Although most Clubs in the HCCA were given the Saturday off for the Huon Show our B grade was one of 4 B grade teams that were required to play. We took on Margate at home.

The Mecca elected to bat first and we were able to make early inroads into their batting order. With the exception of their opening batsman Clint Stewart none of their top order troubled us. When he was dismissed for an aggressive 63, the scoreboard read 5/83. 41 runs and 32 runs respectively were added for the next 2 wickets but we then polished off the tail with the final score being 168. In a very even bowling performance Shannon Woolley, Brad Bailey, Jason Jones, Anthony Lean and Jason Wicks all claimed 2 wickets.

Jarrod Collis, in his first game for some time, quickly signaled his intentions by smacking the 1^st ball of our innings back over the bowlers head to the boundary. He and Damian Pearce blitzed the bowling adding 88 runs for the first wicket before Jarrod was dismissed for 67 in only the 8^th over. He struck 11 4s and 2 6s in a scintillating innings. With rain threatening Richie McInnes joined Damian and they added 53 before Richie lost his wicket. Dwain Swan then strode to the wicket hitting 4 4s in his 18 as victory was achieved in 21 overs. Damian continues to show great promise ending 56no.

In our first Twenty20 game of the year we defeated Blackmans Bay on Tuesday 11 November. James Murray made 60no and Nick Townsend 22 while Shannon Woolley stayed with James to add in excess of 50 for the last wicket. Dan Elliott took 3/18 and Nick Townsend 2/23 as we were to dismiss the Sharks 24 runs short of our score.

On Sunday our young C grade side travelled to Margate where we batted first and really struggled to put a respectable score together. We never recovered from being 1/0 and 2/14 and only managed 97 when the last wicket fell in the 30^th over. Ash Woodhead with 22 coming in at the fall of the first wicket was the only notable scorer.

Ash took an early wicket to give us a remote chance but Margate overtook our total in the 28^th over losing only 3 wickets. Ash finished with 2/42, Dean Heywood 1/16 and Trent Pearce bowled well in his first game finishing with 0/22 off his 10 overs.

Great to hear that Andrew Henley’s heart operation went well. We hope to see him around the Club soon.