WORDS by Muddies cricketer Ethan McCullough


THE summer of cricket is in full swing with the talk around town not of the dismal display of the Australians but the blistering form of the Astute financial Muddies.

Heading back into the two day format (our own mini test match) the B Grade Muddies were hoping that their recent winning ways in the shorter games would continue against United. Three changes to the team with Damo, Travis and Pete unavailable and Ben Shrimpton at Under 21 rep duties saw Jared and two veterans of Douglas cricket in Keith ‘Golden Arm’ Taylor and Matt ‘Shirvo’ Schiesser added to the Muddies line-up.

Being sent into bat, after losing the toss on a hot Sunday afternoon, the newly formed opening pair of Randal and Keith walked out to the middle full of confidence and planning to be out in the middle for as long as possible.

Both batsmen dug in deep at the start of the innings to not give the United bowlers a chance with Keithy frustrating the bowlers with his rock solid defensive technique and Randy doing the bulk of his scoring with his trade mark pull shots and dabs through and behind point. The pair put on a 55 run partnership before Keith was dismissed by a peach of a delivery that gripped and spun out of the rough bowling him around his legs.

Jared came and went hardly troubling the scorebook and Ethan was starting to look comfortable in the middle until a mix up running between the wickets saw Ethan run out for 10. Randal’s masterclass of an innings came to end on 66 after 2.5 hours of breaking down the United bowling attack on a difficult batting deck, setting up the middle order to capitalising a great start. Cody was joined by Evans at the crease and the run rate immediately picked up before Evans was dismissed.

Buckets came to the crease and continued the scoring with Custard Arm Cody, who was on fire again hitting glorious cricket shots to all areas of the Mudpit and batting nicely. Buckets was caught out for 13 and Luco came and went without scoring. Cody was left to bat with the tail again, this time the tail had a bit of wag in the way of 6' 8" Kaiden ‘buy me an adult size bat’ Sorensen. Kaiden copping a bit of banter from his team mates went out with a point to prove clubbing 25 runs off 15 balls including a six that lifted the crowd out of their seats cheering. At the tea break, proudly sponsored by Dave’s Takeaway/Port BBQ Chickens, the score was 9/196 and Cody on 46 not out the skipper decided to declare and give the bowlers a bit under an hour to get a few quick wickets.

The Muddies entered the field with enthusiasm and banter levels at maximum ready to snag a couple of the weary United batsmen who had been fielding in the heat for the last four hours.

The new ball was handed to a fired up Luco who had immediate effect taking wickets with the seceond and fourth balls of the innings bowling both batsmen with pace and aggression. Up the other end Kaiden was bowling his usual unplayable deliveries trapping the opener in front plum LBW and Luco picked up his third with a baseball style catch off his own bowling. Keel bowled with control, flight and turn bowling three consecutive maidens and the ageless workhorse Shirvo bowled a great line and length and both bowlers were unlucky not to grab a wicket each.

At the end of the days play united are 4/31 (Lucas 3/11, Kaiden 1/13) chasing the Muddies 9/196dec (Smith 66, Cody 46*, Kaiden 25) come down to the Mudpit at 1pm to watch the lads try and push for an outright win to propel the Muddies back into the top four. Free entry and food and drinks at member’s prices for all home games this year look forward to seeing a few new and old faces down to watch some local cricket stars in action.