Hawks A's return to form against Cowaramup

We were presented with a grassy wicket that was clearly still holding the rain, resembling UK conditions and making the toss vitally important.

Well, tails never fails, and sure enough we elected to bowl. Cowie were faced with Leigh 'Lethal' Westcott (1/7 from 6 overs) who was given a licence from the skipper bowl fast and short of a length, threatening both the batters safety and wicket.

He was followed up by Thommo (2/18) who passed the outside edge of the bat countless times and was far too good for the top order. When a pitch seams, it will spin, and sure enough the Hawks spinners were put to work.

Rumesh (3/13) and Crimpy (2/15) bowled well and with Rumesh taking the prize wicket of Fraser Oates (5) and Crimpy taking two quick wickets including Kaveen De Silva (4), caught by Gareth Edmonds, Cowie were 5/35 after 25 overs. Young Kade Dittmar entered the attack, returning figures of 1/7 from 6 overs. 

Gartsy, Rumesh and Thommo bowled smart areas to ensure only 31 runs were scored from the final 10 overs of the innings, with Cowie dismissed all out for 96 in the 49th over. 

The stage had been set up for the bonus point win so long as the Hawks batters remained disciplined and patience at the crease during the run chase.

Unfortunately the run chase did not commence well with Rumesh and Macca dismissed early and the Hawks were 2/14. 

Gareth Edmonds struck the ball well early with well-timed drives until he lofted a drive to a forward diving mid-off. Hawks 3/37. Joyce offered some resistance against the Cowie attack but played a low bouncing ball onto his stumps scoring just 21.

What the Hawks needed was a UK pitch playing specialist - enter Stuart Roberts.

This young Welshman played an awesome innings (32 n.o.) with mature technique and control, combining with Kade Dittmar to put on 48 runs.

The dismissal of Dittmar, much to Gartsy's delight, saw him stride out to the crease with only 5 runs to win.

Garsty played what could only be described as three reverse cross bat sweep cut shots and one almighty crack to Cow Corner to secure the vitally important bonus point win for the Hawks. 

The call last week was for a more ruthless Hawks side and that was exactly what Cowie came up against.

This is a return to the level of performance we are capable of and builds important momentum going into our clash against St Marys next weekend. 

Coming off our best performance for the season, our next assignment was against the might of Vasse CC.

Buoyed by the omission of 2 of their players we went into the contest confident of a positive result.

Winning the toss and electing to field we started brightly with openers Darcy Bailey and Kurt Thompson bowling well and unlucky to capture only one wicket. 

Wickets fell at regular intervals, with Thompson, Charlie Hart and Jordan Stanbury all successful to have Vasse vulnerable at 4/64.

The game was in the balance but Vasse unearthed Miles Darragh and we were witness for the next 20 overs of some of the best batting B grade has seen for some time.

Trying 8 different bowlers we couldn’t remove the dangerous Darragh who finally fell for 100 off 88 balls to Kurt, being well caught by Pete De Gennaro. Vasse proceeded to 227, a highly competitive total made harder by the loss of Rio to a calf injury in the field. 

Regular openers Maurice Shinnick and Alastair Wilkie did not produce their regular partnership and Hawks were quickly on the backfoot. Wilkie falling for 10, Shinnick for 5, Michael Earl 5 and Ado Bailey 11, the Hawks were 4/32.

Bring in Darcy Bailey and Kurt Thompson who showed how to knuckle down and put pride on their wicket.

The two were able to get the score to 81 before Bailey fell for 28 and a partnership of 48. Thompson tried to get further partnerships going but except for a late flurry from Stanbury we were dismissed for 125.

Mitchell Broun in the field is always a highlight and richly deserved the 3 fielding votes, Darcy Bailey’s all round game taking 1/2, 2 catches and his high score of 28. 

The return of past players Jaz Kupferhollis and Kurt Thompson, in particular Kurt’s Man of the Match performance taking 3/34 off 9 and scoring 30. 

With regular skipper Tristan off playing with grapes it was left to James Gannaway to fill the role with a group of youngsters. Yobs won the toss and had no hesitation in batting first on a beautiful day for cricket at Nipper Oval.

Opening bowlers Vincent Bochat (0/9) and Angus Currell (1/25) started proceeding as asked, bowling great areas and with the back-up of strong fielding, pressure began to mount on the Yobs pair.

A few hesitant calls between the wickets ended in Bailey Kelly taking chance and getting the first wicket, a superb direct hit runout from square leg in the fifth over.

With Kelly (0/20) then replacing Currell at one end and skipper bringing himself on at the other things only got better. Kelly bowling tight lines to build pressure while Gannaway (3/25) probed away.

Shortly after Harvey Fisher took a fantastic catch diving forward at first slip to snare Hawks second wicket before the skipper took another two wickets in the shadow of the drinks break. Add to this Darcey Currell (2/35) bowling his spinners picked up one to have Yobs 5/81 at drinks.

After the break the little master Harvey Fisher (1/6) bowling his left arm spin bamboozled the Yobs batsmen and Darcey picking up another.

It was now time to put the pressure on and close out the innings with Sam Robins (1/21) after keeping for the first half bowled great areas, after some lusty blows by the Yobs tail, Angus wrapped things up in bizarre fashion, with the ball sailing towards the boundary the batsmen stepped back to admire his shot and, in the process, knocking his stumps over. 

Yobs All out for 153, well within reach if everyone did their part. Kelly and newcomer Jamie Terkildson opened the batting starting slowly but valuing their wicket at the same time, Kelly was out in the 6th over with Terkildson being joined by Euan Murray.

Terkildson took charge against his former club hitting the too all parts while Murray looked good until his wicket fell bringing Bochat to the crease. Terkildson trying to be a little too delicate ended up gliding one off his pads onto the top of leg stump was out for a well- made 24 bringing the big show Adam Clarke Alexander to middle.

After a shaky start he middled a couple and work the strike to get Bochat on strike where ever possible, unfortunately falling for 1 before showing the opposition his full potential. Fisher then joined Bochat at the middle and with poise and elegance of someone twice (or even thrice) his age, the pair started to build a partnership.

Going into the drinks break the game was in the balance at 5/61, 20 runs behind the opposition but if we could simply bat out the next 20 overs would be a very close game.

Unfortunately following the drinks break things fell apart, first Bochat (16) was out in the first over followed quickly by Angus and the Darcey Currell, who can hold his head high after being bowled by a former Sri Lankan test cricketer.

This left just the skipper and Sam Robins to finish the game, with Gannaway rotating the strike Robins was unlucky to be stumped playing forward to the spin and dragging this foot out, any other game he would’ve made it back, but the Yobs keeper was on form and whipped the bails off in a flash.

That was the end of a great day of cricket, the Hawks should hold their heads high, a man down and holding a team fitting for a top two finish to 153 is no mean feat.

Two scrambled leg-byes by Jono Lloyd and Lewis Milligan off the last possible ball of the 50th over gave St Marys the most dramatic win imaginable in A-Grade cricket at the Dunsborough Playing Fields on Saturday evening.

Chasing Dunsborough’s total of 9-185, Saints responded with 8-186 at the expiry of a game which lasted the full 100 overs.

Players on the day were left with pounding eardrums, as the game was played while the Dunsborough pub across the road hosted the popular Hotter Than Hell concert.

The result keeps St Marys in the hunt for the Yates Shield for the A-Grade minor premiership. With only two qualifying rounds remaining, YOBS are leading the table on 92 points from St Marys on 83 points.

Saturday’s finish at Dunsborough was made more dramatic by uncertainty over the accuracy of the scorebooks at the finish.

The issue was resolved only when it was realised that the runs scored off the final ball had not been entered.

Batting first, Dunsborough were held together by Josh Reagan (50 runs) and Mick Walker (46 not out), with a handy 29 by Ethan Beatty helping to make up a defendable total. Import Joe Lowe was the pick of the St Marys attack with 3-28 from 10 overs of leg-spin.

Saints only just snuck in their 50 overs in the full time limit to avoid being penalised – and as it transpired, they needed every ball of their 50 overs in reply.

Veteran Marc Ford struck his first half-century of the season (54) and was assisted by the reliable Lowe (29) in the successful run chase.

Dunsborough’s 16-year-old Jack Omodei was among the bowlers to impress for the home side, conceding just 26 runs in his 10 overs and taking two important wickets.

B-Grade Results: Vasse 7-227 (45 overs) (M. Darragh 100, D. Ebert 37no, A. Eades 21, K. Thompson 3-34) b MR Hawks 125 (35.3 overs) (K. Thompson 30, D. Bailey 28, J. Stanbury 20, B. Kearney 2-14, T. Perks 2-14, M. Sauzier 2-40). Dunsborough 5-212 (43.1 overs) (B. Siney 57, T. Schofield 51, W. Perna 42no, C. Morris 37, C. Roberts 3-53) b St Marys 7-209 (45 overs) (A. Leaney 70, K. Barrow 55no, D. La Motte 30, M. Yarwood 22, B. Siney 2-21, K. Smith 2-32). Masters A hat-trick by Noel Elliott for Gerryhatricks was the highlight of the last round of Masters cricket on Sunday. Dunsborough Ducks amassed 175 from their 25 overs and dismissed Gerryhatricks for 78. The grand final for the Masters competition will be played at Barnard Park on March 10 between Dunsborough Ducks and Cowaramup Old Cricketers.

History  was made on Saturday when a former Test cricketer appeared in the Busselton-Margaret River Cricket Association for the first time.

The 59-year-old Saliya Ahangama, who played three Tests for Sri Lanka in 1985, turned out for YOBS in their C-Grade game against Hawks at Margaret River.

He took 2-8 in a win for YOBS. Tyson Warnke smashed 104 for Augusta in their win over Vasse at Augusta, while Pieter Bresser hit an unbeaten 94 for Nannup to lead his side to victory against St Marys at Churchill Park.

Dunsborough scored a big win over Cowaramup in the remaining C-Grade game at Cowaramup.

C-Grade Results: Nannup 3-173 (32.3 overs) (P. Bresser 94no, L. Smith 30) b St Marys 5-172 (40 overs) (G. Sly 40, A. Balkin 34, M. Snaddon 22, R. Burton 21, S. Mills 4-28). Augusta 4-267 (40 overs) (T. Warnke 104, I. Mutnica 72, B. Gillam 59no) b Vasse 136 (36.2 overs) (D. Amour 37, D. Sieber 21 B. Warnke 2-14, B. Gillam 2-24, J. Warnke 2-49). YOBS 153 (34.1 overs) (R. Griffiths 45, E. Piggott 24, J. MacKinnon 22, S. White 21, J. Gannaway 3-25, D. Currell 2-35) b MR Hawks 91 (31 overs) (J. Terkildsen 24, S. Ahangama 2-8, D. Cameron 2-23, L. Gray 2-26). Dunsborough 7-292 (40 overs) b Cowaramup 123 (R. Menzies 30).

- Allan Miller