piginfo

Scorecard

The Dreggs and the Pigs have faced off against each other many times in the history of the world, with the Dreggs carrying a win percentage of slightly more than 50%. This Round 13 encounter was vital to both teams chances of playing semi final cricket this year. A delightful green and lush Wellington Road Oval was the venue.

Captain Guy, zero and 5 on all tosses while captain really wanted to lose this toss as some disagreement was present in the camp prevailed as to the required tactic. Ironically (isn’t it), he won and elected to bat. Dowdy was pleased and even suggested that he might push himself down the order a bit if we get off to a good start so we could bat out the day. Laughter followed….followed by laughter.

Tenney opened the batting, to the usual Dreggs 8 slippers and was struck on the pads off the first ball. The loud appeal was turned down, the only time an appeal (whether loud or otherwise) for lbw was turned down by the trigger fingered Pigs for the balance of the match. This promising start (not losing a wicket on the first ball) was the highlight of the first innings. Tenney survived the first over, but, was out (yes, lbw) on the first ball of the second over. Pigs 1 for 1. Madden followed a short time later off a sharp caught and bowled. Both wickets to McDowell. Guy, scored……………………….., his second golden duck of the year. Ward was bowled. McDowell to 4. Joey Milne was looking solid and Dowdy promoted himself back up the order at 4 for 18. The extremely adventurous Milne then set off on a single that was not there, and in a Watson/Katich way, both batsman were found at the same end as the bales were removed from the other. 5 for 25, not the start sought and thoughts of the Pigs record lowest score entered the mind. The ever reliable Matty J joined Dowd and saved us from total humiliation (well not really) until Matty was bowled at 6 for 52. Dowdy then opened up and scored the remaining 14 runs in the innings, with Brad and Jeffrey not troubling the scores, with another 2 lbw decisions. Dowdy was caught by a good catch and could not save us any further. Pigs all out for 66, okayyyyy then. Good 5 wicket haul by McDowell.

Strategy was then simple – control the damage. No-one bravely thought of a first innings win, the aim was simple for the remaining 1.5 days, save the 2 points. Lucky we did not think about a first innings win, because, it was lost about 34 seconds later, with excellent batting by Hugh Brodie, backed up by Pearngey, saw the Dreggs with a healthy 100 run lead, with 4 wickets down, by stumps. Brodie brought up his century on the second last ball of the day with a sparkling 4, and was out the next ball.

Week 2 saw the return of The Manuelle and we sat on the Wellington Hill waiting to see what the Dreggs would do. Would they bat on for batting practice. Would they declare and put us away, or, alternatively, we all go to the pub, happy. Dreggs batted on to set out securing their first outright for a few year, but with some tight bowling (mostly), 4 wickets to Guy and 3 to the go to man Wardy, and some good catching in the outer by Clear (and dropping) and Hunter, the Dreggs were eventually all out for 251, shortly before the tea interval.

Pub, we suggested? No, thanks, said the Dreggs.

Jeffrey opened with Tenney and both looked good until Tenney was plumsky for 6. Jeffrey was smashing the short ones and skipped along to 25 before being sent – another lbw. Madden was skittled by McDowell and the Pigs were at a much improved, but shaky, 3 for 56. The Manuelle joined Dowdy in the middle at around 4pm and was dismayed at the instruction that the outright was off the cards (he had missed the email one week earlier when it was first off the cards), and he was not permitted to lose his wicket until 6pm. From there, we watched 2 hours of straight bat defensive shot play – absolutely exhilarating. Dreggs threw every bowler to try and sneak a loose shot, but, other than 4 massive 6s (he cannot help himself sometimes) by The Manuelle, neither was tempted. Eventually the Dreggs called it a day just before 6 and we had saved the 2 points. The important two points. Well done Dreggies. As usual, a game played in good spirit and good humour even in the slightly tense-er times, although, how do you shut up that keeper?

Now on to the final round of the regular season where hopefully a win gets us into the business end of the season.

By Guy Mordaunt

Scorecard

The mighty B grade Pigs looked to keep the dream alive against Kirribilli on Sunday. Just outside the top 4 thanks to a recent weather conspiracy and with A reserves thrashing ringing in their ears there was everything to play for at the hallowed Blackman lower oval.

There were a few emotional scenes early as the debutants accepted the promotion to B grade with the humility and reverence it deserved. N Stewarts speech that all the effort and runs had finally paid off would’ve bought a tear to even D-Trains eye. Mordaunt went 0 and 4 on the coin toss and somehow the Pigs were batting.

A solid if unspectacular opening partnership got the Porkers through to the 12th over without loss before Matt “I’ve been on the booze for 7 weeks” Tenney’s luck finally ran out. Quickly followed by Mordaunt the Pigs were forty odd for 2. Bradman, Border and Ponting never batted together but today clad in Pig Pink N Dowd would get the chance to bat with N Stewart in a combination of strength not seen since Hulk Hogan and the Macho Man got together for Summer Slam ’88. The crowd settled in for an unparralled batting display before Nathan feathered one to the keeper and marched back to the shed to join the cricket sucks party in progress. A pretty steady pattern of comings and goings saw the Pigs struggle to get any momentum and only the ever reliable Matty J was able to stay with Dowdy for any period of time. When Nick was dismissed for another 60 the tail capitulated. We did get a chance to see who let the dogs out(woof woof) although he underwhelmed with 6 and was the last man to go in the 38th over leaving the desperate Pigs a sub par 151 to defend. Special mention must go to Luke Nasir for a solid 0 not out and even though he didn’t get to face a ball he put the pads on as well as anyone I’ve ever seen.

It would need to be a wow of a performance on an out field that hadn’t had the sheep on it for quite a while. The Pigs assembled and after dogs rousing pre match speech they marched out to do battle. A wicket in the second over was just the start they need and gave a sniff of an unlikely victory. Unfortunately then the Pigs of old returned to drop the familiar 5-7 catches a game. Thank god the under 12′s coach from the game before wasn’t there to tell us how ashamed of us he was. The dropped chances managed to keep us out of the game despite solid bowling from Josh ” the Dowdy of bowling” Sheldon, Nathan ” Batting sucks I’m a bowler” Stewart and Nick “no nickname” Dowd, Kirribilli were coasting at oranges at 90-3. A paltry 60 required, it was going to take something special from the piggers to keep the dream alive. Never let it said that B-grade don’t have heart for after some stirring words from the dawg(praise Christ, don’t do ice) special is what you got. Nasty Ned was solid picking up important wickets and two sensational runouts got the Pigs chargin. Antonio’s direct hit from side on to dismiss Barkworth a possible turning point as the catches began to stick and the crowd(Matt Seldon god bless ya) began to believe. Dowdy managed to buy a big wicket after seeing the ball disappear far and often off his 8th over and when Mordaunt held on to one to give Josh a deserved wicket Kirribilli still needed 18 with one wicket remaining. Stewart only needed one ball to collect his four for and the Pigs had pulled it out of the bag. With two games remaining B grade now has the luxury of knowing that success is in their hands. Form is improving and the last couple of close ones have gone our way. WOOF!