1st Grade lost the toss and were sent in to bat on the opening day of the 2011/12 season with two debutants (Forster and Chiarella) making their Lane Cove and 1st Grade debuts.
Smith was on the attack early and made a quick-fire 20 including two big 6's over midwicket from consecutive balls before getting caught out in the gully. We then proceeded to lose quick wickets in the LCCC danger zone period including Forster for 4, Naughton 0, Gallichan 23, Corny 20 and Chiarella 2. This had us in big trouble at 6 for 72. Holt then joined Jacko at the crease and both guys started to swing the momentum of the game with a number of boundaries. They took the score to 112 before Holt skied one to mid-on for 22. The skipper then joined in with Jack for a 55 run partnership with Jacko bringing up his first 1st Grade half century for the Coves. It was a great knock by Jack and one that his team was in desperate need of. He finished up on 63 (54 runs came in boundaries) until he ran himself out first over after tea.
The Skipper went soon after for a very patient / intelligent / selfless / gritty 8 runs. The Wesbian and Lego Man then put on a handy 33 runs for the last wicket (Wes 19 and Sneak 8 not out, which equals Sneak's total runs from last season and really cemented his position at number 11 for the rest of his career) to leave us all out for 204.
We had 4 overs at them before bad light stopped play at 3:50 pm and we were unlucky not to have them one down already after future mid-on and fine leg fielders Holt and Gallichan both watched a ball travel passed them at chest height and never took their eyes off the ball as it trickled into the fence directly behind them several seconds later.
If we bowl and catch well next week we should have enough on the board.
With the disappointment of bowing out of the finals last year early, by the hands of the gods behind us, and after enduring a long hard off season training regime it was once again time to commence the 2011/12 season proper.
After winning the toss on a miserable looking day at Tantallon, we sent Epping in to negotiate the first green top of the year with the hope of getting some early wickets and gaining the upper hand. After the first hour everything was going our way and the bowlers had been hitting the right areas with the score crawling along to be 3/36 with Bezer picking up a wicket in his first over and Coxy beating the bat that often we had run out of encouraging words for the batsmen and finishing his first spell with figures of 1/3 after 12 overs.
Pushing into tea, and the score at 6/60, the opposition were looking for the phone number of their local travel agents to arrange a trip away for the long weekend, with Scarcella taking a couple of wickets and Farmer picking up a cheeky one before the break. K Slade (from long on) also effected the run out of the year (so far) after throwing down the stumps at the far end from a deflected ball from the bowler.
From there the sky darkened and the rain started to fall with greater intent and the curse of Tantallon after tea struck as our dominant position slowly but surely disappeared with the opposition (deciding to bat with intelligence) putting on 90 odd runs for the last two wickets ending their innings with a respectable, but not unachievable 191. The highlight of the session being Dutchy with a stumping keeping up to the stumps on a wet wicket to our quicks.
With the threat of having to bat for 1 over in complete darkness the umpires decided enough was enough and called it, leaving us all day to chase down the 191 with 10 wickets in hand next week.
The pick of the bowlers were Cox, Scarcella and Slade taking 7 wickets between them. Great effort.
I turned up to North Epping Oval on Saturday, introduced myself to my players (the ones I could find) and confidently went about the business of winning the toss. Heads it was. Fish in a barrell. We'll have a bowl. The Pingers found themselves having first use of a firm wicket with a bit of grass covering and more conveniently the upper deck of the pavilion. From there, they got a pretty good view of Pirenu Nirmalendran (3/17 from 9) tearing through the top order in a fast, accurate and devastating 6 over spell (3/8, bloody age limitations...) that reduced the Pingers to 3/18. Last minute Dreggs recruit Andrew Barton kept the pressure on from the other end and was unlucky not to pick up a pole or two of his own. With the Pingers in strife, the Fat Skip sensed cheap wickets on the wind and managed a few pedestrian overs of barely adequate straight ones that were just bad enough to burgle a few cheap wickets. Pingers 5/30 in what was a handy start to the match given the combined total of balls bowled during pre-season training by the Covie "quicks" was zero.
The Pingers #3 seemed none to impressed by the display at the other end and proceeded to lace a few drives over or through the infield in a good counter-attacking spurt but once the runs dried up recent Pinger recruit Phil Tran rattled his pegs as things went from bad to worse for the Bulls. As the pitch flattened out and the ball took a bit of a battering, the ball was tossed to young Will "Chip N" Daly and older Crazy Joe Devola. The Bugle struck first after bowling some beautifully flighted deliveries, enticing an uppish drive to Crazy Joe at short cover before CJC got one of his own with a rather adjacent LB. Long John broke a building partnership with a good snare to Liam McElduff in the deep and at 9/67 we thought we'd be at the crease chipping away at a small total well before tea.
The Pingers #10 and #11 batted sensibly on a flat deck and noodled singles here and there to keep the scoreboard ticking over. The odd bad bowl was put away and despite CJC and Pirenu's best efforts, the total continued to creep upwards. To break this partnership would require the appropriate tool for the job, and I decided that tool was Mick Doherty. His first ball bounced twice, nearly missed the square and was smashed to deep mid off - no run. It didn't get much better, but despite Doherty's first over averaging 1.6 bounces per legal delivery, he was asked for a second turn on the dance floor and the last Pinger couldn't negotiate one of Dohers' better slow long hops, managing to diddle into the hands of Phil Tran at backward square. The Pingle Dingles' Disco all over at 108 just after tea.
We had 33 overs to chase 109 for victory, which at just over three an over shouldn't have been too much of a chore on a good batting deck. We started well with Liam and Dohers looking comfortable against the quicks, possibly too comfortable as Dohers chased a wide one and was out caught behind with the score on 24. Crazy Joe surprised no one by going on the attack from ball one, and managed a few quality hits (including a boundary off short covers' shin) before thwacking one back at the Pinger offy who parried the ball and caught it on the second attempt in a rather athletic effort. The Daly Planet came to the crease, started a little nervously but then played some cracking shots as he got himself in as he and Liam took the score to 71 before McDuff was winkled out by another Pinger spinner. Pirenu joined Will at the crease but with 8 overs and 28 runs still required for points on day 1, play was called off due to bad light / slippery conditions. More than a little disappointing.
Pirenu (3/17 and 5*) and Will Daly (38* and 2/21) clearly carried the day for the Coves, good to see the young guys stepping up and getting the job done. If the rain stays away during the week, hopefully we can get on at Epping and bag the points.
4’s turned up on a wettish Saturday morning looking to kick things of with some points in round 1 versus Epping. The team bore little resemblance to the competitive outfit that took the paddock last year – with the long overdue inclusion of former 2nd Grade passengers Hood, Dodds and Knapp.
Captain Dempsey dutifully strode out to the middle and won the toss and bowled on a surface that would offer some assistance early doors. Dodds and Frankish opened up and made little inroads as the Epping boys strolled comfortably to 0/30 before Dodds struck with a slow half volley. Knappy came on and took a large pole before being pasted to the fence on four consecutive occasions in some sort of Tony Greig centenary test type affair.
Certainly not in the script.
Thankfully handy contributions from Scott (3), Tzikas (2) and Dodds (4) saw the Epping total curtailed and were eventually dismissed for 120 leaving us 36 overs to take the 6 tonight.
After a massive tea feast, Dodds and Fish headed out to negate the new ball. They got off to a solid start and put on 38 before the Fish was stumped trying to carve their opening bowler into Dettmann Avenue. The brought the arrival of Booby Junior who put on an important 70 run partnership with Dodds before Jugs was out bowled trying to hit their offspinner a long way.
Dodds 68, Knappy 52 not, Demps 35 and Hoody 30 not all cashed in late afternoon to leave us 4/238 with a lead of 118 and in a good position going into day 2.
Just a reminder that there is no Training this week - the Gartlan Centre is closed during the school holidays and we don't have access to North Sydney #2 until daylight savings starts in October.
Please RSVP to LCCC.Secretary@gmail.com if you plan on attending the Covie Trivia Night! Maximum 8 members per team / table, start forming your own or just rock up on the night and join the least idiotic group of people you can find... no one said it would be easy. Cost for the evening will be $30 clams per person and there'll be plenty of nibbles, drinks and prizes on offer during the evening. Get involved.
Don't forget to put your name in the description.
After one day, Mick Doherty has taken his first and final lead in the Fantasy League competition, closely followed by Dan French and Mick Forster. In life as in cricket, expect Dohers' above average form to be short lived followed by a steady decline towards lower table mediocrity. If you haven't paid your $20 entry fee, please transfer it to the bank details above (include "FL" in the description).