By Randall Woodley
Last Saturday three of the four Thunder teams were able to take the field despite the inclement weather. For the third Saturday in a row a TNT batsman registered a century, this time it was to Fifth Grader, Steve Gallagher who scored 146 in his innings against Burpengary. All three teams are in sound positions looking for wins next Saturday when the last round of matches before the Christmas break conclude.
FIRST GRADE: The team travelled to Glasshouse last Saturday to play in what was a top of the table clash against the Rangers over two days. With the heavy rain on Friday night and the bleak forecast for Saturday, the boys were not really expecting to start on time or have a full day’s play. Both assumptions were wrong and the match started on time and continued for nearly the whole afternoon. After winning the toss, captain Jake Dennien sent the opposition in to bat first. The four TNT quickies bowled well in the first two hours and at lunch the Rangers were 4-68. In the first session, teenager Tom Stewart had taken two wickets and Tom Freshwater and Scott Aufderheide one each.
The middle session was a well fought contest with the Thunder bowlers holding Glasshouse to a slow scoring rate but only picking up a further two wickets with them being 6-120 at the break. Again, the fielding was below par with two dropped catches. This is an area that the team will need to work on as it heads for the serious end of the season after the New Year. A couple of quick wickets straight after tea had Glasshouse in trouble at 8-122 and then when the 9th fell at 138, TNT were well on top. Unfortunately, their last wicket partnership ended up being the best of the innings to push them to 184. Credit to the Glasshouse tail who batted 40 plus overs to grind out what was close to a par score on a slow outfield.
TNT bowlers were again outstanding with Aufderheide (4 wickets from 26 overs), Freshwater (2 off 22 overs) and Tom Stewart (3 from 20 overs) all getting through a mountain of work without dropping off their pace or accuracy. The last wicket fell with 10 minutes to go so the Thunder batsmen can look forward to starting their innings next Saturday with 96 overs and ten wickets in hand to score the 185 runs needed to keep the team top of the ladder.
THIRD GRADE: On Day 1 of the 2-day game last Saturday, the team lined up against the Caloundra Lighthouses in a day-night match at Read Park. New captain Nick Bennett won the toss and sent the visitors in on a pitch offering a something to the bowlers.
It turned out to be a good decision and after a very slow rain affected afternoon of cricket, Caloundra ended up on 9 down for 118 when the day’s play ended because of the weather. During the afternoon the Thunder bowlers and fielders stuck to their tasks, bowling 20 maidens during Caloundra’s innings. Best bowling figures for TNT were Harrison Lea 3-39, Mike Thomson 2-26, Jason Toohey 2-10 and Ben Giddy 1-27. The match will continue next Saturday.
FIFTH GRADE: Last Saturday the team took on the formidable, third placed, Burpengary Brumbies at Dale Officer Oval. Despite the expected rain the match started only 30 minutes late with the locals batting first.
After losing an early wicket, Brendan Wright and Tony Watson steadied the pace and began scoring freely with some well-timed shots putting the pressure back onto the Brumbies attack. When Watson was out the score was 2 -50. Then Steven Gallagher (Gags), batting in a helmet, started nervously, grinding out his first 20 runs. As his time at the crease continued so did his confidence, clearly demonstrated by the vast array of shots plundered around the ground. At one stage nearly the entire Brumbies team was fielding on the boundary. Gags finished with 146 to his name consisting of 20 fours and six sixes in what can only be described as a sublime innings. Gallagher was ably supported by Luke Anstey and Euan Buxton with a late flurry of runs from Ben Shaw getting TNT to a score of 9 for 295. With the big hitting Brumbies still to bat its game on next week with TNT still needing to bowl well to defend their score and win the game as they continue their push towards a top four spot.
CLUB NEWS: Another piece of news last week was that the club’s co-coach, Matthew Pola played for his old club in Victoria on December 5 whilst visiting family and scored a century. He was playing for the Seaford Tigers Third Grade side against Frankston and batted with his brother, Callum. Matthew scored 117 (17 x 4s and 3 x 6s) whilst his brother scored 52. As Matthew is a Thunder Club selector it is hoped that he will pick himself in one of the teams when he returns to Queensland in January.
The other co-coach, ex-international player, Nathan Reardon will be running a school holiday junior coaching clinic at the club on January 13th and 14th. Full details of the details can be found at nathanjreardon@gmail.com or by phoning – 0423 489 545.
