Taita Premier Reserve V Collegians @ Anderson Park
Captain Jaysen Doyle continued his horror form, losing the toss on what looked to be a good batting wicket. After tight opening spells and an early wicket Taita looked off to a good start, but that’s where the majority of the positives for the first day ended. The combination of a small ground, only having 10 players and poor discipline from the bowling unit saw Collegians get 409 first innings runs. The shining light for Taita came in the form of Sam ‘Shooter’ McGavin’s 7 wicket haul. Honourable mentions must also be made to Jonny Hare, filling in with some tidy work behind the stumps, and Jack Walsh for his perseverance to play-on despite a lack of sleep and a large hangover.
After a long 75 overs chasing leather batting was always going to be a tough task. The top order failed to fire and we ended up at 70 odd for 5 at the end of a tough first days play. A welcome weeks rest saw the second half of the innings fare better than the first. Ben Rammell got a tidy 46 on his return to the crease after a brief stopover in China, and Phil Carruthers struck some lusty blows on the way to a quick-fire 27 (losing a ball down the bank in the process) for a team total of 173. Predictably, we were made to follow on. Batting to save the day Strut opened up playing as if it were the final over of a T20, and was going well until controversially given out caught behind by Copey for 16. John Stone and Pat Houghton played solid defensive games, looking solid at the crease showing a lot of will power and grit, whereas Rammell (52) and Doyle (131) played their shots and got rewarded well. Wolf in particular was hitting cleanly all around the wicket. His innings looked something like this:
Artists illustration of Jason Doils 131 wagon wheel
Taita held on for a well-earned draw. After making Collegians field for 100 overs it honestly felt like we’d won. To make the game complete, a stag do turned up in the later stages of the second day, treating the players to some incredibly shit-house banter and a second streaker of the match. A good days cricket really. Check out the scorecard
Written by Aaron Cope