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GCA Twenty20
– 24/11/09
St
Peters take part in the Geelong wide Twenty20 competition every year. We were to face St Joeys, Modewarre and Winchelsea. St Peters faced St Joeys
at home in the first game, a Division One club (St Peters are Div2). St Peters restricted St Joeys to 129
in their 20 overs - a very good effort. Unfortunately, the fall of regular wickets left us all out for just 88. The second T20 game was at Modewarre. Modewarre
are a Division 3 club, a club that plays on artificial wickets only. Though they were a lower division side, I knew they would
prove a tough challenge. I went to spectate, knowing the difference in division and the difficulty for our
team to play on hard wicket (which none have played on since they were juniors), would even out the contest.
St Peters elected to bat first, seeing a fast
outfield and short straight boundaries. We expected in excess of 180, but good bowling made scoring very difficult
and to many people's surprise, the Modewarre youngsters produced two incredible catches - on top of some great fielding -
to restrict St Peters to 120/8 (captain Steve Illingsworth made 63, including some huge sixes).
Modewarre chanced their arm, swung the bat
... and got away with it. The opener hit ten from his first two balls. Even claiming five wickets, St Peters couldn’t
do anything to restrict the raw, unorthodox hitting of the Division 3 side, as they sailed past St Peters poor score in the
15th over.
Being
0/2 out of three games, the next game was played around 40 minutes outside of Geelong. This caused availability issues, so
a chance for some younger players to get a go. After the 2nd game, versus Modewarre, I subtlety dropped some hints to the
captain (Steve) to give me a go. I knew if I scored runs on the Saturday before, I would be in for a call up. Making 55 on
the Saturday, I got a text from Steve on the Sunday congratulating me and confirming my place in the team for Tuesday.
Tuesday
rocked up, and on arrival we couldn’t believe the ground we were to play on. It was "a cow paddy" (to quote
a team mate). The grass was long, the field was small - there were cows around the outside of the ground! You couldn’t
even see where the hard wicket was laid with the length of the grass. Steve lost the toss and we were put into field. I was asked to keep, for
only my 2nd time since I arrived. I assumed it was due to me keeping the following Saturday. Again, facing a Division 3 club
they were used to hitting on hard wickets. Our 2nd opening bowler went for 6, 4, and 4 in his first 3 balls. Unorthodox leg-side
slapping got Winchelsea off to a flyer. Even with the allotted number of fielders all on the leg side boundary, they were
still able to rack up the runs. Four overs each from Aaron McArthur and Jaryd DeBeer put the brakes on. Aaron picked up three
wickets. Unfortunately, there were no wickets for Debeer, who went for few runs. I chipped in with one catch and one stumping ... and just the one
bye (I believe), which I was happy with seeing as I hadn’t kept for a while. The end result was 147/4 for Winchelsea,
off their 20 overs.
In a good move to give people a chance, Steve opened with a talented junior and the experienced 2nd team captain.
Unfortunately, in the 2nd over, we lost our first wicket. Steve went in and played a good innings, only to get out to a brilliant
low catch at gully minutes after losing a ball in a lake for six!
Wickets fell regularly and I was soon in, with
St Peters on 68/5 after 13 overs - it looked all over. I was in bat with Matt Baker (first team opening bat and
junior team captain). We put on 56 in five overs, getting up to 124. Unfortunately, trying to hit over the offside I got an
edge through to the keeper. I was out for 23. Aaron McArthur made 15 in quick time to get us even closer. We needed 11 off
the last over but Aaron got out and we ended up 6 runs short of the Winchelsea total. Matt Baker finished 32 not out.This was my only taste of Twenty20 cricket
in Australia and enjoyed it immensely. There are plenty of opportunities to go and watch T20, with South Barrwon (Dave's
old club) competing in two competitions (and doing extremely well), while Geelong play there T20’s soon.
Cheers,
Pils
* * * * * *
First 50 for St Peters
- 21/11/09
Knowing I needed to make some runs, after only scoring 17 in four innings, there was a lot
of pressure on me to contribute with the bat or risk being dropped to the 3rds and playing hard wicket (artificial) cricket.
When we turned up at St Peters, the ground looked ok. The grass was a bit long and damp from some rain on the Friday evening,
and the wicket was very green, but it looked about the same as the previous weeks. When the opposition turned up (Thompson
CC), they were not happy with the pitch, saying it was under prepared and rang a league official to come have a look at the
pitch and make a decision. He agreed with Thompson and suggested the pitch be cut and rolled lightly. When we got the equipment
out it was clear that the mower used by the groundsman that week was not a proper mower for cutting the pitch. We were told
the mower that was needed was broken and would be back in 2 weeks. The pitch, when cut with the mower, left long patches of
grass which just got flattened over by the roller, making the pitch look pretty bad. Luckily the GCA (Geelong Cricket Association)
official was a member of the club three minutes up the road and went to get their mower. The difference between the two mowers
was massive. It looked like a completely different track after, but still a bowler’s deck!
After an hour’s
delay, we finally completed the toss - we lost and were were batting. From what I’ve gathered, the St Peters 2nds haven’t
batted out the allocated 85 overs for a few seasons now. It seemed like a good start when we were 10-0 off 8 overs
- no early wickets had fallen. Then in the space of four overs, we were 14-3 and myself and a junior Mark Simmons were at
the crease. Their opening bowlers were good. Quick and accurate and bowling a good length on a seaming wicket. Me and Mark
manage to survive almost till tea, reaching 45 off 28 overs before Mark was adjudged LBW. After tea, wickets fell regularly,
with most batsmen contributing 10 or so runs. Before tea I was on 14 and managed to score pretty quickly afterwards, helped
by 2 part-time bowlers. I took a liking to their spinner, who wasn’t turning the balls and set a really bad field.
I brought up my 50 with a straight four over the spinner's head. I didn’t realise I was that close to my 50
and was pretty lethargic after 45 overs batting so I didn’t really acknowledge it. We were 106-8 so I thought I would
try and attack more and push the score on to 150+. Unfortunately I tried to hit the spinner a bit too hard and mis-hit and
got caught. I was out for 55. The team was soon out after for 121. It was one of the hardest 50s I’ve ever made, with
a difficult pitch and the best bowling attack I’ve faced since I’ve played for St Peters, but was still frustrating
that I didn’t go on to make more. The following week was unfortunately called off after two thunderstorms late in the
week. Both teams spent over an hour and a half trying to dry the field so we could play but to no avail. The points were shared
between St Peters and Thompson.
Cheers,
Pils
* * * * * *
St Peters' Socials
The first social I went to at St Peters was the Sunday after the AFL finals. It was an indoor cricket mess about and BBQ.
This was another first for me. I had never played proper indoor cricket. It was a lot of fun and was extremely fast paced.
The basics were to hit the ball into the walls and run pretty much every ball if you could, and while fielding stop it from
hitting the wall and sling the ball at the stumps as often as you can to get a run out. It was only the 3rd time I had been
around the guys at the club including training sessions so I didn’t know many people too well at this point.
The second event the club held was the “S Night", where everyone had to be dressed in something beginning with
“S”. I went as a Smurf, and managed to organise what I could in a day in Geelong. Dave went as a Sinner and Amy
a Saint. 
Other costumes there included a sumo, a scout,
a surgeon, school girls ... and Stevie G made an appearance too. But the best costume in my opinion was one of the first team
players, who came as Steve - the captain of the 1st XI. He arrived in his whites and had a print off of Steve's face held
in place by a club hat. I was awarded the best costume award and won some choccys and a bottle of wine, which Dave and Amy
were happy with.
The “S” night was a great idea for an event but was unfortunately poorly attended,
probably due to the start time and the firsts playing away which made it difficult for some to make it. But I can see how
an event like this could be a lot of fun. The last event held, which I’ve already mentioned, was the St Peters Raffle.
A hundred dollars seems a lot but you can have up to 4 people per ticket, so actually you're getting free drinks for 2 and
a half hours for $25 which many took advantage of! The 1st prize was $3000, which was won by a past club president. This event
draws people from all over Geelong and other clubs. A large number of South Barwon players turned up (Dave's old club). There
was close to 80+ people at the event.
Many of the players from the seconds were happy to drown their sorrows after
the game and a few of us were talking about going into town. We organised a taxi to someone’s house to get some food
and set as a meeting point. But after food - and more beers - we ended up not going out and having a good night in the garden
of the guy’s house. It was a very good night and very enjoyable - shame the cricket wasn’t a success. The club
has a number of events throughout the season; the next one being Ladies Night, then the Christmas Do.
Take care,
Pils
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St Peters CC, Geelong
http://spcc.cricketvictoria.com.au/index.html
St Peters (my club here) has 5 Saturday teams. This includes 2 grass and 3 hard wicket teams.
The first time I turned up at training, it
had rained the night before, and meant training was in the hard wicket nets. I had never seen so many people turn up to train
for cricket. There were 32 people who turned up! It was pretty crowded, as they normally have the grass wicket players at
the other end of the field. We did a lot of fielding drills in two groups of 10. It was good to have some structure and numbers
while training. It also allowed me to introduce myself to most of the club members.Dave (Hambrook) was told they would start me in their 3rd XI as
they didn’t know my abilities, I had no problem with proving myself to them. When selection came around on Thursday
after training I was told I was in the 2nds due to availability issues, I was pleased to have the chance. The first game I played was a home game at St Peters. We met at the ground an hour before the
start so we could set things up, remove the covers and do warm-ups and drills. The first 3 games played were all one dayers
of 50 overs per side. I thought it would be much like playing back in England, but I was wrong. The grass was long and the
pitch was very green. We were chasing 180 runs, with one guy scoring 120. I was put into bat at number 4. The bowling was
good but the pitch was very hard to bat on with a lot of seam movement and erratic bounce ... I was caught for 2 runs! We
finished on 150.
I
was dropped to the 3rd XI for my next game, along with another guy who I played with the first week. We were playing
away but with a bit of mis-communication, I was dropped off at the 2nds game by Dave. But the president, who was in the twos,
was able to help and get me a lift to the game. When I turned up to the ground it was a strange feeling as it was the first place I recognised. It was
the same ground we played the 'half time game' on grand finals day. To my surprise, I was asked to keep wicket. I hadn't done any keeping
in training or kept since the end of the English season. We bowled the opposition out for 65 and chased it down, losing only
one wicket. so I wasn’t involved much in the game. I was re-picked in the 2nd XI for the next game which was at home, I batted lower down
the order but again I hadn’t adapted to the conditions and didn’t contribute with the bat. We finished on 120
on a wet and difficult wicket, and thought it was defendable.The team bowled very well, and beat the bat regularly. Unfortunately the pitch dried
out during the day and became a road to bat on. They chased down our score with 10 overs to go, with a very good 49no from
one player. The
next week was the first two-day game, and the first two-day game I'd ever played in. I was picked in the 2nd XI. Due
to the opposition's ground being dug up and relayed we were set to play on a Sunday, which caused a lot of problems in selection.
On the Saturday I went and watched the first XI play at home. They made 275-9 in their 85 overs, with Dave making his first
score for St Peters of 68, in a stand of 117 with the club coach Boyde.
We turned up on Sunday hoping to bat, having seen what the 1st XI had
done the day before. But it was not to be. We lost the toss and were put into the field. Eighty-five overs seemed a long
way away from the normal 45 I'd been used to. The oppo' were bowled out for 147, and we had to bat for 10
overs before the day ended.We
then have to wait a week to conclude the game, which felt strange. I helped pass the time with two training sessions and another
Saturday of watching the first eleven play. They bowled the oppo out for 91, though they had been 59-9 at one point. That
was the second win for the ones and they were now 2/2.Sunday came and we had to bat. But we had to bat during the St Peters Raffle day. $100
a ticket and two-and-a-half hour 'delay' of free beer/wine. The players had our own area blocked off to allow us to concentrate
- a hard ask with 50 people all around us getting drunker by the hour. A bad start left us 25-3 when I went into bat. I was
batting with the captain of the two’s and had told myself to try and bat for a long time. We put on 40 runs for
the wicket. I was bowled for 10. It’s a shame I didn’t get the 10 leg byes as well! After that the captain
was given out by a shocking LWB decision and we collapsed for 89 all out. Normally, the game would have to be played 'til
5pm and we would have had to go and field but a mutual decision was made to call it and join in with the raffle. In other
words, take advantage of the hour and a half given to the players for free drinks.
Catch
up soon,
Pils
* Editor's additional notes: Adam's more recent performances with the bat have been less than he'd have
expected ... 4, 3, 8 and 0 in the previous four Geelong Cricket Association Division 2 matches. He insists a big score is
coming "since the grass is now brown and not 4 inches high - so my shots should reach the boundary!" Come on
Pils !!!!
My Aussie initiation
The first weekend I was here I was invited to an Aussie Rules grand final party by a friend
of Dave's (Hambrook). It was pretty much an excuse to drink a lot, while watching the local team Geelong play St Kilda. We
were welcomed with a shot of jagermeister then handed a Stubby (bottled beer). It was a well organised even. When we entered
the entertainment room there was a giant TV, 4 sofas and 2 ice buckets full of alcohol.
I was told that, as part of the annual event, the guys have a half-time
game of Aussie rules amongst themselves. I assumed it was just randomly picked teams and a bit of a mess around. I was wrong!
Once we were all settled, a Power Point presentation was shown, with everyone’s profile and stats highlighted, before
each of us was handed a jersey by the respective captains. I was a part of the Force Lightning team.
Before hand, I was told there were a number of drinking forfeits during the game, with
the opposition picking the member or members of the other team to drink shots. I was kind of worried as I didn’t really
know enough about the sport and had a feeling it could get messy!!
Not knowing anything about AFL when I landed,
Dave tried to explain some of the basic rules during the week, while watching a game he had recorded. I got to learn - roughly
- what I and the others were cheering and booing for.
The final result was a win for Geelong by 12 points and obviously
everyone was going nuts. At the end of the AFL match, we got to finish our game. I had to switch teams due to tactical picking
of the opposition players for shots during the game. Luckily, I only had to go up 3-4 times, unlike others who must have been
close to 10. In the 2nd half of our game, I kicked my first goal in AFL and 2 others after.
We all ventured into town a while
after, and I haven’t seen anything like it before. The streets where full of Geelong flags and shirts, with cars beeping
their horns constantly - the noise was incredible, even 2 hours after the game had finished! It was even still buzzing 3 hours
after that when we eventually emerged from the local bar. It was a great night and my first experience of Geelong nightlife.
More soon ... bye for now
Pils
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