The Pearce Hynes Shield returns to the Nest after an Andrew Fergusson master-class with both bat and ball.

Tom’s record with the toss is getting silly. He’s now won all 8 tosses this year plus the 2 in the finals last year, meaning he’s on a 10 run streak. Batting first things didn’t go our way early. At 3/32, Newtown were in control and our guys needed someone to steady the innings. In recent games that’s been Layton McCann however with him out of the side, in came veteran all rounder Andrew Fergusson. Fergy, who’s now 40 looked as tho he hadn’t missed a beat. His on and off drives were as good as ever and his hustle between the wickets played a big role in the partnership with Cossie. The pair put on 84 before our middle and lower order crashed and bashed their way to a winning score. Ferg fell for a brilliant 71 as we ended up 8/193.

Our new ball bowling has been somewhat of an issue all season. Missing the hole that injured fast bowler Lachy Hayes has left us, this week Fergy took on that role and picked up a wicket early. Bagga, who had opened at the other end then grabbed the 2nd wicket as the safe hands of Soup McCann were on display. 2/26 was then 2/90 as the boys just couldn’t get a break through. Tom brought himself back on with immediate impact but it was his gutsy call of bowling Opening Bat Sam Hall that possibly won us the game. Sam picked up the huge wicket of Cooper Bingham which then pushed our guys in front of the ledger and the squeeze was on. Sam’s 7 overs went for just 19 runs as the game was getting tight. Fergy chipped in with 2 more wickets to cap off an excellent return as the game came down to 6 overs left, 39 runs required to win and Newtown had 4 wickets in the bank to play with. Our 2 finishers, Soup and Tom, had 3 overs left each and as has been the case most games, the opposition soon learn its not that easy to get them away. Soup picked up 2 wickets in an over before Tom grabbed his 2nd of the day leaving Newtown 9 down. The number 10 and 11 at the crease still needing 17 to win, the pair tried to scamper thru for a quick single but Tom was having none of that. Picking up the ball off his own bowling he threw down the stumps at the bowlers end to finish the game and return the Pearce Hynes Shield back to Osborne Park. The win also pushes us 15 points ahead of 5th place, that’s 2 and a half games clear, finals are on the horizon.

The all conquering 2nd XI side copped the brunt of the unavailables this weekend, with 2 guys out of our 1sts and 4 guys unavailable from the 2nds it meant the side looked a lot different to how its looked all season. The boys didn’t miss a trick with the ball. The wicket looked to suit slow bowling and our slowies cashed in. Will Milsome playing his first game on turf looked comfy with ball in hand. He was backed up by the miserly as ever Tim Birch. The pair really put the squeeze on Newtown with Milso being rewarded with 2 wickets. Once those 2 had bowled out skipper Braden observed conditions and realised that his bowling would come in handy on the difficult wicket. He picked up 2 before the spinners Mango and Xav wrapped things up with 2 each as the Two Blues were all out for 116.

In reply these run chases had been made easy by the likes of Deccy, Hame and Tone, with the 3 guys not there it was up to the younger brigade of Xav, Milso and Patti and unfortunately for our guys, they couldn’t repeat the boys efforts. Striding out at 4 for his first game in over 18 months was veteran Damian Vassiliou, the former Alf Clark Medallist put up his hand to help us out but when he fell for a quick 7, things weren’t looking great. Xav and Braden looked to build an innings that would get the run chase back on track but when they both fell so did our chances of winning the game and the guys were bowled out for just 61.

With the 2nds side making 5 changes the decimated 3rd side was even worse. Bowling first our guys didn’t really have any answers early on. Quick bowlers Rhodesy and Az Beecroft held their own but wickets were hard to come by. It wasn’t until Col introduced himself the game started to sway a little in North’s favour. 3/117 quickly became 7/129 with Col cutting his way through their attack. Once his 9 overs were completed however Newtown then kicked away again as they made their way to a more then competitive 174. Col finishing with 6/14 from his 9.

With the Bat things looked ugly early, it was 2/6 in only the 4th over. Tom Emery and Taylor Gasper looked to get things back on track, young Tom has found his spot at 3. Another 23 from him this week, hopefully now he has the confidence to go on and push for bigger scores. When Tom fell it was 5/56 and things were looking grim. Alex Foxwell replaced him and picked up where he left off, but in doing so was running out of partners pretty quickly. With the game getting away from the guys, Foxxy finished 37 not out as we fell 67 runs short with just 107, all but ending the season for the guys as finals now seem a long way away.

The finals are in the balance with our 4ths guys as well after a great bowling performance wasn’t backed up by the batting. The young side took to the field with a few different faces, however the youth stood out once again. Gav Foran opening the bowling was brilliant, so was Benny Demasi, Liam Biddiscombe and Aarav Jain. These young guys made up the bulk of the wicket takers as we kept the undefeated Newtown to just 135.

Good sides are undefeated for a reason and that showed with the ball as our guys didn’t really show a lot. The Biddiscombe father and son duo opened the batting together as Co Coach Craig stepped up to help with our copious amount of unavailables. The pair put on 21 with Craig doing the bulk of the scoring before he fell. With Fred Lucas and Liam Biddiscombe at the crease the future was on display, the pair got to a stage where it was under 100 runs to win but when Fred fell it kind of signalled the end of the chase as we capitulated pretty quick from there. Liam top scored with 34 however the guys were all out for 73, keeping Newtown undefeated.

The 5ths returned after a bye last week and with every grade struggling for numbers it is a real credit to the club to still see 5 sides take to the park. Bowling first, Bell Park got away from the guys, our attack didn’t really have many answers. Regular skipper Brad Brown was a late out with covid isolation adding to the bowling woes. The unlikely bowling hero was Paul Robinson… Robbo as he’s known to the boys. Every 5ths team needs a Robbo, a guy who’s quick witted, loves a beer and loves his sport. Saturday Robbo picked up 3/12 to be the best bowler on the card and there’s a chance all of his mates will hear about this for weeks to come. Bell Park finished with 259, In reply our guys were never really a chance to chase that down, however showing that age is no barrier, Chris ‘Louie’ Carr wound back the clock and cut his way to a nice half century. He lead the way for the guys, however didn’t have much luck in finding any partners. His 53 not out stands out on the scorecard as the guys finished 9/142.

Sunday rolled around and our A Grade Girls took on Geelong West. Batting first, as we’ve done a lot this year, it was once again the most in form bat in the competition, Sophie Walker who took the girls and put them on her shoulders. She partnered up with Norz who together put on 77 for the 2nd wicket. Sophie’s 3rd half century of the season came at a decent rate as she partnered with the middle order to get the girls a reasonable score. Some late hitting from Lauren Kelly pushed that score out further as the girls finished 6/162. The run chase didn’t get off to the greatest of starts for West with Lauren Kelly still on a high from her batting picking up the first. Jordyn then picked up a run out to have the girls on top. A neat partnership then formed for West as they gradually got back into the game. When Jordyn was re introduced for her 2nd spell she changed the game with 4 huge wickets, all bowled showing her accuracy is as good as ever. Sophie Walker also bowled in the dying overs once again to provide the finishing touches. West would end up falling 18 runs short giving our girls another win and pushing themselves 3 games clear of 5th spot. With only 5 games to go, finals are definitely on the cards.

The unevenness that is the B Grade was on display again as for the 2nd time in 3 weeks and the 3rd time in 7 games, our girls took on the undefeated South Barwon. Batting first our girls didn’t have any answers to the consistent line and lengths of the South attack. Opening the batting, Tash Millard showed her resistance and defence as she battled and fought off some competitive bowling. Unfortunately for our girls, we couldn’t manage to lay enough bat on ball and we were bowled out for 41. In reply, our girls didn’t completely hand South the win as we took 3 wickets before the runs were chased down. Finals have never been on the cards for our girls, but with 5 games to go, hopefully we continue to see improvement, just like last week where the girls scored their highest amount of runs for the season.

The word Finals have been mentioned a lot lately, with 5 games to go things are shaping up across all the grades. Our 1s and 2s are firmly locked in, as well as our A Grade Girls. As for the other sides, wins over the next few weeks will be extremely important and it all starts next week as we take on our Round 2 opponents Lara. Lara  us in all grades except for the 2nds last time around, we don’t want a repeat of that. It’ll also be a big day for the club with us welcoming back our past players for the afternoon. Neil Alford has done a power of work and the day is looking like being a huge one for the club.