kunal and Dan provided the foundation for us, with Dan’s 44 the cornerstone of the innings. No ducks were recorded, but not many others really kicked on, despite some highly enjoyable tail wagging. 161 didn’t quite feel like enough.

The outfield sure felt quick in the afternoon, but we really bowled as well as we could, with no fewer than 11 maidens bowled out of 45 overs. Jimbo and Hirak in particular bowled outstanding spells – 3/28 and 0/17 respectively, both off 12 unchanged overs. But we just couldn’t quite get the wickets we needed, and they took their time, winning it with 4 wickets and 4.5 overs in hand.

There were definitely what ifs and what might have beens sprinkled throughout the match – but that’s park cricket. In any case, hopefully our chances of staying in 4th grade this coming season haven’t been done any harm.

Thanks for the longest and weirdest season we’ve ever had.

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The insatiable love for cricket drives the Gladstones ever on, as we wrapped up the 2019-20 Preliminary Final in pretty quick time. Scott Muller won the toss and batted, but were met with the devilish opening combination of Woolcott and Grimm. Despite the short boundaries on MP6, runs were surprisingly hard to come by, and the pressure took it’s toll when they lost 4/20 in 6 overs to be 4/28. Jamie kept our run of outrageous caught and bowleds going (Hi Marty!), and Scott Muller just kept picking out our fielders. Simon and Jamie both bowled so well they finished their 12 over spells unchanged, putting us in the dominant position with SM 6/84 after 24. Hirak and Jimbo then absolutely cleaned up the tail, leaving us chasing 105 for victory.

Based on the previous night’s dinner, getting the runs was never in doubt. Fortunately our batsmen also scored well, with Dan doing the business. There were a few nervous moments, but with wides absolutely coming to the party, the pressure never got too high, with Jimmy and Dave piercing the field to rack up valuable runs, and Simon terrorising local pets with a big six to win the game. That’ll teach Scott Muller to invite their WAGs to a cricket game.

So it’s back against the Spartans in the final matchup of our longest ever season.

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