Randall Woodley
Quote of the week-When the virtually unknown English cricketer, John Ormand came out to bat against Australia in an Ashes Test, Mark Waugh said to him ‘What are you doing out here? There’s no way you’re good enough to play for England.”
But Ormond came back with the burn saying “Maybe not, but at least I’m the best player in my own family.”
Last Saturday saw the Tewantin-Noosa Thunder Cricket Club’s first grade team set a record that will be hard to beat in future years; They won their 20th match in a row since the start of the season. They have now won seventeen fixture matches, the Final of the T20 comp and the Semi and the Final of the 50 over-a-side series. With the finals looming up in early March all the teams are looking forward to a couple of week’s break, before they pad up again on January 8.
LAST SATURDAY’S MATCHES
Three wins and a draw for the club, with the highlights again the bowling across the grades. In First Grade Dom Taylor took 5 wickets supported by Ben Laughlin’s 4. (10 for the match). Harrison Lea took another “5-for”, the second week in a row and finished with 12 in the second-grade match.
FIRST GRADE After bowling out the Coolum Sharks on Day 1 for 121, the Thunder batsmen resumed last Saturday on 5-168 with a 47-run lead and decided to bat on to build the lead. They set themselves to bat for 12 overs but only lasted 9, going for quick runs. Ben Laughlin was the only one to really get going on a typically slow wicket and hit two sixes in his 27 off 19. Thunder all out for 215 with a 94-run lead.
This left 85 overs in the day to push for the outright win. There wasn’t much happening in the first hour with Coolum crawling to 33 off 19 overs with an excellent opening spell from Scott Aufderheide and Tom Stewart. Then Dom Taylor and Ben Laughlin turned the game upside down. 0 for 33 became 3 for 33 in the space of two overs. Regular wickets fell for Coolum to be all out for 95 in the 45th over. Blake Steel and Alexander Bennett did a great job both being under the helmet for the majority of the innings which put a lot of pressure on the batters. Dom took 5 wickets for the innings and Ben picking up another 4 (10 for the match). Unreal bowling performance from all the bowlers on a lifeless pitch which did not produce one slips catch in the whole match.
That left Coolum 1 run ahead so Thunder came out to bat for an over to secure the 10 wicket win with 38 overs left in the day. It was a dominant performance with Coolum batting 106 overs for the game and TNT only 46.
Some incredible stats:
The team heads to Christmas: –
10 points clear of 2nd, 53 clear of 3rd and 75 points ahead of 5th.
TNT have 5 of the top 8 wicket takers – Laughlin 40, Taylor 39, Stewart 34, Dennien 30 and Scott Aufderheide 25.
TNT have 5 of the top 12 run scorers – Lewis Waugh – 747, Chris Wright 508, Andrew Kratzmann 475, Jarrod Officer 424, Jacob Dennien 396.
January 8 will see the resumption of fixtures with the March finals the main goal for the team.
SECOND GRADE. Last Saturday, second day of the match, the team started the afternoon by declaring their first innings closed on 2-74 in response to Coolum’s first innings total of 53. All Thunder bowlers were on-song and eventually Coolum were all out for 143 in their second dig. Harrison Lea took another “5 for” ending up with 12 wickets for the match. He had great support from Talon Reichert 2-22, and Ben Giddy 2-46.
Thunder had 13 overs to chase down 122 for an outright win. Adam Curry and Nigel Webster did their best but ran out of overs, both finishing on 34 not out. A solid first innings win for the boys to finish the year in 4th place on the ladder.
FOURTH GRADE The TNT boys continued in the field last weekend for a further 6 overs after 75 overs the previous Saturday, before Coolum declared 7-300. Tom Menzies picked up his first wicket for the club and promptly followed it with a run out, off his own bowling.
That left the Thunder batsmen 67 overs to chase the target of 301. Ultimately, it proved to be to be out of reach with Coolum also running out of time to take the necessary wickets. Tom Daly and Lachy Webster held on for a draw with the score ending at 7-190. Top scorers were Conner Harrison 57, Tom Menzies 42, Tom Daly 26 no and Tony Watson 25. In the end, an honourable draw was the best result for Thunder after toiling away for 81 overs in the field.
SIXTH GRADE returned to Coolum defending a meagre total of 153 on a small field and concrete pitch. Having them 3-17 at the end of play last week, Thunder needed to field well to get the win. And they did this and at tea the game was still poised with the Sharks 9 for 133. However, that was where it ended with Graham Chaplin taking the last wicket, stumped off the second ball after tea.
Batting again Thunder finished on 8 for 149 with Wayne Moore 75 no. A good win for the team to finish 2021 in second place on the ladder.
