DAVE: Incredible. It’s a word that sums up the first week of DDCA finals and also how I feel right now because we’ve finally got a fresh face at the table this week after being understaffed recently. Justin, it’s not just you and me anymore mate.
JUSTIN: Correct Dave, our team has grown in size.
DAVE: Let’s spring one on him straight away without notice; Blair Burns, welcome to the team mate, it’s great to have you on board. Briefly tell us a bit about your love of sport.
BLAIR: Thanks Dave, I’ve only been here an hour and you’ve already caught me off guard. I’ve grown up my whole life playing sport; footy, cricket, basketball, playing mixed-netball at the moment, a bit of tennis, a bit of everything. I’ve always lived and breathed sport, and if I’m not playing it, I’m always watching it. I’m a Tigers supporter; had some good times and possibly heading for some bad times…so that basically sums me up.
DAVE: Justin, another Richmond supporter to cry along with this winter!
JUSTIN: Ease up Dave, your Pies weren’t crash hot on the weekend either. But it’s great to have another Richmond supporter on the sports desk…we can help each other through it.
DAVE: Nice stuff boys; let’s move on before these old legs of mine cramp up like Nick Daicos did on the weekend. Justin, your best action from the weekend please mate.
JUSTIN: To be honest it wasn’t a super eventful day of cricket for me. Officer and Carlisle Park had their games in the bag; so Pakky Upper skipper Brian Kulasena gets my best action two weeks in a row. A 19-year-old from Nar Nar Goon, Noah Hall, was occupying the crease but not scoring much, just being a real pest, scoring 24 off 147 balls, and he was handling Paky Upper’s feared pace-attack with ease. Brian said, “give me the ball boys”, and in his second over he set Hall up beautifully and trapped him lbw…that was pretty much the end of Nar Nar Goon and Pakky Upper earned themselves a home final. They host Cranbourne Meadows at Harry Blackman Oval.
DAVE: Boys, I normally cover CCCA cricket but I made the trip to Arch Brown Reserve over the weekend to watch Berwick and Springvale South in the elimination final. Took a small Esky, folded out my chair, listened to some races and settled in for a few hours. Berwick batted first, lost a couple, and it fell on the shoulders of their two best players Jake Hancock and Michael Wallace to resurrect the innings. Anyway, Wallace is a classy left-hander, recruited from Casey South Melbourne this year, and he’s got plenty of time at the crease, like a lot of lefties seem to have. He took his time to get going, but cracked this glorious cover drive that I penciled down as best action. But two balls later, I crossed out his name and replaced it with Jackson Sketcher. He produced a brilliant piece of fielding, throwing the stumps down with a direct hit and running out Wallace at the bowlers’ end. It was day one, so you don’t fully appreciate the impact that a run out might have on the match…but in the end it proved crucial. They went from 2/85 to 3/85 on the scoreboard which looked a lot different for both sides. Jackson Sketcher gets my best action for the week. Also a shout-out to the Pakenham Pumas Baseball Club for winning a senior and junior premiership on the weekend.
PLAYERS TO WATCH
DAVE: Justin, the DDCA showed us what individuals are capable of in big games on the weekend; I want to know from you who the players to watch are in your competitions this week.
JUSTIN: I’ve picked one from each club. The first one is Ben Perry from Carlisle Park, who just shared the Eric Winter Medal during the week with Devon Gabriel-Brown from Officer. He averages 45 and he’s consistent as well, with scores of 75, 76, and 67, but it’s his record against the other finalists that really caught my attention. He has three scores under 10; five against Officer, three against Pakenham Upper and five and 28 against Cranbourne Meadows, so his record against the better teams is not good despite having a good season with the bat. He needs to stand tall against a quality Officer attack. Manu Goraya and Mandhiraj Singh are my two players from Cranbourne Meadows; who have scores of 140 this summer but quite often fail, they’ll be important against Pakky Upper. Ash Smith, the former skipper at Officer, he averages 52 and made a hundred a few weeks back; he always bowls some nice slow stuff which complements the pace attack nicely, and Raja Sadiq is my man from Pakky Upper. He’s led the wicket-taking list all season but got nutted by Devon Gabriel Brown in the last round of the season. He’ll be spewing about that and will bowl with a chip on the shoulder this weekend.
DAVE: I actually watched him bowl at Country Week on day three and he bowls at a really good clip. Boys, I’m kicking things off with the top team in Premier Division, Cardinia, and the player to watch is Matt Welsh. Quite often in finals it comes down to mid-to-lower order runs, and this bloke can take a game away in a hurry. He’s got a great record this season against Pakenham, and it’s just a matter of him not feeling the pressure of a final and he can have that impact again. Chris Bright, or Wombat as everyone knows him, he’s the player to watch for Kooweerup. When he has a big game it’s ‘game over’, Tooradin knows that and will treat him as the big prize on Saturday. Counteracting that is Tyler Evans from Tooradin. He opens the bowling, Wombat opens the batting, and he got him out early the last time they played at this ground. That battle between the Country Week teammates will be crucial to the final outcome. And Dom Paynter from Pakenham; he has to fire for the Lions to win this week against Cardinia. The Lions lost Dale Tormey to Buckley Ridges in the off-season and Chris Smith is unlikely to return from a knee injury; so, their big-innings options are really limited.
JUSTIN: What about DDCA Dave?
DAVE: Glad you asked Justin. I was really impressed with Blade Baxter from Springvale South over the weekend. He came on first change and bowled 26 overs of really competitive stuff; then made a crucial 49 on day two when the game could have gone either way. He’s just a bloody good cricketer who I have a greater appreciation of now.
GRASSROOTS SPORT
DAVE: Simple question boys; What do you love about grassroots sport?
JUSTIN: I love the camaraderie that local sport brings to the table, the atmosphere around clubs, but also the connection that it builds. For me, that has been around basketball a lot, I remember hanging around the senior men’s team at our club and us younger kids treated these players like heroes. They’re teachers, tradies, coppers, all types of jobs, but they’re idols to these kids who want their autographs and photos and that type of thing. That’s what local sport means to me; the connection that it brings to the community.
DAVE: Blair, you come from a country town; what does sport mean to the people of Hamilton?
BLAIR: Very similar to Justin; in a small-town sport means everything. You work during the week and then have that outlet on the weekend, whether you’re playing, supporting or just involved at the club in some way. To have that involvement at grass-roots sporting clubs is so important and I’ve been lucky enough to experience how important it is throughout my childhood.
DAVE: Great stuff boys; I’m really happy to hear you both talk like that. There’s an article we run in the Gazette each week from the South West Gippsland Midweek Bowling Group, and I get more questions about why do we run that article than any other. It’s not really from our readership area, but there’s no way we can let down a group that has such a huge impact on the community. When Laurie Bell rang me and asked if he could run an article in the paper each week, the bowling group was getting between 15 to 20 people. Now they’re getting 40 to 50 each week, and that’s mainly retired or semi-retired people that can’t wait for Thursdays to come around. Laurie and his small team of volunteers all do it for nothing; just so people can enjoy themselves for a few hours each week.
JUSTIN: You’ll be in that bowling group soon Dave.
DAVE: Righto cheeky! And that takes place everywhere, at every club. I also admire people like Laurie Bell, Des Leigh, Terry Webster, Glenn Robinson, Sharon Rippon, Damian Brick, John Moore, Jess Moulding, Rex Alexander, Vanessa Kent, Matt Thompson, Craig Moore and Derek Maguire; who go out of their way each week to put together reports for their clubs. We can’t be everywhere, and without the support of these people the quality of our paper would really suffer. Some of those reports take hours to put together. We salute everyone involved at any level of grassroots sports and we hope you understand the important role you play in the community.
JUSTIN: Well said Dave.
DAVE: And just a quick one; well done to the young girl who was the designated driver at Berwick on Saturday. She rocked up in her car and there must have been six to eight people that piled out all with a can in their hands. It was like the old days when people used to see how many people they could squeeze into a phone box. Outstanding community-building work from that girl!
JUSTIN: Dave, speaking about community sport, isn’t there a bowls club that has a nine-year-old playing Saturday Pennant?
DAVE: Yes, Tim Katz is the President of Kooweerup Bowls Club and his nine-year-old son Maverick plays pennant bowls with him each week.
JUSTIN: How good is that?
LOOKING AHEAD
DAVE: Justin, you get a little excited about your local sport like I do; what are you looking forward to most this weekend?
JUSTIN: I’ve got two things. I’m buzzing at the prospect of the match up between Pakenham Upper and Cranbourne Meadows. It’s the perfect clash of styles; Cranbourne Meadows is one of the best batting teams in the competition and Pakky Upper one of the best bowling teams. Pakky Upper’s batting has impressed me at all in their last two games, they made 141 against Officer and then 198 against Nar Nar Goon last week. They allowed a bloke called Qasim Ali to take seven wickets when he’s only played five District games all summer. That bat really aggressively; really aggressively…so it’s going to be fascinating to see how that plays out. The other thing I’m exciting about is the return of Youth League basketball. The league dumped the schedule on us yesterday and it starts this week. The Warriors’ boys have to go to Bendigo on Saturday and then return home on Sunday, and the girls play at Waverley on Saturday and then at home as well on Sunday. It’s a busy schedule; and it would be great to see as many people supporting the Warriors at Cardinia Life on Sunday as possible.
DAVE: You’ve turned promoter for local sport mate…I like it! Hopefully both teams perform well after being promoted to a higher level this year. I’m looking forward to the huge clash between Tooradin and Kooweerup at Tooradin. Cardinia should win its home final against Pakenham, but the other semi-final in the CCCA Premier Division is a real toss of the coin job. Both teams have some real weapons that can sting in a hurry; but my main fascination this week is how both captains – Mick Sweeney (Tooradin) and Chris Bright (Kooweerup) – go about setting their fields. That’s a real cricket-nuffy thing to say, but the grounds of both clubs are so different. Kooweerup is tiny square of the wicket; and Tooradin tiny straight; so how Bright sets his fields and tells his bowlers how to bowl at Tooradin will be intriguing. I’ll also be keeping a keen eye on the DDCA this week; because the standard of the game I watched on the weekend was amazing. The standard didn’t drop both days, with bat or ball, which led to a great battle for 160 overs. For what it’s worth; I’m tipping Cardinia and Tooradin to meet in the CCCA Premier grand final and Springvale South to make the DDCA Turf 1 grand final against Buckley Ridges from fourth place. Thanks for the chat boys.
