BOWLED OVER

Scotch College Cricket newsletter

Vol. 12 No. 7 14 Feb 2020

Confronting a strong Caulfield Grammar team last weekend would demand from the Scotch First XI an outstanding effort. Twice previously the CGS unit had scored in excess of 200 runs demonstrating their skills with the bat. To restrict the opposition to a manageable total was the first challenge on Friday afternoon as the boys took to the field. At tea and despite a few close calls the Caulfield batsmen were seemingly in control. For the loss of just two wickets a score in excess of 100 was already on the board. The Scotch boys however, had other ideas. Following the tea break they came out with re-newed spirit and de-termination. Bowling with accuracy and pur-pose, they created chances and took them with great regu-larity. The Caulfield batsmen crumbled under the intense pressure and the final 8 wickets fell for a meagre 35 runs!! A final total of just 160 was well within the reach of the Scotch bats and they began the chase on Saturday morning full of confidence.

However, the opposition was not about to lie down with-out a fight. Wickets fell at regular intervals and as each Scotch bat trudged back to the pavilion the pendulum swung convincingly in Caulfield's favour. The momen-tum was clearly with the visitors when Scotch found themselves on 8 for 95 with Henry Gray retired hurt af-ter being struck on the helmet earlier. Was the moun-tain climbable from such a precarious position? More than a few Scotch supporters at the ground were fear-ing defeat and preparing to console their boys. Howev-er, defeat was not in the minds the boys!

Jimmy Townsend and Alex Hart began a resurrection that would restore some confidence and take Scotch to

within 33 runs of what many still understandably, ex-pected would become an honourable loss. Jimmy hung around for 2 hours facing 72 balls for 18 invaluable runs and frustrated the Caulfield attack in the process. His support of Alex was crucial in the end. At the fall of Jim-my’s wicket, Henry Gray, who had been cleared by medical staff, returned to the crease. With a further 33 still to get and the final two bats at the crease this was going to take a herculean effort. Both boys dug in and

preserved their wick-ets with great determi-nation, skill and a little luck. In desperation Caulfield took the sec-ond new ball. Howev-er, rather than pro-duce the wicket they were after this move served to quicken the run rate as the ball came faster off the bat.

Finally, with the spec-tators on the edge of their seats the boys crept within sight of an amazing victory. Alex Hart had batted for over 3 hours and faced 120+ balls, it

was fitting after this great effort that it would be he that hit the winning runs.

The Scotch boys and their supporters erupted with emotion as the winning runs were taken. This truly had been a miracle on the Main that those who were lucky enough to witness will long remember!

The win sees Scotch move into fourth position on the APS table. The boys have a bye this week before tak-ing on currently third placed Carey on Feb. 21/22. This incredible result will fill the boys with a measure of self-confidence as they build themselves up for their final four matches of their APS season.

GO SCOTCH!!

MIRACLE ON THE MAIN!!

Match Reports… First XI

For those that were at Scotch Main Oval as the shadows lengthened on Saturday afternoon, they were treated to one of the best rear guard batting performances in recent memory. The courage and determination from the lads to get us over the line was quite inspirational, they should be extremely proud of their efforts. What a win. With CGS winning the toss and electing to bat, what ensued was a relentless, disciplined bowling effort that eventually reaped its rewards. The opening spell from the Townsend brothers produced a couple of wickets in the first hour, how-ever, it could well have been 4 or 5 wickets by the way they bowled. The group stayed strong through a very good partnership from Kellaway and Smith from CGS, putting on 74 taking them to 2-125 before Sam Harle broke through to take Kellaway’s wicket for a well made 59. Shortly after Jimmy Townsend took the wicket of Smith to bring Caulfield at 4-135. The next passage of play can only be described as reward for effort. The boys had stuck at their task all day long, and on the back of some tight bowling and good fielding, CGS proceeded to lose their final 8 wickets for 35 runs. Sam Harle finished with a well deserved 4 wickets, well supported by Hugo Birks chipping in with 3 wickets. Special mention to the Townsends and Sutherland in particular for the patience and discipline shown all afternoon, laying the foundation for the spinners to do their work. Not an ideal start to our run chase Saturday morning, with Hugo Birks unlucky to be caught down leg side, and Hamish Francis on the end of a good ball to be caught behind. At 2/3 the lads had the job ahead to steady the innings and Tom Kelly and Will Townsend did just that, consolidating the innings and getting us close to the lunch break. Once again, another unlucky dismissal with Kelly getting caught down the leg side to a terrific catch. Special mention to Tom Kelly in his first game opening the batting, doing a terrific job to see out over an hour and a half and setting a good platform for the batters to come. Will Townsend and Tom Fish battled hard and were looking solid until Will went to a decent ball, Dale went soon after and subsequent to a 20 run partnership between Fish and Boreham, the latter had to go and CGS had clawed their way back into the match well and truly. This brought Henry Gray to the crease, and after building what seemed to be a solid partnership with Fish, unfortunately Henry was struck in the helmet and had to retire hurt. With the skipper Harle’s departure shortly after, things were really starting to swing in Caulfield’s favour. This brought Alex Hart to the crease with Fish, and when the latter departed 8 runs later after a fighting effort, it left the Scotch lads at 8/96, with no indication that Henry Gray was fit to return and it certainly looked like the game had got away from us. Enter Jimmy Townsend. Not renown for his batting prowess, Jimmy proceeded to do the job he was asked. Occupy, score when he could, and take the game deep enough with Alex for us to have a tilt at the total. 73 balls, 2 hours at the crease and 18 valuable runs later, Jimmy departed. A brilliant effort and the cover drive off their opening bowler might get a bit of air play at training this week. So it should. 9/128. 33 to get. Alex Hart at the crease and enter a very brave Henry Gray. After being cleared by the medical staff to return, Henry did not hesitate in getting back out there. With CGS taking the new ball, this time around it played into the batting team’s hands, with Gray and Hart playing some magnificent shots around the ground and getting full value form the new ball. 6 to get. Hart on strike after 3 hours at the crease and 120 balls later. A brilliant on-drive for 4, followed 2 balls later by a controlled guide to third man, the game was done and Scotch had just completed a win to remember.

Certainly a victory to celebrate, but we must continue our focus in providing more stability at the top of the order, and not leave the work up to our bot-tom half. The lads are driven to keep improving and with a Bye scheduled this week and a game against the Cru-saders on Sunday, a perfect opportuni-ty to put these practices in place. Well done lads, let’s keep improving and enjoying our cricket. Best of the batsmen Alex Hart (Left) and Sam Harle, best of the bowlers.

2nd XI Scotch 8/166 defeated Caulfield Grammar 10/154

A very good win against a team that had the upper hand against us just 3 games back. On one of the windiest days we have ever experienced CGS won the toss and sent us into bat and at 4/40 off 18 overs CGS had reason to feel vindicated at their decision. However a good innings from Currie (51) and some handy knocks from J. Meggitt, Mounas, Meyrick, Ste-venton and a RAMP SHOT!!! from A. Meggitt got us to a winnable score of 166.

Took a while for us to get the first wicket until Meyrick knocked their number one batsmen’s middle pole right out of the ground. Both Meggitt boys had a great game with the ball. James with three scalps and Alex with two. Captain Bennett got two wickets in his final spell and McNair snagged two with his darts, one being a ripper caught and bowled. A big well done must go to Beilby who pulled the gloves on behind the stumps and looked quite at home.

3rd XI Scotch Defeated St. Kevins by 36 runs Man of the Match: Jago Dick

“Don’t judge a wicket until both sides have batted” was the story of the 3rd XI’s day on Saturday. Batting first, it seemed our 3rd team was still in holiday-mode, as we lost early wickets against an excellent bowling attack. A disciplined St Kevin’s fielding display made runs difficult to score in the middle overs; when this happens, we’ve got to learn to keep rotating the strike. In difficult conditions, Jago Dick top scored with 22, in a fine debut for the team. Still, with a score of 50-6 after 20 overs we were staring at a worryingly low total. Thankfully, some fine hitting by Will Carra (19) in the final overs took us to a score of 77-9 off our 25 overs.

If the first innings was the poorest of our season, the second may well have been the best. Dubbed “The Greatest Show on Turf”, Scotch’s bowling attack ripped through the St Kevin’s top order. Tyler Sellers (5 overs, 3-9) continued his out-standing form, supported by skipper Sam Prior (5 overs, 2-16). The bowlers were backed up with an excellent fielding per-formance, including two excellent catches from Jago, a diving take behind the stumps by Hugh Sutton, and the most re-laxed one handed catch you’ll see this season by Nick Buckley. Charlie Fergusson finished the game off with an outstand-ing spell of 2.4 overs, 4-11, to bowl St Kevin’s out for 41.

It was a great turnaround after a challenging first innings. The lads should be proud of the belief they showed in the sec-ond half of the game, to keep their winning record going.

10Bs Scotch defeated Xavier

On Saturday afternoon, the 10Bs were hosts to a strong Xavier outfit who have had our measure in the past. Xavier won the toss and interestingly chose to bowl, a decision they would no doubt come to regret at the end of the match. Lochie Cash and Henry Kemp got us off to very fast start scoring at 10 an over for the first 10 overs. Lochie would retire on 50 not out and Henry ended up with a very solid 35. A few quick wickets saw the run rate drop in the second half of the innings but we would end up with a very defendable total of 170. On debut, Hayden Loader was tasked with opening the bowling and he did not disappoint, taking two wickets in succession in his third over. Our other debutant, Will Roberts, also found himself in the wickets column. We would continue the strong start to the innings to bowl Xavier out 50 runs shy of our tar-get. Another special mention goes to Fynn Bennett for his 4 wicket haul. Despite some great bowling, our fielding left a lot to be desired with a number of catches going down. Fielding will be the focus this week at training to get us ready for next week.

10Cs Scotch defeated by Xavier

Facing Xavier college in the first round after the break was certainly going to be a challenge which our team would have to endure. With the game shortened to a 20 over fixture and losing the toss, scotch was sent into bat first. With Will Roberts and Dochy Creek opening the stick, we had a solid start reaching 18 runs before the first wicket fell only off 4 overs. Nick Luth and Dochy Creek continued the flow of runs reaching 39 runs before another wicket tumbled. Anthony Palumbieri came in at 4 to continue to keep the runs flowing, hitting some nice shots before being caught. With only 9 overs complet-ed, there was more then half an innings to play, Will Buckley came in. Starting with four runs to open the account, he was looking in control before a rearing ball undid his innings. Our Middle order crumbled leaving our captain, Xavier Jassal, having to salvage as many runs as possible. Debutant, Ellis Langford, made a presence, showing fight after being not out at the closure of the innings. Extras ended up being the top score of the innings leaving us 85 runs on the board. David lump had the honors of opening the ball and he certainly delivered. His first ball not only was the best first ball I have ever seen but better than the ball which dismissed the great Sir Alastair Cook at the WACA by Ryan “the rhino” Har-ris with it clipping the off bail and without disturbing any stumps. With the Team on a high, David Lump came steaming in to bowl the second ball of the innings. Lump had the batsman quaking in his boots which resulted in a rush of blood, chip-ping one up right over the umpire’s head. A diving Will Buckley came from mid on to take one the catches of the summer, full stretch and securely in the hands. Xavier was 2/0 off two balls. Hat trick ball came around and barely missed the out-side edge of the batsman. The figures read 2/6 off 1 over. An over to remember. The Bowling partnership of Lump and Buckley put us right in the box seat with Lump ending up with 3 for 7 off 4 overs and Buckley ending up with 2/8 off 4 overs. One Xavier’s batsman went on a roll and retired with 37 runs which put them back in the game. We ended up losing in another tight game in the 18th over. A special mention to Dochy Creek with his bowling efforts and also the chat in the field. When spirits were down, we were able to get back up and keep fighting which is a true testament to this team. Well played everyone and on to the next game.

9B Blues Winning the toss and going in to bat, Scotch were overwhelmed by Xavier College's efficient bowling and tactical fielding. Struggling to put on a defendable total, Scotch eventually lost the 10th wicket in the 19th over after scoring just 56 runs, the only double-digit scores coming from William Bennetts (17 off 20) and Hamish Dukes (14 off 22). Within three overs Xavier College had already tallied 24 runs. Well-pitched off-spin by Ashton Irwin saw him take two quick wickets, and with William Bennets claiming the third wicket the next over, Xavier went to 3/26. A 23-run partnership followed until it was broken Lax-man Appu, who also took two wickets in his first over. Ashton and Laxman both took another wicket each, both using the turf wicket to full effect with their spin bowling and Xavier were 7/55. Unfortunately, a back foot cover drive from a tail-ender broke the infield and Xavier college then closed the innings at 7/59 off 12 overs. Laxman finished with 3/6 off 2 overs, Ash-ton 3/13 off 3 and William claiming 1/10 off 2. 9B Reds With a later time slot of 12.30pm, the 9B’s had a big sleep in and were ready to tackle StKevins on the soccer oval. Ben Sutherland lost the toss and we were sent into the field. Tom Ryan opened the bowling and bowled sensationally with the new ball, really setting the tone for everyone. He was extremely unlucky not to finish with any wickets, but he finished 0/17 off 5 overs, including 3 maidens. The St. Kevins openers started to get the runs flowing with multiple 4s coming soon after, as they really took advantage of the short boundaries. Zac Smedley and Sid Sharma came on and really tightened the screws and dried up all the runs. Zac finished with 2/9 off 5 overs and Sid 1/7 off 4 overs. At this stage of the game we looked to be in a good position, as at the end of the 35 overs, St. Kevins finished 8/112 - a total we backed ourselves to chase down. Our openers in Harry Winneke and Ben Graven were dismissed in quick succession to some good StKevins bowling, ex-posing our middle order a bit earlier than we would’ve hoped for. In saying this, skipper Ben Sutherland and Lachie Mac-Neil really dug in to form a partnership and get us back on track. Lachie MacNeil showed his class with the bat racing his way to 26, however wickets continued to fall at crucial stages of the game. We were unable to form long partnerships which was going to make it tough to chase down the total. Liam Leeden was unlucky and got run out for not many, making it all the more difficult. Louis Cox came to the crease and got us right back in it with some ferocious stroke play through the off-side, getting us right back in it. He batted superbly for his 26. Unfortunately we got to 112 before being all dismissed ending the game in a draw, however it was a great fight shown by the boys when it looked at stages the game was done. A lot to keep working on but overall a solid performance. 8As Scotch 4/171 defeated Xavier 70 (J Sparks 39 retired, S Poole 35 retired) defeated Xavier 10/70 (S Edney 2/2, S Poole 2/1) Scotch put on a solid performance against Xavier. Batting 1st, we accumulated 4/171 off 28 overs. Other than the retired James Sparks and Seb Poole, Hugh Hasker (15), Lachie McDonald (23), Oli Sparks 17 not out, and Tom Hucker 13 not out contributed well to our total. We had the game under control after 9 overs, with Xavier 2/11. Finally they were dismissed for 70. We still can improve our fielding which slipped away. That will continue to be a focus fro this group. 7As Scotch College (9 – 116) defeated Brighton Grammar School (7 – 102) Player of the Match: Tom Groom The 7As travelled to Brighton for their season opener, super enthused by the prospect of playing on the BGS ‘Main’. Enthu-siasm soon turned to befuddlement, however, when the boys realised they had been consigned to play on a quagmire (an aberrant sprinkler system apparently the cause …) Captain Tom Groom won the toss and, showing good judgement, elect-ed to bat, thus forcing Brighton to contend with the soapy ball. Scotch lost two early wickets, with Matt Padgham and Jack Kelly learning (the hard way) about the risks of playing across the line on a turf wicket. Harrison Hewitt, displaying fine fighting qualities at the top of the order, battled hard for his 11 runs and showed his teammates the virtue of disciplined, pa-tient batting. Charlie Smith, Ed Winneke and captain Groom were the pick of the batters, making 15, 22 and 18, respective-ly, each displaying fine technique and aggressive running between the wickets. When Groom fell to a dubious decision (‘Snicko’ and ‘Hot Spot’ were unfortunately not available) Scotch were still uncomfortably short of a ‘par score’. Some excit-ing and flamboyant batting late in the innings by Hamish Kenny and Winneke, who was ultimately run out making an unself-ish dash for an extra run, saw Scotch to a competitive total of 116 off their 30 overs. The Scotch defence began well with Winneke and Mingara Clark bowling with good line and early venom. Clark eventually broke through with a well-deserved ‘caught behind’ and Scotch were well on track for a first up win. Brighton refused to sur-render, however, and continued to press through some aggressive running and lusty hitting. Smith helped stem the flow with an outstanding spell of leg spin bowling that featured flight, drift, turn, variation and guile. Gus Schultz and Spencer Rehfisch were particularly impressive, with both boys bowling tight lines and displaying excellent control under pressure. It was left to Kelly and Padgham, perhaps looking for retribution after false starts with the bat, to finally put paid to Brighton’s brave struggle. Kelly returned the miserly figures of 0-8 from four outstanding overs and Padgham stepped up to the chal-lenge of ‘closer’ with two terrific overs at the death. Mention should also be made of captain Groom’s work behind the stumps, returning the first ‘clean sheet’ for a 7As keeper in at least seven years. The Scotch 7As have built an imposing reputation in recent years with an unbeaten streak, stretching back to 2016, that now stands at 21 matches. With just one game under their belt, the 2020 group are already displaying the talent, teamwork and tenacity to carry on this proud tradition.

7B Blues Scotch 113 (29) Defeated BGS 7/114 (26.2) The 7B blues travelled to Brighton Grammar where we played on a synthetic pitch which did a bit of everything. On our first match day of the year; Monty McCann and Charlie Warner were our captains. Having won the toss we elected to bat in the first innings. Lochie Mann and Alec Galbraith opened the batting seeing off the first few overs of the Grammar at-tack. As wickets began to fall, Alec stood up with a strong 34* including 7 boundaries. Flynn Obrien was also a presence at the crease scoring a fluid 24. However a few loose strokes caused us to be in trouble late. Our 11 and 12 Will Darcy and Charlie Ryan had a partnership of over 30 runs, allowing us to post a resemble total. We concluded our first bat of the year all out for 113 of 29 overs. Our bowling was most impressive. Lead by our medium pace bowlers Charlie Ryan and Eddie McCorkell, we kept a stran-gle hold on the game early. Our leg spin quintuplet of Monty, Adam, Malik, Lochie and Charlie were the highlight of the day with spin and bounce confusing the batsmen. Charlie Warner was a step above as he continued to confuse batsmen with leg spin deliveries and quicker balls. Ed Hill, Flynn and Sam Allen showed the mixed A and B side of Brighton how to swing the ball both ways. Unfortunately, the large hitting Brighton Grammar were able to pass our score after 26 overs. 7Cs Scotch 8/140 def. Xavier College 2/136 Winning the toss, captain Angus Morrison sent the opposition in to bat, Xavier getting off to a good start. However, some lovely in-swing from Valan Pillay and with skipper Angus Morrison trapping one of their batsmen in front, Scotch fought back. Harry Rolleston and Oli Stirling were decisive in drying up the runs and building pressure, helped by some seriously tidy work behind the stumps from Oli and Callum Turner. Noah Fraser’s contribution of 0/11 was similarly crucial, while Henry Darvall tied down an end with his leggies. Ned Schokman’s 3 overs also provided a crucial wicket, dismissing a set-tled batsman at the death.

Scotch lost a few early wickets, however strong performances from opener Oli Sterling (21*), Tom Freeman (29*) and Ned Naylor, who struck at a strike rate of 400, kept us above the required run rate. Will Longley (7) provided a quick-fire knock at 4, and while a few run-outs were costly, Angus Moloney (6) steadied the ship. With the game in the balance, captain Morrison and Ned Schokman held their nerve to bring the team home in the final over in a thriller.

Overall, a very strong team performance to get the win.