Cricket Club - A3 Seniors
SHARING IS CARING JARED! See below our trophy winners and a wrap up from Skipper Shane Wissell for our A3s team who were unlucky in finishing in the finals.
Hi to all.
With the 2019/20 A3 cricket season completed it is a good idea to reflect on just how far we have come.
The A3’s competition began with 8 teams. Flagstaff Hill pulled out very quickly, leaving 7 and the need for a bye with the odd number. We then had 16 minor round games scheduled to play. Unfortunately, 1 round was cancelled due to poor weather leaving 15 playable games of which we won 9 and lost 6. This placed SCIB 3rd on the ladder behind Kangarilla and Stirling with Aldgate in 4th position. Our %/run rate was by far the best in the A3 competition as we took the most wickets, lost the least number of wickets, scored the second highest amount of runs and had the second lowest number of runs scored against us. A good effort indeed. As we are aware though, the season was cancelled in the week leading up to the first week of finals due to Covid-19 and Kangarilla were announced as Premiers after being on top after the Minor round…… very, very disappointing end to a long cricket season.
Throughout the season 24 individual players represented the A3’s. The pleasing part of that number is that 7 were from our Under 16 team and 2 were from our Under 14 team, 9 players of the future of our club got a taste of senior cricket which is great for their development. They all had an absolute ball being involved too. Probably the highlight in regards to the junior players was when club legend, Scott “Techno” McKenzie got to play a game with his young Under 14 son Broden. To top it off Broden got a wicket too, much to the delight of the team. The poor fella got swamped by all and sundry. It was an absolute pleasure to be a part of this game and share in such a special moment for the McKenzie family and the club.
There were 3 individual milestones/highlights with the bat or ball for the season.
Daniel “Keysey” Key achieved the best bowling figures for a match taking 5/8 off 8 overs against Kangarilla, the teams only 5/ for the season.
With the bat the highest score for the year was 120 by Shane “Yothu” Wissell against Kangarilla
while Under 16 future star, Connor Lidstone, made 104no against Uraidla.
In regards to batting the stand out was Jarred “Norts” Naughton.
Norts scored 599 runs at an average of 85.6, helped by being not out on 8 occasions. Norts scored five 50’s with top scores of 69no, 73no and 92no, all against Uraidla. Techno had his best year with the bat for a long time scoring 421 runs at an average of 32.4. He scored three 50’s with a top score of 71 against Stirling. The only other batters to score over 200 were Josh “Moses” Phillips with 281 runs at 20.1 and Yothu with 253 at 31.6. Moses scored two 50’s, highest of 75, and one 50 was scored each by Daniel “Moppy” Partridge, 65, and Paul “Garthy” Garth, 75. Of the 24 players who played, 22 at least got a run. Association wise, Norts was easily the number 1 batsman, over 150 runs in front of second place with Techno in 4th place. Great achievements. The highest partnership for the season was 204 by Yothu and Moses, opening the batting against Kangarilla. This was also the highest batting partnership for the association in A3’s for the season.
In regards to bowling the stand out was once again Norts.
He got 28 wickets at an average of 12.5. Techno got 15 wickets at 22.4. The only other bowlers to get more than 10 wickets were Keysey with 12 at 14.4, Yothu with 11 at 11.6 and Matt “Sheppy” Shepherd with 11 at 19.4.
Fielding wise,
Norts topped off a great season for SCIB by leading the catches tally with 8 pearlers and a runout. Our super wicket keeper Jason “Pottsy” Potts took 8 catches and a stumping as well as being involved in 3 runouts. Garthy took 8 catches and was involved in 2 runouts, while Moppy took 7 catches and was involved in a runout. Good fielding and catches can indeed win matches. Those players mentioned do create a lot of pressure with their speed in the field, bullet arms as well as good eyes. The names mentioned are no surprise in the fielding highlight section.
As mentioned earlier, the season was rudely halted by Covid-19. It was extremely disappointing as the season was incredibly tight and on their day anyone in the top 4 could beat anyone else. SCIB A3’s was due to play Stirling at Stirling in a Semifinal. We had played them twice during the season with both games being relatively close and the score line being 1 win a piece. The team would have been- Yothu, Techno, Jonno Coates, Norts, Garthy, U16 lad Zane Lewis, Moses, Sheppy, Pottsy, U16 lad Sam Hill, John Degaris. It was a good, solid team on paper, a nice blend of youth and experience, we were quietly confident, as they would have been too, but we will never know. It does, however, make you look more forward to next season, let’s just hope that there is a next season. With so many youngsters getting a taste for senior cricket, as well as both our Under 14’s and Under 16’s making the finals, it fills you with enthusiasm for future results and with the club in general. SCIB are heading in a good direction.
Finally, I would like to acknowledge and thank Techno who took over the reins of the team while I was galivanting around Europe with my family mid-season. It was great to know that such an experienced and respected team mate had complete control of the team. It put my mind at ease and made it easier to take over again on my return.
Cheers to all in cricket,
Yothu.