QUOTE OF THE WEEK- “If hard work is your weapon, success will be your slave.” Kapil Dev, Indian Test Captain.
Last Saturday the Tewantin-Noosa Thunder First Grade cricket team was crowned the premiers in the Sunshine Coast Cricket Association competition.
The premiership, the trophy and the accolades that go with it were well and truly deserved as the team was undefeated in some 27 matches, winning 24 of them. It is believed that this is an association record, and no one can remember when a team went through the season without being beaten.
The grand final was to be played over three days against arch-rivals, Caboolture Snakes, who have been the premiers a number of times over the last decade but, as has happened frequently this season, the weather intervened.
After the first two days of the match were abandoned due to the wet oval, the game came down to a one-day shoot out which Caboolture had to win to claim the premiership.
Thunder, being undefeated and on top of the table had to ensure that Caboolture did not score more runs than them on the day. To some spectators, this might have seemed a little unfair, but these are the rules and certainly the Caboolture team has benefitted from washed-out matches in the past.
After a delayed start on day three on Saturday, Caboolture won the toss and sent the Tewantin-Noosa team into bat hoping to take 10 wickets in time for their strong batting lineup to pile on enough runs late in the day to win the match. As they say in the classics, it did not go according to plan for the Snakes.
But the day unfolded exactly as Thunder planned it would. Opener, Lewis Waugh looked untroubled in his nearly four hours at the crease, passing his 1000 runs for the season during his innings and ending up on 76 not out.
Thunder captain Jake Dennien opened with him, and both denied the Caboolture bowlers any chance of taking their wickets until well into the afternoon when Jake was out for a very patient 38. Veteran Andrew Kratzmann was next to bat having his first game since November and recovering from knee surgery and was not out 18 when Caboolture conceded with Thunder 1 down 136 and only a little more than an hour to play.
The Caboolture team had put everything into their efforts, trying out eight bowlers and, at one stage, had six fielders within a few metres of the batsmen. The competition’s top bowler, with 55 season scalps behind him, went home without taking a wicket, after bowling 24 overs.
The Caboolture Snakes were disappointed but had to concede that the Thunder boys had been the best team all season, having defeated them three times in previous matches in 2021-22 :-
Round 6 (T20) Caboolture 7 for 101
Thunder 3 for 103
Round 12 (50 overs) Caboolture 10 for 109
Thunder 6 for 253
50 0vers Final Caboolture 10 for 210
Thunder 8 for 228
The other statistics that show how well the local team had performed during the season were that they scored more runs than any other team (3844 runs), took more wickets (211) and lost fewer wickets (115) than any of the other teams in the competition.
The following figures show how this premiership was truly a team effort. Tewantin-Noosa Thunder had five batsmen in the top 15 competition run scorers (over 200 registered first graders) – Lewis Waugh, Jarrod Officer, Chris Wright, Andrew Kratzmann and Jake Dennien.
In the bowling stats the team really showed their strength having five top wicket-takers in the top 10 – Ben Laughlin, Dom Taylor, Tom Stewart, Jake Dennien and Scott Aufderheide.
After the match the umpires presented the premiership trophies, medals for the players and the man-of-the-match award to Lewis Waugh. The club’s presentation night will be held on Saturday 26 March at the Noosa Golf Club.
Unfortunately, the 6th Graders who played University of the Sunshine Coast in their grand final fell short of making it two from two for the club but still celebrated with a great season, finishing only a few points behind USC on the table.
This is the final cricket report for the season and the club would like to thank all the sponsors, volunteers, players, umpires and Noosa Today for their great support during the 2021-22 season.
This will be a season to remember for the Tewantin-Noosa Thunder club.
