Anecdotes – 14 January 2018
Country Carnival wrap-up
Our Country Carnivals finished last week and it is great that we are the only Club side in NSW that plays in this invitation Representative played in country areas. We had some great results and full match details, plus photo’s are on the website. At a glance:
- U14s (Tamworth JCA):
- Danielle Chivers was Vice Captain and became our first Girls player to lead one of our Junior ‘Boys’ Teams
- U15s (Armidale):
- we played in the 1st Day / Night game under lights in our history at Regional Bank Australia Sportsground
- U16s (Taree):
- Zac Morris (U16 and B2) won the Batsman of the Tournament with 125 runs at 31.25
- Our Team won the ‘Spirit of Cricket’ Award for the most friendly, entertaining and appreciative Team in the Carnival.
Season stats – a snapshot
With the season now at the Business end there are some interesting stats :
- 373 games played so far in all Grades and all competitions with 164 wins and 180 losses
- 2,477 wickets have been lost at 22.14 / wicket
- 2,599 wickets have been taken at 22.57 / wicket
In Seniors:
- 1,942 – D1 Grade has scored the highest runs scored by a Team
- 86 – D2 has taken the most wickets of any Team.
Rocket Scientists
It happens every year but we always have a handful of players who turn up to games for a 1.00 pm start during the New Year while the Junior Competition has a break. Despite multiple emails, website and Facebook updates and notes on the Association Draw the correct start time is noon. This left one Team with just 8 players for the 1st hour of their game. So folks…for the handful of folks in this category welcome to the Rocket Scientist club.
“That’s six”
Got to hand it to Semonn Oleksyn (pictured 3rd right with pads) during his powerhouse innings of 37* on the weekend. On a day where most batsmen struggled on the large Headen Park ground, Semonn belted a six and saved the umpire having to signal the boundary by doing it himself.
The Wall
Tim Leyshon (A2 Red) is in our top 30 run scorers of all time with 3,400 runs to his name. The boys were chasing just 56 runs to win their 1-Dayer and Tim was opening. Thirty five overs later we passed their score with just 2 wickets down. Tim was on 7* and the boys reckon he faced 135 balls in this powerhouse innings. To quote one of the boys, “…there were more blocks than a Lego set.” The main concern was that it was a hot day and this kept the boys away from the Club.
“I’ll let the young blokes do it”
It makes you feel old, like really old when Cody Waters, all of 17 years of age gave the wicket-keeping gloves up for the day to one of our U16s who was filling in for this game. Cody is a quality ‘keeper but was happy for the change over commenting “I’ll let the young bloke do it”.
“Make sure you are there at the end”
Dinesh De Silva (B1) is one of the better batsmen in our Club and is also an astute reader of the game. Dinesh showed his feel for the game when our number 11 bat, Ravin Wijesuriya, was going out to bat and Dinesh gave the wise advice to “be there at the end” which isn’t too hard when you are the last batsman. Anyway, Ravin was there at the end and finished at 13* with his partner Semonn Oleksyn also not out.
Banned
In what might be the start of a fractured relationship, it turns out that Ian Digby (D1 and pictured 2nd left) has banned his beautiful wife Nicole, from attending games on the basis that it affects his performance. Nicole just happens to know more about cricket than most blokes but Ian felt that the pressure to perform, on the field that is, to be just too great. As it turns out, Ian managed a well compiled 6 runs in the latest game. For interest though his best score of 46 was when Nicole was present and giving her support. So…Ian, for the sake of the marriage – relent.
Rep Star – Cameron Tunks – postscript
Last week we reported that Cameron Tunks (U14 Blues & C1) was chosen in the NSW PSSA side to play in the Primary School Nationals. Since to U10s in 2015/16s, Cameron has scored 1,651 runs @ the career average of 165.1 so in 44 innings he has only been out 10 times! He is also playing 2 years above his right Age Group in the U14s.
To cap off a great Tournament, Cameron scored a ton against Tasmania for his first ton for NSW – maybe the first of many.
Well done Cameron.