Thunders’ disappointing weekend

Ollie Wilson batting at Read Park for the Under 16s. Photos: Craig Slaney

Randall Woodley

Quote of the week: “In order to succeed, your desire for success should be greater than your fear of failure.” Adam Gilchrist

After so many players and club supporters had been looking forward to last Saturday’s cricket matches, it ended up being a very disappointing weekend for the club.

The first disappointment was when the much anticipated and crucial First Grade match against the Caboolture Snakes was called off due to the state of their ground. Caboolture is second on the ladder behind Tewantin-Noosa Thunder and both teams were keen to obtain points from the clash. Next Saturday the two adversaries will line up again in a 50-over match at Caboolture and it is hoped that this time the weather will not be the decider.

SECOND GRADE

The team’s mission was to defeat the second-placed Maroochydore team and climb up the ladder from fourth place.

However, the day did not turn out as planned and the boys went down in a tight game, the Maroochydore Swans achieving the win by two wickets in the second last over of the match. Thunder had won the toss and batted first but found it difficult to form partnerships and was bowled out for 133. The outstanding batsman for Thunder was Adam Curry (38) who, with Nigel Webster (22), did put on 50 runs. The score was at least 30 to 40 runs less than needed.

Maroochydore did not fare much better in the afternoon’s sessions and after being 7 for 105 with eight overs left, they managed to stave off the Thunder bowlers to win the game.

All the Thunder bowlers performed well with Talon Reichert, Jason Toohey and Connor Harrison picking up two wickets each. The team will have a chance for revenge when they take on the Swans at Read Park again, next Saturday.

FOURTH GRADE

Playing at home against Wamuran on a good-looking pitch, Thunder won the toss and decided to bat first. By the 19th over, the team was in deep trouble with eight wickets lost for only 32 runs. Thankfully, the number 10 and 11 batsmen showed some fight to add another 77 runs to the total to get the team to a more respective score 9 for 109. Ethan Slaney finished with an excellent 49 not out with the next top scorer being Mike Thomson with 7 not out.

It was always going to be tough against the top team but Thunder took on the challenge.

Slaney and Thomson (surely now all-rounders) nabbed the only two wickets to fall with the visitors passing the score in the 24th over. Unlucky bowling from Anstey and good bowling from Harper Lee and Lachy Webster went unrewarded.

A disappointing result but great to see the juniors stepping up in the seniors and performing well. The match will be repeated next Saturday.

SIXTH GRADE

Playing Palmwoods at their ground, the team had high hopes of staying on top of the ladder with a win but the cricket gods apparently had other ideas for the afternoon. Palmwoods batted first and even though there were no big scorers, the team managed to put 145 runs on the board before being dismissed in the 39th over.

Thunder batted second and felt that the target was achievable.

Whether it was the good bowling or bad batting or a mixture of both, the Thunder team had no answers and were bundled out for 129 in the 21st over. The boys will need to rethink their strategies and turn up for training this week if they are to turn the tables next Saturday against the same team at the same venue.

JUNIOR MATCHES

Under 17 Last Saturday morning the team were thrilled to be advised they would be playing their match against Maroochydore on the club’s main ground at Read Park.

The boys made the club proud by winning the match against a depleted Maroochydore side. Batting first they batted well, if a little slowly to score 129 in their allotted overs. Top scorer was Ollie Wilson 39, Tom Daly 18 and Harper Lee 16. Maroochydore struggled the whole innings and fell well short of the target. Best bowling figures were from Lachlan Webster 2-2 off 3 overs.

Under 15

The team was at Cooroy to play the team that defeated them the previous Saturday. Unfortunately, the result was the same. Cooroy-Eumundi scored 3 for 119 and the Thunder team was 6 for 102 after their innings. Top scorers for TNT were Farren Cooke 19 and H. Wyatt 17.

Under 13

The team had a big win over USC. The Thunder team put 169 on the board for the loss of four wickets with M. Medoro 47 no and M Arnold 29 being the best of the batsmen. USC could only muster 75 in reply.