PG's chalk up a win vs Sydney at Chatswood

After getting through the first 5 games of the PG’s season without posting a win, the younger stags were keen to head into the Christmas break on a high, and with the opposing Sydney team having only posted one win through their 5 games there was a good feeling within the team that we would indeed be able to take the points.

Justin Avendano during his century

The day started as usual with a relaxed warm up and the elder Colley losing the toss. As such the stags were in the field first. Scott Heany and Dan Smith opened up and bowled well without gaining a break through, though they ensured that the run rate never got away from the stags and with that pressure it allowed the like of Alex Jackson, Chad Soper and Henry Carmichael to bowl a number of tight overs at their middle order, and also pick up wickets along the way, restricting Sydney to only 8-190 of their 50 overs.  Special mention must also be given to Steve Colley, who did indeed bowl a very useful spell, much to the amazement of his team mates. Giving the ball plenty of air and even spinning a couple, although I’m not sure if his figures would have been the same if it were not for some interesting shot selections by the Sydney bats, and also the fact that Steve ensured he bowled from the end that meant the batsmen had to hit the ball around 80 meters on the leg side for a boundary not 40. But none the less well bowled Col.

After seeing the scores of the 1^st grade game the day before the young stags were confident in their abilities to chase down the score that was judged ‘below par’ by some. Colley enterprises opened the innings but it was not long before they were broken up with Kris falling LBW. This brought Dick Huey’s favourite avocado to the crease, and Justin obviously still thought he was playing in the 20/20 game from Saturday as he duly smoked his first ball for four through cover.  

Chad Soper, Alex Jackson and Justin during the PG's game at Chatswood

Justin was given a life before he had reached 10 and he was determined to make the Sydney bowlers pay, and that he did. Justin and Steve added 80 before Steve was out, bringing Logan Weston to the crease, he and Justin batted tremendously, knocking around singles on occasions but ensuring that any bowler who missed their mark slightly was punished. As the Stags raced towards the Sydney total Justin continued to belt anything and everything on his way to a magnificent 126 N.O. of only 97 balls which included 14 4’s and 5 6’s. This was a great innings by Justin and hopefully he can take this form into the New Year and continue on scoring runs. Logan finished on a stylish 26 N.O which gave the stags an 8 wicket win in only the 31^st over.

Overall it was very pleasing to finally play at a level somewhere near the team’s potential, giving not only the club but each player cause to look forward to the final game against Bankstown next year and hopefully finishing on a high. 

Henry Carmichael

We were back playing at Chatswood this week in a one day match against a strong Parramatta side.After some bad performances in the T20s we were ready to post our 1st win for the season.

Dan Smith in action

We lost the toss and were sent in to bowl on what looked like to be a flat Chatswood wicket. Our Opening bowlers started off great with Scott Heaney (0 for 61 off 10) was very unlucky not to pick up an early wicket.

Dan Smith (2 for 46 off 10) bowled perfect lines and with a swinging ball the batsman found him very hard to face picking up 2 key wickets early in the innings.

Alex Jackson (1 for 35 off 10) playing in his 1st PGs game for the stags bowled excellent. Alex built up a lot of pressure on the batsman and they found him very hard to get away, which brought about his 1st wicket of Sean Abbott with a great caught and bowled.

Alex celebrating his first PGs wicket

Steve’s job had never been so easy, and after the 30 over mark Parramatta had scored 104 runs. We had a real chance of keeping them to a score below 210. The problem was Parramatta had two set batsman at the crease and with some good hitting and some bad bowling the score started to increase rapidly. Both Batsman reached their hundreds, one of them in 70 odd balls. Dan smith bowled a very well controlled final spell of bowling targeting the stumps. Parramatta reached 291 after their 50 over’s.

With a big target to chase the innings didn’t start to well losing both Colley’s early on. Jordan (29) and Justin (85) stuck around for a while building a good partnership of 70. We were going at a strong run rate and things were looking good before Jordan got bowled off the spinner. 2 over’s later Dan (1) also fell victim to the off spinner. Logan (8) will be disappointed with the shot he got out on after looking very positive. Losing 3 quick wickets really put us on the back foot. Henry (29*) found it hard to get set early on and found the best way to get back in touch was to hit 6s over mid off. With bad weather staying around Gordon finished on 6/179. With Parramatta getting the win with the Duckworth Lewis method.

Justin Avendano

Justin driving through the covers whilst Scott Heaney is about to release the ball

After winning the toss thanks to Marcus, 

Gordon decided to have a bat on a flat wicket with a lightning fast out field. The batting was started by Twenty20 specialists Henry "I only play Twenty20's" (17) and Kris Colley who put an opening partnership stand of 27. This left the Colley brothers in the middle who continued to build on the good start made by the openers running, well between the wickets turning over the strike whilst putting the pressure back on the UNSW fielders. 

Kris Colley punches the ball through the covers

Unfortunately Kris "it hit my wrist" was caught behind to leave the score at 59. 

After this wicket the stags failed to rebuild and rotate the strike, losing wickets constantly not allowing any momentum to build. After the 20 overs were up we had finished 6/123 which was well under par. With a bit more shape in the batting and more turning over of the strike, 150+ runs would of been a bare minimum for this talented batting line up.

To defend the modest score of 123 the plan was to bowl one side of the wicket with men inside the 30 yard circle to build up the pressure and as we seen in this format before it is very hard to chase runs! We bowled and fielded with the odd ball drifting down the leg side which led to the UNSW batsmen taking full toll of the lose bowling.

Henry Carmichael 'rolling' the arm over for PG's

In trying to defend this runs we were always just behind the 8 ball but is was pleasing to see the fight by the boys right to the end. Henry "Im just going to bowl slow" Carmichael bowled well to the plan with figures of 3.2 overs going for 15 with three wides in the last over to be under speculation of match fixing and Tom Carruthers 3 overs for 18 both the boys bowled one side of the wicket.

Unfortunately we just didn't have enough runs and they reached our score 5 down in the 18th over. this could of been a different result if we had "found a way" to score another 15 to 20 runs. A special mention to Max Newman for an excellent game behind the stumps and helping out the captain with the men inside the circle when the captain goes to sleep.

So far for the PG's boys it has been a very disappointing start for a side way to talented to be 0 from 3 but i feel the boys are learning from these experiences and are ready for the 50 over format to start this Sunday against Parramatta back at Chatswood.

Steve "The Buck" Colley

The author hooks the ball while Logan Weston dances down the wicket.

The Gordon PGs side arrived at Manly oval determined to put in a good performance after a convincing defeat at the hands of Fairfield-Liverpool in round one of the 2011/12 season. It was sure to be a tough contest against one of the Stags traditional rivals.

Skipper Steve Colley lost the toss and the hosts elected to bat first. On a pretty good wicket it was always going to be difficult for the Stags to contain a strong manly batting line-up, the innings started quite rapidly but with a strong showing from all bowlers we managed to contain Manly (also known as Logans mates) to 143 off their 20 over's, a special mention must go to Steve 'Buck' Colley who bowled a particularly tight 4 over spell really leading his team taking 1 for 26, and also James Kidd who bowled an excellent spell finishing with 1 for just 22 runs off his 4 overs.

James Kidd continues his early season form.

The fielding was overall very good, before the game our coach Ian 'Bevo' Beverly set our fielding goal at 1 run out, as it turned out Dan, Steve and Chad all got direct hit run outs, all with one stump to aim at - an outstanding effort.

I would also like to give a special mention to young Tommy Carruthers who threw himself around the field saving several runs throughout the course of the innings with some terrific diving saves.

There was a definite belief in the change room (despite the inconveniently placed brick wall through the middle of it) at the change of innings which was not present last week, after losing an early wicket Henry 'H' Carmichael was promoted to number 3 and he and Kris Colley put together on a superb partnership. Both showed excellent power and control. Henry dispatching the ball over the fence 4 times as we know he can do, Henry was dismissed for an excellent 30 off just 15 balls, this brought the two eldest Colley boys to the crease and together they looked very good and victory looked imminent, however such is the nature of T20 when Kris was dismissed for an excellent top score of 39 off just 24 balls showing he can do it in all forms of the game. After this the innings began to collapse with Logan showing some good form against his mates manly. In the end the stags fell just 8 runs short.

Henry Carmichael cutting during his 30 off 15 balls.

It was a difficult loss to take after being in such a strong positon, However I know all the boys will take a lot of T20 experience out of this game, and continue to grow stronger as a unit. I believe as a result of team manager Rob Carruthers request, next game will bring more team banter, and also an even stronger performance from the Stags.

Jordan Liddle

Scott Heaney approaches the crease while Kris Colley leans into a drive.

The Gordon PGs side for 2011/2012 had their first outing against Fairfield-Liverpool in a 20/20. Having had a good session with 1st grade coach Mark O’Neil during the week, the hopes were high for the younger brigade of Stags that they would be able to kick of the season with a win.

James Kidd charges in against the Lions

Unfortunately though the day did not quite go to plan, Skipper Colley lost the toss and we were in the field. Scott Heany and Dan Smith opened the bowling and along with Chad Soper and James Kidd bowled good lines to keep the Fairfield bats to a reasonable run rate. Though during the middle over, to their credit, the Fairfield bats really upped the run rate, with wickets in hand they were able to take some chances, hammering ball to all parts of the ground (most of which the Staggies fielders retrieved from either just inside or outside the fence).

After grabbing the key wicket of Luke Doran, the Stags came together and were asked to really put in a big effort from Captain Col, and the team obliged restricting Fairfield to a score of 177 of their allotted 20 overs. This was a good score and would take some chasing down but the Stags batsmen did not think it was out of reach and knew that 2 good partnerships would give us a chance.

Logan Weston takes a great catch, under the watchful eye of our roving cameraman

Unfortunately these partnerships never eventuated; Fairfield’s bowling was tight and gave nothing away forcing the Stags batsmen into some lose shots resulting in a steady loss of wickets, which never allowed the stags to put on a solid partnership as we had spoken about before the innings.

The one shining light for the Stags in the run chase was Kris Colley’s innings; he showed that 20/20 is not all about hitting the big shots but also about picking up 1ns and 2s and rotating the strike. Kris scored an impressive 33 looking good and falling late in the innings trying to get the team close to the target.

Kris Colley swings from the hip, trying to get his side close

Eventually the Stags finished 45 runs short of the target, obviously not the desired result although there were some good things to come out of the game. If we can fix up the areas we struggled in during this game then I’m sure there will be some good results in the not too distant future for this young team.

Henry Carmichael