Semi Final - 27th March 2010
The
Bunyips bring home a C Grade flag!
On
Saturday Longley Cricket Club was represented in the HCCA C1 Grade
Grand Final and emerged victorious over a tough opponent in Slab
Road. The win marked seven straight wins for the team, an amazing
result considering the first win in that sequence was almost a do
or die effort with our finals hopes anything but assured at the
time. To now win a grand final is a remarkable feat for a team
that was outclassed on paper but through self belief, confidence
in each other and sheer guts and determination deserved the right
to be crowned the champions of C1 grade for season 2009-10.
The
toss was won by Longley, for the first time in weeks, and in a
surprise decision captain Mick Dakin decided to send Slab Road in
to bat. Considering that we have successfully bowled out sides and
then chased the runs in the first two weeks of finals, Dakin
decided to stick to the winning formula. Slab Road batted steadily
but never really threatened to post a huge total, and could not
bat out their 50 overs, a huge advantage for Longley and
justifying the decision made to send them in. Most of the bowlers
for Longley enjoyed success, with Heath Direen (4-25) easily being
the pick of the bowlers. Greg Roberts (2-38), Zac Duggan (2-23)
and Geoff Woolley (2-35) got amongst the wickets and ensured
Direen’s efforts with the ball were well supported.
Posting
181 all out in the 45th over, Slab Road had a target to defend and
the Bunyips had the job to do. Jack Bishop (7) and Adam Dentler
(7) again opened but could not repeat the start to the innings of
the previous week. James Skabo (27) again made a contribution and
Heath Direen (69 not out) stabilised the entire Longley innings
and put together a 39 run partnership with Skabo. With two quick
wickets falling with the score at 82, Ben Coppleman (35) joined
Direen and together they built a match winning partnership of 85
to take the score to 5-167, only 15 runs short of the total when
Coppleman was dismissed. Slab Road kept themselves in the match by
taking another two quick wickets to reduce the Bunyips to 7-176
and the tension could be felt around the ground. Having been in
similar positions numerous times during the second half of the
season, the Bunyip batting line continued to show confidence and
batted sensibly and with patience to let the runs come and ignore
the friendly advice of the Slab fielders, doing everything they
could in the dying overs to get into the heads of the Bunyips,
without success.
The
innings of Direen was a textbook display of how to go about
batting. Starting sedately, Direen batted within himself and
allowed a partnership to build with James Skabo who was the
dominant scorer of their partnership. With the loss of Skabo and
quick wickets falling at various times, Direen would shut one end
down to ensure the collapse did not come, and wait for a partner
to get settled. With Ben Coppleman at the crease and looking
solid, Direen unleashed a number of attacking strokes that brought
the run rate down in the space of ten overs, from requiring around
5 an over with 20 overs to go, to 20 runs required off the final
ten and virtually sealing the match in the space of those ten
overs or so. Coppleman’s innings displayed a maturity that has
developed within the course of a season, from a hard hitting but
hit or miss sort of batsman, to one that now waits for a bad ball
and punishes it with minimal risk, and defends stoutly anything
threatening his stumps. All of the batting order displayed good
concentration levels, focussing on the game and the ball, and not
falling in the trap of listening to the banter and friendly advice
of the Slab Road players who were desperately trying to build
pressure on the Bunyips and were going up as one with big loud and
frequent appeals, apparently apparently confident appeals, but
fortunately the players kept their cool and the umpires were not
convinced into making a hasty decision under the pressure of the
concerted appeals.
Heath
Direen fittingly won the best player award, which backs up the
Best and Fairest award won by him two weeks ago at the vote count.
Different players have put their hand up at different times during
the latter part of this season for C grade, which has been the key
to our run of wins leading up to the grand final win. Regular
scores from all of the top order ensured we were able to chase
down runs, or when given the opportunity to bat first, to post big
scores of around 300 to really put pressure on opposition sides
chasing. There are many lessons to learn from our C1 grade team
this season and the club as a whole would do well to make the most
of the experience, and take note of the approach taken to games.
Mick Dakin as captain deserves the accolade he received following
the win, as do all of the players that took part and made 2009-10
a successful year for the club.
Congratulations
to our boys and commiserations to Slab Road who fought hard.
Thanks to the Bunyips’ supporters for descending on Cygnet in
force and ensuring our boys on the field could hear voices of
support over the Slab Road supporters. At one stage around the
Slab clubrooms it seemed like the visiting Longley supporters
outnumbered the locals by two or three to one, with the maroon and
gold of the Bunyips dominating. Congratulations to our other sides
that competed this season, with respectable results for A grade,
finishing 6th, B1 finishing third but being knocked out in the
first week of finals, and B2 which had a tough season finishing
second last. Plenty of the lads from those sides were enjoying the
C grade win as much as the players involved in the game.
A
special mention for our Life Member and retiring player, Geoff
Woolley. Geoff has been with the club for more than 30 years.
There is some uncertainty over the number of games he has played,
as a fair few of our players were not born when Geoff started his
career, but he would have spent more than a full year of playing
cricket for the Bunyips in that time. A harmless looking ball
tossed up high and with no pace and little spin has been Geoff’s
stock ball for years, and it is an effective weapon at the times
of the match where players are looking to score. Countless
stumpings and miss hit skiers are Geoff’s bread and butter
wickets. Geoff has amazingly held his own against the younger
guys, taking wickets almost every time he pays a visit to the
crease, and this year twice hitting a boundary to win matches with
9 wickets down. Geoff stuck it out with the Bunyips during years
where the club struggled, and deservingly now finishes his
career with Longley with a premiership medallion to remember his
final game, and knowing that while his body struggles to meet the
demands of cricket, his ability with the ball has not dimmed over
the past few years. Having said all that, it would not surprise
any to find Geoff filling in once or twice a season for a few
years yet.
Cheers
from The Bunyips!
Grand
Final Scoresheet
|
