Close results were the order of the day on Saturday, with thrillers played out on ‘both sides of the ditch’, and a couple of them coming pretty close to home!
The A’s made a welcome return to the Tanunda turf after a long absence due to pitch repairs and a long run of hot weather on Saturdays. Opposition skipper from Greenock decided the best thing to do was to have a bowl to see how it would play. It proved to be a pretty wise piece of captaincy with the Magpies in all sorts, with only Jon Justin and Nathan Justin making double figures in the top 8, with one of the opposition bowlers having a terrific day out with figures of 7 for 7! Some rear guard action by Connor Peacock and Dylan Abinett saw the home side limp to being all out for 103 in the 31st over, with Dylan Abinett making Glen McGrath proud, top scoring with 23.
Much like what was happening at Eden Park, the chase came down with the wire with the opposition 8 for 97 with overs to spare. But the old wise skipper, Pete ‘Pistol’ Mernagh bowled the 3 balls he’ll hear about for a long time no doubt, dismissing the last 2 batmen to see Tanunda sneak over the line by 6 runs. In a pretty good team bowling performance Mitch Boschen, Shaun Akkerman and Dylan Abinett each took too wickets, with Luke Samain and Connor Peacock taking a wicket. Barossa Valley Brewing A grade player of the week goes to Dylan for his efforts with both bat and ball.
The B’s headed to South Gawler with only pride to play for over the remaining rounds. Skipper Toby Mifflin won the toss and elected to have a hit, and after a promising opening partnership regular wickets saw Tanunda in all sorts of trouble at 8 for 59 before a good partnership between Aiden Radzevicius and Paul Healy saw the a score of 119 being set. Coming in at number 10, Aiden was by far the best of the batsmen being the last one out for 35.
An early wicket gave the boys hope, however that was the only wicket to fall as South proved far too good, cruising to victory in the 33rd over. Aiden was the successful bowler, and easily takes the Tanunda Clubhouse B grade player of the week.
The C’s had the bye to cap off 4 weeks without cricket!
The D’s hosted top team Morgan at Faith East, with the opposition winning the toss and having a hit, posting a reasonable score of 145 (thanks somewhat to a generous dropped catch that may have cost some 75 runs of that total) before being bowled out in just the 25th over. There was a real footy club theme amongst the wicket takers, with Chris Collins (on a hat-trick at one point in time), Dan Eggleton and Nat Geue each taking 3 wickets apiece, with ‘absent out’ being the other wicket to fall. The chase looked to be going well at 2 for 66, with Sam Cox enjoying his chance to play as number 3 hitting 28. From there wickets tumbled in a hurry, with Tanunda behind the 8 ball at 8 for 88. What was to happen next was quite remarkable, with Jamie Roehr and young Cooper Ratsch putting on a ripper unbeaten partnership to steal the win with a ball to spare! Rogash Windows C grade player, and Mia Pizza senior player of the week goes to Jamie for his match winning knock of 41, with Cooper outshining his dad to end on 18. The second thriller to play out in Tanunda on an otherwise quiet and normal Saturday afternoon!
The Under 16s took on South Gawler on the turf at Tanunda and would have known they had a game on their hands after the visitors posted a highly competitive 6 for 142, at one stage they were 3 for 139. Best with the ball was Jake Hartigan with 3 wickets, with Ben Biagi and Lachlan Miller both picking up a wicket. An excellent team batting effort led to Tanunda eclipsing the visitors total reaching an excellent 3 for 173 off the 25 overs. James Madden was the standout retiring on 54, Jonah Whitelum retiring on 20 and Ben Biagi ending on 21 not out. Jake Hartigan capped off an excellent all-round day with 18.
It was an all Tanunda affair in the Under 14s at Faith East, with Tanunda White winning the toss and batting. After 25 overs a victory target of 77 was set, with Jayden Birchard, Riley Westbrook and Nic Mills all posting double figures. Best of the Tanunda Black bowlers was Aaron Birt and Luca Whitelum both taking two wickets well supported by Blake Dahlitz, Oscar Harms, Will Parker and Jacob Judd with a wicket each. The Tanunda Blacks headed out to the middle to chase down the victory target but it wasn’t to be, with the Tanunda White bowlers having a field day and winning the bragging rights by restricting Tanunda Black to 37. Angus Blieschke led the team bowling performance with 2 wickets, with Jackson Docherty, Dylan Birchard, Nichola Mills, Tyson Healy, Tomas Huezenroeder and Riley Westbrook each getting a wicket.
After weeks of rest the under 12 boys were another group of Tanunda cricketers that were well and truly ready for their first game of cricket in a month. Nuriootpa won the toss and chose to bat. Good bowling performances from captain Harry Lienert and Angus Dohse help slow the runs late in Nuriootpa’s innings. Excellent fielding by Malakai GaskinVanWieringen and exemplary glove work from Liam Cook proved great support to the bowlers. With a few of the regular ‘up the order’ bats not available a few lads were sent up the order. Jack Underwood batted well making 14, Hayden Spehr with 15 supported by Sydney Pick a well compiled 10. Well done lads!
The Under 10’s headed to take on Kapunda on the “perfectly sized for Under 10 cricket” Kapunda Primary School oval. Great sportsmanship was shown by James Duff and Nick Holmes with both young lads putting up their hand to play for the opposition to ensure it was an even game, well done boys. Tanunda batted really well with Kapunda only managing to take 3 wickets, the highlight of the innings being Chloe Rosenzweig hitting her first 4. Another good bowling performance from all, with Zavier Dswonitzky taking a good caught and bowled, Walter Holmes and Ben Mernagh both bowling one of the opposition players and Chloe backing up her batting with a good caught behind.
A couple of weeks before finals, and at this stage there are a number of sides in finals contention. Every win from here on is critical – so good luck to all sides this week.