High Scoring Thrillers

Accelerate Automotive Bloomfield Premier 3 vs United

Saturday 6th of December, 1pm, Celaeno Park 1- Artificial

A bit of rain during the week meant the grass wickets couldn’t be prepped, so we ended up at Celaneo Park Pitch 1 again — our unofficial home on artificial, since we’ve still never played on the other two. Sun was blazing, and a strong breeze cut across the ground toward the gorge.

The United Dude who came for the toss opened with the ultimate power play: “What do you want to do?”Trout said, “Bat.”United was pretty keen on thatWe forced him to have a toss, He lost. We batted.

Tyler Stewart and Sam “Geoffrey’s Friend” Roebuck opened up. Tyler hit a few nice ones and tried to rotate the strike but was undone by an absolute screamer at mid-wicket, gone for 6.

Sam was joined by Caleb “The Very Treacherous Cuckoo” Greene, and the two put on 118. Plenty of good shots, plenty of fortune. Eventually Sam had his 432nd catching chance finally taken and walked off for 79 off 78.

Jason Bary was bumped up to No. 4 to “have a go, mate,” and did exactly that — 25 off 16 before being caught by the same guy who dismissed Tyler.

Chris “Geoffrey” Sharrock joined Cuckoo and immediately started teeing off, striking at over 170. Cuckoo kept chipping away until he finally gave one chance too many (346 total) and was caught for 79 off 90. Archibald came in for the final over did next to nothing.

A few dribbled runs and the innings ended.Archibald 2* (7), Geoffrey 60* (35).Bloomfield posted 269/4.

Gaz lost the first over because he was too busy giving Archibald grief for batting like a leper and forgot to warm up.

Baby Trout opened well from the road end, with Gaz tidy at the other. Gaz got the early wicket in the third — a nick to Geoffrey behind the stumps.

A tight few overs followed, along with the easiest sitter ever dropped at first slip, which would come back to haunt us.

Trout having a short 2 over spell kept it tidy.Gaz came off and James Pilcher took over, easily the pick of the bowlers with a really good line.

Kurtis Poppe came on before drinks and snagged a caught-and-bowled in the 18th, while Pilch continued to keep things controlled.

At drinks: 102/2 and United well on track.

After drinks, they kept finding boundaries — almost one an over — and the chase was looking very real. By the 30th, they were 170/2 and cruising.

Then Cuckoo pulled something out of nowhere in the 31st, removing Fridy Smith for 53.

Next over, Baby Trout returned. The batsman we dropped on 1 was on the verge of a ton. Tried to go big, picked out Cuckoo on the boundary, and Cuckoo pulled off a full-stretch diving catch to get him for 99. Huge moment.

The runs slowed, but the game wasn’t safe yet.

Tight fields in the 35th, some good lines, and pressure built — Gaz grabbed another 2 wickets, and a desperate second run turned into a run-out. But United kept swinging and finished 256/8, 13 short in a genuinely good chase.

This win means the P3s have gone through the first full round — everyone once — undefeated.

Second rotation starts next week.Can we make it to Christmas still unbeaten?

With us? Who knows…

MVP

3-Kaleb Kākāriki-e

2- Geoffrey

1-Geoffreys Friend

Bloomfield P4 Gators vs Night 'n Day Freyberg P4 One Day Team  

The first Saturday of November, for some it’s a religious holiday where at 12pm they crack open a crate bottle and drink the day away, for others it’s just another day to play cricket. With the sounds of lids popping in the background, the toss was done and Freberg sent the Gators into bat.  

The opening bowling was a bit unorthodox and not the usual quality expected of the Freberg Fella’s. This saw opener’s DanO and B-Cat get off to a good start. Dan showing some fine form until being caught for 26 off 27. This brought Chris Bishop in, who was seen as a like for like replacement for the departing Dave Ball, who had his last match for the club last weekend for the foreseeable future, hopefully back in 3 years. Bishtopher got into his work quickly, B-Cat providing a nice support role at the other end. With some changes to the bowling, things tightened up and Bishtopher middle one straight to a fielder to depart for a useful 24 off 22.  

Next to the wicket was Trimmy, with a glimmer in his eye, targeting his third century in a row. At the other end, B-Cat had been slowly beavering away and was into his 40’s, sadly being bowled for 42 off 82 when he was looking set for possibly his first 50 in his new position as an opener that he has taken on this year.  With his departure, this brought Sanchez to the middle, only 6 balls later, Trimmy was caught and bowled by Jessica Ogden for 12 off 16, ending hopes of a third century in a row and breaking up the father and son partnership early. George, on loan from the might Nuka, came out to smash the ball. George hitting a couple of big shots within his first few balls, gave Sanchez a bit of FOMO so he joined in, hitting a 6 of his own. Some interesting bounce the 27^th over brought the end of Sanchez, out for 12 off 11, bowled by Joshua Hawe-Muldrock. Sean made his way out and providing a nice supporting role. George continued to attack the bowling but was bowled in similar fashion as Sanchez for 15 off 9.

This finally brought Randy to the wicket, who had slide down the batting order, wanting to come in during the last 10 overs, but close enough as it was the 29^th over and his camera women had arrived to get content for his socials. Randy and Sean took their time to see themselves in with the hope to get deep into the innings, but alas Sean was bowled in in the 32^nd over for 8 off 17. Knowing the quality of the batting that was left to bat with him, Randy went on the attack when Greg joined him at the wicket. Showing off his signature big hitting until succumbing to James Redpath for 18 off 17, a video which can be found on his TikTok. With his departure, this left the Gators on 195 for 8, with Greg Morrision, Steve ‘the not so powerful pooh bear’ Rowlett at the crease and Scotty to come. Greg and Steve were able to get score to 200 before Steve was out edging the ball on to his stumps. That brought Scotty out, who got 2 runs before Greg threw it all away, getting caught for 3 off 19 and hurting himself in process. Gators setting a target of 202 and Josuha was the pick of the bowlers for the Fella’s, ending with 4 wickets off his 8 overs for 25 runs. 

With 202 on the board, the Gators looked at the Fella’s and had this feeling that today was our day, and they were beatable. So much so, the Gators forwent the usual catching practise out in the field and just had a few yarn’s while watching the bowlers warm up and also sending out an S.O.S to Glennis to come replace the injured Greg.  

Starting out with some very tidy bowling, Sanchez at one end, B-Cat at the other.

The first break through came in the 4^th over with B-Cat picking up his first of 3 with James being caught by George, who was teaching us the way of the might Nuka by catching the ball. Not to be out done, the next over Sanchez took his first, bowling Sarah and again in his next over picking up another wicket to make it 2 for the day. After 7 overs, with the Fella’s at 20/3, the Gators tail was up and the jaws wide open ready to take down our prey. B-Cat came to the party, picked up another 2 wickets in the 8^th over. 5 down, it was time for some bowling changes, Sean coming in from one end and George the other. Some nice pressure put on from these two lead Sean picking up two wickets in his 2^nd over, with specialist fielder, Craig Dawson, taking a lovely catch. George then chimed in with a wicket of his own in the next over, leaving the Freyberg Fella’s reeling at 31/8 off 12 overs. Couple overs of resistance from the Fella’s came to an end with Sean picking up his 3^rd wicket. With only 1 wicket to go, it was return to status quo, a few dropped catches in the field until finally one stuck, with George picking up the final wicket and Freyberg being bowled out for 61 off 17.3 overs, Gators picking up their much needed second win of the season and bouncing back after a demoralising lost to the might Nuka the previous weekend. 

MVP: 3 – Bevan Catley, 2 – Sean Owens, 1- Scott Cotton 

Max fine for Greg who left 10 minutes into the 2^nd innings instead of supporting from the side line.