If the Meatloaf adage of two out of three ain’t bad is true, then it wasn’t a bad day for the Imps lads yesterday, winning in the A’s and C’s, and narrowly missing out in the B’s by 21 runs.

The A’s lost the toss and bowled, and it was great to have Sharpy and Sargeant Mitch Bulmer back in the side, with Mitch getting a bit of time off from Army duties. Anytime these blokes take the new ball, we’re always a chance of early wickets, and such was the case yesterday, with the boys taking an early wicket each, leaving Gormy 2/7. Sharpy went onto take 3/27 and Mitch 2/30.

Anytime Gormy looked like putting together a partnership, we were able to break it, sometimes through some remarkable fielding, with Scotty and Rossy both taking blinders, with a couple of the Gormy batsmen being very stiff to be dismissed. We were able to bowl Gormy out for 111, with Rossy continuing his good form with the ball with 3/18, Size with 1/13, and Scotty appreciating not having to bowl to Anthony Scott in full flight, taking 1/11.

Our run chase could not have started any worse, losing skipper Witchy in the first over. Judging by the exuberance of the celebration afterwards, the Gormy boys recognised this was a big wicket. It didn’t get much better in the next half an hour, with Size, Dean Jones and fill in Jack Marshall all departing, with the score at 4/25.

After a small revival, we got to the 40’s before losing Dean Campbell and Sharpy, and at 6/42, the game looked all but over, with 112 looking a long, long way away. On a pitch that almost no batsmen from either side looked comfortable on, it would take a lot of hard graft to get the remaining runs. Enter new recruit Ishan and Imps veteran Rossy. The next 90 minutes definitely wasn’t pretty cricket, and it was a hard grind for the boys trying to get us back in the game. There were a lot of maidens, a lot of dot balls, and certainly a lot of pressure, but Ishan and Rossy slowly chipped away, keeping the scoreboard ticking over.

The boys got the total to the mid 80’s, and the game then opened up, with Ishan finding the boundary on multiple occasions, and after grinding it out for two hours, the last 20 runs came relatively quickly, with Ishan ending the match with a huge six. Ishan was superb, finishing on 46 not out, well supported by Rossy on 27 not out. This was really a high quality win and was our second win for the season.

I’m really proud of the way the A Grade side has played this season. We’re a team that wasn’t supposed to win a game all season, and we now have two wins, and it could easily be three with a bit of luck vs Toongabbie. We’re not a star studded line up by any means, but everyone has a role to play, and when we play those roles well, then we will be hard to beat. For a young Captain, I think Witchy is doing a great job with the team.

The B’s also bowled first and were able to restrict Gormy to 8/149 off their 45 overs. With Mick McNulty (3/33), Dash (2/18), and Elmsy (2/26) the pick of the bowlers. We fell 21 runs short, with run machine Jenno continuing his good form, dominating the innings with 66. Unfortunately, he didn’t get enough support, with only 9ers (14) and Keira (12) the only other batsmen to reach double figures.

With a number of players out in C Grade, including skipper Mick, the captaincy was given to C Grade rock star Eggy, looking to build on his 9/18 start to the season. We batted first and were in a bit of trouble at 4/35. Enter Johnny Downs, who rescued the innings with a hard hitting 169, including 16 fours and 9 sixes. He put on a 99 run partnership with Jack Chapman, playing his first game at the Club since 2017/18, who made 25. We ended up with 8/288 off our 40 overs.

A look at Johnny’s recent form with the bat certainly didn’t suggest an innings of this magnitude was on the cards. Going back to last season, his last five innings consisted of 0/0/0/1/17, so 18 runs scored at an average of 3.6, although he does have form with big totals, having also made a century vs Gormandale C Grade back in Round 3 of the 2020/21 season.

I thought Johnny’s innings would put him in the top 10 highest scores in TDCA C Grade of all time, but surprisingly, it doesn’t even crack the top 20. It’s also 35 runs off the highest C Grade score at Imps, which is 204 by Ray Walters vs Jerralang back in 2004/05. More importantly it’s also 60 runs shy of one of the greatest C Grade innings in world history, a 229 not out by 9ers at CATS back in 1997/98, a knock so good he had to incorporate it into his email address. I believe it’s the second highest score in Imps C Grade history, surpassing Daryl Nolan’s innings of 158 vs Rovers in 1999/00.

In reply, we bowled Gormy out for 7, with Wal taking 4/7, and Johnny completing one of the most remarkable individual performances in recent TDCA history, taking 5/0 with the ball. This is now the lowest C Grade score in TDCA history, overtaking the 9 made by Glengarry vs Raiders in 2004/05.

Our final game before the Xmas break is against Ex Students. This will be a huge test for our A Grade, as Students are the measuring stick of the league, and have had us covered in the A’s for a long time.

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