Waimate Cricket Club

Star always looked in control of the game, but a stubborn eighth-wicket partnership of 74, between Waimate’s Alan Reid, who made 33, and Nathan Sew Hoy, who stroked 42, meant the visitors had a respectable 170 to defend.

The front-line bowlers for Star made Waimate work hard, South Canterbury representative Craig Hinton was at his miserable best, ending with one for 11 from his nine overs, while Paul Arkinstall and McKenzie both took three wickets.

Star battled early on to get their run-rate going.

Despite losing both openers by the time the score was 33, McKenzie combined with Arkinstall in a 49-run partnership for the third wicket, and then a 62-run stand with debutant Danny Campbell, who confidently struck 26.

A late flurry of wickets gave Waimate hope, but their inability to take catches in the latter part of the innings cost them any chance of stealing a win and dropping Mckenzie at backward square probably was most costly.

The Waimate bowlers toiled well, with Reid managing two for 25 from his nine overs and James Devlin also getting two wickets, and Matthew Sew Hoy conceded just 18 runs, while picking up a wicket, in his nine over spell.

Waimate captain Jason Sew Hoy said it was the top-order batting which had let his team down.

“We’re just not producing at the top of the order at the moment. We need to learn to keep our heads a bit more.” He said he was pleased with the fielding of the Devlin brothers, Sam and Matt.

Scoresheet

Waimate won the toss and asked Celtic to bat first and would have been reasonably happy at restricting them to about 3 runs an over early on at Rockdale Rd. A good catch down the leg side removed Craig Davies who was starting to look good for 20 and an aggressive approach from Andy Scott ended with a catch in the deep for 32, but it was Dan Laming who continues to erase memories of last season as he scored his second sixty in as many outings.

The Celtic score continued to mount and while 220 looked likely, a devastating innings of clean power hitting by Glenn Matthews of 67 not out including 5 sixes and 6 fours allowed Celtic to score 253-6. He also destroyed some bowling figures as Alan Reid conceded 20 runs from his final over after having bowled 8 for 25 previously.

Of note was the ‘cricketing debut’ of Tony Drake who forsaked his No 1 supporter role to field for the seniors last 25 overs after Craig Booth injured himself at the bowling crease. Draky has always liked going straight to the top of the class…in this case playing senior cricket at the age of 48 after never having played at JAB, High School or any other grade. He was probably happy that in that time in the field his services (skills?) were only called on twice!

With Matthews now warmed up and bowling quickly as well, Waimate were batting more in survival mode than scoring mode and before long it became clear that they were probably not going to worry the Celtic total. With one end of the pitch producing very inconsistent bounce, runs became more difficult, but despite this Jason Sew Hoy batted a long time for his 43 runs and a couple of the other batsmen had long stays at the crease before eventually being all out for 118.

Waimate would certainly not be discouraged with their effort after taking on a team with 8 rep  players as well as battling an under prepared early season wicket, where the inconsistent bounce soon had even the in-form batsmen in trouble.

Scoresheets

A 67-run last wicket stand between Matt Devlin, who made a brisk 43, and Matthew Sew Hoy, who managed 14, propelled Waimate from 95 for 9 to 162 all out, against Timaru, on a rain-affected pitch at Ashbury Park.

The stand ruined the hard work of Timaru off-spinner Srinivas Sonnappa, who took four for 38 and Zane Sanders who snared 4 for 31.

A shower of rain in between innings made the total look better for Waimate, and Timaru struggled from the outset, as the ball continued to swing.

The Waimate bowlers tore through the Timaru batting line-up, as the hosts were bundled out for just 72.

Craig Booth managed 4 for 13, while James Devlin took three wickets and Alan Reid nabbed two.

Nick O’Connell, on senior debut, was the only Timaru batsman to make a decent score with 27.

Timaru captain Hayden Butler said the bowling should have been enough to win them the game.

“A lot of credit to (the last pair), they showed a lot of heart and deserved it.”

Waimate captain Jason Sew Hoy said he was delighted with the economy of his bowlers, and was always confident of getting the win, once they got the total.

View Scoreboard

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

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

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

Timaru travelled to Waimate and batted first with openers Gerald Piddock (19) and a rejuvenated Chris Leonard (24) who was no longer the oldest senior cricketer on the field adding 41 for the first wicket in what was the best partnership to eventuate. The availability of Kris Howes probably dampened Waimate’s day as he top scored in the middle order with 33, and Hayden Leonard again thwarted the attack on his way to 21 not out as Timaru posted a competitive 157.

Alan Reid put in the hard yards as he bowled unchanged from one end for Waimate and was rewarded with 5-76, while Craig Booth took 3-11 and is wishing he had been brought into the attack earlier.

In reply Waimate were soon in trouble at 38-4 before Craig Booth (24) and skipper Jason Sew Hoy (35) added 54 runs to get things back on track at 92-5, but another mini collapse to be 116-8 at stumps has Timaru in the strongest position going into day two to not only gain first innings points, but also to try and push for the outright.

Waimate who were eight down overnight and still 40 runs short of a first innings lead put up a good rearguard action on Day 2 with young Finlay Keen making 21 not out but they ended up 13 runs short on 143 when the compulsory declaration was made after 50 overs.

Timaru made a good fist of their second bat with opener Gerald Piddock leading the way with 40 and handy contributions by Grant Brookland (33) and Hitesh Angrish (35 not out) to be able to declare at 177-7 leaving Waimate 190 to win from 43 overs.

For Waimate Craig Booth was again amongst the wickets taking 3-11 for the second time in the match.

Waimate were never in the hunt with only Adam Polson (12) and top scorer Andrew Davidson (14) making double figures and in the end Alan Reid who faced 51 balls for his 6 runs and had to face the last over with the whole Timaru team crowding around the bat as they strived to get the last wicket and outright victory, held on to see Waimate finish at 69-9 and save a draw.

Scoresheet