WAIMATE CRICKET CLUB

This coming weekend Waimate play competition leader Star/MVHS at MVHS 1 in Timaru and the outcome will most likely determine this seasons Second Grade finalists.

Waimate should be confident having beaten Star/MVHS in the first round, also at MVHS and the second game was rained off, but I am sure they would appreciate all the supporters they can muster, so why not make a day of it and watch the seniors upset Celtic at Rockdale Rd as well!

If Waimate win and then again the following weekend they will probably get the chance to defend their Trophy against Temuka in the final, a team they have had a win and a loss over.

The Waimate seniors had a good first day of probably their final match of the season and currently “have the wood” over Celtic with only a further seven runs required to take first innings points with 10 overs to play and four wickets in hand including not out batsmen Jason Sew Hoy on 48 and Alan Reid on 2.

After at one stage having Celtic in panic mode at 37-5 after Matt Devlin’s wily spin had bamboozled them, an ex-Waimo (still living in the district) James Laming got Celtic out of jail with an unbeaten century.

Celtic finished 224-7 when the compulsory declaration came after 50 overs.

Waimate began similarly to normal with two wickets gone and only 6 on the board, but Naffa Sew Hoy, perhaps in his final cricket match before marriage and retirement decided to go out on a high, and would have been devastated to be given out lbw for 86 when in sight of a maiden senior century!

Glen Drake 23, Adam Polson 10 and Matt Devlin 33 all helped the cause and after 40 overs Waimate finished 217-6 when play finished for the day.

Waimate can finish the season with a good result, and if things were to ge really well have an outside chance of making the final, but need to win outright as well as on the first innings and then score a minimum of 125 runs in their second innings to pip Star and Temuka. This of course assumes that they bowl Celtic all out second time round, and that Temuka don’t beat Geraldine outright. Good stuff to dream about anyway.

A good season despite being the most travelled team and some of the new younger players have made the step up to senior well, while others have had patches where they have shown with the right application they can still compete at the top level.

You can read the scoreboard so far here >> scoreboard

Just a note in memory of ‘Big Dunc’ who sadly passed away this week.

Duncan was a keen cricketer in his day and always enjoyed a yarn about current players and teams when he had the chance.

In the 1972 – 82 decade he featured three times on the Honours Board with two seven wicket bags and a best of 8-18 bowling his left arm medium pace. He upheld some of the fine traditions of the game, and I remember him making me buy my first beer in a pub (the Makikihi) on the way home from a Senior Reserve match in the early 70′s when I was a third former.

He will be remembered as an icon in Waimate and not just for his on field sporting prowess in rugby, basketball, cricket, golf and almost anything he turned his hand to, but he also influenced a lot of people with his coaching abilities in those same sports, and as well as Waimate I know he was also a well known figure throughout the South Island.

I wish to pass on my condolences to his family and friends as Duncan will be sadly missed, especially at the after match functions, as well as by all the sportsmen who had the opportunity to play with or alongside him, or were coached by him, or just had the opportunity to discuss sport with him.

Waimate did not enjoy the recent rounds of Twenty20 matches after being the only team forced to travel for every match and then further compromised by twice having to play on inadequately prepared pitches on the Timaru ground which certainly did nothing for the batsmen’s confidence and in both games turned the matches into a lottery.

This weekend they again travelled to Timaru to take part in finals day. Playing off for 5th or 6th position is never much fun, and especially when it is a rerun of their last game the previous weekend against Temuka.

However a win would at least give the victors bragging rights and the opportunity to play Twenty20 cricket on a decent batting strip probably made the early morning start a bit better. After a southerly blast went through Sth Canterbury in the morning, the Waimate versus Temuka match turned out to be played in the best conditions of the day.

Beginning at 10.45am the cloud eventually disappeared and temperatures were in the high 20′s with no breeze to cool things as Waimate lost the toss and were asked to bat.

Naffa Sew Hoy lhad a slightly different approach as he looked to bat for quite a few overs, but unusually for him struggled to get the ball into the gaps and  when he was second out joining Adam Polson in the pavilion the Waimate total was only 24.

Todd Bailey batting at No 3 continued his recent run of good form and in tandem with Glen Drake added 44 runs before Glen was out for an aggressive 26. Todd added a further 14 runs with Jason Sew Hoy before falling lbw for 37 which he scored from 31 deliveries.

Nathan Sheppard struggled to get bat on ball but helped Jason add another 15 runs, and young Findlay Keen was out lbw  shortly later after getting one of those deliveries you dread early on.

Matt Devlin strode to the wicket with Waimate 102-7 in the 15th over to join his skipper and the pair immediately set about taking the attack back to Temuka.

Their 50 partnership came off only 25 deliveries and didn’t include any extras as all the scoring shots were off the bat. Jason almost matched the Aorangi Oval record for the fastest fifty as he scored his 50 from only 22 balls, one ball behind Chris Cairns who held the record at 21 balls until New Year’s Eve this season when Shannon Stewart set the new record off 19 deliveries.

Jason’s fifty came up at the same time as Waimate’s 150, but he was run out shortly after by a direct hit for 57 but his scoring rate in excess of 200 made sure Waimate would post a competitive total.. Matty D kept the attack going until the end with a lively rate just under 200 and entertained the supporters by displaying a couple of classic poses as he invented a new technique for the slog-sweep over cow corner. Unfortunately no cameras at the ground caught the pose, else we would be sending the photo to the ICC to put in their next coaching manual!

Matt ended 30 not out from 16 balls and Waimate posted 175-7 from their 20 overs.

Temuka began similarly to Waimate and were 74-2 at the 10 over mark similar to Waimate’s 68-2 at the same stage. Chris Opie (run out for 63) and Ritchie Preston (43) added 64 for the 3rd wicket and for a long while Waimate looked in danger of being overhauled, but then the pairing of Jason and Matty D struck again.

Jason caught Preston off Matt’s bowling and with Preston out for 43 after a 41 run partnership with Paul Coles the Temuka challenge wilted and they could only manage 156 which in the end gave Waimate the win comfortably.

Jason and brother Matt (Chucky) both took  2-21 and Murray Prattley with 2-32 and Glen Drake 1-28 as well as run out each chimed in to help the win.

Finishing just before 2.00pm meant the families had a chance to visit the Bay, while the rest of the team would have been safely ensconced in the sponsors bar at the Empire when the cold southerly hit.

Click to read score sheet

The Second Grade team pulled off a big upset beating the previously unbeaten Temuka XI comfortably over the weekend. This pushes Temuka back to third place behind MVHS/Star and Waimate.

Batting first Waimate put together a very impressive tally of 213-3 from their 40 overs. Tim Suddaby finished unbeaten on 81 while Robbie Westland was out for an equally impressive 76 while Ruha Davis also got amongst the runs with 38.

Temuka’s reply came close, eventually being all out for 190 as the “Wily Old Campaigner” Pete Wallace led the Waimate bowling attack with 3-18.

Waimate 213-3
T Suddaby 81*, R Westland 76, R Davis 38
Bowling: G McNicol 7 1 33 1, S Goodeve 8 0 54 1, N Henderson 4 0 37 1

Temuka 190
T Kerridge 34, N Henderson 31, S Goodeve 25
Bowling: P Wallace 8 2 18 3, C Farrell 8 1 45 2, T Suddaby 4 0 14 1

Waimate began the day with 10 overs still available in their first innings and went on the attack adding a further 56 runs with captain Jason Sew Hoy picking up his first half century of the season.

Todd Bailey also made the most of it getting off a run of three ducks to score 13 not out and Matt Devlin also was unbeaten on 18,  enabling a declaration at 243-7 after 50 overs.

Batting a second time the Geraldine batsmen all got starts but no one could go on. Young Harry Miller after a week’s cricket at the U17 tournament found some form as he top scored with 30 in a very good innings, while George Harper was next best with 27.

However, it was Matt Devlin’s day as he ripped through the Geraldine tail on his way to a career best 5-26 after earlier Murray Prattley chimed in with two caught and bowled dismissals against last week’s top scoring Matt Walker and English pro Matt Barnes, and this time Geraldine could only post 135, leaving Waimate needing 57 for victory which they accomplished easily despite the loss of 3 wickets.

Waimate players enjoyed the win that much that by 9.00pm they had only made it as far as Adam Polsons across the road from the Knottingley Park exit, and Muzza had re-delegated babysitting duties as his not out became longer and his caught and bowleds more difficult.

Next week its the first 2 rounds of the Twenty20 competition and Waimate will be hoping to show their skills in the short format of the game and take this week’s form with them.

Scoresheet

Waimate hold the upper hand in the two day game against Geraldine at Knottingley Park. Glenn Drake made an unbeaten 64 for Waimate to help them to first innings points but unfortunately he has had to retire as he is unavailable next week when he is away with JT’s High School team at a tournament in Brisbane.

Geraldine batted first and were soon struggling at 50-5 but they ended up with a reasonable score after a large eight wicket partnership got them to 163-7 when the compulsory declaration was made after 50 overs.

Matt ‘Chucky’ Sew Hoy (3-61) and Al Reid (2-53) bowled 38 of the 50 overs between them for Waimate in good workouts and Al will be again upset he didn’t get to bowl all 25 from his end. Muzza Prattley with 1-13 from 5 and Glenn Drake 1-16 from 5 will both be happy to have had a roll though!

In reply Naffa Sew Hoy again started well before being out caught and bowled for 44, and Findlay Keen (28) helped Drake add 34 before Jason Sew Hoy (30 not out) joined Drake to post an undefeated 75 run partnership and at stumps Waimate were 187-3 and looking to go on  full attack for the remaining 10 overs next week to try and put further pressure on the Geraldine 2nd innings as Waimate look for an outright victory and maximum points, but also give themselves enough time to dismiss Geraldine.

Scoresheet

Although Waimate were soundly beaten when we took on Celtic at Aorangi Oval in the only club match being played there this season (other than finals) it was good to see former club stalwarts helping out the team when they are short and they created a little bit of family history.

Lyndon Bailey (patriach) had the chance to beat son Todd’s duck when he replaced him in the middle, but unfortunately he was a bit slow to get back and was out stumped without scoring either. Later in the day Todd’s youngest also made it onto the field making three generations in one day, although not technically accurate as he was following a cricket ball that rolled down the hill and over the sideline (not a listed player) but did chase it hard as kids are known to do.

As for match details, all that can be said is that the match was not played in the best of spirits and Colin Booth’s comment to Celtic that “Don’t your players come along to enjoy your cricket” probably summed it up.

Scoresheet

Waimate lost to Temuka in the penultimate round of the Senior One Day competition, but are still in with a chance of making the top four for finals with one round to play depending on other results.

Scoreboard

Not one to do things by halves, ex Club President Quintin ‘Buck’ Paul (holding his Service Award in the photo) does it in double and is quickly adding to the new cricket team that Murray Prattley is setting up after Buck’s wife Dana brought twins into the world on November 19th.

I’m sure the whole club wish Buck and Dana all the best and look forward to seeing the kids at their first practice in 5 or 6 years time!