B Grade - Round 1 - 2011/12

Well, here we go again, another off-season has come and gone...

Despite reports to the contrary (mainly from me), the start of the season saw us without a new Captain. Thanks to much running around, and many phone calls by Guv, we found ourselves 45 minutes from starting with 9 players. Some more calls, and a little bit of begging, and we were up to 11 by the start of the game.

As is usual for this early in the season, enthusiasm was hard to come by, and the game seemed to start in this vein. The initial excitement of winning my first toss in many, many games, wore off a little when it came to picking the batting order.

New recruit from RSL, Luke Southam was a walk up start as opener, with the ever reliable Head joining him. Redders at 3, Renzi at 4, Stuey Blanch at 5, myslef at 6, Ruddy at 7, Bucks at 8, Tom Clarke at 9, new bloke Lodgie at 10, and Sugar at a self-appointed 11. Absolutely no disrespect  is meant to any of the boys, and they even agreed with me that it wasn't the most exciting of line-ups!

We weren't off to the best of starts, when we lost Luke early to a dodgy bottom edge. (1/3) Not the start he wanted at a new club, considering it was a Golden Duck, and appears to be the first time this has happened to him.....  but the only way from here is up!

Head followed soon after (2/6), quickly followed by Redders (3/15). Renz (first 4 of the B Grade Season), and Stuey (first 6 of the B Grade Season) steadied the ship for a bit, before Renz fell for a quick fire 16 (4/34). I joined Stuey, and left him soon after (5/47). Stuey departed after making 27 (including 4 sixes) leaving us reeling a bit at 6/63.

The wickets came with a bit of regularity from then on, with the exception of Ruddy. He seemed to have taken a whole bottle of patience pills, something the rest of us obviously forgot to do. Bucks gone for 11 (7/98), followed by Clarkey (8/114) left us with new bloke (never played before) Lodgie, and Sugar Ray the only 2 left in the sheds. Lodgie gone for 5 (9/136) left Sugar and Ruddy to add to the total. A big 6 from Sugar, before Ruddy holed out for a very well made 47.

So, from a very scratchy start, we had a (sort of) defendable total of 140.

Bucks and Clarkey opened the bowling, and Bucks got the early breakthrough. A brilliant low diving catch from Clarkey at gully, saw youg Jacob Dick on his way. Clarkey picked one up after a spinning Head took a great catch. At first drinks, the slate was fairly even, with Wests at 2-48.

A bowling change or two, and with 10 overs to go, the scales had tipped our way a little bit, with Wests 7/116.

We needed 3 wickets, they needed 25 runs. Time to bring out the big guns. Bucks and Clarkey cleaned up the tail, taking 3/6 between them, and leaving Wests wondering what could have been.

A good first up start that sees us unbeaten so far this season!

Some noteable stats for the B Grade:

First Golden Duck - Luke Southam
First Four - Adrian Renzi
First Six - Stuart Blanch
First Dropped Catch - Tim Lodge

A few blokes back next week, probably some more away, should mean some more headaches come selection time.

Until then.....