By Randall Woodley
It was a big weekend for Tewantin-Noosa Cricket Club with 6 matches being played around the district. Unfortunately, the First Grade and Fourth Grade teams were unable to win their Finals Matches in the One-Day competition. First Grade, playing Caboolture Snakes at their ground were beaten by an all-round stronger team on the day whist the Fourths battled hard and only lost the game in the last over. Many club supporters attended both matches and this indicates a positive and confidant feeling about this year’s resurgence for all grades in the SCCA competition.
FIRST GRADE FINAL Caboolture chose to bat first and were soon in trouble when TNT opening bowler Scott Aufderheide struck in the fourth ball of the day and then in his third over removed Caboolture captain and ex-Bulls player, Gen Batticciotto for 1. Caboolture were then 2-14. However, with their very experienced batting line up they slowly recovered to be 3 for 86 and then 4- 171 after 37 overs. The TNT bowlers toiled hard with some good middle order bowling from Jarrod Officer and Cody Rzeszkowski which restricted their run rate. Eventually the Snakes registered 9 for 259 in their 50 overs. Wicket takers for TNT were Aufderheide 3-35, Jake Dennien 3-48 with Tom Freshwater and Lachie Gunner picking up a wicket each.
At lunch the TNT boys were confident that they could score the necessary runs to win the game. Chris Wright started aggressively but lost his opening partner early and the next batsmen in the 6th over to be 2-24. Then he and Jake Dennien settled things down and put on a solid 38 before Wrighty was out for 44. Jarrod Officer was next in and he and Dennien kept the TNT team in the chase with a 73 run partnership and ahead of Caboolture’s run rate. However, when Officer was out for 37 and Dennien 45 the innings fell away for TNT to be all out for 156- a disappointing finish to end what had looked like a fight-back. The team will need to regroup as they play Caboolture again next in a two-day game at Read Park.
FOURTH GRADE FINAL The team travelled to Palmwoods to play their 40 over finals match. TNT batted first and with a solid team effort, scored 194 for the loss of 5 wickets in their allotted overs. Top scorers were Luke Anstey 46, Wayne Moore 43, Craig Moore 42, Shane Gesell 28 and Justin Talbot 26.
Anstey and Moore opened the bowling for TNTand were unlucky not to have a couple of chances taken, before Palmwoods increased the pace, scoring at 7 runs an over. Unfortunately, Justin Talbot broke down in his first over with a calf tear, which saw Skipper Gesell take the ball to claim the first wicket.
The change had double impact with Justin Latimer chiming in at the other end to see the 2nd wicket fall without a run added for the opposition to be 2-46. The 3rd wicket fell to Graham Chaplin to see them 3-116. The game see-sawed with runs being scored and wickets being taken.
Moore and Anstey returned to bowl the last 10 overs but it took another 5 overs before Moore took his first with another catch to super-sub Ben Giddy to see Palmwoods 6-169 before Matt Mayo took a catch off Anstey in the following over with the score 7-175.
It was anyone’s match with 4 overs to bowl, but it was the final over before Moore took his 2nd wicket to clean bowl their no 8 with the score 8-193 with 4 balls to bowl. Unfortunately, it wasn’t to be Fourth’s day with a 4 off the next ball sealing the win for Palmwoods with 3 balls to spare. A great effort by the boys and showed they will be a force in the finals for the premiership in March.
Wicket takers were Graham Chaplin and Wayne Moore, 2 each and others with one were Luke Anstey, Justin Latimer Shane Gesell and Tony Watson
The only highlight of the weekend was the THIRDS having an outright win over Yandina. On the previous Saturday TNT had bowled Yandina out for 162 and were 0-87 with Steven Gallagher blasting a quick fire 54no. On Day 2 TNT lost a couple of quick wickets to be 3-103 and then 4-112. Kent Officer (35) and Jason Toohey then put on 55 to pass Yandina’s score. At the end Dylan Leggett attacked the bowling for a quick 38 before TNT declared with a lead of 68.
Bowling next, TNT’s Bob McGhee was the star with the ball taking 4-26 off 12 straight overs . Other wicket takers were Cody Wright, Troy Evans, Kent Officer and Toohey. Yandina were bowled out in 29 overs leaving TNT to score 24 which they did, achieving a team outright win.
In the other three matches the results were not in TNT’s favour. Each of the teams lost on the First Innings, giving the club a timely warning that the teams, especially the batsmen, need to improve before the finals. Firsts went down to Glasshouse, Seconds to Maroochydore and Fourths to arch rivals Palmwoods.
