The old-boys of Harden Cricket, Dean Bourlet and Simon Squire-Wilson.
The fields were finally dry enough for the South West Slopes Cricket League to get underway last Saturday.
Whilst four games were meant to be played in division two round five, only two went ahead due to Harden and Temora forfeiting.
The first game between Boorowa Cricket Club and Temora Shamrock Hotel Leprechauns at Cullen Oval was cancelled due to a Temora forfeit.
The other forfeit was the game between Temora Bowling Club Tigers B Grade and Harden Country Club Hornets at Nixon Park 2. Harden Cricket Club’s Kelvin Brown said, “we had a wedding among other things. We ended up having six players so we ended up forfeiting.
We had a full team every other week when it was washed out but this week we didn’t have a full team, but that’s called life.”
Although these games didn’t get on, there was some entertaining cricket around the other grounds.
The Bribbaree Rams showed some extreme dominance in their win over the Murringo Mavericks.
Bribbaree batted first and put on a massive 9/297 in their 40 overs, with captain Justin Boyd scoring 75 and was supported by Daniel Woods and Scott Druett who both scored 50 each. 297 is a tough score to chase in 40 overs and that scoreboard pressure caused Murringo to be 3/9 early on.
A 35 from Mark Jolliffe and a 33 from Jamie Pullen helped Murringo climb to 164, but they were all bowled out in the 31st over.
Bribbaree captain Justin Boyd was clearly the man of the match in this game with his quick 75 of 50 balls and a tidy bowling performance of 2/10 of three overs.
The other game on Saturday was a thriller between the Young Criterion Hotel Gunner and the Temora Ex Services Renegades.
Temora Batted first, getting off to a good start with openers Paul Oliver scoring 38 and Nate Breust scoring 41.
A nice 54 from Harminder Singh help Temora reach their way to 7/175 after their 40 overs.
A good bowling performance was put together from Young’s James Payne, who got 4/16 off his 5 overs.
Young came out to bat and looked in early trouble, as their top four fell quickly with a combined total of just 9.
A middle order partnership between Aiden Thomas, who had 60 and Oscar Taylor, who had 35, gave Young a chance at getting back in the game.
However some neat bowling from Temora’s Will Matthews, who had 3 for 17 off eight over and Jamie Bell, who had 3 for 11 off five overs, was enough to bing home the win.
Young finished 20 runs short with 155, with Temora’s Harminder Singh being the best player on the day with his 54 not out and his economical non for 10 off four overs.
This upcoming Saturday, the Murringo Mavericks Cricket Club take on the Young Criterion Hotel Gunners at Miller Henry Oval.
The Temora Ex-Services Renegades will be playing the Temora Bowling Club Tigers B Grade at Nixon Park 1 The Temora Shamrock Hotel Leprechauns are up against the Bribbaree Rams Cricket Club Nixon Park 2 The Harden Country Club Hornets are up against their neighbours in the Boorowa Cricket Club at Tim Doolan Oval.
“We’ve been so wet that people just aren’t enthusiastic about cricket at the moment.
Normally you have to have a game or two for people to get into the swing of it again, before you get confident.
There’s even rain forecast for Saturday we’ll see if we get out there Saturday,” said Kelvin.
Whilst excited to be playing at home at Tim Doolan Oval, Kelvin does have slight concerns with the weather, saying, “it’s just got one wet spot going back towards the swimming pool that can sometimes get a little bit wet, but the rest of it okay.” Harden knows it’s a tough game this weekend against Boorowa, with Kelvin saying, “they’ve got a couple of decent bats in B grade.”
It was great for the South West Slopes Cricket League to have the fields finally dry enough for them to get underway last Saturday and hopefully this trend of good weather continues into this weekend.
Ed Dodds
