The Margaret River Hawks would like to take this opportunity to focus on the junior cricketers of the region with a massive weekend of cricket.
Firstly, we would like to congratulate young Hawk Aeodhan Bailey on his premiership for his under 17’s team on Sunday. With no 17’s team in Margaret River this season, (due to a change in formats), Bailey played for Dunsborough for his “gap” season and took 1 for 1 from 4 overs and hit a run a ball 20 runs.
He will be a huge asset next season when Margaret River put’s in a 17’s team in the BMRJCA. Well done mate, the Hawks are super proud of your efforts!
Then there is the Under 15’s. Coached and managed by Danny and Elle Weston, the 15’s played all season with only 10 players and came out premiers after a fantastic year. Once again, the Hawks are super proud of all players and supporters and look forward to seeing where these young men take their careers.
With the U15s finishing top of the ladder with a 133 points, they were clear winners in our eyes but we still had to play one of the most important games of the season.
On Saturday morning, the boys came together at Nippers Oval to face YOBS. We've had a few wins over them this season but the boys knew they still had to keep level headed and not be overly confident.
With the boys donning their black armbands in Memory of Ray Flintoff, they went onto the pitch and came together for a few moments of silence reflecting on the season and remembering Ray who was with us every step of the way, who encouraged not only his son Charlie but all the boys and loved the sportsmanship they had shown throughout the season.
MR won the toss and sent YOBS into bat first. Charlie Flintoff (0/2 off 2) and Kade Dittmar (0/5 off 2) opened the bowling and kept it tight and the runs low. Angus Currell (1/8 of 2) took the first wicket of the game.
This was a good sign as the next wicket came quite quickly as Kade and Euan (wk) worked together for a perfect RO.
With some good bowling from Mark Jones (2/7 of 2) and Bailey Kelly (1/8 of 2) giving Angus an awesome catch (and if he hadn't have caught it, would have landed on his behind) and Kade taking two catches, these boys were on fire.
At drinks we had YOBS 5/57. After drinks another RO from Sam Robins had YOBS at 6/60, the game was looking brighter.
Enter Malakai Wholagan (3/1 of 2) and Euan Murray (1/1 of 2). Two bowled and a catch from Charlie saw Malakai take the 3 wickets and a caught and bowled by Euan saw YOBS all out for 73 on the 20th over. Every bowler kept their runs low and their bowling tight.
With not many runs to chase and sundries being the top scorer, there weren’t many runs to get. Sam and Euan being our opening batsmen we got off to a good start. With three boys retiring and only losing 3 wickets, we had overtaken their score on the 20th over. We were through to the Grand Final MR 3/76 v YOBs 10/73.
The YOBS coach put the icing on the cake when he approached Danny and said that it was a pleasure to play MR as their sportmanship was 10/10, our boys where on the field shaking hands when they lost a wicket.
Another 8am start on Sunday, only this time at a very windy Barnard in Busselton. The boys donned their black armbands once again, something they wanted to do themselves.
With both teams only having 10 players, Vasse won the toss and decided they would bat first (our boys had already decided they were going to chase the runs again and field first) so it was perfect for Margaret River. Chasing the runs had worked for us all season.
Charlie (0/6 of 2) and Angus (2/9 of 4) opened the bowling. Vasse were 2 down in the first 4 overs, this was a good start. Anj Kupfer-Hollis (1/12 of 2) and Mark taking another wicket each, making it Vasse 4/29 after 8 overs.
Sam Robins (0/14 of 2) and Kade then took up the attack for the next 4 overs, with Kade snagging another 2 wickets leaving Vasse 6/43 after 12 overs.
A defiant partnership from Kai Knobbin and Ollie Carlisle slowed our bowling down and by drinks (20th) Vasse were 6/88. It took another 7 overs after drinks before we could break the partnership of 55 with Mark bowling Ollie (19) 7/98.
Some tight bowling from Kade and Mark at both ends saw the pressure building up. Mark (3/7 of 5 including two 1 wicket maidens) took the 8th wicket 8/99 and Kade (3/5 of 6.3 including one 2 wicket maiden) taking Kai Knobbin (31) left Vasse with 9/103 at the end of their innings.
At the break we changed our batting side around but still had Sam and Euan as our opening batsmen (these boys are a great pair when it comes to opening), unfortunately things weren't going to plan as we lost 4 wickets in the first 8 overs, and were 4/19.
We needed to turn things around, emotions were high and nerves where shattered (and that was just the parents).
Kade and Mark were going well until that most dreaded and hated ball came towards Mark (14) and it went flying into the air, higher, higher and then slowly fell into the hands of Tom Piggott, boom another wicket gone, thankfully the score had crept up a bit and we were 5/67.
The next wicket gone was Bailey as he got run out, our hearts were sinking. At 6/80 we needed 24 runs to win. We still had a few left in the shed (as Danny says), Anj hitting a 4 on his third ball to give us a glimmer of hope bringing us down to 20. By this stage all the parents had started the countdown.
We were then told Kade only needed 2 to make his 50 and we needed 6 to win. With a swing of his bat and the ball rolling towards the boundary Kade made 52 leaving us with 2 runs needed.
Unfortunately for Vasse the winning runs were made by that pesky little guy named Sundries. We had over taken Vasse in the 24th over 6/107.
With a few happy tears, it was all over and the boys had brought the win to Margaret River!
This weekend will see the Hawks host Saint Mary’s in the A grade semi final at Gloucester Park, while B grade will face Saints in Busselton.
A win on Saturday will see both teams play Sunday with a win ensuring them another grand final appearance. There is a lot of cricket left this season, so good luck lads!
