Premier League First Grade

On a sunny day at Sam Loxton Oval, the Runaway Bay Premier Division team faced off against Queens 1st Grade in an important opening CGC Premier League - Division 1 match.

The significance of this clash was palpable as both teams aimed to solidify their standing within the league.

Batting Second, Runaway Bay struggled to find rhythm against a disciplined bowling attack from Queens.

Despite losing early wickets, Corey Hucker showcased commendable resilience, remaining not out on 61 runs from 92 balls.

His innings included six boundaries and one six, displaying his ability to anchor the innings amidst falling wickets. Hucker's stability was crucial as other batsmen faltered; only Travis Harker managed to contribute meaningfully with a score of 16 not out from 29 deliveries.

In the first innings, Queens proved too strong with the bat, posting a formidable total of 196 runs before running out of time in their allotted overs. Nevertheless, Runaway Bay's bowlers attempted to maintain pressure on the Queen’s batsmen.

🏏 Premier League Second Grade

Ahh, the first week of October. Temps in the high twenties, the smell of freshly cut grass, swooping magpies and best of all, grade Cricket. A side comprising of old bones, familiar faces, some newcomers and the confidence only a big night on the eve of the game or youth can bring, the Bay 2s travelled down Bayview Street to face Queens.

With Angove looking a picture, great overheads and a hard, flat-looking deck, I won the toss and proclaimed 'We'll have a bat' thanks (one from one).

Mitch McPhee and you Gus Richardson opened up for us. Sadly for Gus on his 2s debut, departed early - snicking one to the keeper. Amir joined McPhee but he too soon was on his way, subject to a very similar dismissal as that of his predecessor.

This saw Lucas Frazer stride out to the crease. Fresh from a week of labour maintaining trees, Lucas continued on with the real work to be done which was out in the middle by cutting, driving and lacing the ball to all parts.

Truth be told, Mitch's first twenty-odd looked.... horrendous. 'Are you holding that bat the right way around mate?'. But in the blink of an eye and with three sixes in one over Mitch was well and truly on. 'New ball please, that one is down the drain and now property of the City'.

While Mitch raced past 50, Lucas continued on about his work, manipulating the field and punishing anything loose from the bowlers.

In the blink of an eye, Lucas was also past 50 in just 36 balls. With a busted hand, the partnership at 140 and weary legs, Mitch sadly fell for a brutal 82(61) which included 9, fours and 4 sixes.

I replaced Mitch as the crowd applauded his efforts.

Knowing the importance of forcing the issue, I started off my innings with a snick through slips that would have seen me out first ball 9 times out of 10.

'Pick the gaps, mate'. When I trudged off, we already had 200 on the board with 8 overs in hand. Will Marron on 2s debut hit a monster 6 before being bowled off a no-ball.  Not for the front foot mind you, but for height....? Matt Baker needed to get ready to keep, so he missed his first ball which clean bowled him. Debutant Nayeef Biswas, continued the fast scoring as Lucas continued on his merry way to a truely classy ton, finishing from 107* (117) and helping us to a tidy total of 245.

 Despite having a good score on the board, we knew with the small boundaries, lightning outfield and road of a deck, that it victory was not assured.

Raj opened up with the ball at one end. As 2s debutant Stevie Watson took the new ball to start his spell, Queen’s opening batsman was heard to remark to his partner, 'This is the bloke who got Steve Baker out'.

With Raj keeping things tight from one end, Stevie bent a ball back into the right-hander to claim his first wicket in 2s, clean bowled (1 for 20). Well done Stevie!

When Raj (1/21 from 8), picked up a wicket shortly after, we knew we were in business. Sadly for us, the left-handed Queens opener found his stride, mixing luck with power to find gaps everywhere. A sublime spell from Cam Davies (2 for 36 from 8) kept us right in it, despite a few good partnerships from the Queens boys.

With multiple dropped catches, 20 odd freebies gifted through poor fielding, bad luck and an unbeaten ton from the Queen’s opener (which had nothing on Lucas'), we sadly went down with about an over to spare.

Well done to Mitch on a great knock, well bowled to Raj and Cam, and welcome to our newcomers but really, the day was all about Lucas-Lumberjack Frazer whose century was pure class and elegance.

 We lost this one through things in our control boys, not because of the quality of the opposition.

We can improve our fielding, we can improve our catching but one thing I don't think we could improve on was the spirit in which we played this one. We stayed keen, supported each other and most of all, we had fun.

Things are looking bright for the Bay 2s in 24/25. We'll get em next time fellas.

 Patrick

Hervorragend!

Come celebrate Oktoberfest at the Runaway Bay Cricket Club!

Bring the family and get ready to bowl us over with your Bavarian best on Saturday, 12th, Oktober

We will be celebrating from 6pm until the last pretzel is eaten or Noodles drops

Dust off your Lederhosen and squeeze into your Dirndls! Don't have any? A strategically placed beer stein works too!

Becks Kitchen will be serving up a storm

German Sausage & Chips Combo for just $10!

Emily is making pretzels the size of a toddler's head!

We will have authentic German beer that will make your heart yodel, plus our usual drinks for the less adventurous and interesting.

Prepare for a night of wild and fun games:

'Sausage in the Hole' - trust us on this one

'Pretzel Toss'

'Beer Jug Relay' - we might see a Veterans player actually run in this

We've got more Kraftwerk and Rammstein on our playlist than you can shake a schnitzel at!

It will be an amazing and fun family night for all.

Register your interest below, and subscribe to our Bay Event Calendar for all future events

https://lu.ma/p7d20ggt

#thefamilyclub

🏏 Premier League Third Grade

Thirds started the season off at home against Queens.

We won the toss and batted.

Thanks to Connan Dunning (16 off 17) who helped out from 5^th Grade and volunteered to open (told he had to because there was no one else).

Even though we were a bowler-heavy side, there were a couple of goals we wanted to achieve on our first outing.

1. Have 5 wickets in hand with 10 overs to go

2. Bat out our 40 overs

Except for a middle-order hiccup, where we lost 3/3 to a slinger who went from a wild 1^st over to suddenly finding his target, we would've achieved both goals.

This was largely thanks to a well-constructed partnership from Stephen Wolf (26 off 41), and Jamie Lennix (34 off 50) who took us from 3/29 to 88 before we stumbled to 6/91.

In future games, I'm sure we'll see these guys take advantage of their starts.

 I asked the young lower-order batsmen along with Chris Bartlett (14) to consolidate and get us to 40 overs. Once Chris got out to some rusty footwork and James Munro let one sneak through after some solid resistance, we were 8/115.

Jed Sessarago (23 off 30) and Hayden Gill (13 off 17) batted perfectly for the situation, and exactly as I had requested, playing defence with intent and proper cricket shots where available to get us to 8/147 off our 40 overs.

 With a strong wind from one end, someone had to open the bowling into it, and Chris Bartlett was delighted for the opportunity, especially since he hadn't been to training yet. At the other end, we had James Munro, Hayden Gill and Nick McConnell to utilise the wind to their advantage.

 Early on, all bowlers struggled for rhythm and control, and we let the opposition get too many free runs. I brought on Hamza, bowling his leggies into the breeze and he bowled very well (5 overs 1/9). His last ball was a snick caught tidily by our keeper Connan.

 I then dragged him...to get Will Secombe a go before drinks.

Will caught the edge 1^st ball and Jamie took a low 1^st slip catch to make the captain look like I knew what I was doing. He bowled the best spell of the day (4 over 1/7) consistently beating the outside edge and bowling to his field, and with Jamie Lennix at the other end bowling some left-arm orthodox (3 over 0/9), followed by Nick McConnell bowling beautifully in his first 3^rd-grade outing (5 overs 1/22), we fought back momentum.

Nick's spell was highlighted by a superb pluck that stuck from wicketkeeper Connan.

 Due to 23 extras and the 4 free overs we bowled to them, Queens passed our total in 31.5 overs. If we can tighten up a bit and bowl more balls at or near off stump, we have the makings of a strong outfit.

The ground fielding was great and the young players listen and are coachable. It's up to the experienced players to contribute more while they are developing.

On to next week.

Grossy