by Steve Doble and Nathan King

Both B and C grade teams from the Port Douglas Court House Hotel Mudcrabs just failed to take maximum points possible from the second day of their two day home matches.


Having had a rain delayed start on day one last week, realistically the most the C Graders could have expected was a first innings win having built up an excellent 9 for 172 before Captain Steve Doble declared to give his bowlers enough time to bowl out a weakened Marreba side. 


Dave Joyce continued his innings from last week finishing with a superb 78 leaving Mat Combe and Darren Saint to push the score on with 31 apiece. The stand out bowler for Mareeba was D.Shaw who finished the innings with 4 for 20 off 11 overs. 

Confidence was high that the Muddies could take first innings points and get back on the winning road after their unexpected loss in their last game. 

Time ended up as the winner as the Muddies bowlers struggled to prize open the stubborn Maeeba defence. Mareeba never actually went for the total preferring to grit their teeth, hold their ground and salvage any points they could from a draw. 

The Muddies bowlers stuck to their task but they just could not break down Mareeba's resilience and extract that vital last wicket. Not the most entertaining day of cricket as Mareeba finished the day on 9 for 70 after 41 patient and gruelling overs which means the points were shared for the draw.

The B Grade were in a commanding position after last weeks day one of the two day contest with Norths. 

Norths resumed their innings on 6 for 16 after 20 overs.  Despite some dogged resilience from Lavis (13 off 53 balls) and Lees (8 runs off 29 balls), the Muddies finished their task with Norths all out for just 42 runs. 

Captain Nathan King put them in again expecting to achieve his first outright win of the season. A determined Norths team had other ideas and dug in deep to spoil the party. 

Captain King used nine bowlers in his attempt to unsettle the opposition defence but whatever he tried fell on deaf ears from the Norths 'thou shalt not pass' batters. 

Norths finished their second innings on 4 for 100 after 54 overs with Muddies Mitchell (2 for 19 off 9 overs) and Gooding (2 for 16 off 7 overs) being the wicket takers.  All the bowlers bowled well with Varcoe epitomising the day bowling 10 overs for just 9 runs but had no luck. 

When the opposition decide the game is beyond them and survival is the key it's very hard for bowlers to win the day. However the Muddies will be reasonably pleased with their first innings win to keep their points tally ticking over towards ambitions of defending their premiership.

Next week B Grade are at home on Sunday versus Rovers starting at 1pm and the C Grade are away to Mulgrave at Fretwell Park starting at 8.30. 

The first fundraiser of the year, the annual Trivia Quiz hosted by Supersal and Wevs, is being held at Plantation Resort on Friday Dec 10 starting at 6.30pm with raffles, auction and instant prizes all through the evening.

There's plenty of space available at the poolside bar  so no booking is required but the best advice is to get there early for the best seats. Tickets are just $5 to play (teams max 6 players).