By JARROD POTTER
WGCA DISTRICT DIVISION
REVIEW – ROUND 7 (Day 1)
HE MIGHT be known as Prince Singh, but Officer’s star all-rounder on Saturday was nothing but kingly in his conquest of Nar Nar Goon/Maryknoll.
NAR NAR GOON/MARYKNOLL v OFFICER
Officer’s (325) swarm covered Nar Nar Goon/Maryknoll on Sunday and left in its wake a mighty tally for the Marygoons to hunt down.
It was the Marygoons’ best start this season – nailing Officer’s top three for just 35 as Kevin Wheeler (5/91) and Ash Bailey (1/36) scattered the top order cheaply.
There’s a mighty problem with Bullants though; killing off a couple won’t stop the rest of the colony returning to finish the job of the fallen.
From complete disaster to a strong retaliation, Officer picked up the pieces and went about belting anything red, leathery and ball-shaped into the fence.
Peter Quinn (54) and Colin Parnall (21) – who managed to bend his son’s ear to get a senior debut – combined first up with a 50-run stand to put the Bullants’ generals at ease before Prince Singh (100no) joined Quinn.
Their knock was the first savage salvo the Marygoons had to endure; a quick-fire 70 went into the ledger as the first of many signs of woe ahead for the hosts.
Quinn’s departure – succumbing to David Macdermid (3/55) – only brought more pain to the crease … this time in the visage of Brett Reid (94).
The yin/yang approach of Singh’s finesse and Reid’s brute strength paid a full dividend as Officer watched the tally rocket to 5/286 as Reid’s near-ton came off only 52 balls.
On 94 and eyeing his century in Dave Warner fashion, Reid smashed the stuffing out of Kevin Wheeler … but the all-rounder’s slugging came to an end as his shot fell a couple of metres short along the fence, finding Kayne Somers on the rope.
Singh carried on from Reid’s comprehensive start, pushing along with the tail – that while it showed a lot less wag than last week it still had enough to help work his way towards the century.
In the second last over, Singh flicked one off the pads through backward square and raised the bat on an emphatic third Bullants’ ton.
“I thought we started off when Prince knuckled down and made a few before Brett Reid came in,” Officer coach James Parnall said. “Was a good effort by Prince as he nudged ones and twos for most of the innings and hopefully this is the start of another good season for him.”
The Bullants tinkered with the line-up to bolster its batting and on Saturday’s result, Parnall was pretty happy with the monster tally they generated.
“Just had a couple of bad weeks with the bat but people have just continued on,” Parnall said. “Our bowling and fielding has been pretty good, but the last couple of weeks our batting has been a little bit shallow – so we made a couple of changes this week to strengthen it.”
Officer sits precariously in fifth – a game off Clyde and Pakenham Upper/Toomuc – and Parnall thinks every win is crucial in such a closely fought competition.
“This week is a must-win for us as just looking at it – if we lose this game and the next we could be sitting in fifth maybe two or three games out of the top four,” Parnall said. “But if we win these two there’s a good chance, with teams playing against each other, we could be a game clear in third.
“Hopefully this week has been a kick-start to our self-confidence and we can build from here.”
CLYDE v DEVON MEADOWS
The yips returned to Clyde’s (128) batting … but it also afflicted Devon Meadows (3/26) late in the day to leave the ledger fairly level.
Chaos started early in the Cougars’ order as the top order came and went to leave the score 4/27 after Matt Hutchinson (3/15) and Mick Floyd (3/29) were let loose.
With a second Hutchinson in the line-up – as Matt’s old man Greg pulled on the whites – the Panthers were on the prowl early and never relented.
Rescuing the innings was left to the skipper John Simpson (45) and Englishman Bilal Abbas (29) as the duo hit it hard and hit it often. Their scoring intent may have proven their downfall as Abbas holed out to Lucas Carroll (4/53) to end a 52-run stand.
Simpson carried on to push towards 100, but the resolve was crushed by Carroll and Co., as 60 overs was all it took to dismiss the hosts.
Clyde gained a foothold after running through the Devon Meadows’ prime batsmen early. With a few outs, the rejigged line-up succumbed to Dean Williams (2/9) and Kane Avard (1/0) – who had a great deal of fun late with perfect return of four maidens in his four overs. Kyle Salerno (10) and Darren O’Brien (0) had rare misses which set up a Panthers’ 2-for-1 deal. Devon Meadows sent two nightwatchmen to the crease as Floyd (3no) and Nathan Worsteling (1no) survived the rampage to leave 103 for victory next week.
PAKENHAM UPPER/TOOMUC v CARLISLE PARK
Carlisle Park (0/9) is up against it following Pakenham Upper/Toomuc’s (270) Saturday smashing.
The Yabbies dug in to post 270 on the back of some familiar faces. Ben Spicer (103) showed last week’s efforts weren’t a fluke as he slapped another century to his name with good support from Scott Clark (66).
Despite the the best efforts of Aaron Straughair (4/76) and Ammar Bajwa (3/53), the Vikings didn’t have enough counter-measures for the Yabbies’ attack and will head into next week with a fair old mountain to climb.
Justin Hinkley (0no) returned to the line-up and will resume next week alongside the skipper Dave Nutting (9no).
