U14s celebrate cracker second day

The U14 Muddies are celebrating after a cracker of a second day of play against the Tolga Boyz at Atherton on Saturday.

The day started with Atherton in the lead on 167 to our 119, and the boys were hopeful but not overly confident of stealing victory.

Bowling was the first order of the day and tight deliveries and 3 wickets from last week’s absentees set the right tone, opener from last week Brayden Wall took his first wicket of the season which saw the last of their batsman take to the crease.

Atherton had been struggling to put many runs on their board and Muddies were looking to finish taking all their wickets with plenty of overs to spare when play was interrupted due to an unfortunate incident. Levi Trewick had just returned to bowl and the combination of the pace of his ball and the cracking size of the Atherton batter saw the the non-strike batsman violently felled with a groin injury. The injured batsman had to be retired hurt and with no more batsmen in the shed Tolga Boyz declared on 10/203.

Our team was a little subdued after seeing a fellow player so badly hurt but the not-out batsmen from last week, Trewick and Rayner took to the crease with intent to chase down 203.

The Atherton opener was after more scalps on his second day and his first came soon enough with brave Rayner watching in dismay as his bales went flying, he was replaced by Curtis White who succumbed to the same bowler on his second ball. At this point, Daniel Davidson joined Levi at the crease and the two began a powerful partnership that surprised and infuriated the Tablelands bowlers.

Excitement in the Muddies camp mounted quietly as Trewick approached a century on the scorebook, his first ever, and no one wanted to jinx it by letting him know numbers. Spectators and team members alike were jubilant as he surpassed the magic 100 with a nice boundary and was rewarded with a roar from the crowd. He acknowledged the milestone with confident wave of the bat and a face splitting grin before readying himself to get back to business – not realising the compulsary retirement rule in the U14 comp at 100 runs.

Nathan Deuble was looking forward to getting his chance to contribute though and managed to convince Levi to relinquish his post, starting strongly with a four but leaving earlier than he had hoped after only 14 balls, it may have been the excitement of fellow bat Daniel Davidson making 50 that distracted him.

Our final two batsmen had their turn with Davo but both were dismissed within a few overs and that left Trewick to return to cause more damage. Both batters were feeling confident and Levi marked his return to the crease with a 6 that sent the fielders scurrying outside the boundary to find the ball. Daniel was also on a roll and revved up his already handsome run rate to make his first ever century as well. The crowd went wild, such a fast century from a powerful young player. 

There was no retiring for him with no other batsman to come in and the boys from Atherton looked more than dismayed, trying every bowler they had to put a stop to the misery and take this final wicket. Both boys were going from strength to strength and no one could take them down, they batted out the rest of the overs, Davidson finishing on 108 off 82 and Trewick on 153 off 145 both not-out. The whole team was able to celebrate a decisive 153 run victory, their first win this season and one sure to be remembered for a while.

Two new century makers might have seemed enough excitement for one day, but there were still overs to play since the Muddies had bowled all the Tolga Boyz out with 16 overs still left. So a second innings was started, and though fairly tired the Muddies boys bowled well with Sorensen, Rayner, White, Deuble, Stanaway and Trewick all taking a wicket each to leave the Atherton boys 6/57 after 16, in second innings.

At the end of the day the top bowling figures were: Trewick 4/16 off 6,  Stanaway 2/15 off 3 , Sorensen 2/22 off 6, Allison an idyllic 1/0 off 2, Deuble 1/3 off 3, Davidson 1/7 off 3, Twomey 1/16 off 4, Rayner 1/20 off 5, Doble 1/25 off 6,  Wall 1/26 off 6, White 1/30 off 5.

Wicket keeping and fielding effort were admirably shared and even though there were stand out players for the day, none of their achievements would have been possible without the valiant effort of all team members.

U12s fall just short to Atherton

DARREN KILLEEN 

The Muddies Under-12s travelled to Tolga on Saturday where they faced off against a strong Atherton team. Only batting out 17 of their overs, the Muddies fell just short of Atherton’s total of 122.

Captain Connor White won the toss and chose to make the most of the morning’s cool conditions by fielding first. Opening bowler Ashton Davenport started the day with a maiden and continued that form taking one for three from three overs. 

Lachie Dowling, Abel Terry and Scott Cooper all bowled well while Liam Clacherty and Vincent Killeen kept the pressure on during their spells. Luke Twomey was just too fast for Atherton and they were unable to score a run from him at all. Nick Rayner was consistent as always taking two for ten from his spell.

Bailey Elliot, Ryan Stanaway and Connor White all contributed with one wicket each. Sundries were reduced even further this week with the boys training really starting to pay off.

Scott & Vincent opened the batting for the Muddies with Vincent hitting seven boundaries on his way to thirty-two from twenty-eight balls. Scott was unlucky to be bowled in the second over for a duck with Abel and Lachie suffering the same fate. Ryan (two), Bailey (one) and Nick (one) all fell to catches behind the stumps.

Playing hook shots reminiscent of Andrew Hilditch, Ashton belted four boundaries on his way to seventeen before being dismissed under controversial circumstances for the second time in as many weeks. Liam looked set to hit the ball out of the ground but was caught after skying one, and departed for two. 

Connor and Luke combined for a steady partnership before Connor was bowled for one from fourteen balls. The not out batsman for the day was Luke scoring eight from ten balls faced.

The boys should be very happy with the improvement shown and should be commended for their sportsman like behaviour under what was at times, trying circumstances.