York St vs BAF

It was Australia Day 2007, and a cricket match would take place between a team from York St Church of Christ and a team from Ballarat Family Church of Christ. In 2006 York St won the match by making over 300 in 30 overs.

This year the venue was changed during the week as there was some other cricket thing on at Progress Park, and after some text and calls I found the venue was to be Mt Clear oval # 2.

When I arrived the match was well under way with Baf batting first, Daints and Bendy who both play for the Yorkies Indoor Cricket team were playing for Baf, with Daints opening the batting. I didn't see it, but from what I was told the catch that got Daints out was an incredible catch by Nath McKenzie. The ball was hit past the square leg umpire and Nath dived about 2 metres or so to his wrong side and caught the ball in one hand.

Ballarat Family made 8 for 212 in 35 overs which averages out to 6.06 runs per over. This was a challenging score, but not quite as good as last year. The Yorkies opened the batting with Nathan and Phil, who played some glorious shots with 5 fours in the first three overs. They had 45 on the board after 6 overs, but then both openers got out in the seventh over, which brought in Jarrod who made a golden duck and Simon who lasted just six balls before being bowled. John came in at number 5 and was a steady hand as Bob got in and out after hitting two 4s, and when Brad was caught by Daints for 1 run the score had crumbled to 6 for 85. Russ then came to the wicket and along with John made an effort at getting the required runs. Russ hit four 4s and a six on the way to an unbeaten 40 from 49. When John was bowled on 23 the score was 108. There was some controversy from this wicket the umpire had called a no ball, but in the true spirit of cricket, some people (namely those that actually play real cricket) decided that the no ball shouldn't have been called. This result is what cost Yorkies the chance at winning the game. Rob came in and made four runs in a partnership of 28 with Russ. Raddis was the next in and they needed 11 per over to win the match with 7 overs remaining. Raddis made 21 from 20 with two 3s and a six before he was runout with the score on 164. Matt came in with 3 overs left and needing 49 more for victory. They fell 36 runs short.

There was quite a large turnout of spectators, however there was still some segregation between the supporters of each team. The difference between this year and last was the lack of Dave, and without Jarrod firing with the bat left our lineup a little short of power in the middle to lower order.