2002/2003 Report - B9 Grade
THE GOOD
After leaving the NDCA to search for greener pastures, us boys thought we had found it. Three wins from our first three outings, and one an outright. Another narrow 1st innings loss and we thought we were in the mix. A great looking home ground with a quick and bouncy pitch was to be our House of Pain. It was shaping up as a successful season.
A highlight of this phase was a 6 wicket haul for Keiran O'Conner to accompany his 49 quick- fire runs in an epic match against Merrylands, which saw us chasing an outright victory in almost complete darkness. A couple across in the park wouldn't take a hint as Jonathon "Junior" Quirk peppered them with some of the sweetest 6's Merrylands has ever seen.
THE BAD
We then proceeded to lose 3 of our next 5 matches and more alarmingly, 2 by outright. To add to the pain both outrights were lost in the last 15 minutes of play and both times we ended up one batsman short. This left us well and truly back in the pack with plenty to do. We were having plenty of trouble amassing reasonable totals with the bat, yet we still thought it only a matter of time until we would get our eyes in. Sadly that would not be the case.
Highlights of our mid-season would be two 5 wicket hauls by Mark Lovell and Ben Ringland. Pete Khoury and John Weatherill had a 170 run 1st Wicket partnership.
THE UGLY
After a season sustaining victory against Merrylands we steeled our resolve in readiness of taking on the top 4 teams over the coming rounds. Perhaps our resolve was not as steely as we had hoped.
Our future in the competition blazed and then severely dimmed on a tragic afternoon at our beloved North Rocks Oval. Lacking half our normal team due to the Captain's wedding, the boys fired up with the ball against Wenty Leagues. When the rampage had concluded the lads had set themselves a modest total of 68 to chase. Backslapping all around they strode to the crease with purpose and just as quickly left bedazzled and de-moralised by a barnstorming bowling display. 6 ducks and a top score of 9 later we were all out for 19.
This loss took the wind out of us, and we faded to the end. We had about 20 players on the books but couldn't field a full side. Everyone was getting frustrated. We were doing the damage with the ball, but just could not match it with the bat. Finally it all came to an ugly end when after playing the first week and half of the second, we were forced to forfeit as half the team, led by all round nice guys and dual Captains "The Benny's", deserted to watch Souths first game of the year. And so the curtain came down on another season of frustration and under-achievement.
One highlight was Keiran O'Conner's first 50, which was appropriately celebrated by Captain Fred. Something Wenty Waratahs may not forget too soon. Our top score of 89 was also notched by John "dance party" Grootobbink with a slashing performance.
THE CONCLUSION
Even though we ended up quite frustrated and down because of our play we did have a lot of fun along the way. We enjoyed each other's successes and enjoyed each other's failures even more. Denny's sex life, partial nudity and exploding cigarette lighters, etc, kept us amused every step of the way. In the end it wasn't all bad.
Ben Ringland
B9 GRADE - STATISTICS 2002/2003 BATTING Player Innings N.O. H.S. Runs Average Catches John Weatherall 13 2 80 283 25.73 Mark Lovell 6 2 26* 81 20.25 Jonathon Quirk 15 3 60 240 20.00 Kieran O'Connor 12 1 58 216 19.64 Ben Ringland 13 1 36 213 17.75 Fred Newman 5 1 37 66 16.50 Jon Groot Obbink 14 1 89 181 13.92 Samuel Khoury 12 0 48 164 13.67 Pete Khoury 17 0 54 229 13.47 James Hanrahan 5 0 44 59 11.80 Dylan Chan 2 0 19 21 10.50 Nathan Davidson 9 1 27 79 9.88 Jerome Furtado 7 0 27 68 9.71 Adam Buttenshau 3 0 11 23 7.67 Derek Furtado 6 0 14 35 5.83 John Denny 10 0 15 55 5.50 Ben Ussher 7 3 2 5 125 Anthony Khoury 8 1 4 7 1.00
BOWLING Player Overs Maidens Wickets Runs Average John Weatherall 13.1 8 48 6.00 Fred Newman 27 11 120 10.91 Mark LovelI 57 15 227 15.13 Jon Groot Obbink 46 15 231 15.40 James Hanrahan 22 5 106 21.20 Ben Ringland 29 9 192 21.33 Kieran O'Connor 101 18 391 21.72 Anthony Khoury 36 10 219 21.90 Jonathon Quirk 29.3 7 160 22.86 John Denny 37 8 189 23.63 Jerome Furtado 40 6 169 28.17 Ben Ussher 40 6 218 36.33 Derek Furtado 32 3 128 42.67 Nathan Davidson 17 2 125 62.50 Dylan Chan 1 0 1 - Pete Khoury 1 0 21 -