By Joshua Hamilton
Montrose 2nd XI Vs Wandin 1st XI at Montrose Recreation Reserve:
Another tough task laid ahead for the 1st XI as they travelled a short distance to Montrose to take on their 2nd XI. We would win the toss and elected to bat and open with regular duo Ryan Thompson and Troy Poynton. They go us off to a fairly steady start but when Troy was run out off a direct hit this triggered a mini-collapse as we went from 1/16 to 4/21 losing key batsmen Ryan Thompson, Jamie Elliott and Jason Cornish in that time which put us on the back foot really early. Consolidation and structure were in urgent need so the likes of Joel Galvin (18), Dave Thorne (32), and Glen Poynton (20) provided a very good resistant effort to add some respectability to our score as we finished all out for 129.
We would fight hard early in search of quick, early wickets but only Tarkyn Nicolandos was able to the single, solitary Montrose wicket for the innings as Montrose surpassed Wandin just 1 down for 130. 1 more game for the 1’s next week to complete the year. We will do everything in our power to cause a bit of disruption to another Yarra Valley Rival in Healesville at Queens Park next Saturday.
Wandin 2nd XI Vs Warranwood 4th XI at Wandin North Recreation Reserve:
The 2’s would host Warranwood at home and after club legend & skipper Rick Painter won the toss, he would happily elect to bat first. The normal duo of Danny Alderman and Daryn Trembath would deliver like they have all year and put on quick early runs despite a few early maidens from 1 Warranwood bowler as Danny (34) would be dismissed first when the score was on 95 after just 14 overs! It wouldn’t get any easier or provide relief for Warranwood as Dave Marshall would carve out a quick 13 before Daryn would score a very, very good 53 while Rhett Smith carried on with his consistent year with the bat adding 38 to the total which took us to 4/202 with 3 overs to go.
Rod Aitken would add a very quick 34 which included a big, straight, booming six over the bowler’s head as well as some quick running between the wickets. This helped Wandin post a very steady total of 4/225.
Shaun Falkingham would be thrown the new ball to kick start the bowling innings. Warranwood’s opener would signal his intent and send the first ball to the boundary for 4 runs before not scoring from the next 5 balls. Daniel Trembath would be Shaun’s opening partner as he knocked back the previously mentioned openers off stump with a perfect delivery 4 balls into his first over. Shaun would claim his first in the next (3rd over) after catching the ball off his own bowling to see the score on 2/7!
The loss of early wickets made it really difficult for Warranwood to mount a serious challenge to the big Wandin total when the score was 4/55 at the drinks break needing a further 170 runs off 90 balls. Shortly after the drinks break, Hamish Lamont would take 1 of his 3 wickets for the day and be the pick of the bowlers as Warranwood fell 112 runs short of the target. Another impressive win for the 2’s as they have all but secured the top spot on the ladder. One more regular season game vs the 4th placed St Andrews next week
Wandin 3rd XI Vs Ainslie Park 6th XI at Wandin East Recreation Reserve:
After a run-heavy game earlier in the season between these 2 sides resulted in a narrow Wandin win, Wandin would try to make it 2 from 2 vs Ainslie Park at home in a pivotal battle which would go a long way to determine 3rd spot on the ladder come regular seasons end next week.
Wandin would win the toss and ask Ainslie Park to bat first in a move that paid off almost immediately as Jackson Kneebone trapped the first batsmen LBW just 4 balls into the match with the score 1/1. Unfortunately, the next wicket didn’t fall until the score was on 107 and 2 Ainslie batsmen also retired on 50 and 53 which didn’t stop the Doggies from gritting their teeth which netted them 6 wickets for the innings as Shaun Doolan (2/21 off 6 overs) while Lachie Alderman finds himself on a hat trick at the start of next game as he snagged 2/7 from his single over. Ainslie Park’s innings would close on a sizeable but gettable 6/214.
Opening the batting with another new combination of Brad McKenzie and Luke Falkingham would work extremely well as both guys posted individual scores of 46 and 40 including a 64 run opening stand. Lachie Alderman (38) and Luke got us to the drinks break just 1 wicket down for 82 with a launching pad set and the equation for victory set at 133 runs off 108 balls. After Lachie was dismissed in the 31st over, Wandin still required 56 off just under 5 overs but with large volume run-scorer Matt Owens (46no) and big hitter Shaun Doolan at the crease, we were still within arms reach of grabbing a famous win.
While we got very close, the target was just a touch too large to surpass as Wandin fell 10 runs short. The 3’s will keep their heads high as we take on 2nd placed Warrandyte and then tackle Mount Evelyn in a massive cutthroat semi-final in a fortnight.
