O50s State Tournament Wrap Up
Coming of the back of our tournament win in Port Macquarie in February, our title defence didn’t go exactly as per the script with both Port Jackson sides coming up against some stiff opposition. What was abundantly clear is the quantity and quality of all of the teams across NSW has risen a great deal, and now the bar is set quite high for the next state championships!
Both Port Jackson teams came away with one win from 3 games, which given the closeness of the games could have very easily been 3 wins out of 3, or just as easily 3 losses out of 3, such was the standard of all of the teams across the tournament.
Our Port Jackson blue side in division two can hold their heads high with some resolute performances across their three games. Port Jackson Blue came away with just the one win from the three games which was not a true reflection of their efforts. It was also great to welcome in the ‘Kiera-Konnection’ Richard, Doug and Peter who slotted in to the side tremendously.
Game 1 saw PJ Blue come up against the Mid North Coast Dolphins. Some great bowling from Peter Murphy with 2/39 of 8 overs and Richard Everett 2/30 of 7 restricted the Dolphins to 6/121 off their 45 overs. Our boys passed that total comfortably reaching their total at 3/123 off 35 overs, with Skipper Mullos in the bank with 40 not out, Doug Murphy 40 not out as well, and Raga chiming in with a valuable 25.
Game 2 saw our boys playing the Narrabri Pink Slugs. The name certainly lulled our boys in to a false sense of security with the Slugsters performing well with bat and ball. The Slugs took to the bat (a strange image) and put 181 on the board for the loss of 5 wickets. For us, Michael Hall grabbed a very nice 2/36 off 9 overs. In reply our boys struggled against the Slugs only being able to post 9/136 off the 45 overs. Damo perilously close to being in the bank with 39, Mr. Everett contributing this time with the bat with tidy 22, and manager Joe posting 21 in a tough encounter.
Game 3 against Lismore LEGS saw the inclusion of Greg ‘kiss of death’ Boyer. From a statistical perspective it should be noted that Butch is the only Port Jackson player to not experience a win across this tournament. I have it on good advice that Butch has purchased a mirror and is taking a good hard look at himself.
Despite all of this, Greg did get among the runs with a very nice 30 not out, Michael Hall again in the scorebook with 30 not out, Chas Viner a handy 26, Richard and Raga again with 24 and 20 respectively, for a total of 8/164.
In reply Lismore did have the LEGS (my apologies) and did pass our total at 5/168. Raga having a great all-round game with 2/27 off 7 overs and Shawn Dwyer kicking in with 2/17 off 3 overs.
Port Jackson Red went in to this tournament with high hopes and looking to retain the title won in February. Like our PJ Blue brothers, PJ Red also came away from Armidale with just the one win under our belt from the 3 games.
Game 1 was always going to be nothing short of an arm-wrestle with a great rivalry already having been established from the previous tournament with the lads from Tamworth.
Tamworth Hazelwood won the toss and sent us in, which was a nice bonus as we hoped to bat first, despite Armidale No. 1 looking rather green. Our openers Greg (Butch) and Garlo (I love cider) got us off to a great start with 21 and 45 not out respectively. Garlo’s innings was a delight to watch including one towering 6. Al Willmore does what he always does and got in the bank with 41 not out and debutant Karpy (aka moo moo) a valuable 27. PJ Red was in a great position to drive the advantage home however we lost far too many wickets for far too little runs in the drive for quick runs and only ended up with 8/167. A total that should have been much greater given the great platform the boys gave us.
Our turn on the field saw the game see-saw countless times with each team having the advantage. In the home stretch PJ Red looked to have the game in the bag, but a great effort by the Tamworth boys snatched the victory away from us with just 2 torturous balls to spare. Our other debutant Staresy grabbing 2/29 off 9, Paul Adams 2/28 off his 9, and Skiddsy 2/31 off his 9.
With our title defence now over, it was certainly a sombre PJ Red dressing room afterwards. However a few beers later the laughs soon returned.
Game 2 saw us go to battle with Central Coast Gold, with Briggsy’s boys winning the toss and batting. We looked to hit our straps with some great work in the field; Skiddsy with 3/20 off 9, Paul Adams 2/14 off 5.4 and JB 2/29 off 9, to roll the Central Coast boys for 141 off just over 40 overs.
Some simply first class bowling by the Central Coast boys and a couple of dubious shot selections by ourselves saw us unfortunately make hard work of the run chase, sadly being all out for 124 off 42.3 overs. Only Karpy with a superb 48 not out and Jeffro with 20 could hold their heads high.
Game 3 saw us tussling with the mighty Mid North Coast Sharks and looking for redemption. We didn’t want to travel that far and not have at least one win! It was a good effort to bundle out the Sharks for 144 off just over 35 overs, with JB 3/28 off 6, Paul 2/14 off 2.4 and Jeffro 2/16 off 8. Special mention to the workhorse Skiddsy who again bowled a heap of overs; 8 overs 1/40.
The inclusion of Doug Murphy was a welcome addition scoring 25 as opener however 3 quick wickets saw us quickly in to the middle order. A valuable partnership with Al and JB saw the score tick over and stabilise, until Karpy again put the opposition to the sword, top scoring again with 35 in a great partnership with Lindsay scoring 20. The crowd loved the suspense with PJ’s losing 3 quick wickets to be 9 down with Staresy and Paul at the crease. A few very nervous overs passed until the team got to see Staresy in his true colours smashing 13 not out in not too many balls to rocket us over the finish line.
