By Randall Woodley
The three-day Fifth Grade Grand Final being played at Read Park against Glasshouse Rangers is evenly poised after the first two days. Saturday’s play was abandoned after heavy rain during the week saturated the field and the umpires were forced to call the match off. Sunday the ground was still very soggy but the match got underway with Tewantin-Noosa Thunder batting first. It was very evident early that scoring runs was going to be very difficult in the conditions. The bowling was tight but the state of the ground made it almost impossible to hit 4s. Thunder was 2 for 38 at lunch and struggled all afternoon to put any partnerships together. Late in the day they were finally dismissed for 116. Top scorers were Tony Watson 28 and Naveen Chand 25 but it had been Ron Lewis who held off the Glasshouse attack in a defiant stand whilst he was at the crease for 80 overs. At stumps Glasshouse had lost one wicket and scored 10 runs.
The low scoring in this match was representative of most of the grand finals being played around the coast. The conditions of the grounds have made it a bowler’s series and in the First-Grade final at Maroochydore this certainly was the case. Maroochydore batted first against Caboolture on the Saturday and were all out for 137 in their first innings and at stumps on Day 2 were battling to be 4 for 35. Earlier they had bowled out the Snakes for 120. (24 wickets taken in the two days for 292 runs.)
After next Saturday, regardless of the outcome, the Tewantin-Noosa club will have completed one of their most successful seasons for some years with all four teams qualifying for the finals. Details of each grade’s results are as follows.
FIRST GRADE. Third on season’s ladder. Scored 3777 runs and took 165 wickets. Played 21 matches- WON 16, 1 DRAW and LOST 4.
Top batsmen- Chris Wright, 723 runs at an average of 30 and Jarrod Officer 721 at 36.
Top bowlers- Tom Freshwater, 47 wickets at 17 and Scott Aufderheide 32 at 19.
Young wicket-keeper Cody Pyne took 28 catches and made 5 stumpings.
THIRD GRADE. Third on season’s ladder. Scored 2599 runs and took 131 wickets. Played 14 matches- WON 7, DREW 2 and LOST 5.
Top Batsmen-Blake Steel 432 runs at 29 and Adam Curry 250 runs at 35.
Top bowlers- Jason Toohey 29 wickets at 14 and Nick Bennett 25 at 16.
FIFTH GRADE. Third on season’s ladder. Scored 2480 runs and took 122 wickets. Played 14 matches- WON 5 DREW 3 and LOST 6.
Top Batsmen- Brendan Wright, 343 runs at 26 and Tony Watson 289 runs at 22.
Top bowlers- Luke Anstey 26 wickets at 13 and Steve Hill 24 at 17.
SIXTHS GRADE: Fourth on season’s ladder. Scored 1717 runs and took 88 wickets. Played 13 matches-WON 5, DREW 3 and LOST 5.
Top Batsmen- Shane Gesell 339 runs at 28 and Brenden Chaplin 195 runs at 16.
Top bowlers- Graham Chaplin 18 wickets at 19 and Justin Talbot 16 wickets at 15.
The Club’s Senior Presentation Night is to be held at the Heads of Noosa brewery on March 27th. At 6pm.
JUNIOR CRICKET
Last Friday night, March 12th the club held their Junior Presentation Night where awards were given to the season’s top players. The season has been very successful for all the juniors and thanks goes to Matt Mayo and his team of coaches, managers and scorers. This season there were 153 juniors registered to play in club colours including 10 teams playing in Saturday fixtures (from under 11 up to under 16) and 6 teams playing in the Friday night Master Blasters program.
The Under 12 Storm team won the Sunshine Coast Championship in their division.
