By Damian Ford
With the Christmas break here, we can all take a collective breath on the season and enjoy the next 2 weeks with our family and friends. Montrose Cricket Club has had a positive start to the first half of the season with 5 of the 7 senior teams in the 4 and the other 2 teams still within contention to play finals at the turn.
The first XI on the weekend were involved in a run fest, after losing the toss to Ainslie Park and being asked to have a bowl we found the going tough with Ainslie Park posting an impressive 6/232 with the pick of the bowlers Oscar McCallum 2/48 off 8 over and Matt Whittaker 1/29 of 8 overs. In reply we didn’t start well losing Liam Storm in the second over and then Alfie Cooper 8 balls later, we found ourselves 2/7 after 4 overs. Shane Findlay continued his strong form with 39 off 45 balls taking his tally to 383 runs so far this season. At 3/80 in the 13th over the run rate wasn’t the problem. This brought Michael Edwards and Kieran Perkins together. They put on a 111-run partnership before Michael Edwards was dismissed for 85 off 86 balls. Andrew Keane joined Kieran Perkins at the crease and contributed with an outstanding 19 of 18 balls to help us pass the Ainslie Park total 4/235 off 38 overs. The standout performance was Kieran Perkins 83 not out off 71 balls to really steer the team home. Out first XI find themselves 3rd at Christmas so they’ll need to continue the form after the break to play finals.
The Second XI coming off their only loss last week, wanted to get back to winning ways, winning the toss and electing to bat against Ainslie Park at home. It started well losing Hayden Daniell at 1/39. We put a couple of small partnerships together but couldn’t get any momentum through the innings and found ourselves 6/93 in the 24th over. This brought together young Sam Gebert & Cameron Storm who put together a match defining 71 run partnership helping get the team total to 9/198. A really mature innings from young gun Sam Gebert finishing 63 not out off 58 balls with his partner Cameron Storm an important 23 off 36 balls. Ainslie Park in reply didn’t seem to have the answers with the bat, 2 early wickets to Braden Harvey had them 2/25 in the 9th over. Ainslie Park got to far behind the run rate which didn’t allow them to take the match deep and give themselves a chance. They ultimately 6/163 off their 40 overs. The Second XI at the break are top and are looking good to challenge for a positive finals performance.
The 3rds – 6ths all unfortunately lost on the weekend but are all in contention for finals, Standout performances across those grades were Javier Mastronardi 3/15, Scott O’Neil 42, Nathan Hinton 40 & Garry Mangnall 56no. These teams will all be pushing for finals come the restart in the new year.
Our women’s team had another win and find themselves 3rd at Christmas, they berat Templeton at home on Sunday, batting first they started a little shaky at 3/25, this brought Charli Stevens and Keltie Blake together who put on 114 run partnership taking the total to 6/147 off our 20 overs. Charli Stevens 50 not out off 25 balls and Keltie Blake 45 off 47 balls where the standouts with the bat. In reply Templeton finished 5/130 with Keltie Blake staring with the ball getting2/17 off 4 overs to finish the year with 3 wins in a row. Hopefully the ladies can continue the good form in the second half of the season.
I wanted to take this opportunity to thank all the coaches both junior and senior, all players, volunteers, supporters and sponsors for all their hard work and commitment to the first half of the season, let’s have a great break and hit the ground running in January and push for all teams to play finals this season. Thank you and have a Merry Christmas and a safe new year.
