Randall Woodley
Quote of the week. “Cricket is really a simple game. However, it is full of theorists who can ruin your game in no time.” Ian Botham. English cricketing great.
FIRST GRADE: The Noosa Wholesalers First graders headed north last Saturday to Gympie only to be met by some miserable weather and a pitch still under covers. The rain cleared and the players were able to look at the wicket, rock solid and with plenty of grass on top.
Thunder’s captain Michael Eckard won his fifth toss in a row and sent the Gold team into bat in the expectation that it was “going to do a bit early”. Talon Reichert (0 for 26 off 11) and Zac Murray (2 for 17 off 13) started well and kept the runs down while creating chances, even with the pitch playing surprisingly well. The skipper then turned to Josh Joshua Christensen (1 for 10 off 6), and he took a valuable wicket. Gympie then put together something of a partnership, but it was slow going as the run rate hovered around two all day. Mike Thomson, Eckard and Zac Murray put together a burst taking 3 wickets in the space of a few overs to have Gympie 4 for 54. Some more tight bowling and good fielding saw Gympie all out for 125. Top bowling figures went to Eckard 4-25, Zac Murray 2-17 and veteran Mike Thomson 2-26. A real feature of the team’s bowling innings was their ability to create dot ball pressure and bowl in partnerships. Nearly all the bowlers consistently hit challenging areas and even if they were not rewarded in the wickets column, they created chances with their discipline.
The team’s batting later in the day was unfortunately a different story. No one can remember a Thunder team starting so badly in an innings and within a couple of overs the team were 3 wickets down without scoring a run. Things worsened and after a few more overs the scoreboard read an embarrassing 6 out for 14. Fortunately, inform club stalwart, Jarrod Officer and youngster Talon Reichert came to the rescue once again and restored some dignity to the scorecard finishing, the day at 6 for 52 with Jarrod not out 43 and Reichert still there. Next Saturday two of the bowlers will be replaced by slash players and it is hoped that the ladder leaders’ Thunder can score the extra 74 runs to take the first innings points.
ONE DAY FINAL: Unfortunately last Sunday’s scheduled one-day final against the Caboolture Snakes was called off due the condition of the ground. The match will now be played next Sunday 18 February at Read Park. This will be the club’s first chance this season to bring home some silverware. The match commences at 10am and the bar and canteen will be open.
SECOND GRADE: The team were playing day-one of their match against the Yandina Pioneers at Read Park. After seeing how winning the toss and bowling turned out for Thunder last week, stand in skipper Jason Toohey had no hesitation in opting to bat after winning the toss. Openers Brendan Wright and Toohey started well but they both fell to have the team at 2-29 after 21 overs. Enter Joe Murray and Tristan Griffin, who put on one of the best partnerships of the season showing patience and the ability to put the bad ball away. The two put on a 117-run partnership before Tristan (58) was out.
With the instruction of upping the run rate, Jack Caspers (13) and Jarred Davis (11) were out after some quick fire runs. Standout innings of the day was Joe Murray’s ending up on 99 not out due to play finishing 20 minutes early after a quick downpour of rain, which has Thunder at 6-214 after day one. With 12 overs left to bat next week and Blake Steel slashing in to open up with Joe, the team will be looking to add to their total and bat out the overs in hope to then bowl Yandina out and acquire the first innings points in the run to the finals.
THIRD GRADE: Playing Palmwoods at home the Thunder bowlers restricted the Hawks to 9-185 in their allotted overs. Thunder will be batting next Saturday.
UNDER 17S: The team headed to Read Park last Saturday morning to start day one of their final junior game of the season with a squad of 9 players. Playing against Glasshouse, the boys headed out to field after losing the toss with showers threatening. Glasshouse started well and put on a great opening partnership and scoring 150 before the first wicket to Brandon Henderson with a catch from Toby Hunting broke the partnership. Then another 40 runs were scored before Finn Mayo took his first wicket.
Although the rain disrupted the morning and about 45mins of play were lost Glasshouse finished at close of play on 2-219 off 38 overs. Well done to the team for having to drag the covers on and off many times during the morning. A big thanks to Fenn Peddie who stepped up from the 15s to play this round. A great bowling spell and a welcome addition to the team on what has been a tough season for getting a team on the park each week.
Next Saturday will be the final junior match for most of the players and although not making the finals there has been some outstanding performances during the season. Many of these players have been playing senior cricket on Saturday afternoons and it hoped that they will all go on to make their mark in the senior competition in the years ahead.
UNDER 13sB The team were playing in the match against the Coolum Bull Sharks at home. After winning the toss Thunder elected to field and with the strongest bowling and fielding display of the year Thunder had them at 4-38 at the drinks break . After a fair bit of rain the game was turned into a 20/20 match and Thunder restricted them to 5-51 at the end of 20 overs
With some measured batting with a few retirements and some great shots the team were able to pass Coolum’s score with five overs to spare. Great team effort.
