PJ Blue: Division 3 Winners - Again!

PJ Blue arrived at the tournament to defend their division 3 title from last year. One major difference this year – there was no division 3! Division 2 was extended to 2 pools with the 3rd placed teams in each pool playing off for the Division 3 trophy. Our first match was against Mid North Coast Dolphins. They scored 155, and when we were 6/53, things were not looking too good. We did not lose another wicket and won with 7 balls to spare. Great batting by Stu Clark, Phil Bray an Ross Dalgleish. Our second match was against Hunter Lord Taverners and played on the day what originally was to be the rest day. As a result we could only put out 10 men and with one of our players delayed we fielding with 9 men. This proved costly and they had a prosperous opening partnership. With the help of Simon Lyon who guest fielded for us we managed to rest back some initiative and we restricted them to 176. We started well with Rob Burns getting his 45, but then slowed in the middle. We were coming like at train at the end needing 18 after 43 overs. Unfortunately we ended 3 runs short. The 3rd match was against New England. They had a gun bat in Eric Higgins opening – say no more. Second ball fell just short of 1st slip after he moved deeper after the 1st ball. From there he sped to 49. At 20 overs they were 0/99 but our side stuck to the task and they were 8/191 at the close. We started too slow and were never in the hunt ending up on 5/124. Stu Clark again starring with 45 retired. So we were 3rd in our pool and playing for the division 3 trophy yet again, against the Central Coast Typhoons. We batted first for a change and scored 2/192, with both Stu Clark (yet again) and Douglas Latto getting 45. As we were bowling we could see the thunder clouds rolling in. We sped up our over rate to get in the min 20 overs, after which the Duckworth Lewis method would kick in. We just managed and had the opposition 1-50 off 20 overs a officially won by 24 runs. So we retained the division 3 trophy. Thanks to our Manager Rob Burns for ensuring everything worked so smoothly. Also to the whole team that gelled so much as a unit and were a joy to captain. Can we win division 2 next year?