Cricket Report
Saturday 9 November 2024
With Summer sport here in Australia, we expect days of blue skies and sunny conditions. Reaching for the suncream and sunnies and hydrating correctly is part of preparing for your game of cricket. At this stage of the season, we take what we get, and some overcast conditions again greeted the Shore cricket teams as they took on the might of the West in The King’s School (King’s) across Northbridge and Parramatta.
With multiple Shore VIPS from multiple departments in attendance watching the seven Shore Senior cricket games, Northbridge was a real who’s who! The cricketers love seeing various staff in attendance, and all are welcome each week to watch the students displaying their cricketing skills.
With so many “Thrillers” over the weekend, it was like a karaoke night as Shore won two and lost one of the close ones.
King’s hosted four of our Opens teams at their extensive grounds, with two wins and two losses against a top school. It was a good showing from the older cricketers.
The brilliant Year 7 cricketers across the three Under 14s teams had a clean sweep against the quality of King’s – well done, boys! 14A’s rolling King’s for 58, 14B’s dismissing King’s for 67, and the 14C’s bowling King’s out for 80! Amazing bowling and fielding performances.
The pick was Sam Holt (5/9), who was mesmerizing in taking 5 wickets for just 9 runs in the 14A’s.
Other notable performances included the Seconds with a tremendous win against the top-ranked King’s, with Aidan Kurtis (70) with the bat and James Mathur (3/25) and Nick Yates (3/29) sealing the win with the ball ensuring a close 6 run win!
Last ball thrillers…the Thirds (Andrew Milton 49, Tully Robertson 45, Zak Roberts 4/28) going down by 1 while the 15A’s (Toby Smith 61 and 2/15, Xavier Simmonds 59, Joshua Cawood 2/15 ) win by 2! Toby and Xavier continued their good form with bat and ball.
The 15B’s losing a close one despite Ollie Thompson taking an amazing caught and bowled, smashed back at him diving one-handed!
The Fifths BBQ Boys (Digby Hockey 54, three direct hit run-outs) keep on winning, this time away from Fortress F-ground at King’s with a 50-run win.
It was great to hear about so many run-outs and great catches across all teams this weekend. The practice is paying off.
Mr Brett Hunter
Head of Cricket
First XI Report vs King’s
The Shore team were excited about testing themselves against the Competition leaders at home. After winning the toss, Shore chose to bat looking to be positive and set a competitive total in good batting conditions. A solid opening partnership between Fraser Pandit and Dan Harvey saw Shore progress to 0/31 in the eighth over before Pandit feathered a catch behind, ending his innings on 20. With the score on 37 Dan and Noah Quayle were both dismissed in consecutive balls, leaving Shore in a precarious position at 3/37. Oli Higgins and Matt Melville then came together and batted maturely, adding 28 before Oli departed. Fourteen runs later, with the score on 79, Melville was trapped lbw to a ball that stayed down a bit. Shore was in real trouble now, having lost five of their top six batsmen inside 25 overs. Captain Toby Robinson remained resolute throughout as he watched his teammates fall around him. Things worsened when he was dismissed for 31 and Shore 6/83. Tom Fuzes and Julian Harrison then came and went very quickly, and at 8/89, it looked as if Shore would not reach 100. Thankfully, Ben Hocking, with help from Stian Constable and Sam Walton, showed great fight with a gritty 25 not out from 64 balls to guide Shore to a more respectable 10/127 All Out. Overall, it must be said Shore’s batting effort lacked substance and showed a lack of application and discipline.
After the innings break, Shore knew that they needed early wickets to have any chance of making the King’s run chase challenging. To try and unsettle the King’s openers, off-spinner Stian bowled in partnership with Tom to start the innings. Tom provided the early breakthrough, and with King’s 1/5, Shore’s energy lifted. The King’s batsmen then combined for a 91-run stand that took the game away from Shore very quickly. The partnership was eventually broken by Sam Walton in the 18th over. King’s continued to bat freely and passed Shore’s total in the 24th over without losing another wicket. The 8-wicket loss was a reality check for a team that had started the season with two strong wins. The team will head to Weigall with plenty to prove this Saturday to play Sydney Grammar School in Round 5.
Second XI Report vs King’s
Shore 9/200 (A Kurtis 70, J Evans 24, T Hamilton 27, C Glanville 24) defeated TKS 10/194 (J Mathur 3/25, N Yates 3/29)
What a game! The Second XI was blessed with some wonderful cricket conditions over in Parramatta on a beautiful cricket pitch at White Oval. Shore won an important toss and elected to bat first on a batters’ paradise. Shore got off to a quick start, with Josh Evans and Gus Manchee hitting a couple of boundaries in the first couple of overs. Unfortunately, Gus was dismissed by an excellent catch at mid-off by the King’s fielder. Aidan Kurtis then stepped up to the crease and played a magnificent innings, one of composure and intent. Aidan scored runs around the ground with Josh supporting him well to put up a partnership of 58 runs. When Josh was caught, Thomas Hamilton came in to continue his good form with the bat and again played a pivotal role in an important partnership between he and Aidan. As the wickets began to fall late in the innings, there were some great knocks from Cooper Glanville, Will Scott-Mackenzie and Max Brownie to put the total at 200 runs at the end of the 50 overs.
With a very defendable total on the scoreboard, Shore came out firing with the ball and Thomas Capes and James Mathur took wickets early to keep King’s to 2/16 after 5 overs. King’s built a partnership after losing those early wickets and kept the run rate ticking over to edge closer and closer to the final target. However, some excellent bowling from the Shore cricketers, particularly Nick Yates and James Mathur, saw King’s within grasp of the total at 8/181 with 7 overs to go. Cometh the hour, cometh the man – Nick Yates stepped back into the attack and took the final two wickets in two consecutive balls in the 47th over to see Shore take the win. A very exciting game and quality cricket played by both teams.
Team Results Round 4 v King’s
| TEAM | RESULT | SCORES |
|---|---|---|
| First XI | Loss | TKS 2/128 defeated Shore 10/127 (T Robinson 31) |
| Second XI | Win | Shore 9/200 (A Kurtis 70, J Evans 24, T Hamilton 27, C Glanville 24) defeated TKS 10/194 (J Mathur 3/25, N Yates 3/29) |
| Third XI | Loss (Last ball) | Shore 7/172 (32 overs– A Milton 49, T Robertson 45, B Thorpe 24, T Robson 17, H Pritchard 11 ) defeated by TKS 8/173 (31.5 overs- Z Roberts 4/28, T Robson 2/37, C Newtown 2/40) |
| Fourth XI | Loss | TKS 130 defeated Shore 77 |
| Fifth XI | Win | Shore 9/168 (D Hockey 54) def TKS 10/121 (3 x direct hit run outs) |
| 16A | Loss | TKS 10/127 (A Neiland 3/9, S Lim 2/16) defeated Shore 10/60 (G Pritchard 14) |
| 15A | WIN (Last Ball) | Shore 9/181 (T Smith 61, X Simmonds 59) defeated TKS 9/179 (J Cawood 2/15, T Smith 2/16) |
| 15B | Loss | T20-Shore 9/95 (E Spencer 31*, W Tomes 23) lost to TKS 4/98 (O Thompson 1/13, H Ross 1/17) |
| 14A | WIN | Shore 60/6 (D Bishop 19, J Story 13) defeated King’s 58 (S Holt 5/9, H Klineberg 2/0) |
| 14B | WIN | T20-Shore 1/69 (H Ekas 23 ret, S Cook 15 ret) defeated TKS 67 (L Matthews 3/12, C Mullen 2/4) |
| 14C | WIN | Shore 101 (H Collingwood-Boots 45) defeated King’s 80 (A Berry 3/8, C Mullen 2/9 |