Corowa’s A grade cricket side played host to the last of the season’s T20 games as a double header last Saturday, beating the unpredictable New City in a thriller and going down to the unbeaten and mostly unchallenged North Albury in a thriller.
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With the side sitting in third position on the ladder wins were important as ever as we head toward the Christmas break. In the first game Corowa won the toss and elected to bat on what was a flat looking Ball Park surface. Disaster struck early as openers Matt Wilson and Matt Grantham had a mix up resulting in Grantham run out for a duck and Corowa on the back foot when Ryan Beveridge was bowled.
With the score on three, a partnership was needed. Kaelen Bradtke once again was willing and with Matt Wilson desperate to maintain social distance from scorned opening partner Grantham the pair set about righting the ship and building a defendable total, the pair moved the score to 51 courtesy of excellent shot placement and good running between the wickets before Bradtke was LBW for 20.
Jeremy Carr, back in the side this week, added a quickfire 27 with Wilson carrying his bat to be 54 not out and the end of 20 overs. With regular opening bowler Nick Grant away on harvester duties KB was thrown the new ball and backed up his batting effort with the wicket of Maruma in the first over, however New City were up for the challenge and moved the score to 41 in good time when Jesse Moloney had Notte trapped in front.
Corowa’s bowling and fielding efforts were below their usual high standards and New City were sniffing an upset opportunity moving the score to 67 before losing the third wicket to Athanitis, the equation was then New City needing 40 runs from the final five overs. Luke Backhouse continued his fine season bowling a tight 16th over finishing with 0 for 12 from his 4 overs.
Some good late hitting set the equation 14 from the last over with coach Hatton stepping up to seal the game with single from each of the first four balls; the visitors needing ten from the final two balls when Dhunna drove Hatts down the ground for six the game was on the line.
Hatts whizzed the next delivery past the batsman’s nose and Corowa had secured the points in an unconvincing victory.
North Albury demolished an early morning opponent and Corowa would need a marked improvement to compete with the competition pace setters. Winning the toss again Corowa was once again batting, first losing Matt Wilson early with the score on 11. North’s disciplined attack was proving hard to get away with Ryan Beveridge caught off spinner Hartshorn for 9 and Bradtke stumped from the same bowler for 3, Corowa was 3 down for 39 at the halfway point. Jeremy Carr couldn’t back up his morning efforts, run out for 6, and when Jarred Lane LBW for a duck Corowa was 5 for 60 and needing a partnership.
With opener Matt Grantham batting well at the other end another of the club’s promising youngsters Jesse Moloney stepped up to the plate and delivered with a quickfire 20 from 17 balls, before Will Seymour joined Grantham to finish the innings on 104 with Grantham a well-made 48 not out and Seymour 6 not out.
North Albury’s powerful batting line-up had been making light work of chasing totals all year and the team would need to be at their best to defend the score. Bradtke and Hatton took the new ball with North openers Borella and Hartshorn looking to be aggressive. A top class 2nd over from Hatton forced a rash shot from Hartshorn to be bowled for 2. New batsmen Farrell survived a very confident appeal first ball and Corowa had themselves in the game when Luke Backhouse had competition leading run scorer Borella well caught by Hatton from his second ball.
A partnership between Farrell and Fulford threatened to take the game away from Corowa before Fulford was LBW to Mark Athanitis with the score on 58 in the tenth over of the innings. First ball of the next over a full toss from Jesse Moloney, was hit straight to Matt Wilson in front of his personal support crew and he accepted the catch removing North Albury captain Simmons. Moloney then finished the over trapping set batsmen Farrell LBW to breathe life into the game, and when Mark Athanitis deceived Hartshorn to rattle his stumps in the next over North had lost 4 for 10 and the large crowd was getting behind the team. North’s batsmen rotated the strike before Moloney again struck twice in an over to have the opposition 8 for 85. With four overs remaining and both sides feeling the pressure, some desperate running and fielding took the game to the penultimate over with North needing 9 to win with two wickets in hand. Kaelen Bradtke kept the first four balls to 3 singles before Number 7 Addision struck a four to put North one run behind; with his final ball KB pierced Addison’s defence to bowl him and send the game into the final over with North needing 2 runs two win. Jarryd Hatton took the ball however could not pry out the last wicket with the batsmen scampering through for two singles and North Albury taking the points in a thriller.
As disappointing as any loss is some shining lights were Jesse Moloney’s efforts with bat and ball backing his 20 with 4 for 24, Matt Grantham’s 48 not out and Jarryd Hatton showing his quality with the ball with 1 for 10 from 3.3 overs. After a slow start to the season both senior teams are starting to find their form with two very important 50 over home games for A Grade to take them to the Christmas break.
B Grade also played two T20s, first up was New City at Urana Road Oval.
Losing the toss, Corowa was asked to bowled first, with Phibbs and young Isaac Dickinson taking the new ball, the first wicket falling with the score on 18, but there a few chances with the batsmen taking the aerial route with all their shots. The score moved to 2 for 80 before Athanitis wound back the clock coming off the long run, it could have gone either way, but after 3 overs he’d claimed 4-13, including being on a hat trick, reducing New City to 107 off their 20 overs.
Two early wickets left Corowa 2 for 10, but the man of the moment Athanitis joined with Alex Lavis and steadied the ship taking the score to 68 before departing. Eales came and went as did Bush with the score on 81. Lavis and Phibbs moved the score to 100 before Phibbs tried and failed to slog us to victory. Needing 8 to win Burgess came in and made short work of the total with 8 off 4 balls, Lavis was the mainstay carrying his bat with a well-made 41 off 47 balls.
The side then moved across to Bunton Park to take on North Albury.
After losing the toss, Corowa was asked to bat first and were in trouble at 3 for18. Needing someone to steady the ship, Lowe and Athanitis came together, moving the score to 63 before Athanitis was well stumped off a wide, in what we believe was a perfectly executed plan by the Hoppers. With Lowe batting superbly the score kept ticking over before Lowe departed with the score on 113 for an entertaining 55. Some late hitting from Bush and Phibbs took the score to a very defendable 128.
Early wickets were the order of the day, with the bowlers reducing North to 4 for 21. With Blake Keenes and Isaac Dickinson bowling beyond their years with impressive bowling performances the wickets continued to fall. Then with wickets to Burgess and Eales the Hoppers were 8 for 68. After this point the game was shaping as a likely win to the Roos, but the Hoppers had other ideas with a couple of grassed catches and some wayward bowling they managed to scrape a draw. A special mention must go to Ollie Collins, Blake Keenes, Isaac Dickinson and Ethan Lane who without these young blokes on the weekend we wouldn’t have even played, let alone get a win and a draw. All looked like seasoned pros, and should be proud of the way they handled themselves, the future looks bright.
A big partnership from the Raggett brothers put Corowa C-Grade Division 1 in the box seat against New City at Morris Park on Saturday.
Opener Lachie Raggett (50) and big brother Billy Raggett (61) put on 99-runs for the second wicket as Corowa reached 5/175 from the 40 overs. It was a mature and steady innings from the sweet-timing Lachie, who has looked likely all season and top-scored for the side two weeks earlier. Billy’s innings came after his matchwinning 82 last week, and if he continues this form the competition will be worried. This week he added three sixes to his seven last week for 10 in a fortnight. Billy’s master-blaster partner Liam McDonell is also in the runs this last fortnight and contributed 26 at the top of the order.
Corowa’s bowlers dismissed New City’s openers cheaply and were generally in control throughout the chase, although New City rallied to reach 146. The wickets were shared among the attack with McDonell (2/22) dismissing the openers and offspinner Riley Allan (2/38) claiming New City’s topscorer. Corowa skipper Danny Osborne (1/10) could have had some more if sharp chances had been swallowed. A classy side-on runout from Jacob Read iced an overall good performance from Corowa.
C Grade Div 2 went down by 7 wickets in their clash with Baranduda at Baranduda. Batting first Pat Mitchell and Brydon Robins both made 12 to get Corowa to 26. But losing both batters started the rot for Corowa as only Leigh Booth (16) and Jason Morris (18) looked in control as Corowa was dismissed for 108 in 29.1 overs.
Baranduda were in control in the run chase only losing 3 wickets when they passed the total after 25 overs. Jason Morris bowled well to take 1 for 3 off 3 overs, while junior Brodie Eyers took 1 for 15 in his 4 overs.
Blue Under 16s
The boys travelled to Emerald Oval to take on a quality Wodonga Raiders line-up. With the skipper winning toss and electing to bowl, Fuge was given the first over and bowling sharp had the batsmen in all sorts. Lewis struck first with an LBW. Smith and Eales bowled consistent line and length before Smith claimed the prized wicket of the Raiders captain. Eales was restricting the run rate and bowling a tight line and length before picking up his 3 wickets. The ball was tossed to Fuge with the task of getting out Raiders young gun Kane Scott. Fuge didn’t disappoint hitting the top of off stump with a superb delivery.
With a total of 95 to chase Glare and Ragget opened up well with a boundary coming in the first over and the opening stand putting on 24 before Glare was dismissed. Lewis came to the crease and bought some power hitting. Ragget was caught for 19 leaving the score at 2-26 as the captain Hanrahan entered. Lewis and Hanrahan put on a quick 24 with some big boundaries.
Two quick wickets fell leaving the side 4-50. Eales and Smith worked together to try get to the total before Smith was ran out. Needing 12 from the last Keenes and Kuschert were set the task and came up short although there were some great shots in their stand falling 8 runs short.
White Under 16s
Lavington batted first on our turf, and it was hard going early for Corowa with Lavi compiling 60 until Tyler (2/15) took 2 wickets in 1 over to stem the flow of runs. Wickets to Bec 1/4 and Issac 1/16 reduced a big total to a very reachable 120.
Our innings got off to a great start with a 40-run opening partnership thanks to some big hitting from Caile 26 and 25 from Jay. The next couple of wickets to fall were Ethan 8 and Issac run out for 7. Unfortunately, we ran out of overs and finished with a total of 103, with Jayden not out 11 and a great innings from Rosie 17 not out. A good effort from our young team against a top age side.
Blue Under 14s
The boys faced East Albury at home and batted first. After 10 overs we were unbeaten on 92 thanks to some great batting from our opening pair of Brodie and Jacob both retiring on 30 and 31. The next 10 overs were entertaining with all the boys going for their shots trying to make a big score with Jayden on 22 and the “Bash Brothers”, Tex and Benji making 32 and 12. After 20 overs we complied 187.
East Albury’s batting never got going thanks to some great line and length bowling from Jayden 2/1, Archer 1/3 and man of the match Jacob 1/10. A great team effort with all boys contributing to a 109 run win.
White Under 14s
After last week’s rain, our younger white team went to Xavier. We bowled and 2 early wickets had the team firing. A strong partnership from their 2 big fellas had us on the back foot as we shared the bowling around the 13 present. Everyone bowled very well on the small ground as we restricted patties to 126.
Our early overs saw us off to a flyer as Lachlan Ireland and Clodagh Blain put some wayward bowling to the sword. Both batted extremely well. At 3-71 we were in the hunt to chase down the runs but some wickets slowed our chase. Joe Lavis (18) ran out of time and we finished at 7-107 from our 20 overs. All in all we played very well, with a remarkably even effort across the board.
Blue Under 12s
Made it win number 2 with a 17 run victory over Albury at the Corowa High School. Batting first Blue was in trouble early falling to 4 for 14, but Rhylee Barber and Blake Collins put together a good partnership. Barber was brilliant making 27 retired and with help from Collins with 6, Hudson Kuschert 7 retired and Jaxson McKinna 7 retired, Blue was able to finish their 20 over at 6 for 83.
In reply Albury started well adding 30 for the first wicket before Collins got the first breakthrough. Some great bowling restricted Albury and with three good run outs and with Hudson Kuschert taking 2 for 2 Blue was able to hold Albury to 6 for 66 off their 20 overs.
White Under 12s
The side took to Thurgoona Oval to take on St Pats and a bright and sunny Friday afternoon. Batting first, they found the going tough with key wickets falling early despite the stoic stand of Levi Arnold (9). The runs slowed in the middle overs and it was left to the 9-year-olds to build a last-dash partnership. Callan Corcoran (9) and Finley Douglas (3*) combined to show the boys how to run between the wickets, guiding the team to a total of 56.
In response, St Pats were ruthless. Despite some accurate bowling, the boys were not able to break through, St Pats going on to win the game in the 11th over. Runouts to Cooper Patten and Eli Lavis and a wicket to Finley Douglas were the highlights. Well done boys.
The Club would like to acknowledge our sponsors for this season, A & A Auto, Davidson White Accountants, John Rhodes Bricklaying, Waldrons Fresh on River, Dunn’s Twin City Cranes, Kilara Group, Nutrimax, BJ Hanranhan Family Trust, Moloney Real Estate, Corowa Meats, Potts & Schnelle, Old Empire Hotel, Corowa Bakery, Mawsons & Corowa RSL Club.