Reds in action.

In this issue:
Next weekend's games
Last weekend's games
Rep side nominations
Clubrooms campaign -- progress report


Next weekend's games:

A Grade: no match -- game over
B Grade: v MHSOB, Saturday 1pm, Herring Oval, Domain Rd, South Yarra (continues)
D Grade: v Powerhouse, Saturday 1pm, Straw Field No.2 (continues)
Under-14s: v Strathmore, Saturday 8.30am, Straw Field No.2 (continues)
Under-12B: v Airport West-St Christophers, Saturday 8.30am, Dunstan Res, Peacock St, West Brunswick
Under-12E: v St Francis de Sales, Saturday 8.30am, Poplar Oval, cnr The Avenue & Ievers St, Parkville
Under-10s: v Flemington, Friday 5.15pm, Arden Street (Ring 9539-4844 after 4pm for extreme-heat ruling)


Last weekend's games:

A Grade: Reds 4-dec-290 d Chilli Dogs 30 & 17

There are games that you remember because the of some individual or team heroics - the win nervously ones. There are also games that you remember when victory just couldn't be clinched despite best efforts - the lose tragically ones. Then there are the games that you remember because of some incident or oddity that makes the game memorable not so much for the result but for what transpired during the match. The A grade match on the weekend would definitely fit into the latter.

We won the toss and despite a bit of dampness on the track, Jim had no hesitation in batting first. New comers to the Mercantile, Chilli Dogs started with 8 players - which quickly became seven when one bloke went home crook. They had a handy opening bowler who bowled sharpish cutters and certainly extracted some bounce off the damper areas of the track.

The trouble for the CDs was that eight just wasn't enough and they proceeded to grass a chance that Steve gave early on. As such, Davies and Bell - the other left-handed opening combination - put on 90 for the first wicket before Steve got given out to a slips catch that didn't look quite up for 33. Funk came and went and then Jim and Mike put on 55, to which Jim hardly contributed while Mike and extras kept things ticking along. Jim's dismissal signalled the berthing of the Big Ship - things started sedately enough but before too long Jono was getting stuck into some decidedly D-grade looking bowling and some big gaps in the field and even bigger gaps in the air. At tea, we were 3-178 off 34 overs and Jim indicated that he would like to bat for another 10 overs and get 250 and declare.

After tea, Mike fell for a very well compiled 78, which brought Tomek in as the pinch hitter - the innings finished in the 43rd over - their opening bowler having returned a bit stiff and sore - with Tomek hitting a big six into the D-Grade match on no. 2 and a one off a no-ball and then Jono taking another 27 off the over - 6 off a no ball, 44444 - to make it 35 from the over to equal the club record set by Woody a few years back (ed. note that Woody's was off 7 balls). The innings closed at 4/290 dec with Jono on 107 not out and Tomek on 14 not out.

By this stage, their skipper had gone to work which left them with six. Byrney took 4/3 in the fist dig with a smart runout from Funk being the other dismassal - Tomek bowled well without luck - CDs all out 30 and then Brett got 2/6 and Matt got 3/8 in the second. CDs all out 17. Time for some Christmas shopping next week or to cheer on the Bs and Ds.

B Grade: MHSOB 139 v Reds

The Spinmeister won his 7th toss out of 8, which was just as well with Herring looking a bit pickled after Evo forgot to put the covers on it. In the humidity, Big Steve bowled up a storm swinging the ball in sharp and late and hitting the gloves head high even though I was standing 15 metres back. Best ball -- a vicious late innie to clean up one of the Apostolakis bros. For those A graders who haven't seen Steve in action, think Rab Grant then double everything -- speed, height, darkness of hair. Tim was toiling up the hill in his first ever new-ball spell, keeping things tight and swinging it away. At drinks 3 for about 30 off 18.

Daniel came on with his leggies and after a few shaky overs settled into a lovely groove. The Spinmeister tossed one a little wider to pick up danger man Apostolakis No.2 neatly caught by Undy at slip. Vijayakumar went on the attack for a quick 24, but Steve came back just before tea to have him taken by Woody -- our third slips catch after Undy's and Spinmeister's, a highlight of the first session. Tea -- 5 for 81 off 35.

If we thought that was a bit slow, we hadn't seen nuthin yet. Opener Sheds was still there, grafting it out as the run rate slowed to a crawl. 25 runs off the next 22 overs as Steve and Tim came back to strangle the scoring. Drinks 7-106 off 57. And more of the same in the final hour, as Joe Lumley's seamers yielded just 6 in 6 overs. MHSOB's no.10 played a bizarre innings, taking 50% of deliveries on an outsize thighpad and saving our openers the problem of playing out the last 8 overs while not actually adding any runs. Steve finished the innings in the 75th over right on 6pm with two wickets to make it 6-23 off 27 overs, not a bad day's work. Well supported by Tim, 2-39 off 20. And an admirable feat of concentration by Sheds, who carried his bat for 60 and grafted through the entire day.


D Grade: Powerhouse 170 v Reds 2-19
We kept top side Powerhouse to a modest 170, although it easily could have been under 100 if four chances had been held. Dave Guest took the bowling honours with 4-35, and youngsters Ewan Greenfield (1-10) and leggie Aaron Durasovic (0-19 off 6) bowled impressively. In reply, we lost Wim, then Ricky Bickle on the second last ball of the day, and will need a determined batting effort to get us home.

U14A Grade: Reds 51 v Strathmore 1-47

A grim day against a very tough bowling attack. Ewan went early, then Paddy and Cailean grafted while Extras did most of the scoring. Paddy fell for 2 in the 20th over after opening, an effort in the finest Mitchell-Kahn-Norling tradition, but it was an admirable refusal to give in by a batsman who was in the absolute horrors with his timing.

Tom played three sumptuous cover drives before falling for 7, Cassie deflected cleverly for 8, and at 4-41 after 28 we had ambitions of making it to 100. Then it all went horribly wrong as we folded in five overs, with three wickets falling to Xavier speedster Nick Bergin in his final over. We had 15 overs at Strathmore, and they batted very sensibly to be 1-47. Only highlight, a terrific bounce throw by Tom and take by Cailean to bring off a run-out on an attempted second run. Saturday we will have to reenact the siege of Leningrad to make sure we don't lose this one outright.


Under-12B: Reds 6-119 d Craigieburn 6-cc-91

Another solid and consistent team performance, which makes the negative comments we make about each other in the field all the more puzzling. Players don’t deliberately make mistakes, so in future we will encourage each other, or say nothing at all. But now back to the cricket. We set the game up with a very polished bowling performance and some good catches (including one off the opposition’s key batter by Matthew Boehm, giving him a team-high 5 catches for the season). Tom Reilly (2-15) and Sam Kerwin (1-3) were the best of the bowlers, but everyone did well with the ball. The usual mention must be made of Gus Kueter-Luks, who gave away just 3 byes in 28 overs. Gus also collected 2 stumpings along the way, one off Matthew and the other off Kaisheal Sarson-Lawrence, whose leg breaks get better each week. In reply, Shea Tierney (25 no) and Nathan Harding (6 no) got us off to a flyer against their fast bowlers, picking off 35 in 6 overs to set us on the way. Tom (13) and Chris Scott (22 no) put together the key middle order partnership which soon had the result beyond doubt, and Marcus Considine (9) hit some solid blows at the end to put the icing on the cake. Back to back victories, and on to the last game before Christmas – hopefully this time with a good team spirit to go with our developing cricket skills.

Under-12E Grade: Reds 3-cc-121 d Strathmore Heights 8-cc-92

We piled up 121 thanks to good knocks from Jesse Thurlow (15 ret), Curtis Hamid (20 ret) and Carlo Manley (8*). Not to mention a whopping 63 no-balls from a very raw attack. We kept them behind the eight-ball on wickets and run-rate all through their reply, with the wickets being shared by Tom McBean (1-6 off 3), Jack Dinale (1-5 off 3), Conor Murtagh (1-14 off 3), Jesse (1-11 off 3), Sam Ward (1-5 off 2) and Curtis (1-4 off 2).

Under-10s: Tullamarine 3-cc-91 drew Reds 0-45

We contained Tullamarine to a very gettable 91 off 24 overs, with Declan Reilly, Nick Phillips and Daniel Lazarow our wicket takers and Charlie Roberts a very tight 0-2 off 3 overs. In reply, we were 0-45 after 13 overs when rain washed out an exciting finish. Nick Manley top-scored with 9 retired, and Charlie (6*) and Declan (5*) also did well.

Rep side nominations

The MCA has called for nominations for the three rep sides to play on Monday Jan 26 (firsts, over-40s and under-21s).
Jim and Jono seem like obvious nominations from our Ones -- any other suggestions?
For the over-40s -- Cheating Hippy, Calypso Kahn .... Are Steve, Radio, Ricky Bickle available? Anyone else interested?
For the under-21s -- Chili

Clubrooms campaign

The Council has refused to keep the old clubroom or build a new one. Instead, they have proposed to switch us to two other turf grounds in Royal Park North, which are adjacent with a clubroom between them. There is still some negotiating to be done, but feeling among the club's senior players is to pursue this offer.