Round 1 v Campbelltown at Raby 3

Campbelltown 192 def Northern District 113

It was an early start at Campbelltown for the boys from the north ready to take on last year’s premiers of 5th grade. Playing in my first game as captain I was looking at my Campbelltown opposite number as not only being twice my age but probably three times my size and I couldn’t help but be concerned for my fellow ND first grades playing in the field adjacent to ours, in the likely event that I drop a tad short to this man mountain and he hits me into another game.

We lost the toss and thus were in the field. The two Chris’s got us underway and both did the job, the Vilmar variety ending with 1/20 and creating plenty of chances. Our change bowlers continued to make inroads to their middle order and when Shrek.... I mean the Campbelltown skipper was well

caught by Charles (nick name yet to be assigned) of the bowling off Deano (2/35) the home team was in trouble at 4-72. Unfortunately from there we were unable to ram home our ascendancy and they managed 192 all out in the 45th over. All bowlers bowled well however our extra count and ground fielding (J Clark to invest in a drawstring for his pants) left a lot to be desired.

All things considered, I was confident that 192 on a flat deck was an achievable task,

but it wasn’t to be. Chris Diehm scored a fighting 34 and supported by Dave Freny (17) looked to be taking the fight to the opposition, but unfortunately the combination of some good bowling and poor batting left us well short all out for 113.

There were plenty of positives to take to the next game such as Miche’s keeping, the young man taking 3 stumping and looking very at home to the spinners. Who not to be out done looked pretty good themselves.