We were pleased with the draw for this year’s draw as the furthest we had to travel was Manly, no trips up north or down south and the incentive of a grand final match at the Sydney Cricket Ground , the first time a junior shield final had ever been played at this sacred venue  to celebrate 100 years of District cricket was enough  to incite a determination in the players to get to the final.

Our first match was our furthest deep in “Silvertail” country and as this was the first place we had settled when we arrived in Australia I knew it would be a lovely ground with the fresh cool sea breeze  adding to the pleasure.                         

 

   Match report  1  Watson Shield 2003/2004.

                9^th November 2003   V  Manly    at  L.M. Graham Reserve  Fairlight.

 

Nathan won the toss and elected to bat, the openers Scotty Paterson and Royston D’Lima began the innings on a fine sunny day but disaster struck quickly with Royston caught for 5 and Scotty followed soon afterwards also caught for 5  and we were  22 for 2.

Nathan came in to bat with Brett Russell and a wonderful batting performance from both of them putting on a century stand (124) before Brett was  bowled after scoring an impressive 64.

Mitch Russell joined Nathan and another stand of 77 saw the score reach 223 before Mitch was L.B.W. for a handy  20.

Elliot Whiley joined Nathan  and a quickfire 53 from 10 overs and the score jumped to 275  before the 5^th wicket fell at 275 , (Elliot being caught for 16 ) things were looking good now when  Andrew Stzelma joined Nathan  but one over later Nathan was caught, finishing with his highest Rep score of 150.

Sagi Pradhan joined Andrew and  with only a few overs left  another batting  spree ( 20 from 3 overs ) and we were 303 for 7  and the innings finished on 311 for 7  with Sagi 12 n/o.

 

With the fielders on their toes and the opening bowlers Andrew Stzelma and Karl Sayers  bowling very tight  we had both openers out for 25 after 12 overs .

All the bowlers were fired up and Sagi was in good form behind the stumps.

Their 4^th wicket partnership produced 74 runs but with wickets falling at a steady rate we were getting on top and smart fielding gave us a run out

Our poor coach nearly had a heart attack when Nathan threw the ball to Royston for a couple of overs but a quick mouth to mouth and he was back as good as new.

Glen Franshaw gave a very good performance of spin bowling, toiling away for 12 overs with no success but with them only scoring 31 from them was a great help to us.

Andrew finished with 2 for 17, Karl Sayers 2 for 13, Peter Carroll 2 for 39, (Billy) Elliot  Whiley 3 for 24

And  Royston’s 2 overs only produced 2 runs.

The match ended in the 55^th over with Manly all out for 163.

One down and 4 to go

 

Match report round 2   V   Hornsby    16^th November 2003  at Howell Oval.

 

Hornsby won the toss and elected to bat, another tight spell from our opening bowlers had Hornsby at 1 for 16 after 8 ,the second opening batsman fell at 47 , both opening batsmen being caught by our athletic keeper Sagi.

The 3^rd wicket fell at 50 and things were looking good and with wickets falling at regular intervals Hornsby were struggling to get a good run rate,  with all bowlers keeping the runs down and Sagi taking another 2 catches, 2 catches to Karl Sayers and 1 each to Dave Curran and Hodgo Peter Carroll was the only one to hit the wicket but with the fieldsmen grabbing everything that came their way a triumphant mornings work saw Hornsby all out for 168 in the 51^st over.

Peter Carroll  had magnificent figures of 4 wickets for 30 runs from 10 overs, , Glen Franshaw 2 for 42  , Elliot Whiley 1 for 28, Dave Curran 1 for 18 and Andrew Stzelma 1 for 25 from 11 overs  this performance establishing  us as one of the best fielding sides in the competition.

 

A good opening partnership of 62 from Scotty Patterson and Royston D’Lima gave us a good base to carry on before Scotty was bowled for 13 , Brett Russell joined Royston and another partnership of 51 before Brett was caught by the bowler saw us looking good.

The Nathan who had such a good 1^st match got a second ball duck and a quick return to the dressing room.

Mitch Russell joined Royson but for the second time in 2 matches was given out L.B.W. for 5.

Elliot came out and a  quickfire partnership with Royston took the score to  159 before Royson, after a glorious innings of 83 was caught 159 for 5  Andrew and “Billy” took the score past Hornsby  “Billy remaining not out 24      5 for 179

2 down and 3 to go.