Blackburn Cricket Club

BCC THIRD XI REPORT

GRAND FINAL : 13 , 20 and 21 March 2009

VERMONT SOUTH 8 / 198 cc

Smith 4/42 (17) , Meilak 1/71 (29) , Rayner 0/15 (6) , Rose 1/22 (10) , Yeo 2/42 (17) , Roberts A 0/0 (1)

defeated

BLACKBURN 104

Callanan 34 , Rayner 15 , Meilak 15

On a cold, damp and unpleasant day Vermont South won the toss and batted on a newly laid ground that instantly absorbed the showers that fell. The “Burners” were all over them and after a late start and one weather interruption Vermont South had progressed to 1/19 from 14 overs. Three catches were also dropped in this period of play. As we were well on top the opposition skipper approached the umpires after we came off for a shower at 4.05pm and said they didn’t want to play any more. For some reason the umpires agreed. Ten minutes later the sun was out and it didn’t rain again for the rest of the day, but the umpires would not change their mind.

Day two saw a hot 33 degree day. Again we bowled well to have them 3/43 from 28 overs. A missed runout at 47 proved costly as they progressed to 101 before the next wicket fell. Then another fell on the same score and 50 overs had passed. In the first over after tea Yeo took a wicket and they were 6/125 in the 63^rd over. In the same over we then dropped two catches. The seventh wicket fell at 145 and the eighth at 180. Some lusty hitting at the end saw them scramble to 198 off the 80 overs, a chase of less than 2.5 runs per over. All bowlers bowled magnificently creating 18 chances for the innings in 80 overs. Unfortunately (and unlike the semi final when we took “everything”, including blinders) the fielders missed ten of the chances.

With 5 overs to go in their innings keeper Dwyer copped a cut on his cheek, enough for him to be taken to hospital for precautionary x-rays. This left us an opener short and 14 overs to bat. The skipper moved up to open and was promptly dismissed. Rose followed soon after and at stumps we were 2/19 off 14 overs.

We arrived on a fine but cold third day full of optimism that the target could be reached……we had chased 7 times during the season for 6 wins, three of them cliff-hangers. Callanan and Rayner survived some good bowling before the drinks break, adding 25 runs off the 20 overs bowled. Rayner decided to up the tempo after the break but unfortunately on his first attempt was dismissed. We then lost a further 2 wickets in the next 8 balls and all of a sudden we were under extreme pressure.

Opener Callanan continued to battle valiantly and his innings would have been the backbone of a win, if someone could have stayed with him long enough. Whilst the rest of the batsmen never gave in the task proved too great and Vermont South ran out easy winners in the end.

It was a disappointing end to a great season in which 32 different players played in this team……It beat 10 of the other 11 teams but did not play well enough in the last game to win the flag.