Over 50s SHB Grey - Orange Write Up

SHB Grey (Shebangers) Wrap Up

Day 1 didn’t start great for the Shebangers when Glenroi Oval was deemed unfit for play and we were relocated to the synthetic at Anzac Park to face Macquarie Valley. Mullos won the toss and sent the boys from Dubbo in. Unfortunately the rubbish started in the first over with a dropped catch, and by the end of the innings we’d added another 10 to that tally. Hard to win games when you are giving out that many lives. A tight opening spell from Line & Length Laurie (a.k.a. L3) Turner and some lovely outswing bowling from Shawn, saw a couple of edges through to Michael which stayed pouched in the gloves. The Dux also chimed in with a great grab in the gully, to have Macquarie 3-80 odd not long after the first drinks break. We then ran into the cream of their batting and on a deck that wasn’t going to offer anything other than true bounce and nice pace onto the bat we spent the next 20 overs chasing leather – retiring 3 of their batsmen along the way. Raga chipped in with a couple of late wickets to see the opposition finish at 5/233. Not a great day in the field given the butter fingered display, but all bowlers tried their best on an unresponsive carpet. Shawn 2/37 and Raga 2/19. First injury of the tournament however, as The Dux banged up a couple of fingers throwing his hand in front of a hot off drive, which meant there’d be no batting for him.

Mullos and Dr Bill got our chase off to a solid start, bouncing along at 4 an over before Bill tested out their catching ability. Memo to rest of team – they can catch. Mullos departed not long after, holing out trying to push the score – 2/46. However the Maclaine Train had by now left the station and was building steam.

Raga overbalanced at the crease [I suspect due to one leg being slightly shorter than the other from having walked around with it fractured for a week before he realised]

and he fell to a good stumping. Chas nailed a couple of boundaries before being caught, as did Heff, only to miss a straight one and being judged LBW. Meanwhile the Maclaine Train was in full flight peppering the boundary, as Michael hobbled to the wicket showing, and feeling, the effects of 45 overs worth of squats behind the wicket. There’d be no quick singles from those legs, so Keith realising this thumped a couple more boundaries to reach 40 and retire. From here on boundaries were hard to come by and the bowling tightened up. Mick, Paul, Shawn and L3 tried their best but we could only deal in singles and the odd two, with any attempts to push the score seeing wickets fall. Stu came out at number 11 and proceeded to do a Hayden – regularly striding down the wicket at the bowlers and having a crack [OK, OK. It wasn’t really striding, more like a walk-hobble, but he does have 2 bionic knees] Stu’s run a ball 23 came to an end in the final over, forcing Keith to have to go out for the final couple of deliveries when all he felt like was a cold beer. Shebangers 9/170 after their allotted 45overs, Mullos 27 and Maclaine Train 40* in a MOM performance. Not our finest effort in the field but Macquarie Valley had a strong batting lineup and no surprise they went on to win 2nd Division. You can always spin a loss to the eventual premiers to make it sound like you pushed them and were just a little unlucky on the day…… that’s our story and we are sticking to it.

Day 2 involved a trip to Bathurst’s Georges Oval to face the lads from Illawarra. As they were one short The Dux kindly volunteered to fill in for them, still nursing his sore fingers and hoping not to

have to bat. He also volunteered to put the cones out and proceeded to channel Jackson Pollock in an abstract interpretation of a boundary. Mullos won another toss and decided to deviate from his tried and true formula of bowl, bat, get out, cold beer – instead opting to have a bat and set a target. He and Dr Bill once again got the Shebangers innings off to a solid start to have us over 40 after 13 overs. Then disaster struck as Mullane ambled a run to the non-danger end, ignoring a loud call of “YOUR END !!!!!” from his vigilant partner, only to see the ball fly past and crash into the stumps with him just short of his ground. Run out for 25. While the openers were going about their business the Maclaine Train was hammering throwdowns into the picket fence and was looking a million dollars in the warm up. Four runs later and the Maclaine Train had derailed as one nipped back and disturbed the furniture. Enter Michael to join Bill and hopefully relive some school memories and wind back the clock. The first change bowling of Illawarra proved miserly and runs not easy to come by, but their partnership yielded 20 in reasonable time before Michael missed one and was bowled. Raga played around one and lost his leg stump and Heff departed for a duck with another LBW against his name. 5/73 at the halfway point wasn’t looking good and all the interest

turned to whether Mr Gilbert from Illawarra could earn a spot on “The Gate” having taken 4/18 at first change to destroy our middle order. Luckily Bill was hanging in there and with Stu’s help they battled hard and got us to triple figures before Bill fell for 34. Stu followed not long after for another solid 22. Paul didn’t trouble the scorer but Chas and L3 scratched out another dozen or so before Mr Gilbert resumed and slipped one past Chas’s defence and got the Michelle to earn his plaque. At the completion of 45 overs, Shebangers 9/126. The Dux fielding like Jonty Rhodes to cost us more than the odd run.

An incentive based catching system was employed for Game 2 as the Donkey Ears were produced….drop a catch and wear the ears. An absolute masterclass of opening bowling was put on by L3 as his first 7 overs netted 2/2 with an LB and a nice catch by Chas behind the wicket. Raga earned a promotion to the new ball and supported Laurie well, picking up a wicket too and keeping the scoring tight with some good bowling and some even better appealing. Throw in a retired hurt (obligatory dodgy hamstring) and they were effectively 4/50 odd at the halfway point and game on. The fear of the Ears had lifted the fielding too as most catches were held, although Paul did get a little confused by dropping to his knees to thank his omnipotent being of choice

BEFORE he actually took the catch. Their middle order was anchored around ex Port Jacksoner Doug Murphy, who knocked up a 40 in even time which swung the game back in Illawarra’s favour. Despite being lathered in Hally’s Horse Gel Shawn couldn’t quite reproduce his hooping outies from Day 1 and Heff was struggling for consistency. By the time Doug retired they were 5/110 with 10 overs to go and things were grim. Enter Paul Georgiadis the death bowling machine. With Stu’s support, Paul tightened the reins again and picked up valuable wickets, to cause a few heart flutters for the boys from the ‘Gong. After some confusion about retired batsmen coming back before injured batsmen, we even had to get The Dux padded up as runner for Mr Hamstrung. When Paul knocked him over to take his 3rd wicket, The Dux then faced the prospect of possibly hitting the winning runs and being forced to walk back to Orange and drinking alone that night. He did the right thing by blocking out 5 balls to take the game to the penultimate over, but we couldn’t find those two magic balls to get the last two wickets and snatch a victory. Illawarra getting there with an over to spare and 8 down. Great bowling at the end by Paul to take 3/17 and give us a sniff, but the MOM was judged to be Laurie with 2/8 from 9 overs. A McGrath like spell of bowling which could have set up a win had we batted a little better. Still the post game beers were cold and the red wine flowed, quaffed from the finest McDonalds cups that added that hint of waxy flavour to the delicate fruity overtones. Another enjoyable night was had at the Canobolas Hotel for the post mortem and tactical talk.

Day 3 saw the Shebangers battling fellow Sydneysiders Earlwood CC as both teams sought their first win. Captain Mullos has consulted resident PJVCC maths whiz Hardman over a few beers the night before and had decided to employ some chaos theory for our final game. After winning the toss and sending them in we proceeded to draw numbers from the hat for our bowling order. The reduced 36 over game enabled our team of all-rounders 3 overs each to ply their trade. Stu and The Dux drew 1 and 2 for the opening spots and they kept things tight for their spells with the new ball, but couldn’t get a breakthrough. Enter at first change the mystery bag that is Bill McKay’s bowling armoury. With the batsmen confused about whether the ball was going to hit the pitch, or even bounce at all, Bill had to survive an umpires meeting following his 3rd beamer and narrowly missed being reported and dragged from the attack. Persistence paid off as he finally had their opener stumped as he ran past one. L3 was going about his business at the other end as usual,

bowling well but without luck this time. Maclaine Train delved into the bag of tricks for 3 overs of doosras, carrom balls, googlies and the odd Jeffery, but unfortunately went wicketless. However the crafty offies of Terry John Michael Fahey at the other end were drifting, turning and spitting. He picked up the other opener to a slick stumping and their number 4 a couple of balls later caught behind off the arm ball – 2 /10 off his allotted 3 and the Earlwood Wanderers 3/60 at the halfway mark. Paul had to forfeit his number 7 slot after pulling a calf running down one in the deep so he swapped with his Blayney B&B buddy Raga, to rest up and ice the injury to come on as our death bowler again. Raga fresh from electroshock therapy courtesy of the farmstay fence, bowled with spark, keeping it economical so Mullos could buy a wicket at the other end. The Skip was ripping the leggies and even got a couple to turn, but one over too many meant he got a bit loose. He did manage to retire their number 5 who was doing all the damage though – so we’ll call that a “wicket”. Shawn and Chas were next up and built some dot ball pressure which earned them both a wicket in their last overs. The fear of the Ears had lifted the fielding performance noticeably in the second and third games, none more so then when The Dux latched onto a scorching on drive despite some very banged up fingers. He was entitled to wave it by on its way to the boundary, but he bravely stuck the mitts out as everyone else winced in pain for him. No Donkey Ears for The Dux but the resultant dance of pain was worth the admission price alone. Paul had iced up the calf and was back on, and he and Heff combined for the final 6 overs. Luckily wickets fell with regularity and the last 4 batsmen didn’t cause too much activity for the scorer. Mullos kept a perfect catching record for the tournament (1 from 1) helping Paul get his wicket and Heff picked up the other 3 with the game being closed out by a good catch from Paul at third man. Earlwood all out for 113. It may have ended a little earlier save for the last dropped catch by Shawn, who had the dubious honour of being the last Shebang Donkey. The less said about his attempt the better. Soda anyone ?

Lots were drawn for batting order and Stu “Snake Eyes” Clark again drew the lucky number 1 and partnered up with the Maclaine Train to get the chase underway. They put on a run-a-ball 50

opening stand, before Stu decided he’d had enough and retired at 22. Paul limped to the wicket and supported Keith till he too retired at 30. He then kept Mullos company for a while before being caught with the score on 80 for the loss of our first wicket. Mullos went 2 runs later for 14, having had to dance halfway to point to get an edge on a wide one. Chas had barely settled in at 5 before Bill came and went. A well struck boundary going to Bill’s head as he tried to hit the next hand grenade harder and further, only to swing himself off his feet and destroy his own wicket. I believe Michael captured the moment on camera and will be soon releasing a signed, limited edition lithograph titled “Stumbler McKay”. Chas (14*) and Shawn (12*) made the most of their time in the middle as the opposition joined in the spirit by giving everyone a bowl. We passed their score 3 down and with plenty of overs to spare - finally a win to finish off the tournament !!. A most enjoyable game played in good spirits, and we think Mullos might be onto something with this Keno Cricket theory. Keith picked up his second MOM for a fine batting performance. A few of the team made the most of the early finish to head back to the big smoke, whilst the rest of us enjoyed another night of fine food, local wine sampling and swapping cricket stories.