Premier League First Grade

 So after an unfortunate first week back from the break due to rain and after a big week at training we traveled to Southport to play for the hallowed Sam Loxton trophy.

 After winning the toss I decided to have a bowl on a pitch that looked like it had a bit to offer but also with friendly overhead conditions. Well that turned out to be a great decision with big Nath fired up and charging in knocked over their opener with an absolute peach. 2 balls later could’ve had 2 but unfortunately a catch was dropped.

 Ben canning bowled brilliantly at the other end holding that down and bowling very economically to create pressure while Nath just kept steaming in. Ben Houghton and Freddy then came on and did what they do best in keeping it tight. Freddie took a couple of wickets but the big opportunity came when I threw the ball to the young lad James Munro and didn’t he take it with both arms taking the important wicket with his 3rd ball in first grade and getting a caught and bowled. Well done mate.

 We had them 2/90 odd before just before drinks but they had a small collapse and we ended up having them 4/96 at drinks.

 The boys continued to bowl extremely well and the fielding was very sharp. Bangers came on and bowled a fantastic spell and grabbed himself a couple of wickets all in all a fantastic bowling display and we bowled them out with 1 ball left in the innings for 154. Very happy with that and we’re very confident in chasing that down.

 That brings in Ben Houghton and Wowee didn’t he pick up from where he left of the week before belting the ball all over the park and Josh just playing his role at the other end. We needed up 1/60 off 8.3 before rain interrupted our chase. We were doing everything we could to get back on as we knew how far ahead of the game we were.

 The rain kept falling but we never lost hope. Eventually we got back on and only needing 40 runs within 14 overs.

 The overs were never the issue as we were just trying to beat the rain. After some gamesmanship from the opposition and some power hitting from Lucas Fraser, Ben Houghton and Nathan Barnwell we chased the revised total of 100 in 12.1 overs.

 Therefore bringing the Sam Loxton trophy back to where it belongs and getting the first win under the belt for the season.

 Well done boys very proud of where we have come from and where we are now.

 Still more work to be done but now we all know what we’re capable of.

 Let’s go UP THE BAY.

Celebrating the Legacy of Sam Loxton with the Sam Loxton Trophy.

The Sam Loxton Trophy is a cherished tradition between the Runaway Bay Cricket Club and the Southport Labrador Cricket Club's first-grade teams.

This annual competition is more than just a cricket match; it is a heartfelt tribute to a man whose love for the game and dedication to these clubs left an indelible mark.

Sam Loxton, a honoree life member of both clubs, was not only a cricketing legend but a beloved figure at both Runaway Bay and Southport Labrador.

In his later years, Sam was often seen at the clubs, watching games and sharing his wealth of cricketing knowledge.

Whether it was helping seniors and juniors with their batting techniques behind the nets at Runaway Bay or simply enjoying the game from his favorite corner with a beer and a pie, Sam's presence was inspiring.

Runaway Bay Cricket Club recognised Sam’s contributions by naming their oval in his honor in 1999.

Our clubrooms feature a special corner dedicated to Sam, where his memory lives on among players and spectators.

The Sam Loxton Trophy is a fitting celebration of his passion for cricket and his unwavering commitment to these clubs.

Each year, this match unites players and fans in honoring a man who exemplified the spirit of the game. As the teams take the field, they carry forward not just a rivalry but a shared legacy, paying tribute to the extraordinary life of Sam Loxton.

Bays Wickets

Bays Batting Highlights

Premier League Second Grade

Round 13 of the season had the Bay 2s back at home for the first time in 2025 to take on local rivals Southport Labrador. Considering the rain that had been around during the preceding week, the ground and pitch looked in great condition. After bowling our 40 overs with no result last week against Broadbeach, I was itching to win the toss, bat and hit up a big score before the rain came. After our best warm up of the season thus far, I lost the toss and…. We were sent in to bat! Like so many other sides we’ve played this season, the Southport-Labradorians clearly thought we were pushovers with a view to rolling us early then chasing down our total in quick time. 

 Mitch McPhee (19 from 26) returned home for his first hit in several weeks but nothing about his game looked to have changed. Mitch kept the straight ones out and punished anything loose. Reminding everyone that he doesn’t mind the pull shot, Mitchy belted a short ball over the square boundary and over the fence only to be caught at the bar, one hand one bounce by Krish. Yuvraj, playing his first game at the Bay was positive early on. Yuvi looked to put the opposition openers on the back foot by slapping the ball straight and through the covers. The pair put on a solid partnership of 41 before Mitch missed a straight one. Jed Sessarago stepped into the number 3 position this week with Timmy Murdoch making his first grade debut, and didn’t Jed look the part! When Yuvraj departed (bowled), for a well-made 30(40),I paired up with Jed and had a front row seat to the sweetest, left-handed cover drive going around the competition. 

Now, the old ‘he’s only got one shot’ sledge really only has legs when that shot either isn’t very good, or when you can set a field to it right? Drive after drive after drive, Jed belted the ball through the covers. A couple went to the boundary, but most were directed at the thighs or teeth of the cover fielders who soon refused to walk in with the bowler. ‘He’s only got one shot’, was yet again belted out by a fielder shortly before Jed played a slog sweep over mid-on for a two-bounce four. It’s probably worth mentioning at this point, just how good the Southport Labrador pace attack was. There were very few bad deliveries, but luckily for us, their field settings were uncreatively aggressive. The opposition simply refused to put men out on the fence as Jed and I worked the ball through the gaps at cover and point for easy boundaries.

After seeing off the openers, Jed’s and my work became markedly easier and together we put on 64 with little risk before Jed was bowled trying to pick up the scoring for 22(47). Krish in his debut innings for the club came in with 11 overs left and our score around 130. Krish played the situation perfectly by running hard and helping support me to get on strike to the bowlers we were looking to attack. Krish just about hit shot of the day when he pulled the Southport Labrador skipper over mid-wicket for four when he dropped short with no man out on the leg side. Krish’s 15* from 29 was worth far more than it reads as he showed real match awareness. When I was clean-bowled slogging for glory and a bar tab for 95(99), it left Ruddy with just the one ball to face which saw us finishing up with a very, very competitive total of 4/192. 

With our tails up and my hamstrings on fire, we raced out into the middle for the second innings knowing that if we could snag a few early ones, the run rate would blow out and the Southport-Labradorians would be forced to go push the issue. Hayden Kyle (0/22 from 5) took the new pill from the southern end and after a few obligatory sprayed balls, began to work into his rhythm. Stevie Watson re-discovered his form and radar this week with a fantastic opening spell of 1/30 from 7. Stevie’s spell included picking up the wicket that started the rot for Southport Labrador. 

Consistent as ever, our favourite high school teacher Mr Davies, replaced Hayden at the southern end and castled the opposition’s skipper with just his fifth ball. What followed next is probably best compared to some of the run outs doing the rounds on the socials from the European Cricket League. Facing his first ball, J Webb clipped a ball to Stevie at square leg, to discover that his partner was standing next to him at the striker’s end. The ball was then hurled by Stevie, to the striker’s end where wicketkeeper Matt Baker would then "Damien Fleming-style", tenpin bowl it to the vacant non-strikers end. ‘Yes, no, no, no, oh, umm, definitely no’, was the call, as the ball rolled southward at 8km/h, where Krish, ball-in-hand, smashed all three stumps out of the ground. A fittingly messy execution the most untidy runout I can ever remember. The calamity left the visitors at 3-42 in the 11th over. 

 With a storm looming off towards the south-east, I considered spin to rush through a few overs quickly and try secure the 20 overs that would constitute a match. After persisting with Cam and Stevie for what was (in hindsight) probably two overs too many, we got Ruddy and Yuvraj into the game. Cam helped me make up my mind to drag him with two balls in particular. The first ball of Cam’s second over was hit back at teeth-height and luckily for Cam, he just ducked, as it skimmed his ear and raced two bounces to the fence for 4. Two balls later, and with mid-on and mid-off back on the fence, the same batter (Webb), launched the biggest 6 I can remember seeing at Loxton 1 since perhaps Kilborne circa 2009?? Sorry Jawid, sorry H.Maher, this was bigger. After dancing down the wicket, Webb swiped Mr. Davies for some non-contact time, straight as a die. Up, up, up and at least 3m over the southern sightscreen! Only a few of the spectators laughed when I motioned ‘four’ back to the standing umpire as one bystander collected the ball from the landscaping abutting the tennis courts. 

Nathan Rudd both sunk then saved the opposition by getting through his overs at an alarming rate while also picking up the incredible figures of 2/0 from 1.3 overs. The fall of wickets sadly, gave the opposition a bit of time to slowly waddle out to the crease so when the rain did begin to fall, we were still only 16.3 overs through our bowling innings with Southport-Labrador well and truly out of it at 5/73. 

 After some serious rainfall and work on the super soppers over the bowlers runups, the umpire performed an inspection and apologetically notified me that he believed the field was not going to be safe to continue play. A brief conversation with the opposing captain (who looked the happiest I’d seen him all day) and with a check of the radar, we agreed that play was unlikely to re-commence. At approx. 16:40, both teams shook hands as the match was declared abandoned as a draw. To add to the bitterness, the weather cleared up for about 30mins between 17:10 and 17:40 which had we showed less faith in the radar, might have seen us get back on to secure the W. 

This was a strong and spirited performance this week fellas! Our batting was measured while unforgiving and opportunistic. Our fielding massively improved from last week and we looked really dangerous with the ball on what was a very, very flat deck. Apologies if I caved too prematurely by calling the match, but I know if we play like that in the weeks to come, we will pick up some more points. Back home next week to face Beaudesert in a 2-dayer.

Patrick.

 Jamie Phillips and David Baird are representing Queensland in the National Cricket Inclusion Championships (NCIC) held in Brisbane this Week. Jamie is playing in his sixth tournament and David is Coaching the team for the first time.

Go Well Lads

Premier League Third Grade

We travelled to Galleon Way for our first game of the year following last weekend's washout. Last trip down here was called off due to a deluge just after we arrived, so we were hoping to get some cricket in.

 We lost the toss and got put in to bat. 

Their opening bowlers bowled a nice line and with the help of some overcast weather, got the ball to swing late snicking off our openers Hamad & Varun. Varun after hitting a couple of nice boundaries to get the score rolling.

 Gus and Wolfy had to come off once the clouds opened for the first time of the day. Unfortunately, our umpire decided in his wisdom to remove the covers and restart play whilst it was still sprinkling. Palmy made good use of the sticky, popping wicket and most of our batters proceeded to snick off...except for myself who missed a straight one plumb lbw.

 Travy showed how to survive for a period, Hayden Gill, Flynn Richardson & Jake Schultz provided some handy lower order runs to get us to 75. Still not enough, but with a difficult wicket it provided some hope.

 The opposition openers attacked from the outset trying to get the runs before more rain came. Jake Schultz and I created a couple of near chances but couldn't hit our shoebox in the corridor consistently, so we gave the ball to Travy and Hayden Gill on his return from injury.

 With Travy holding up one end and snagging the wicket of the most aggressive opener, Hayden ran in and showed decent rhythm. In his 1.5 overs he had a catch dropped at first slip and an almost fantastic outfield catch at deep backward point by Stephen Wolf. Welcome back, Hayden!

 During their innings, there was an ominous dark and heavy looking cloud coming from the southeast. So we weren't exactly sprinting between overs. The umpire wanted us to hurry up but we are allowed to change field positions, right? Which Travy did...a lot.

A light sprinkle brought the covers on when they had about 20 to win and after play resumed, they needed 14. We continued to stretch out the game between balls and with Palmy requiring 4 to win, the rain began. Old mate umpire asked us to continue but I reminded him a precedent had been set coming off with first rain so off we came.

 Then the heavens opened and with 2 hours to go, the Palmy captain shook hands for shared points. Thanks for coming!

 Good learning experience for the young up and comers that there is always games within games and there's always opportunities to get something out of the day even on difficult ones.

 Grossy

Community League Division 2

5th Grade

We welcomed bottom side Coomera to Sam Loxton 3 with the luxury of having 11 players. Our part time skipper finally won a toss & put them in with threating skies above. We opened with Josh Foe as usual & Nate from the other end in a bid to try & get them to play some shots, but their score of all out for 89 off 24 overs tells us they didnt want to or weren’t up to it, probably the latter. Josh finished with 2/21 from his 6 with the Fridge being the pick of the bowlers with 3/24 from his 6 overs. Azza 2/7 & Schuey 2/16 were the other wicket takers. Our turn with the bat, with the sky turning very dark & our need to up our NRR, we were in a hurry to pass their score & we did that fairly quickly but not before a few hiccups. Luke & Fridge opened but we lost Luke 1st ball of the innings followed by Bizza caught for 6 leaving us 2/6 from the first over. We soon found our groove with Fridge belting a quickfire 23 from 13, Nate Foe was 8 not out, but the pick of the batters was Dr. Quine finishing with 50 from 25 in his first innings for the season. We passed their score of 89 in the 8th over putting us on top of the ladder heading into our bye. Once again, thanks to Mal for scoring all day & the ”Knee brothers” for umpiring our whole innings.

Jamie Hunt

Community League Division 3

6th Grade Navy

Back at home this week on Loxton 5 against Bonogin Gold. Chippa lost the toss and we were sent into bat. We opened the batting with Barry and James. The opening attack of the Bonogin bowlers was blistering, very unusual to see in 6th grade…Barry fell early to a good delivery. Geoff W came to the crease earlier than anticipated, falling quickly too. Under early pressure this brought Will to the middle. Will played some solid defence before also falling. Captain Chris walked out and joined James before James fell for a very well fought 9 off 29. Geoff M joined Chris, forming a good little partnership before the captain was caught trying to play a full toss. Arran came out hoping to put a stop to the collapse. Geoff at the other end didn’t last too much longer and was gone for 5 off 23. At this point we were 7-55, in deep trouble. Jake L came out hoping to steady the innings. Jake batted alongside Arran until Arran fell lbw on 10. Noah quickly found himself in the middle alongside Jake. This didn’t last long as Noah was cheaply dismissed second ball again. Well in trouble now, Hamish strode out. Hamish and Jake formed a solid partnership before Jake fell on 7 off 42, a very good knock in an attempt to anchor the innings. Hamish continued to stick around and batted alongside Harry Rachow, making his senior cricket debut. Hamish finished on 8 off 49 after being run out in the last over. Harry batted very well at the other end, finishing 3 not out, playing some glorious shots and looking confident running between the wickets. We ended up being bowled out for 73. With the opposition requiring 74, we didn’t have much hope, but Chippa reminded us that miracles were possible. Will and Harry opened the bowling, putting the pressure on early. Will took a couple of early wickets and just like that the opening batters were back in the shed, with some colourful language to express their disappointment. It was the perfect start with Harry putting the pressure on at the other end as well, keeping his bowling tidy. Harry quickly claimed his first senior wicket and had the team fully behind him. Chippa raising him up in the air just like Simba. Will continued his art at the other end continuing to put pressure on. At this point we had them 5-28. The boys were pumped up but dark clouds began to form, our time was limited. Harry and Will finished their spells with great figures. Harry was 1/19 off his 6, an awesome effort for his first senior game. Will finished with career best figures 5/31 off his 6. Wills first 5fa, was a terrific effort. Chris came on to bowl, picking up another wicket but we knew there wasn’t going to be much more cricket for the day, as it began to pour. In the end, we finished sopping wet with a draw being 12 odd overs short of the minimum amount of overs required to have a result. Our spirits are still high after such a great performance in the field as we head to Bonogin next week to play the other Bonogin 6th grade team and further expand our vocabulary.

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Community League Division 3

6th Grade Orange

6th Grade Orange V Coomera

Lost the toss and we fielded first. Once again the weather was threatening as we went out to field but it stayed fine . Jason opened up but had no luck with the ball going wide or over slips. Matt picked up a caught & bowled to have them 1/26. The runs kept on flowing as the opposition captain had us running all over the park. Tony got our 2^nd wicket at 82, the 3^rd was picked up at 149 by Arron but we could not stop the  runs. A wicket to Deepak and Matt at the end of the innings had them finish at 5/230 with the captain making 139 and that is the biggest score l have seen on Loxton 6.

We needed a good start but luck was not with Jason again being caught after it hit the bowler on the foot and then rolled up his leg to complete the catch. Tony went soon after and Josh Harris  playing his first game of the year went 2^nd ball to have us 3/24. We needed the rain to come but by the time it arrived we were 4/60 from 21 overs and lost  on DL.

Jim P

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