Proserpine Junior Cricket Match Report 22nd Oct 2022

Under 12s Match Report 22/10/22 – vs Brothers @ Proserpine High School

Written by Troy Smith

Noah was the Captain this week and unfortunately lost the bat flip. This proved crucial in the outcome of the game, as Brothers sent us in to bat. The weather was hot and steamy with the new ball swinging and skidding-on making batting difficult early. Reggie and Korbin opened the batting with Reggie copping a beauty and was on his way in the first over. Noah then joined young Korbin at the crease and they battled against some slick bowling and wet outfields- that saw some well struck shots just stop dead in the heavy conditions. The boys dug in and did a fantastic job, both retiring. Lily was in at number 4 and was straight under pressure from some tight bowling, blocking out a maiden over. Korbin retired and our most experienced player on the day, Alex came to the crease and straight away got the scoreboard ticking over with some great running between wickets. Lily also started to free the arms, with the confidence of Alex was starting to rub off. They both retired after their 20 balls. Laura replaced Alex and looked solid in defence until she got a peach of a yorker on middle stump. Jayden was straight away on the attack and hit some cracking shots. Ellen was out- after holding out an over of great bowling, Matty joined Jayden they kept score ticking over until both retired. The retiring batters started to roll out for their second bat and with the overs running out they were pushing for quick runs and lost a few wickets in the dying overs.

In trying conditions batting out the 25 overs was an amazing effort against some very tight Brothers bowling. 48 was always going to be a hard target to defend as the grounds were drying out as the morning went on. Noah and Reggie opened the bowling and created plenty of near misses, until Reggie deceived the batter whose pull-shot went rocketing to Lily for a great catch at midwicket. First change saw Jayden continue attacking the stumps with some great deliveries missing the stumps by the smallest of margins. Matty also bowled with great accuracy but couldn’t get the Brothers run chase under control, as they were running on everything and constantly putting our fielders under pressure. They took on the field once too often, with Reggie rocketing a throw in and Alex very cleverly tapping it onto the stumps for a great run-out. Lily and Korbin then bowled two tight overs and the Brothers batters took on Noah’s arm pushing for a second run and come up just short with the second run out for the innings. Ellen and Laura then continued the bowling until Laura found the top edge and Jayden took a tricky catch just in front of square leg. It hadn’t been the young Pitbulls day- but they should take a lot out of that game. Thanks to Matty, Laura and Ellen for stepping up for the day. Well done to Lily for her first runs and catch in junior cricket. Congratulations to Matty who was the players player- retiring not out 5, 2 great overs and then kept wickets after drinks to give Alex a bowl. Thanks to the scorers, parents for helping and bring back the Super coach.

Under 12s Match Report 22/10/22 – vs Pioneer Valley @ Proserpine Cricket Grounds

Written by Stephen Logan

After a substantial amount of rain in the days preceding the match, play got under way at 8am as scheduled with a damp wicket and outfield. A big thank you to the members of the club whose efforts allowed the games to go ahead.

The Pitbulls with J Rock as captain lost the toss and were sent into bat with a wet outfield, but with the sun shining. Coming to terms with the wet pitch, the opening players made a steady start to their innings with the first 3 batsmen retiring not out – O Seamer 9*, J Rock 31*, and M Logan 18*. With some accurate bowling after the drinks break from Pioneer Valley (PV), combined with the slow outfield, the remaining Pitbull batsmen struggled to maintain the scoring rate and the team end their inning at 4 – 117.

With 117 runs to defend, the U13’s bowling was very effective with Pioneer Valley wickets falling early to be 5 – 22 after 9 overs. The PV batsmen fought back and with a drying outfield were able to get some momentum, but some accurate bowling and good out fielding from the Pitbulls, PV were all out for 79 runs. Bowling wise, it was a team effort, with the wickets being shared J Rock 2-13, B Hope 3 overs 1-5, J Lawn 1-9, O Seamer 1-4 and A Farley 1-12.

Overall, the U13’s team handled the wet outfield conditions extremely well finishing on 4-117. With a drying outfield the U13’s defended their score with a great bowling and fielding display. A great team effort and B Hope was named man of the match with a great all round effort with the ball.

Under 15s Match Report 22/10/22 – vs Magpies White @ Proserpine Cricket Grounds

Written by Craig Valmadre

It was our turn to host the Pioneer Valley U15s side on the weekend and unfortunately we lost the turf after a mammoth effort to keep the pitches dry. Luckily Mackay Cricket has decided to let the kids play on astro this year, if turf is unavailable, to ensure the young guns get maximum game time. Pitbulls won the toss and captain Ben Valmadre saw promise in grabbing the willow to post a score and defend the total. J.Valmadre and M.Gabey strode out to the crease to face the opening bowlers and rub some shine off the new Pioneer Valley ball. The dynamic duo used the first few overs pushing the ball around for singles and twos, to get the eye in. M.Gabey, having the Lion’s share of the strike, had seen enough and proceeded to blast three 4s in consecutive overs to increase the run rate to an acceptable level. Not wanting to be left out of the party, J.Valmadre middled a crunching shot which saw the ball sail over the boundary for a 6, signally the Pitbulls intent to post a formidable total. A few balls later J.Valmadre (8 off 14) tried pulling a short ball that stayed low on the damp pitch and dove under the bat to knock the castle down. M.Gabey’s (25 off 41) time was over after he was trapped in front from a nasty delivery, but his innings signalled the intent of the young men in the Blue and White. B.Valmadre and A.Hardy-Young were now at the helm and they worked well together pushing the ball around before A.Hardy-Young (1 off 8) fell to a brilliant ball from W.Homewood which rattled the stumps, and the intentions of the Proserpine/Whitsunday team. A.Geisel was tasked to steady the ship and turned the strike back over to B.Valmadre who was also getting the eye in hitting singles of his own. After seeing B.Valmadre send one to the boundary, A.Geisel (3 off 14) wanting a piece of that pie, was undone with a delivery that left his bails in the grass and the Pitbulls whimpering at 4-65 after 13.2 overs. This forced the hand of the Pitbull batting attack and C.Stroud was brought in to work his magic with B.Valmadre in order to bring the planned total back on track. Hitting any bad ball to the boundary, B.Valmadre (32 off 49) showed his class, steadying the ship and increasing the run rate before being bowled by a pearler of a delivery. C.Stroud (29 off 35) who was also finding the boundary with ease, fell to a catch at fine leg, but not after helping the team to a respectable total of 6-124 with 3 overs to go. The last few overs were never going to be easy with the Pioneer Valley attack bowlers coming back on to curb the runs and put the Pitbulls back into the kennel. Great resilience was shown by Z.Henry (2 off 8) to hold out the Panthers star in W.Homewood, but his innings was halted when he was eventually trapped in front. With only a few overs to go, and numbers in the shed, J.Williams (6 off 11) knew what was needed. He took on the tight bowling and kept the runs coming in the dying deliveries. Straight from the dentist and out to the middle, L.McDermid (3 off 9 n.o.) showed in his first game back that you can’t keep a good man down, and brought the innings to a close at 8-137, falling short of our planned 150, but defendable nonetheless.

After weathering the Pioneer Valley attack, the Pitbulls were keen to have their turn with the leather, none more so than J.Watson (0/10 off 2) who took the new ball with open arms, steaming off the boundary, delivered a spell that had the PV openers questioning their abilities. The relentless peppering in the first over of the match paid off as the on strike batter, desperate to get off strike, called for a quick single to get away from the barrage. J.Valmadre fielding at mid off, pounced on the ball and fired it at J.Geisel who had run to the stumps, gloving the rocket to complete the runout. In a move that had the coach confused, the Pitbulls brought on a spinner in J.Williams for the second over, and although the over was sound, the message was sent to the Pitbull captain that perhaps the new glossy ball should be used by those with the ability to swing fast deliveries and catch the edge for a keen slips cordon, hungry for a catch, and save your spinners for when the ball degrades slightly. Enter Z.Henry (0/8 off 2) who bowled a clinical opening over which only saw the one run coming from it and increasing the pressure on the batsmen to score runs. Seeing Zepp leading the way, A.Geisel (1/5 off 3) followed suit with another tight over, turning the screws and drying up the runs for the PV side. The pressure applied by the relentless Pitbull attack paid off, with C.Stroud taking a hard chance in the field off a brilliant ball from A.Geisel to ensure one of the PV Panther’s best was coughing up hairballs for the rest of the match. With the PV Panthers struggling at 2-27, a rusty first over from A.Hardy-Young (2/11 off 2) was forgiven when he took two massive wickets in the second to really put the mighty Pitbulls in a commanding position. He trapped the rock solid Doolan in front, which brought the Puppies into full voice, then made mince meat of the new batsman, catching the edge to allow J.Geisel to glove a ripper catch. The Panthers were licking their wounds at 4-39 at the end of the 10th over and the barking Pitbulls had their hair up. J.Williams (0/19 off 3) and M.Gabey (0/5 off 1) were brought into the attack to see if they could muster a few more wickets before drinks but the Panthers dug in and kept the scoreboard ticking over to be 4/58 at the break. Although in a good position, the Pitbulls were not out of the jungle yet as the Panthers still had their opening batter at the crease who was bludgeoning anything that was out of line, but seemed to be happy to block accurate bowling. The team talk revolved around tight bowling and even tighter fielding. Before the match had started, L.McDermid (0/16 off 3) who was recovering from dental surgery just days ago, was concerned about how bowling might affect him with the jarring motion and we decided to not bowl him. But after drinks he wanted a go at these Panthers batsmen, hell or high water, so he was willingly given the ball since a Lewis delivery is something to be reckoned with. Never far away, his partner in crime J.Valmadre (1/9 off 3) took the other end and they only managed 1 run from each of the overs after drinks. The pressure of tight bowling from these Pitbulls was impressive to say the least and they were rewarded with B.Valmadre taking a spooned shot at mid-on, off a J.Valmadre delivery in the 16th over. Pitbull captain B.Valmadre (1/14 off 3) saw the opportunity to put the game to bed and brought on himself and C.Stroud (1/11 off 3) to bowl the final overs. Ben struck on the last ball of his first over, taking the edge of the bat and fizzing toward an ever primed L.McDermid waiting in slips. This was one of the best catches I have seen to date, fast and low to the left, a diving Lewis managed to somehow get two hands around it and keep his teeth off the grass in the process. Corey made short work of the new batsman, splitting his stumps with a delivery that would have had any batsman searching for their soul. The Mighty Pitbulls finished their 25 overs with the strong Panthers side falling short at 7-108. I, for one, am extremely proud of their brilliant tight bowling and fielding display which will keep them in good stead this year.