A Duck – through the eyes of an U12

Last season, Eamon Boyle, one of our then U12 players wrote a great poem about the emotions of going into bat and looking down the barrel of a 4^th consecutive duck. The poem came 2nd out of 9,000 entries in the in the Dorothea Mackellar Poetry Competition for Primary School children.

Eamon ended up scoring 3 runs before he was run-out. This is a great story and it will bring a smile to the face of every cricketer who has scored a Duck.

“Pad up Eamon!” The coach hollers like a bull to me.

I can hear the cheers and jeers of our enemy.

Another one of our wickets has just fallen,

It’s my turn soon, but my batting is appallin’.

 

My thoughts keep going back to my last match

And how I was dismissed by a stupendous catch.

I imagine being at the crease and smashing a six,

But I know that I cannot do those kinds of tricks.

 

Another wicket tumbles in the blink of an eye,

It’s my turn now and I want to cry.

I whisper to myself “do not get out,”

But in my heart there is a tonne of doubt.

 

I crave for my teammates to look at me as a hero

Not the kid who constantly scores a duck – ZERO!

So I take my time to mark middle stump

And all I can hear is my palpitating heart – THUMP!

 

The umpire’s arm comes down to his side.

The bowler, like a lion, takes his first stride.

He launches the ball at a rocketing pace;

My helmet is hiding the panic cemented on my face.

 

The ball comes and I take a big swing,

But to my disappointment, there is no ding.

My coach yells out “have a go!”

But I wonder, can I beat this foe?

 

Unbelievably, the second ball is bowled even faster,

But it’s time to teach the bowler who is his master.

I hit the ball hard and score a run,

It’s only one, but it’s way better than none.

 

While on Ducks

Last weekend our boys really did try and blow the cobwebs away – in 11 games we scored 15 Ducks:

• T20 1st Grade (A1) – 1 duck
• T20 2nd Grade Green (B2) – 5
• T20 3rd Grade Green (C2) – 5
• T20 4th Grade (C3) – 1
• T20 5th Grade Red (D1) – 2
• T20 5th Grade Blue (D2) – 1

We don’t keep records of the number of ducks but this would be up there.

Go the Girls

How about the effort of Danielle Chivers (pictured with Lisa Sthalekar) on the weekend. Danielle, who is just 13 and plays in our Girls U15 side filled in for our D2 boys in the T20 game at Montview Oval. Danielle showed what a star she is bowling 2 overs for just 7 runs. This backs up her effort in England recently when she took 2 wickets against the boys. While Denise Annetts is the first woman to play Seniors in the 1990s, Danielle is our first Juniors Girls player to play in the Men’s Comp and after this effort won’t be the last – well done Danielle.

The bat breaking in

Phil Wurth (A1 and pictured with his bat) was telling the boys a story about the day when he asked his father in law to break his bat in. After leaving his new bat, the mallet and instructions about how to break a bat in, Phil let his father in law to do the job – bad decision. The bat looked like a moonscape with craters and broken edges where his instructions were taken literally – he broke the bat in by smashing it as hard as he could with the mallet. Phil still uses the bat and it seems go pretty well – it just looks ‘damaged’.

Commitment

Got to hand it to Vishaal Nathan (D1) on the weekend. After dislocating his knee while fielding, the boys called the Ambulance and waited for them to come to Campbell Park while sitting on the sideline enjoying the cricket – none of this stuff about rolling around in agony. The knee was strapped and Nathan was up and about as though nothing had happened – except for the cast.