December 4th, 2003

In this issue:
Next weekend's games
Last weekend's games
Clubrooms campaign -- progress report
Condolences

Next weekend's games: A Grade: v Emmanuel, Sunday 1pm, Fawkner Park No.1 (continues)
B Grade: v Coles Myer, Sunday 1pm, Fawkner Park No.2 (continues)
D Grade: v Barnawartha North, Saturday 1pm, Fawkner Park No.2 (continues)
Under-14s: v Merlynston-Hadfield, Saturday 8.30am, Ross Straw Field No.1 (continues)
Under-12B: v Strathmore Heights, Saturday 8.30am, Boeing Res No.4, Boeing Rd, Strathmore (continues)
Under-12E: v Sydenham-Hillside, Saturday 8.30am, Ross Straw Field No.2 (continues)
Under-10s: v Ascot Vale, Friday 5.15pm, Arden Street

Last weekend's games:

A Grade: Emmanuel 9-281 v Reds

In recent years, the A-Grade have been somewhat of a warm weather specialist team, with two basic game plans to fall back on. Plan A - as demonstrated most recen tly against Sacred Heart in the previous round - involves Todd winning the toss, and the top order slowly grinding the opposition bowling down before the middle and lower order make hay; whereas Plan B features Attrill and Norman each bowling 20+ accurate, testing overs, whereupon the Cheating Hippy retires to the Steve Windsor-patented Radox bath, and The Dude seeks alternate methods of rehydration.

Sometimes, unfortunately, neither of these options is possible - and further alternatives are required.

12.45pm: With the skipper absent for the day due to personal reasons, and both Hippy and Dude unavailable for selection thanks to work commitments; even first -time captain Macca's loss of the coin toss failed to dim the hopes of the optimists - with the in-form Todd to return next week to bolster the batting, it was n ot such a bad toss to lose.

12.55pm: Thankfully the B-Grade were batting, so subs could be found to stand in for the yet-to-arrive Funky (en route from Fairfield after a lengthy ride hom e from Queenscliff that morning) and Tomek (whose recently arrived text message promised to deliver him to the ground by 1.00).

1.00pm: With Tomek (good to his word) preparing to bowl the first over, Steve Nelson was sent back to B-Grade lest we start the game with 12 on the field. Joe Lumley had generously given up his Sunday to field in place of Jim.

3.30pm: With the B-Grade now fielding (no more subs), Krings's bad back forces him from the ground, and ten Reds take the field after tea.

6.00pm: Time to reflect on a day where we took just nine wickets and conceded 281 runs. Two blokes made chanceless half-centuries (Serapiglia 78, and Harris 6 7*), and while the next highest score was 29 (Knorpp), just about every Krusher got a few. Gately (3-51 from 18) and Rogerson (4-69 from 15) were the pick of the bowlers.

Byrnie made the initial breakthrough - bowling the hard-hitting Schreier in the sixth over (1-19), but the second wicket proved more elusive. Knorpp had a life w hen Guido missed a swirling skier, but finally lost patience and slogged at Gately, only to lose his middle stump (2-89 in the 29th). Without the two regular spi nners, thw slow bowling duties fell to Rogo and Funk, with the latter eventually claiming the wicket of Serapiglia lbw. By this stage it was 3-176 (55th over), a nd the Krushers were looking to increase the tempo. Brudar did exactly that, slamming the mandatory Rogerson long-hop for 6 over mid-wicket, but was out soon aft er padding up to the wrong-un (4-195 after 58). Radchenko seemed intent on sending the ball into orbit, but almost hit his own wicket from a Rogo special - the c hest-high full toss - and was soon bowled by the variation ball - the half-tracker that almost bounced twice (5-218, 64 overs). Two more wickets - and a handful of boundaries - from Rogerson's mixed bag made it 7-242 (68th), then two in an over to Gately (9-260 after 71), and the possibility of having to bat for an over or two no doubt excited Funk and Steve Davies. Our old mate Zulf and the reliable Harris ensured we weren't subjected to that, taking the score to 281 before Har ris played out a maiden from Gately (only the seventh of the day) to secure his own red ink and set a target for next week of 282 from 77 overs.

B Grade: Reds 82 & 2-44 v Coles Myer 189

Sunday 30th saw REDS take on arch rivals The Trolley Pushers at FP2 on a day that was warming up diametrically to the dwindling number of players, 10 became 11 b ecame 10 and a half became 10 and two halves etc... 9 turned up.
Having read in the morning paper the scores from the day before (thinking if Roberts can anyone can) it was always going to be bat if we can, especially with 9 a nd it was nearly hot. At 12.45 the Trolley Pushers had 6, REDS won their 6th toss out of 7 and batted.
Between 12.58 and 1.05 the rest of their team arrived
. Within a number of overs it was clear that Simon the Boatbuilder had sucked all the life out of the pitch, which allowed the sharpish Coles bowlers to bowl stump to stump and ankle to ankle. REDS 4 for nothing. A slight halt to the tumble of quick wickets from the Dr. and Steve before Ivan the Pieman(28no) and S.o.S. Riley rallied with some late runs. All Out 82.
After an early lunch the confident Trolley Pushers came out to play, but so had the REDS, leaving the Coles top order at 4 for 25. Ivan had 4/12 of 3.1 overs. There was a sniff in the air, but very soon it was clear that this was the ball flying past at warp factor 8. Coles captain Steve Philimore came to the crease with his side in strife and decided if you've got a good shot - use it - repeatedly. A costly drop at mid off (very soft) when Philimore was 30 changed the game, Steve the unlucky bowler again. Philimore was finally bowled by the Bush Poet in his first over for 114 (16 fours, 6 sixes and an unnecessary 14 singles) out of a total of 189. Ivan took 4 and the Dr 2 wickets, while SoS clean bowled the last man in a good finish to the innings.
Needing to bat out 13 overs, half day player Hagga's, in his first game for the season opened with Andy, who both lost their heads and wickets before MTC and Mozz took us to 2/44 at stumps.
Can't wait till next week, only 50 behind with Roy and Gibbo named. Time to unleash the Beast!

D Grade: Reds 257 v Barnawartha North 2-10

For those of us expecting a traditional one-bowler Barnie trash attack, this was a rude shock. They've picked up a sharp outswing bowler, two decent medium pacer s and a very tidy leggie with a wrong un . Most recruited apparently via a golf day at Cape Schanck where the Vanas met some blokes who "like playing cricket and drinking but not training". Say no more. At 2-20 with Alec and Joe back on the sidelines, it was time for the Clark-Kent partnership to do their Superman thing. Metropolis felt a lot safer by the time the mild-mannered reporters had departed for 27 and 32 respectively, picking gaps with ease in the poorly set Barnie fie ld. Enter the schoolmaster Radio Roberts and his two pupils Cailean Moore and Ewan Greenfield to give a lesson in putting the bad ball away through the gaps. A 5 0 run stand with Cailean (27), another 40 with Ewan (9), and at 6-175 we were looking good. Radio eventually departed for 59, his first half-century in twenty se asons with the club ... but fifteen years of batting no.11 in A Grade and running out Mike Langley can do that to a man. Best Radio moment was a full toss violen tly clubbed over mid-wicket for six. At 9-203 the Barnies were looking forward to that sixth beer, but Dave Guest (41) and Mike Leach (12*) were in temperance m ode. We think their 54-run stand is a new tenth-wicket record for the club, passing several odd couples on 53, but we'll allow one week of correspondence before etching it into posterity (the record up to our 20th anniversary dinner in 1999 was 53, so no claims before that will be believed.) Dave struck his first six for the club, a sweetly timed straight drive over the longest boundary on FP2. Dear old Tommy Vana made it to the bowling crease for three overs, a sure sign that t he Barnies were in pain. Sadly, Tommy has dropped the double-bouncer from his repertoire and now looks almost like a normal slow bowler. Barnie had to face five overs before stumps, and Radio got stuck straight in, skittling two of them in his first over. He should have had a stumping in the final over when their no.4 le t one go and adopted a classic pose 5cm outside his crease. But Marty Vana at square leg was seeing double by this stage and so for the purposes of history, the heel was officially "in".

U14A Grade: Reds 9-cc-102 v Merlynston-Hadfield

Facing a very tidy attack from the ladder leaders, we never really got on top of the bowling. But we showed great application to bat the full 50 overs out and gr ind our way to 102. Ewan Greenfield top-scored with 21, Lachie Moore made 13 with clever placements, and Dario Bravo (11*) showed fine technique late in the inni ngs and got us a valuable 10 off the last over, hitting the shot of the day with a lofted four down the ground. Merlynston's strength is their tight bowling, and their batting revolves heavily around a couple of players and a lot of nudging and pushing. If we bowl and field tightly, this game is there to be won.

Under-12B: Strathmore Heights 110 v Reds 2-57

To begin with, well done to Marcus Considine for getting onto the field after taking a bad knock last week. Likewise, Declan Reilly from Under 10s backed up to g ive us eleven fielders, and gave his usual whole-hearted effort. Bowling first, the opposition were doing well at 1-60. As soon as we stopped criticising each ot her and took a positive approach to the task, we turned the game around, taking 8-50 to finish the innings off in fine style. We were a bit sloppy in the outfiel d, but Marcus, Tom Reilly and the ever-reliable Matthew Boehm took some good catches. Special mention to Gus Kueter-Luks who did it tough under the wicket-keeper 's helmet in the hot weather, and only gave away 8 byes in 33 overs - great work. All the bowlers did the job, Sam Kerwin's medium pace leg-cutters leading the w ay (3-23 off 6 overs). With 11 overs to bat, we gave ourselves a fright, losing two wickets in the first over. But Shea Tierney (27 no) and Fergus Reilly (4 no) showed how to build an innings - tuck the ball off the pads for easy singles down to fine leg, play straight in defence and hit the loose ones. If we bat with th e same determination next week, we will have every chance.

Under-12E Grade: Reds 37 v Sydenham-Hillside 5-77

We had a horror day on Straw field No.2, collapsing to be all out 37 in 21 overs in perfect batting conditions. We struck back with the ball to have Sydenham 4-2 2, but they recovered and we will have to do a lot better this week to make a contest of it.

Under-10s: Reds 2-cc-84 d Merlynston-Hadfield 0-cc-79

The baby Reds have broken through for their first win! We made our best score of the season with Charlie Roberts (17*) showing his dad how it was done, hitting 4 fours, three through the covers. He got good support from the rest of our batters, especially Declan Reilly (6*), Mitchell Wood (5) and Daniel Lazarow (5*). Wit h six overs to go, Merlynston needed 20 and looked set to win. But they ran out of batting and we bowled accurately when the pressure was on. Our wicket takers w ere Mitchell Wood (1-5) and Fred Cawte (1-11), though neither wicket counted in the scores due to the no-ducks rule. Charlie Roberts (0-5 from 3 overs), Declan R eilly (0-2 from 2) and Wilbur Kueter-Luks (0-3 from 2) were very difficult to score from.

Clubrooms campaign

I met with Cr Kate Redwood, head of City of Melbourne's parks & recreation committee, last Thursday. They are very keen on demolishing our current Straw Field cl ubrooms, claiming that the planned siting of the wetland is optimal down to the last metre for waterflow reasons that only experts can explain (or dispute). But I managed to make a pretty strong case that the baseball clubrooms were too remote for us, and that a modest clubroom on the Manningham St side of the ground was a reasonable alternative. Cr Redwood agreed that we'd given them something to think about and they needed time to consider alternatives, and promised to get bac k to me in a week or two -- Alec Kahn.

Condolences

Our condolences to Jim and Charlie Todd, whose mother Jeanie died on Saturday night after a long illness.