Unfortunately, the heavy rain on Friday night meant no play for Prems or Div 2, while Masters had a bye, so there's fewer reports than usual to read. However, 3 out of 4 wins for the remaining sides wasn't bad, particularly on a weekend that set a new club record!

Owls vs Hawks

The annual battle of youth vs experience is scheduled to bring the curtain down for the club on Sunday 24 March, 1pm, at the club. Will the Owls retain the trophy (and use of all their moving parts) for another year? Will one or two of the Hawks think about calling it a night before dawn in preparation? Only time will tell.

If you're keen to turn out for the game, let your team captain or Chris McBride know ASAP or put your name down on the board at the club.

MPCC Awards Night

With an early Easter this year, our Awards night is set for Thursday 28 March, from 7pm at the clubrooms. Come along and celebrate another season of MPCC cricketing ups and downs, the achievements of our clubmates, and a last opportunity of the season to eat, drink and tell tall tales at Edgar Mac!

Congratulations to Div 7 captain Glen Bellam, who became the 7th MPCC player to take 9 wickets in an innings, leading his team to victory against Heathcote and recording our club's best ever figures of 9/10 off 7.2 overs.

Congratulations to Burger Station Div 3 bowler, Jason Swensson, whose 5/14 vs Lancaster Park set his team up for a win. His figures were the best return in Div 3 this season.

Congratulations to Bombay Tandoor T20 captain, Mahesh Dimri, who scored yet another half-century versus Lancaster Park, with his 60* setting up a good win for his side.

Congratulations to Dave Monger, whose 2/28 vs Lancaster Park for Burger Station Div 3 took him past 400 wickets for the club. He is the 18th player in club history to reach 400.

Match Reports from Saturday 16 March

MP Sporting Edge Prems vs St Albans @ Edgar Mac 1 (Two Day, Day 1 - washout)

Unfortunately, nothing to report this week.

MP Sporting Edge Div 2 vs Burnside @ Bishopdale (Two Day, Day 1 - washout)

Unfortunately, nothing to report this week.

MP Burger Station Div 3 vs Marist Harewood @ Redwood 2 (Win)

We had the dubious thrill of a lower-half ‘semi-final’ vs Marist Harewood Himalayan at Redwood 2 (apparently not counting towards points for the season), repeating a fixture we’d played only a couple of weeks earlier. After Friday’s rain it seemed doubtful we’d play, but a check of the pitch at midday showed it surprisingly dry, despite a slick outfield. When 3 Marist players turned up for their own inspection at 12.45 I duly lost the toss and was surprised to find them keen to bat first. We opened up with Cam and Lachie Cameron James, making his first appearance of the season for the 3s. Cam struggled a little, slipping in the crease a few times, but Lachie (1-16 off 6) bowled a beautiful opening set, tying the batsmen in knots and getting rid of captain Nabin via a high catch pouched by Dave at mid-off, while his tight bowling also induced a run-out from a swooping Darren throwing through to Ranjith. Dave replaced Cam and got into the frustrating habit of bowling 5 good balls and a boundary goober, but got the second and third wickets via a catch by Darren at square leg and a nick to Ranjith behind the stumps, in the process bringing up his 400th MP wicket. Himanshu had a go at the other end without success. Marist were about 90 for 4 at drinks. For once, Dave (2-28 off 6) had the good sense to hook himself at drinks before the inevitable stiff post-drinks run-fest, bringing in Jase instead. Jase saw a couple of loose balls go to the boundary early on, but then settled into a great rhythm, getting the ball to alternately slide and leap past the batsmen. With a gathering crowd of supporters, courtesy of the Prems and Div 2 being washed out, Jase worked his way through the opposition order, picking up 5-14 off 7, all caught behind the stumps or in the infield by Ranjith, Humey, Anil, Joel and Dave. Runs continued to flow a little at the other end, but the return of Cam (1-40 off 7) finished off the innings with the only bowled of the day, leaving Marist 153 all out off about 33 overs.

With the pitch drying, but still creating challenges for the batters, we opened up with Darren and Anil, who got us off to a strong start, with Anil’s backfoot cover drive for 6 and Darren’s square drive for 4 roared on by the cheer squad. Anil (15) was first to go with the score at 27, pinged LBW trying to swing across the line. That leaves him needing about 30 for 500 in the final week. Darren (15) then walked after gloving a ball that was well caught in front of the stumps by the keeper, leaving us 37/2 – a nervous kind of score for us recently after some fragile batting. However, Humey (visiting from Masters) and Joel kept up the momentum, bringing the score up to 59 with some steady accumulation as well as a powerful 6 from Joel, before Humey was stumped for 8. Himanshu and Joel then took us to drinks on 90-odd for 3, leaving us needing 3s to get home. Meanwhile, on the sidelines, Dave was doing his superstitious best to keep notorious jinxers like Mike Beattie away from the scores, but made the mistake of letting Teddy see (and announce) that Joel was on 38, shortly before he was trapped LBW for that well-made score, featuring two sixes and an unexpected and crowd-pleasing reverse sweep for 4. 107/4 became 113/5 when Himanshu (17) slapped a ball to point, creating further jitters. However, this brought together Ranjith (28*) and Ice (14*), who batted beautifully, nudging singles and punishing the odd loose ball as, in the end, we cruised home 5 down in the 31st over as if we'd been knocking off run chases all season.

A very pleasing team performance with all the batters contributing in partnerships, players throwing themselves around in the field and holding catches and Lachie and Jase, particularly, excelling with the ball. Big thanks to the club coach, seniors and 2nds, as well as injured and work-restricted 3rds who made the journey to Redwood to support the side, as well as assisting a noisy rendition of the too rarely performed club song. We obviously have a few Hollywood players in our ranks as several put in their best performances of the season in either this game or our previous victory on Edgar Mac 1, where we also had a crowd! On to the lower-half ‘final’ next week.

Dave M

MP Bushnell Builders Panthers vs St Albans @ Hagley 3 (Loss)

The Panthers were hoping to turn the tide this week against the St Albans Buccaneers, having lost to them on three previous occasions this season. The Buccaneers weren't taking the Panthers lightly, however, bringing down some heavy artillery from up the grades in order to bolster their lineup for this week's semi final. Skipper Andy A lost the toss and the Buccaneers decided to bat on a damp Hagley Corner pitch. Andy A and Max opened the bowling as usual, with Max being his lethal best striking in his first over with an LBW. He wasn't done though and picked up another two in consecutive balls in his fourth over, his last wicket was an absolute peach, an inswinging slower ball that sent the batsmen's middle peg flying. Andy A was plugging away at the other end and was rewarded with a wicket in his final over, before the dynamic duo of Steve and Roger came on. Both started off very miserly with Roger picking up an LBW in his 5th over. Then the Buccaneers started launching a few cannonballs until the crafty old sea dog Flats picked up a cheeky caught and bowled. Jack bowled the death overs at the other end and cleaned up the last 3 wickets, sending the stumps cartwheeling on two occasions. The Buccaneers dropped anchor at 145.

Andy R and Dean opened the batting as usual and weren't doing too bad until Andy R was bowled by a rip-snorting inswinging yorker. This brought Max to the crease who steered the ship towards calmer waters before they introduced their spinners into the attack. This set off a calamitous collapse of epic proportions. Dean was first to go when he top edged a pull shot to square leg, Dakesy lasted a few balls until he was caught close in, Glen got unlucky first ball when he inside edged onto his foot which then rolled onto the stumps. Andy A only lasted 3 balls when he fended off a ball that had popped, straight into first slip's hands. At the other end Max fell when he tried to hit out and was caught, top scoring on 15. Steve and Roger came and went without scoring, Flats managed to pick up 3 runs before he was caught close in. 'Shot of the day' goes to Ronnie, when he expertly pulled the Championship grade spinner to the square leg boundary for four! Ronnie's wicket was the last to fall when we were on 44, with Jack remaining unbeaten on 1. A pretty disappointing effort with the bat with 5 batsmen bringing home ducks. Victory slipped through the Panthers' claws this time but there were a few positives to take away. We bowled well for most of the time, and apart from a few tough chances dropped, fielded well. Onward and upward we prowl, in the final hunt of the season next week, we get the opportunity to pounce on Sydenham.

Andy A

MP Div 7 vs Heathcote @ Edgar Mac 2 (Win)

It was semi final time this week for us and we were at home to Heathcote. Bellsy lost the toss (again, apparently he’s not a tosser) and we were put in on a low slow Edgar Mac 2, which didn’t upset us as we would have batted first anyway. Alan(0) and Nana(5) opened up but both fell cheaply and when Goutam decided attack was the best form of defense and fell for 1 we were up that creek again without a form of propulsion. Sam G (10 off 47) , Muthu (18 off 46) and Ayan (11 off 32) went above and beyond trying to etch us through to a total. They each put away any natural instincts and put team first grinding us to a defendable total all playing without doubt their best innings of the season. Bellsy (47 off 53), Frosty (15 off 30) and Blake (7 off 11) all built on this great work and we scrapped, fought, stole and sweated our way up to 122 all out in the last over.

Our turn with the kookaburra in hand didn’t start as we would have wished with 1 Heathcote batter in particular taking toll of any loose bowling, hitting his way to 34 and Heathcote had 40 on the board without loss. Bellsy gave Frosty one more and he repaid him immediately, getting our first breakthough (Heathcote 45 for 1). From there we thought we’d slow it down and try spin. Bellsy’s first ball was s**t and was hit for 4 but then we started to dot them up. With Sam dropping onto a great length from the other end Bellsy started throwing a few up trying to attack with immediate results. He got 1 in his second then 3 in his 3rd and kept chipping them out right through until drinks when Heathcote had gone from 45 for 0 to 7 for 56. After drinks Heathcote blocked a couple of overs out then with the team all “up” and the fielding the most committed its been all season we got 8,9 and 10 and they were all out for 65. Bowling-wise Sanath and Sam bowled without luck beating the bat constantly but all the wickets fell at the other end with Frosty 1-13 off 5 and Bellsy getting his best club figures of 7.2-4-10-9.

For me our lower order batting today was awesome and got us into a position to win. I’m starting to believe Muthu who tells me every chance he can that he’s a batter. Player of the day was an immensely proud Captain Bellsy with 9-10 and 47 runs.

Cheers,

Bellsy

MP BBS Timbers Masters (Bye)

An unwelcome week off for the Masters team, two of whom ended up filling in for another club's Masters team!

MP Bombay Tandoor T20 vs Lancaster Park @ Garrick 1 (Win)

No report, but the T20 guys had a better day at Garrick 1 than other MP teams have managed this season!

Article added: Wednesday 20 March 2024