Tuesday 22 December

Muddies B Grade win final game in 2009 as C Grade go close

North - Cairns travelled to Port Douglas Sporting Complex to take on the Court House Hotel Port Douglas Mudcrabs Cricket Club in the last One Day game before the 2009 Christmas break on one of the hottest days this season at the Muddies home ground.

North-Cairns won the toss and sent Port Douglas in to bat on a very well prepared pitch which would have suited the bowling side more than the batting side, or so you would have thought! After a slow week last week were Arnell and McConnell made 4 and 0 respectively, they were both looking for a big day and a good solid platform from which to build.

In the second over McConnell took on Cairns opening bowler, McGrath with two big fours to the mid-wicket boundary ending with 10 runs off the second over. The openers dominated the attack with Arnell punishing the bad ball and then keeping the scoreboard ticking over with one's and two's with McConnell putting extra pressure on the fielding team producing many misfields and overthrows to move the score along rapidly. At the first drinks break after 17 overs the Muddies were no wicket for 78.

After the drinks break Arnell opened up his formidable shoulders, and anything slightly off line went for four or at least 2 runs. He quickly overtook McConnell and raced to his second fifty of the season off just 51 balls with a four and an even bigger six and finished with a fine 56 after he received a good ball that kept low of Brzowzski. At this stage the Muddies were 1 for 118 after 23 overs.

McConnell took a little longer to get to his maiden Port Douglas Mudcrabs fifty but passed the milestone in the 26th over with a quick single to the mid-wicket fielder. After the quick wickets of King and Thwaite fell McConnell needed to consolidate the innings with the inform Taylor. McConnell and Taylor were looking good together and when the second drinks break was called the Muddies were in command on 3 for 144 with fifteen overs to spare and lots of wickets in hand.

After the break Taylor and McConnell were looking to keep the run rate ticking over, but despite having worked well with his partners, McConnell was run out on 59 looking for a quick single.

This brought Sammy (Hollywood) Evans to the crease with the green light from the skipper to go for some sensible big hits.  Batting beautifully with Taylor turning the strike over and Evans hitting two massive six's the runs were coming thick and fast at the start of the 40th over. 

Taylor received a great ball from Pendleton after he had been hit all over the park and was bowled for 26. A couple of balls later saw Harris come and go for 3 and Evans caught at Mid-off looking for another spectacular six. With 5 overs remaining Mison and Gooding arrived at the crease and just stood and delivered with Mison nearly clearing the long-on fence, a la Sammy Evans, with another big six. Gooding was not left out of the action and hit a couple of big fours. In the last 5 overs Gooding and Mison put on 40 runs with the help of a few wides of North-Cairns.

Port Douglas finished their 50 overs on 7 for 246, their highest team score for the 2009/2010 season so far.

Early wickets is what the Captain and the opening Port Douglas Bowlers were looking for when North-Cairns walked out to bat, and with Arnell in blistering form with the bat it was not surprising that he took a wicket with his second ball of the innings.

Gooding bowled from the other end in a tight opening spell, with only lucky hits pushing the runs along for North-Cairns. Brazowski was the only batter from Cairns that played any actual shots.

At the first drinks break of Cairns's innings they were 2 for 69, which was starting to look like a good position to be in when chasing down 246 runs. It was not long before Matt Scheisser came on to bowl and as always started off with a maiden for his first over and a wicket maiden in his second over after hitting the edge of Lavis's bat with keeper McConnell diving to his right to take the much needed wicket with a cracker of a catch.

Keith Taylor also bowled a magic spell of bowling working well with Schiesser at keeping the runs down and putting pressure on and when the wickets of Lord and Cole fell, Cairns were reeling at 6 for 117. Daniel Harris came on and bowled 8 sharp overs which earned him two wickets with Mison getting one wicket off his three overs. In the end Port Douglas bowling attack was too good for their opposition and all the bowlers got a reward of at least one wicket each. Port Douglas won the game by 81 runs after North-Cairns were bowled out for 165 in the 43 over.

Port Douglas will go to the Christmas break sitting in third position on the ladder with North-Cairns slumping to bottom of the table. Court House Hotel Port Douglas Mudcrabs play their first game after the New year on January 10 at Innisfail Tafe against Innisfail in Round 5 of the One Day Comp.

Muddies C Grade tail just fail to grab second win.
The Port Douglas Court House Hotel Senior C Grade Mudcrabs lost a narrowly contested match at Trinity Beach against Barron River in Round 3 of the One Day Cairns far North Cricket competition on Sunday 20th.

Barron River made just 122 runs all out with some fine bowling, without any luck, during his 10 overs by Sammy Sandford finishing with 1 for 30. However the Umpires, Man of the Match award went Daniel Pokai for a second week in a row with his back to back 5 wicket hauls. He bowled out his 10 overs and dominated the Barron batters finishing with a fine 5 for 26. With a run out and Dave Marks, Nick Leu and debutant Siddhaunt Kapur each chipping in with a wicket apiece all looked set for a second victory in two weeks.

Steve Doble (17) and Sam Sandford (35) started confidently enough and as the Muddies passed 20 overs all continued to look steady on 2 for 60 with 30 overs to go but this is cricket and anything can happen after a wicket falls.

Darren Wall (14) was run out and the Muddies tail had absolutely nothing to offer with the last 5 batters accumulating just 6 runs between them which included two unnecessary run outs to sacrifice the game by 22 runs as the Muddies were all out for 100.

A game that all agreed should not have slipped away but a little more net practice will sort out those deficiencies.

There are no more games until after the Christmas and New Year break until Round 4 of the One Comp at home on Jan 10 starting at 10am.

Training in the nets will recommence on Tuesday Jan 5th and there will be quite a few C grade batters who will be lining up for a hit to snap themselves out of their doldrums.

And finally, we wish all our sponsors and supporters a very Happy Christmas from everyone at the Club, here's to an unbeaten 2010....Go the Muddies !