News

ATCA B2 Premiers

After a sensational win against SHOC in the semi-final and Hope Valley defeating Modbury we got the home ground advantage in the Grand Final and played at the home of cricket “Goody Oval”. We chose to play at Lockleys but ATCA wanted us at Goodwood so bring it on! With the curator organizing a reasonable pitch along with a very wet outfield Hope Valley won the toss and sent us in to bat. Lloyd and Darcy (29) got us off to a steady start and we continued ticking over the runs. Fleming who came in at 3 made a solid 34 and batted extremely well in tough conditions. To Hope Valleys credit their bowling was excellent and really made it a real struggle to score at times along with a slow outfield the runs dried up. Our efforts though were very solid and very pleasing with the boys really battling it out. We used up most of the overs to set a total of 136. Bonus runs at the end from Sargent, Hardham and Miller proved very valuable.

The next day we were ready, we had a good warm up and felt that 136 was more like 170/180. Runs on the board was a real advantage. Stringer and Sargent took the new ball and bowled the house down! Stringer was unplayable and extremely un lucky with a handful of catches being dropped in the slips. Hope Valley really struggled against our attack and batted themselves into a bit of hole with them being 2 for 31 at tea of 41 overs. We were in control the whole day especially with an exceptional spell from Hardham from the Northern end. Mark bowled just before tea and continued bowling 25 overs straight with a superb man of the match performance!! The game turned into a real “War of Arctician” type of game with the quicks from one end and Hardham the other we clamped them right down. Sargent ended up 3 for 19 off 21, Stringer 2 for 21 off 21 and Hardham 4 for 32 off 25 overs.

We bowled Hope Valley out for 94 and the premiership was ours!!

Cheers to all who contributed through the whole year. Special year to remember Da Da Da dah dah!!!

Simon Robinson (C)

Comments are closed

Verified by MonsterInsights