Despite wickets to George Morgan and Ryan Manson, Timaru still won comfortably for the loss of only two wickets.

Waimate 75
T Suddaby 21, Heydon Russell 15
J Stevenson 4 0 11 3 , Shane Clark 2 0 16 2 , Hami 2 0 6 2

Timaru 76 – 2
Birch 55 not out
George Morgan 2 0 14 1 , Ryan Manson 2 0 9 1

A phone call to play during the week meant I knew Waimate were obviously struggling for numbers, and this weekend was no exception with the Second Grade B team being forced to default as several of their players filled in for one or other of the higher two grades.

As it turned out Waimate could only field nine players, but at least they were good enough to still front up, despite the loss of their main players.

Pete “the wily campaigner” Wallace took on the captaincy duties for the day and began well by winning the toss. This gave Waimate the chance to bat first and not spend a whole afternoon chasing leather.

Ryza Manson gave us hope as he opened and smashed the first ball he faced for four. Unfortunately, he didn’t really repeat that shot until his second innings, and wickets fell at regular intervals – one opposition bowler only got it close enough to hit 3 times in 3 overs and got wickets each time.

It became a bit of a scramble, as umpires were suddenly next in, or scorers needed to pad up, but all the guys had a smile while they did it.

Well all except some old bugger who could only manage to get his pads in front of the ball, but when trying to play a shot with his bat usually swung at the ball as the keeper passed the delivery to first slip. When he finally did get the bat on one it was after it hit the pad first and he was given out lbw. At the time he whinged (once off the field), but this is mainly because of his own frustration at not getting any bat on it, nor getting a run – so to be fair, I normally always say that if you get given lbw by a player umpire, it has to be a pretty good call, so I have to follow my own opinion and stop giving Smarty a wind-up.

Now that we have the fun parts out of the way, the bad news is that despite Timaru generously letting us bat both openers twice, we still only managed 31 all out.

With a short chase on offer, Kerry Weir found some enthusiasm to bowl quick (relying on the fact it would be a short spell), and bowled well to take one wicket, and if the first slip hadn’t been checking his new toy (iphone) would have had two, or if the Timaru fielders helping us out had made their minds up a bit earlier could have had three, so it was a good spell.

Good on ya mate

So match all over early, meant we got to check out the Timaru clubrooms, and see a wall almost dedicated to our own ‘Wily Campaigner’  as the 1980s Bowling Honours Boards seemed to be full of a certain P Wallace!

Written by Mark (ok Smarty that was an apology for whinging)

Waimate won trophies in every men’s grade they entered, and topping it off the seniors won the Tweedy Cup, the premier trophy in South Canterbury club cricket, after earlier winning the SCCA Trophy as top qualifier in the Round Robin and being runner-up in the Daily Freightways One Day competition.

Waimate & Star share Tweedy Cup 2010-11 Season

Waimate also won the Second Grade trophy again with Greg Paul hitting an unbeaten century in the final to beat favourites Celtic, the fourth grade won their trophy for the third year in a row and the JAB won their Two Day competition.

Alan Reid South Canterbury Cricket Bowler of the Year with the Tweedy Cup

Glen Drake celebrates his great season

The success of the Waimate Cricket Club was shown at the SCCA Prizegiving where as well as the team trophies Waimate also featured in the individual awards with Alan Reid winning the Williams Cup for Bowler of the Year with 56 wickets @ 15.45 (including 6-95 off 44 overs in Tweedy Cup Final) and the SCCUA Graeme Lowrie Spirit of Cricket Award for the senior cricketer who epitomises the way the game should be played which is chosen by umpires.

Glen Drake also showed his class by winning the L J Grant Trophy Young Player of the Year and also took out the nights supreme prize, the Graeme Blanchard Memorial Trophy for a youth cricketer who displays an excellent attitude on and off the field for fair play, a team player who inspires the spirit of cricket and has good work ethics.

Read what the Timaru Herald said about Alan and Glen here

Click here to read the story about the Tweedy Cup Final

Click here to read about the SCCA end of year prizegiving

More photos and details about the season will be added soon.

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.

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

After winning the toss Waimate chose to field first. On an artificial wicket it was always going to be a hard task to bowl out a good Temuka side.

Justin Thompson with 3 late wickets picked up 3-50 off 8 overs and getting the crucial wicket of Simon Davenport whom scored 89. Connor Farrell handing over the wicket-keeping duties to Ruha Davis and bowled well and was rather unlucky to only get 1-32 off 8 overs.

Pete Wallace came on after Connor and bowled and picked up no wickets with 0-25 off 5 overs. Greg Paul who replaced Justin bowled really well and some good tight bowling resulted in good figures of 1-25 off 7 overs.

After 20 overs and drinks break Temuka were cruising along at 103/2 so captain Greg Paul decided on a bowling change to bring on Tim Suddaby and Sam Newman. Tim who picked up a wicket in his first over bowled consistent and quick but bowling near the end of the innings resulted in him unfortunately getting hit for 1-33 off 7 overs. Sam Newman bowling from the other end bowled his medium pacers and wasn’t rewarded with a wicket and ended his spell with 0-20 off 5 overs.

Credit to Temuka they batted well and played to the field, hitting superbly. For their innings Temuka ended up with 205/6

Waimate going into bat and needing just over 5 runs an over should have been a score to chase down. But no strong partnerships and wickets falling regularly meant it was always going to be hard to keep the board ticking over. Thou noticeably Connor Farrell and Tim Suddaby did stick together for a time and gave some hope.

Opening up was Robbie Westland and Ruha Davis who both were out in the third and fourth over with Robbie getting 4 and Ruha 5. Todd Aikman comes to the crease and a good cameo of 14 before being caught going big. Ryan Manson being caught out for 11 looked good. Tim Suddaby coming in and Waimate were feeling the pressure of the run-rate going up. Tim batted well and scored at a good rate keeping the score ticking even at times surprising other that he can play attacking cricket. With Ryan gone Connor Farrell came in and batted well, scoring at a good rate with Tim but eventually being caught out for 17.

Adam Smart comes to the crease and didn’t last long, as he was bowled first ball for a Golden Duck 0 and a $5 fine to contribute to team funding. Waimate now at 110/6 and needing 95 runs off 9 overs to win was seeing the game slip away. However with Greg Paul coming in and well known for his aggressive play and good eye there still was slight hope that a win could be possible. Temuka were quick to learn this so they spread the field and Greg was caught near the boundry, out for 2.

Sam Newman didn’t contribute much with only 1 run and being caught from a leading edge witch is becoming his only shot it seems. Justin Thompson attacking cameo of big hitting did give some excitement and was good to watch. Meanwhile Tim Suddaby brings up a 50 with a cracking 4 to the boundary. Tim goes on to make a well committed 65 before some splendid quick fielding to be run-out from a direct hit.

With Tim gone it was just Justin and Pete Wallace left. Justin continued his good batting and will be secretly happy that his average will be going up with 29 runs and not out. Pete was last out LBW for 7 in the last over of the game. Waimate lost the game by 31 runs all out for 174 in the 39th over. Temuka’s bowling attack deserves credit too with tight bowling and a good spell from Shane Gilkson with 4-43 off 8 overs.

Next week Waimate take on MVHS/Star at Mountain View High School.

Reporter: Sam ‘Newsboy’ Newman

Today Waimate Second Grade travelled to “the Rock” to take on Celtic in the final and attempt to retain ‘our’ trophy three years running.

Things did not start well as the Celts started by letting Waimate play on their No 1 wicket, which those of us who saw it know was a disgrace at most levels, although it was still one of the better ones this season!

Waimate batted first and were regularly losing wickets, and then Shep retired hurt (someone told me he has gone soft since getting engaged), but he did manage to return to the middle after Todd was out to a dubious Pete Wallace decision.

Suffice to say, in the time I was watching it was generally doom and gloom for Waimate as they battled through to just pass the 100 runs before being all out.

You would think Celtic would have learned by now, not to abuse the Waimate guys, and get them riled, but when guys call Pete a “blind old %&*#” among their many other statements, only one thing generally happens…….yep….Waimate get fired up!

Today was the same, and as I followed the game via text and word of mouth, first I heard Celtic were 30-3 off 10 overs which sounded promising, and then even better the next txt said 69-9, and eventually the final one to say Celtic all out for 74.

I don’t know the intricasies of who took wickets, catches etc, but I do know that all out for 74 in anyone’s book is a hiding, and we will look forward to Pete walking up to accept the trophy at prizegiving!

Saturday Semi Final

A quick note about Saturday’s game which Waimate needed to win to make the final…JT (Mr Thomson to you schoolkids) took 5-19 and then Tim Suddaby with 55 not out and Todd Bailey with 59 not out made the chase look easy as Roncalli were put away, and MVHS/Star denied any last minute chance of making the final.

Connor Farrell followed up his fifty from a fortnight ago with 31 while Tim Suddaby continued on from his fifty the week before with 20 not out to get Waimate home safely with six wickets in hand.

All the bowlers contributed, but Sam Newman was the most successful with 4-26.

Celtic 128
A Bailey 39, S Wallace 30, H Curtis 20
S Newman 5 0 26 4, Z Aikman 7 0 27 2, B Devine 6 1 16 1

Waimate 132-4
M Prattley 50, C Farrell 31, T Suddeby 20*
M Caple 6 0 38 2, S Wallace 5 1 19 1, D Fridd 2 0 9 1

Ryza Manson was in the runs again with 31 and El Sheppo scored 26 but eventually Waimate succumbed for 185 and with Celtic getting thrashed by Mackenzie/Geraldine the fight for finals places is closing up again.

Scoresheet:
Roncalli 251
D Dorgan 76, J Shaw 48, G Hamel 39
P Wallace 5.3 0 27 4, T Suddaby 4 0 26 2, N Sheppard 8 0 63 2

Waimate 185
T Suddaby 52, R Manson 31, N Sheppard 26
M Dorgan 8 0 33 4, D Dorgan 6 0 21 3, B Gilbert 8 2 29 2

Scoresheet: Waimate 176/7
C Farrell 69, G Paul 43*

Mackenzie/Geraldine 177/5
G Muff 58, B Guthrie38*, M Walker 23

N Sheppard 3 0 11 2