A sixwicket haul by Berwick turfone team’s Ash Henry has given Buckley Ridges a testing 136run chase in the first round of the Dandenong and District Cricket Association season at Arch Brown Reserve played on Saturday.
Will Carr and first gamer Paul Gramc opened the bowling, but luck eluded them. It took the introduction of local fast man Jarrod Goodes to get the ball rolling after taking a wicket with his second ball.
Wickets then fell regularly with both Dave Hampton and Ryan Crawford snaring one each and Henry grabbing two before tea when the score was 5/100.
Buckley Ridges batted solidly after tea to be 5/145, until Henry had his say again. He took four out of the next five wickets ripping apart the middle and lower order and keeping the total to 166.
Henry finished the day with figures of 6/47 off his 20.4 overs an excellent start in his return game for the club.
Berwick then had to face the music for 20 overs and finished at 1/30 with the notout batsmen being Justin Stanton (18) and Gavan Wills (4).
@BT Sub Sport Gaz:TURF TWO
St Brigid’s won the toss and elected to bat at Bondi Oval and started slowly with the two openers Sean Gramc and new player James Smith keeping things tight.
It wasn’t until after tea and the induction of young Michael Wallace before the wickets started to fall.
Both Wallace and stalwart Brendan Lloyd kept the scoring down and the home side went to tea at 3/83.
Lloyd kept at it after the break, bowling a massive 22 overs for the day, putting in a tradesmanlike performance and finishing with 3/31.
Gramc deservedly picked up some rewards in the final overs and ended with figures of 2/66 off 17 overs.
Wallace finished with 2/28 off his 11 overs and was unlucky not to have a couple more.
St Brigid’s finished at 9/222 off the 80 overs that will be a test for the young side.
@BT Sub Sport Gaz:A GRADE
Berwick played away against Doveton and with new captain Brad James was sent in to field.
The opening combination of David Dalzotto and Damian Quinlan bowled well without luck and it took the introduction of Andrew Jenner and the smooth glovework of Brett Hogan to take the first wicket.
From that point on wickets fell regularly.
With promising youngster James Wilcock picking up one, Leigh Otten taking a couple and Jenner picking up another, the home side was 5/126 at tea.
Simon Curtis was then introduced into the attack which paid immediate rewards, picking up a wicket in his second over and following up with another three and ending with 4/31 off nine overs, restricting Doveton to a total of 184.
Jenner finished with figures of 3/46 off his 15.3 overs.
@BT Sub Sport Gaz:B GRADE
Berwick took advantage of the conditions when batting first in its match against Coomoora.
Openers Andy Young and Craig Belleville gave the Wickers a solid start and the team was well placed after drinks at 2/58.
However, a middleorder collapse left the side at 7/79 and in danger of being bowled out for a very small total.
However a great partnership of 75 between veteran Ray Henry and Steve Carle followed and gave the side a competitive total to defend.
Henry, in particular, was placing the ball well and Carle was very determined not to give his wicket away at the other end. He was eventually bowled for a valuable 32, while Henry remained not out on 69, with Berwick all out for 188.
Coomoora had to face nine overs at the end of the day and was 0/41 at stumps.
@BT Sub Sport Gaz:C GRADE
Berwick had an indifferent start to the season playing Keysborough away at Chandler Secondary College.
Geoff Wilcock and new player Tim Renwick started off solidly until Renwick fell in the 11th over.
Andy Peters, looking to push for Bgrade selection, fought hard, but only managed the two runs.
From then on no player really got a start with the team being dismissed for 57.
Keysborough then batted with Will Chapman and Renwick picking up early wickets.
However it was not enough as Keysborough passed the score in the 19th over, finishing the day 7/131, with Chapman finishing with 2/25, promising youngster Nick Shannon finishing with 2/24 and Martin Allen 2/16.
