Sunday saw the Muddies B grade head down to Griffiths Park in Cairns for the second week of their game against Tully.

Needing just three wickets to win, but with Tully only needing eight runs, it was going to be a hard task, but the boys were positive, especially with Dave Johnson getting an early breakthrough but to no avail.

Unfortunately, the start didn’t get any better with Tully putting on an extra 90 runs in the hour before their innings closed.

With plenty of play left the Muddies relished the chance at spending some quality batting time as Tully were short on players.

Sam Hodgson and Simeon Migliorenza putting on 70 in the opening stand to set the innings with Sam making 46 before losing a few to be 4 for 82 before Jordan Butterss and Julian Harrold steadied the ship putting on 90 with Jordan going on to make 78, leaving the Muddies all out for 253.

With nine overs to be bowled and the chance of taking a few quick wickets for bonus points without the win, the boys leapt out the box taking 4 for 47 with Dave Johnson and Adam Lucas sharing the wickets.

Next week’s game will be a one-dayer at home at Port Douglas Sports Complex starting at 1pm.

Meanwhile, Muddies C grade felt comfortable in defending their 164 of last week and a mere two balls into Rovers’ innings promoted the Muddies’ position as Scheiser ripped the opener’s stump out of the ground to make it 1 for 0.

Newcomer Deep, who is quicker than the average C grade bowler, was struck for a boundary in his first over followed by three consecutive maidens, breaking through in his fifth over with a simple keeper catch to Darren Wall.

While Scheiser managed another clean bowled in his third over to leave Rovers reeling at 3 for 6 after 10 overs before he was rested for what was likely to be a full day of bowling. Barnes bowled tight and used the cloudy conditions for prodigious swing that compounded Rovers’ position as he broke through after three maidens. After 20 overs, Rovers had managed a poultry 24 runs for seven wickets.

Michael Shulz (2 for 20) chimed in too as his fellow bowlers returned excellent figures: Scheiser 2/1 off 4, Deep 4 for 17 off 10 and Barnes 2 for 22 off 10, leaving Rovers all out just shy of the follow on figure of 62.

Skipper Steve Doble barely hesitated in making the opposition bat again, despite the cloud clearing and the pitch baking up hard.

After six bowled wickets and two LBWs in their first innings, Rovers set about a change of batting order to further dull their strike rate. They managed just 49 runs after 30 overs, losing four wickets (all caught) for some handy extra points to the Muddies.

Deep (now brandishing various nicknames from Deep Heat to Deep S***) was named man of the match with 5 for 21 off 16 overs.
Damien Darlington (2 for 9) again chipped in with a few purchased wickets, Redderz managed to tie the Rovers revised order down 0 for 6 off seven overs, but the Rovers number three batsman thwarted an outright win, boring the grass mites with match batting of nine runs off 110 balls!

The Rovers commended the efforts of the local lads as the Muddies built team camaraderie and season expectations with healthy all round contributions.

Next week, the C Grade will play a morning game in Cairns versus Mulgrave, who lost outright last week and are yet to register a win, but the Muddies, all the same, know not to be complacent.