U12 Muddies

DAMIEN DARLINGTON

The Muddies under 12s kicked off the season against Mareeba at Port Douglas at the weekend with Mareeba winning the toss and sending the Muddies in to bat.

Vincent and Nick opened the batting; a partnership that was short-lived when Nick was bowled in the first over for one run. New player Liam showed great promise with the bat, seeing off Mareeba's better bowlers before choosing an incorrect shot to a ball on the stumps.

Conner joined his opener in a 22-run stand before being caught. As Vincent retired, first gamer Able (2) put great value on his wicket, until he received a great delivery that rattled his castle.

Ever confident Xander found the boundary and helped push the run rate up, until a poor LBW decision was judged against him. Ashton decided he didn't want to bother his Mum, who was scoring, and was bowled first ball.

Batting at number nine, fellow first gamer Bailey (5), grew with confidence with every ball he faced, smashing a boundary and only being dismissed four balls before retirement.

The day’s captain, Luke (17), demonstrated good stroke play, finding the boundary. Returning retiree Vincent decided to clear it with a six over mid-wicket in the final over, giving the Junior Muddies a score of 9/98 after allotted overs.

Vincent and Conner opened with nice tight bowling only allowing one run off the first two overs. First change bowler Bailey (0/14) continued the trend. When Lachie took the team’s second wicket with his first ball, the boys were full of confidence. Enter Mareeba's number five batsman, Lane Hannish, who proceeded to smack everything to the boundary, hitting 46 off 27 balls.

Able (2/11) made the most of bowling to the batsmen at the other end going for a hat-trick off his third ball ever bowled. Luke (1/7) bowled a great length ball for his wicket while Liam made an awesome come back in his second over to bowl a maiden after wearing the brunt of Lane's batting in his first.

Xander (2/13) closed out the innings with two wickets but it was all too late, with Mareeba amounting 8/146 from their overs.   

U14 Muddies

STEVE DOBLE

The newly formed Muddies U14 team were eagerly anticipating their first game against Mareeba Blues at Borzi Park on Saturday.

Captain Keel Sorensen elected to put the boys’ bowling skills to the test first up, and with the assistance of two Mareeba boys to fill out our nine man team, he set the field.

Nathan Deuble bowled out the opening batsman near the end of the second over, a disappointing result for the Mareeba boys, but they held steady until the ninth over when Reuben Allison took the first of his three wickets for the day, assisted by Ryan Doble’s catch.

Curtis White took the next wicket from the Blues, closely followed by another from bowler Josh Edward. With the top order batsmen gone, Mareeba held steady for 10 more overs, but our bowlers did not give up and in the 25th over revved up the pace. Wickets started to fall in quick succession as our boys showed determination to take all 11 wickets from the Blues before the end of the 32 over game.

Tex McDowall, Allison, White and Edward all upped the wicket tally, while Daniel Davidson, Levi Trewick, Doble and Deuble all kept their bowling tidy and worked to produce some run-outs. The innings ended with an exciting last minute run-out, leaving Mareeba Blues with a score of 11/130 on the book.

With only eight wickets to lose, the Muddies had a big job to do with the bat, though batting figures disappointed the boys somewhat. Trewick and Doble went to the crease to open with Sorensen, Davidson and Edward bravely bringing up the tail end when the fast opening bowlers had returned.

Experienced batsmen Trewick and Deuble both lost their wicket by stumping to the confident Mareeba keeper, Luke Lamborn. All batsmen made their mark at the crease, some staying longer than others; the stayer of the day was Sorensen facing 36 balls. Top scorers were Trewick, Deuble and Davidson.

All efforts were not nearly enough to chase the Mareeba score though, and the game was over in the 28th over with all Muddies wickets gone on 8/62.

Douglas boys can be proud; they took all 11 wickets from the strong Mareeba team. The Muddies are looking to spend time working on their battling talent over the next few weeks  

New recruits are welcome, training Thursday afternoons and games Saturdays. Contact the Muddies Cricket Club for more information.