Magpie Chatter – January 27th

With the ongoing battle to get the Tanunda Oval to the point where cricket can be safely played on it, the A’s headed to Faith East to tackle the Schlungers from Greenock. After losing Brett Grocke early Tanunda were in great shape at 2 for about 100 thanks to a fine 50 from skipper Nathan Justin and 20s from ‘Pommy’ Tommy Oliver and Jon Justin.  At that point the wheels well and truly fell off the apple cart, with the last 8 wickets falling in rather rapid pace, with Tanunda being bowled out for 126 in just the 33rd over.

With every game critical in the lead up to finals a special bowling performance was going to be needed, and that’s exactly what the bowlers delivered.  Christian Gattermayr took 4 wickets and Mitch Boschen and Luke Samain 3 each as the visitors were bowled out for 97 to complete a stirring victory.  Tanunda Clubhouse A grade player of the week goes to Nathan for making the best part of half of the score!

The B’s drove to Nuriootpa with skipper Kym electing to have a bowl.  Micah Linke and Wayne Akkerman both picked up two wickets, with Nick Norman, Adam Norman and Brodie Robinson also taking wickets as the home side reached 7 for 168.   In reply Tanunda fell short with 119.  Brodie and Nick showed their all-round abilities with 25 and 24.  Phil and Darren Graetz also got into double figures with 21 and 17 respectively. WFI B Grade player of the week goes to young Brodie.

The C’s travelling show headed to Mallala in a crucial game with both sides battling it out for a place in the top 4.  Tanunda batted first and Danny Reu showed that a lack of cricket in recent times hadn’t really mattered with an excellent 82 at the start of the innings, with fellow opener Matt Fechner helping lay an excellent foundation for the team contributing 38.  Sam Cox enjoyed his time in the top 3 with 29, Paul Healy, Stuart Swan and Steve Lewis helped get the total to a very respectable 220 with 21 not out, 18 and 13 not out respectively.

The game was in the balance with Mallala 3 for 120 in reply however the removal of a couple of key Mallala batsmen resulted in a comfortable win for Tanunda, with the last Mallala wicket falling on 176. Sam Cox showed he’s as good with the ball as he is with the bat with 2 wickets.  Ben Linke bowled 2 and a bit highly eventful overs, with a variety of unplayable yorkers and unplayable headhunting deliveries, ending with 2 key wickets, one of the best displays of celebrating a wicket you will ever see (the only thing missing was Ben pulling his shirt over his head), and a “that’ll do you for the day” from the umpire.  Matt Fechner enjoyed finishing Ben’s over and took 2 wickets.  Charles Shaw turned back the clock taking 2 wickets in an over of medium pace.  Steve Lewis and Stuart Swan each picked up a wicket.  Danny Reu takes the Lynas Valley Ford C grade player of the week along with the Mia Pizza senior player of the week.

Unfortunately a significant number of the younger variety of players away on school holidays the Under 16s and Under 14 Black teams were unable to fill their sides, resulting in easy points for their opponents.

The Under 14 White side didn’t have much luck either, with the damp weather conditions last week washing out their game at Chateau Tanunda against Angaston.  A disappointing result for the boys who’d posted a competitive 117 against the top team last week thanks to 39 from Riley and 20 from Zac the week before, but that’s turf cricket.

The Under 12 Whites headed to Kapunda to have a rare game on turf.  The damp conditions meant that the kids would need to be on their guard with both bat and ball.  In his debut game Lachlan won the toss and sent in the hosts which proved a master stroke with Tanunda taking 3 wickets in the first 3 overs. Lachlan and Kalan both took two wickets. Both Sam’s took a wicket, as did Darcy and Mitch.  Ben’s ‘only one stump to look at’ run out further restricted Kapunda’s scoring attempts.

‘Front foot forward’ was the order of the day, with Sam N and Darcy getting Tanunda off to a great start.  Excellent partnerships continued throughout the Tanunda innings with Mitch, Sam R and Nick hitting 4s.  The last partnership of the day proved to the one full of excitement, with Malik hitting his first 4 and Lachlan capping off a dream start to his cricket career hitting a 4 off the first delivery he’s faced.  Well done all.

The Under 12 Blacks took to field at Faith against a well-coached Angaston with captains Nick and Liam losing the toss and Tanunda were sent out to bowl. Tanunda’s great form in the field continued with 2 catches (Harry L. & Jack U.), a great runout and a superb bowling effort with wickets to Nick, Syd, Harry R., Harry L. Drake and Ben.  Angaston showed excellent pressure in the field, with a few of the Tanunda players still in “holiday mode”.

After a great start from the openers Harry L.(13 n.o.) and Hayden (7), Tanunda’s batters started to struggle with Angaston’s continued pressure in the field resulting in some unfortunate run outs.  Some excellent partnerships closed out the innings well.  All in all a solid morning’s effort from all players.

The Under 10 whites took on the Greenock Schlungers at Redeemer. Captain Giles won the toss and sent Greenock into bat with Tanunda putting in a great bowling performance restricting them to 65 with only 12 wides (which is the best for the season). Wickets went to Patrick, Tom, Huddo and Oscar. Oscar also took 2 awesome catches while wicket keeping. With the bat Tanunda chased down the runs quite easily finishing with a total of 91 whilst losing only 5 wickets along the way. Captain Giles was on fire hitting 4 fours.  Oscar, Zavier also hitting the boundary rope. Josh Thompson also hit his first 4 for Tanunda – well done Josh! Overall a great team performance bringing a big smile to coach Pete’s dial.