While the League's away
After a tiring start to the season chasing (a lot of) leather, ANZACC entered a mid-season break from League matches. This gave the perfect opportunity for ANZA’s weary players to recuperate, work on their techniques and gain a bit of confidence. That’s right, it was time for a few friendly matches and a sixes tournament!
While some decided that a trip to Phuket was the perfect preparation for the rest of the season, others chose a match against Singapore Cricket Club’s (SCC) Saturday XI at the Padang. Both ideas had their merits but only one resulted in an on field victory and a fitting farewell for two stalwarts of ANZA cricket, David West and outgoing President Greg Joiner. Both performed admirably and played vital roles in attaining victory on that rarest of treasures in Singapore... a turf wicket!
The next weekend this duo again played in the Denis Meyer Veterans Sixes. As the late Denis was a former member, this is a competition ANZA is eager to do well in every year, bodies willing. Given the surplus of veterans at ANZA’s disposal we fielded two sides, the “Old Boyz” and the “Champs”. In recent years, this has allowed the club to vie for silverware but sadly in 2009 ANZA fell just short. On the Saturday, while both teams made it through to the business end of the tournament, there were a few moments of concern, particularly as Champs contrived to beat the best sides and lose to the whipping boys. While some might argue this was to maintain their underdog status, others would say more bowling practice in the nets was in order. On Sunday, with some players (a lot of them playing for opposition teams) having enjoyed their Saturday night, both ANZA teams were focused on delivering the goods. Old Boyz were up first against SCC but fell short chasing 60 in 5 overs. Dhruv Soota laid an excellent foundation for the chase, retiring early in the piece. Sadly, SCC’s bowlers were able to pull things back as 3rd XI captain Phil “Now the Elder” Davies struggled to hit boundaries and wickets fell regularly at the other end. Meanwhile the Champs, thanks to a superb fielding performance and some very tight bowling were able to beat Malaysian side Kelewar (who boasted a number of former ANZA players) to progress to the semi-finals. Unfortunately, this was as far as ANZA made it as, despite beating Spirits CC in the group stages and having the Old Boyz barracking them on in the traditional ANZA fashion, the Champs were unable to repeat the feat and fell just short.
The following weekend, however, ANZACC was able to hang on to some silverware as the club took on AIS (a team composed of teachers and “concerned” parents) in the Digger’s Cup. Continuing in the ANZA tradition, AIS won the toss and elected to bat. With social rules “strictly” enforced, wides were few and LBWs rare but a good game was had by all. After an early wicket had ANZA in a positive mood, Mike Gal helped one of AIS’s top players, Mr Ashleigh Martin retire by inviting him to dispatch consecutive balls for six. Mr Martin’s retirement limited the big hits, but brought more subtle batsmen to the crease, ensuring AIS set a difficult target of 122 off 20 overs. ANZA’s chase started poorly as Corbon Loughlin was out in the second over. This brought Kevin Robertson and David “Rev” Goodwin together and they quickly upped the scoring rate. Both retired in short order, bringing myself to the crease. This allowed AIS to fight back and after early jitters that resulted in regrettable confusion between the wickets (sorry Jonno, there was a run there I swear), my serene (some might say comatose) innings ended in retirement with the job nearly complete. In the end ANZA completed the victory with an over to spare and this season’s Wunderkind Josh Ghosh hitting the winning runs.
Given ANZACC’s commitment to equal opportunities this month’s SunSense Man of the Month has gone to another non-Aussie/Kiwi with Englishman and 1st XI skipper Kevin Robertson taking the award. He has regularly turned in good performances at the top of the 1st XI order, twice crossing 50 this season with the most recent occasion being part of ANZACC’s first 100 run opening partnership of the season (kudos should also go to Corbon Loughnan for also crossing 50 in that partnership).
To new arrivals and those looking to return to the fray, ANZACC
is always on the look out for members. So if you
fancy returning to the cricketing fold and are well
versed in the art of sledging (of teammates), either
come down to training on Thursday nights
(6.30-8.30pm at the Ceylon Sports Club) or send an
e-mail to join@anzacc.org.sg for more information.
Phil McNicholas |
