by Steve Doble and Nathan King

B GRADE

With fine rain falling, the Port Douglas Mudcrabs two openers confidently strode out to the crease to start the 193 first innings run chase against Rovers, and with a nice thick edge for four off Josh McConnell's bat on the third ball of the day, things looked like they may go the Muddies way.

Sam Evans at the other end had a few testy swings early on outside the off stump, but soon settled in picking the right ball to turn the strike over for a single.

With McConnell on 23, and Evans looked settled, there were positive signs that the opposition total could be achieved. But a short, wide delivery outside the off stump from the bowling of Carter, saw McConnell hit a beautiful forward square cut right off the middle where Palmer managed to get a finger tip on the ball as it sped past, and took a nice juggling catch to send him on his way.

Evans and King then set about turning the strike over to capitalise on some loose field placings by the Rovers skipper, and very quickly a nice partnership was forming.

But again, after looking settled Evans played the only uncommitted shot of his innings and was caught at third slip for 21 off Peters. 

Another quick wicket fell only one over later when Keith Taylor was caught at short cover for just 1. King made his way to 18 before chasing a wide full delivery and was caught behind.

Kane Uebergang struggled early with the slow pace coming from the bowlers but still managed to get the ball off the square for some much needed runs. Once he found his rhythm he produced a couple of lovely strokes but then disaster struck, much to the relief of the opposition bowlers, and he was caught on 30 just as he was getting hold of their attack.

This summed up the story of the day for the Muddies. 

Both partnerships and personal totals were getting good starts but they couldn't capitalise and consolidate past the early 20's.  What a difference  just one 50 would have made from the top order.

All batters tried hard but a few lose shots and concentration need to be improved to help support what is already a quality Muddies bowling line up.

Waltz, Vikionkorpi, Mison and Mitchell all dug in hard to fight for a draw but in the end the Rovers bowlers wore the Muddies down and Mitchell was caught on 15 as the last wicket down.

Rovers won the game on first innings points.

C GRADE

The Muddies C Grade side again headed down the highway to finish what they started at Fretwell Park, and with Mulgrave on 2 for 14 chasing down 4 for 219 declared, things were certainly on the Muddies side.

With main strike bowler Dave Joyce away, the bulk of the bowling was left up Simon Cody, Nick Carling and the old stalwart Matt Scheisser.

And Scheisser was the one to get the wickets rolling with a wicket in his first over of the day removing Daly for 5.

A dangerous partnership followed which lingered for a while and saw Pashon and Prior score a total of 48 together before Pashon was dissmised for 48 by Carling.

Almost immediately Simon Miglioranza chipped in with two quick wickets sending Mulgrave into a spin. With more wickets to Schiesser, Carling and two to Saint to finish off the Mulgrave tail, the game was all over bar the shouting.

Mulgrave were bowled all out for 151 and Port Douglas C Grade won on first innings points.

With an hour left of play the Muddies openers Jack Goodall and Nick Carling went to face the remaining 14 overs of the game. Both batsmen had a well needed hit out in the middle and with the score on 35 after 9 overs Carling was given LBW for 21.

Goodall was 24 not out at the end of play with the team total of 2 for 50 to finish off their second innings of the game.

Next weekend will see a double header of cricket at the Port Douglas Sports Complex as we have the C Grade one dayer on Saturday and the B Grade one dayer (which is also the Grand Final replay), on Sunday.

Both games hit off at 10am. Full refreshments are available.