Another wet week meant that Matthew ‘Matches’ McCabe and his team were busy taking the covers on and off the wicket all week.
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Come Saturday morning, the skies were blue and cloudy and the wicket was hard with a tinge of green.
‘Wally’ Brear was busy in the outfield testing out the freshly sharpened mower blades. ‘Wally’ made a few passes on the mower and etched some neat patterns into the outfield.
With Delatite’s target of 118 in sight, opening batsmen Reid Clarke and ‘Matches’ McCabe strolled out to bat.
Both batsmen continued from the one over they faced last week before the close of play.
Delatite’s opening blowers enjoyed the bounce from the wicket and tested the boys helmets out to no avail. Both batsmen batting with patience and evading the short balls when necessary.
Clarke and ‘Matches’ picked off the singles and turned the strike over regularly, waiting to punish the loose deliveries and make the most of the fast outfield.
Eventually, ‘Matches’ attacked a short ball and was out for 15 caught by a juggling catch in the gully.
‘Matches’ played his role for the team and the Lakers were now 1/30. The next man in,
15-year-old lefty Jobe Fraser.
Fraser marked centres and looked confident as usual from ball one, nudging the ball around and pressuring the Delatite infielders.
Both Clarke and Fraser squeezed ones and twos between fielders and patiently attacked the loose deliveries.
Delatite turned to their spinning options and Clarke and Fraser cleverly continued their attack. The run rate ticking over as the Lakers reached the drinks break at 1/50.
From then on, Clarke and Fraser scored more freely, regularly finding the boundary.
Fraser pulled out all the tricks - reverse sweeping through the gully region on a few occasions.
Afternoon tea was excellent. Captain Angus McMillan was clearly busy all morning in the kitchen making cupcakes and they went down a treat.
‘Matches’ pikelets went missing quickly and the array of delicious sandwiches were soon gone too.
A big thank you to Kerryn as well for the extra treats – always hits the spot and the opposition loved it too.
The boys returned to the middle and continued to press their attack against Delatite as the pitch got drier due to the sun and wind.
Soon enough, the Lakers passed Delatite’s score of 118 as both batsmen progressed towards big scores.
Father of Reid and former Yarrawonga and District Cricket Association legend Brendan ‘Wedge’ Clarke was keeping a close eye on the game from the sidelines.
‘Wedge’ produced a stunning ‘wagon wheel’ for Reid’s innings showing where he scored the runs across the field and how many runs were scored for each of those shots.
Reid pressed on with his innings and kept ‘Wedge’s’ protractor and pen busy – same with scorer Stephen Hicks’ pen after he reverted to analogue scoring.
Both batsmen entered the 60s and then 70s together as they started to dominate the game. Unfortunately, Reid’s partnership with Jobe ended when Jobe advanced a leg spinning delivery and was stumped on 75.
Another impressive innings for Jobe as he continues to pile on the runs as the competitions leading run scorer so far.
Clarke and Fraser’s partnership was match winning and totalled over 150 runs.
Debutant Van Kreeck joined Clarke at the middle as the crowd began to swell.
‘Kreecky’, another left hander, got off the mark with a textbook flick off his toes for a couple of runs through square leg.
Clarke entered the 80s and then the 90s as the scoreboard failed to keep up.
‘Kreecky’ provided support at the other end as Clarke nudged the ball around to eventually bring up his maiden 100 for the club.
A huge effort from Reid who closed out the game with 114 runs not out and carrying his bat through the entire 77 over innings.
Overall, Yarrawonga Mulwala finished 2/226 with a huge team effort from the bowling group the week before.
Plus Reid and Jobe Fraser’s game winning chase down and formidable partnership. The Lakers solidify their top spot on the WDCA A grade ladder.
As always, Delatite play in the spirit of the game, and the Lakers look forward to the next contest in Mansfield.
Next week, A Grade play against City Colts in a top of the table one day game.
The match is at Bill O’Callaghan Oval in Wangaratta at 1pm. See you there!
A reserve - bye
B Grade fall to top of the table Bushrangers
Benalla Bushrangers 6/155 def Yarrawonga Mulwala 4/122.
After a wet week the B Grade team took on the top of the table Benalla Bushrangers.
After losing the toss and being sent into bat, the Lakers got off to a solid start with the Bushrangers bowling an excellent line and length with limited bad balls and scoring opportunities hard to come by.
With runs at a trickle, the batsmen tried to lift the tempo resulting in the loss of a few wickets.
Enter the comeback kids in Ben Welsh and Jack Kennedy who managed to turn the strike over and reach the boundary a few times lifting the rate to finally make 4/122.
Welsh 28 and Kennedy 44 not out.
With the bowlers needing to get early wickets it was Hill and tear away young quick Kade Michael who opened the bowling.
With good lines and length they tied the Benalla openers down but the wickets just didn’t come.
The bowling was rotated trying to get the breakthrough.
Hargreaves and young off spinner TJ Docking continued the tight bowling with Docking taking 3/38 from his 8 overs and Hargreaves a miserly 1/12 from his 8.
Youngsters Gove, Purtle and Darcy Hargreaves all bowled well with Goves 2 wickets a highlight. Unfortunately Benalla finished 7/155 to claim victory.
C Grade match abandoned
On a stormy Saturday afternoon the Lakers ventured south and deep into Panther Country at Strathbogie.
After the big drive, Captain Pickering lost the toss and was sent into bat on a wet wicket.
Peter Brear and Taylor got the Lakers off to a solid start with Taylor looking to get the run rate climbing before chopping one on to the stumps.
Enter Tungamah’s favourite son in Luke “Elk” Buerckner. Elk looked in great touch smacking the balls in the warmup.
Unfortunately Elk didn’t get to face many out in the middle as the match was soon abandoned in the first hour of play due to opposition behaviour towards the umpire. Yarrawonga Mulwala awarded the match points.
Despite the match being abandoned, it was awesome to continue the father son combo’s this weekend with not one, but two of Ben Pickering’s sons playing alongside him - Lucas and Eamon.
Lucas is an emerging under 14s player who bowls some tricky seamers and has taken a handful of wickets in the C grade this year.
Lucas also has a couple of A grade scalps in the nets this year too.
Eamon made his senior debut this week and is one of the league’s most exciting under 12s batsmen.
Eamon is an aggressive opening bat and keeper in the 12s who also managed to smash a 6 to get off the mark a couple of weeks ago.
Exciting times for the club and Pickering boys. A shame the match was called off but the club all look forward to your development this season.
Although disappointed, the team loaded up the cars and headed back to Vic Park via a few stops for refreshments and hot chips along the way - with Peter Brear ordering $20 worth of steamed dim sims for the boys.
The boys arrived home just in time to see Reid bring up his 100 in the A grade.
Congrats to Reid and a big sorry to everyone who gave up their day off for the game to be abandoned.
On to next week.
Yarrawonga Chronicle