Randall Woodley
The Tewantin-Noosa Thunder First Graders suffered their first defeat last Saturday after a record winning streak of 27 matches, including being undefeated in every match they played in the 2021-22 season.
FIRST GRADE: The team travelled to Maroochydore for Rounds 3 and 4 of the T20 Competition. After comfortable wins in the first 2 rounds, against Nambour Cutters and Glasshouse Rangers, they were looking to continue their remarkable record. With 4 players from the winning team the weekend before unavailable and another 3 of their premiership team out for various reasons, they fielded a different team but one still with plenty of talent. Things started off well in the morning against Coolum. On a slow deck Ben Laughlin and Lewis Waugh got the boys off to a great start piling on 48 runs in the first 5 overs before Ben went for 35 off 16. Waugh batted through for a classy 48 having a great partnership with Michael Eckard who with 42 off 28 saw the team post 153 off their 20 overs.
Coolum had a couple of quality opening batsmen, but some tight bowling saw the Thunder restrict them to 29 runs from the first 7 overs before removing both openers in the 8th and 9th overs. At 2-39 off 10 overs the game was virtually over. At that point Talon Reichert had bowled 3 overs for only 8 runs, Scott Aufderheide 3 overs 0-15 and Ben 1 over for 1 run. The three quickies were rested from there allowing the spinners to finish out the innings. Jason Toohey picked up 2 wickets and Jake Dennien, the wily fox came on to pick up 4-9 off 2 overs at the end. Coolum finished at 9-105, giving the Thunder a comfortable victory.
That saw the club’s winning the streak reach 27 before it ended in the afternoon. Taking on the old adversary, Maroochydore Swans, Thunder batted first, and a rare top order collapse saw them reeling at 4-15 off 5 overs. Jake Dennien and Jarrod Officer consolidated the innings and pushed the score to 59 before Officer went in the 13th over for 36. Peter Walker came out and hit great 16 before he and Dennien (22) were dismissed. A rear-guard action from the tail managed to get the score past 100, at least 20-30 runs short of what was required against the Swans strong batting line-up and the slow pitch.
Maroochydore came out batting aggressively at the start, but the Thunder bowlers kept attacking and managed to snare two wickets in the initial powerplay. The boys fought back really well from there and took the game to the 2nd last over before Maroochydore got over the line. It took a lot of Thunder spirit to keep going right to the end and make a close game of a sticky situation which could have easily been all over sooner.
The experienced club all-rounder, Jarrod Officer commented after the match,
“We didn’t enjoy losing today, so we will be working hard this week to see us bounce back next week.”
Next Saturday the team travel to Caboolture to take on Caloundra Lighthouses in the 9.30am match and in the afternoon, they face arch-rivals Caboolture, hoping to ensure they win and jump above them on the T20 ladder.
SECOND AND THIRD GRADES: Next Saturday 1 October the Second Grade, Third Graders and Junior fixtures commence. The Second-Grade team will be playing at home, Read Park, against the University team in a 40-overs a side match commencing at 12 noon. The Thirdies will be playing Coolum at Wonga Park, Coolum also starting at 12 noon in their 40 overs game. Both these teams have new players and are confident that this season they will be stronger and more competitive than they were last year. Fifth grade will start their matches on Saturday October 8, playing Coolum at their home ground.
