Round 5: ACC vs Croydon Park United
ACC vs Croydon Park United
Lees Park, Croydon Park
20 November
Newtown Seniors: 140 (D.Davies 60) (N.Towells 4/26, K.Messia 3/31, S.Hayes 3.49)
ACC: 60
Points: Croydon Park 6, ACC 1.
Ray's Man of the Match: Ironically, in a crushing defeat, I'm going to give this honour to myself this game for giving up a day's worth of pay to play and taking 3 great catches in the outfield.
Match Report: "ACC = ANOTHER CATASTROPHIC COLLAPSE" Day 1: Upon arrival to Lees Park, ACC were informed that their opponents were the unbeaten competition leaders! Equally as surprising was the news that we were sitting in fourth position. Croydon Park won the toss and elected to bat. Our strike opening bowler, Kristian, realised he left his whites (playing uniform) at home and had to go back and pick them up! Norm opened the bowling as Croydon Park's opening batsmen looked to attack from the very first ball, charging down the pitch, but not to any great effect. Sam bowled from the other end and after a few overs, a skyer went up in Ray's direction, reminiscent of the one he dropped last match. However this time, Ray secured the catch running from square leg to deep mid wicket for ACC's first wicket: 1/20. The second fell soon after with Croydon Park's captain popping up a catch to Kristian at short mid on, off the bowling of Sam for a second ball duck: 2/25. And when Sam got his third with a caught and bowled, we were well and truly on top of the leaders at: 3/30. ACC resisted Croydon Park's attempts to dominate the scoring but they managed to put together a much needed partnership with Davies in particular looking reasonably solid. Sebastian was given his first bowl of the season with his right arm medium pace but only bowled the one over. Ray went without success trying to break up the batting combination so Norm decided to give himself another bowl. It worked, with Jeremy taking his third catch of the season to make the score: 4/98. Davies starting lifting the scoring rate until his partner was trapped LBW by Norm: 5/127, and then Davies finally succumbed with Ray taking a superb catch, sprinting 20 metres from the boundary to take a catch at long on: 6/128. When Kristian took his first wicket, caught behind from Con taking his first catch of the season: 7/140, things crumbled for Croydon Park. ACC continued it's outstanding effort in the field with Ray taking his third catch of the innings at square leg: 8/140, debutant Dave filling in for Luke taking a good catch in the deep at long on: 9/140 and Jeremy taking another catch at mid wicket off Norm to have Croydon Park all out for a season low 140. Davies top scored for the home team with 60 and Norm was the visitor's best bowler with figures of 4/26, with Sam and Kristian taking 3 wickets each. Croydon Park's total also included 8 sundries.
Buoyed by a moderately low total, ACC went into their innings with a great desire to win. It was Ray and Ben who opened the batting, but they were restricted from the very start. Croydon Park's opening bowlers bowled a very tight line and length, giving nothing away. Finally, realising his team needed quick runs to gain some ascendancy, Ray ended up throwing his wicket away taking a wild swing but was bowled for one: 1/3. Joined by Con, Ben eventually loosened up and hit a few cracking shots, gaining confidence with every stroke. Unfortunately he was out bowled for 11: 2/25. Con tried to play himself into some form, still trying to get his timing right, as he reached double figures. He couldn't build on his start either when he was caught out for 12: 3/35. Jack whacked a ball to the fence to begin his knock but was out soon after, LBW for four: 4/43. The woeful batting display continued as Sam was bowled for a duck: 5/44 and Jeremy was run out for five: 6/49. Kristian was promoted up the order as a pinch hitter, scoring 11 runs, but when he departed: 7/55*, ACC's innings came to a tragic end with Graham: 8/58*, Dave: 9/60 and Norm: 10/60 all registering ducks. Sebastian was left at the crease to be not out for zero as ACC lost again, this time by 80 runs. If that wasn't embarrassingly enough, the top scorer for the innings was the sundries with 16! It's definitely a must win next week at home against Belmore Diggers with Ray temporarily taking over as captain with Norm being unavailable.
Round 2 vs Summer Hill Seniors Round 3 vs Newtown Seniors Round 4 vs BYE Round 6 vs Belmore Diggers Round 7 vs Earlwood Round 8 vs Cavaliers Round 9 vs Summer Hill Seniors Round 10 vs Newtown Seniors Round 11 vs BYE Round 12 vs Croydon Park United Round 13 vs Belmore Diggers Round 14 vs Earlwood
