Yesterday we took on Gormandale CC. The A Grade side welcomed back Greg “Googa” Morley into the A Grade side for the first time since 1992. I went through old scorecards from the early 90’s, and the last game I could see Googa playing in was back in the 25th of January 1992 vs Toongabbie, making it a whopping 10,976 days between A Grade appearances for the Club.

In that last game versus Toongabbie back in 1992, Googa made 69 with the bat, and took 6/89 with the ball, which gives you an indication of Googa’s cricketing ability in his prime.
In the A’s, we lost the toss and bowled, after Gormy took 25 off our first three overs, we were able to get three quick wickets to have Gormy 3/31, with Scotty taking two wickets and Twitey one. Another two wickets saw us well on top with Gormy 5/51. From there, the Gormy middle order and lower order did a great job, to get them to a competitive score of 8/154 off their 45 overs.

With the ball, we were our own worst enemy, gifting Gormy 33 wides among 37 extras. We should have been chasing 120 or 130 rather than 150. At the start of the day if you had predicted that the two highest scorers for Gormy would have been tailender Adam Brady (35) and Extras (37), then go buy yourself a Tattslotto ticket.

Scott Aitken was the best with the ball with 3/26, while Rossy was the only other multiple wicket taker with 2/25. Rossy is currently in the lead for the TDCA Bowling Aggregate with 20, with a five wicket lead over a group of three players with 15, of which Size is one of them, although we do have the bye in the last round, which doesn’t help. It’s interesting looking at the top five leading wicket takers in the league, with an average age of around 40 between the top 5.

In our run chase, it was a familiar story, with us getting off to a good start, being 1/43, but Witchy’s wicket triggered a collapse which we weren’t able to recover from, being dismissed for 103. Witchy again top scored with 24, with Rossy (10), Ishan (15), and Scotty Aitken (14) the other batsmen to reach double figures.

They say you can’t buy experience, and never was that more true than in our B Grade game yesterday. We batted first and Dean Campbell and Azza Edwards put on 41 for the first wicket before Deano did what he always does and finds a stupid way to get out, this time run out for 18. We were 4/68 before the two veterans of the team, Dash and 9ers came together and put together a 74 run partnership, with 9ers contributing 45 not out and Dash 35. We made 7/158 off our 45 overs, which was a decent score to defend.

We opened the bowling with 13 year old Liam Bermingham, who bowled incredibly well for a kid his age, taking 1/12 off 7 overs. When it looked like a Gormy victory was on the cards, on came the old blokes to change the fortunes for Imps. 9ers isn’t generally known as a bowler. In the 81 games he has played in his return to Imps, he has taken just the 23 wickets, with a best performance of 3/17, which he completely blitzed yesterday, destroying the Gormy middle and lower order with 6/32 off 8.4 overs, bowling Gormy out for 149, to win a tight contest by 9 runs.

Dash took 2/16 off his 9 overs, meaning the two old blokes of the team, with a combined age of around 100 took 8/48 between them, and contributed 80 with the bat as well. If you need to email 9ers, you can now reach him on either djw229notout@gmail.comor djw6for32@gmail.com. Up at the Clubrooms last night, it is evident how happy everyone was for 9ers efforts. He’s a much loved and respected member of the Club.

I ducked over to C Grade expecting carnage, but found the C’s in a bit of strife at 4/61, but thanks to Luke Hegarty (36), Trent Paulet (18) and Prentice Stephens with 19, which included his first six, we managed to get to 147. The boys clearly aren’t big fans of fielding, just spending 17 overs in the field before dismissing Gormy for 27, to win by 120. Johnny Downs and Jordy Anderson opened the bowling and took 3/11 and 3/8 respectively.

But the big news is that Eggy is back in form, taking 3/10 off his 3.4 overs. The man who openly admits to studying MyCricket with the same enthusiasm that a priest studies the Bible, has now opened up a lead on top of the TDCA Bowling Aggregate, but with a bye in the last round, and a match against ladder leaders Ex Students next week, can he keep it? Only time will tell.

We take on Ex Students next week, which will be our final game for the A & B Graders, with the C’s already having booked a place in the finals.