In Round 11 of the HCCA the Kingston Crows A Grade suffered a loss to top side Slab Road despite setting the “Roadies” a very competitive target after we scored 6/256 in our innings last Saturday.

For the first occasion for some weeks we didn’t suffer a top order batting collapse although there was a worrying period when we lost our second and third wickets with the score on 85. Brett Stevenson who had only come out of retirement in the previous round joined Joel Palmer at the crease and they set up our total with a partnership of 120 for the fourth wicket. Stevenson was dismissed for 84 that included 12 4s and 3 6s while Joel remained 54no in a welcome return to form. Earlier openers Dan Elliott 32 and Damien Pearce 30 got us off to an excellent start by adding 54 for the first wicket.  

Trent Pearce claimed the first Slab Road wicket with the score on 13 but there was to be little more joy as the powerful “Roadies” batting line up, led by their captain Stuart Clark who scored his second century against us this season, reached their target in only the 43^rd over for the loss of 3 wickets. Nick Townsend and Dale Punshon took the other two wickets.

Despite being clearly out batted on the day I’m sure that all our bowlers would look at themselves in the mirror and admit that they let themselves down. Bowling to a plan with consistent line and length are an integral part of any form of cricket and we certainly let ourselves down in that area. It is ironic that over the last few games our bowling has in the main covered for our batting deficiencies and then when we finally make a decent total our bowlers let us down. We really need to regroup, and quickly, or the season will pass us by.

This week A grade venture to Huonville, B1 are at Blackmans Bay and B2 are home to Judbury. C2 have the bye on Sunday.

On Sunday 24^th the Crows welcome North Hobart complete with their State players to play the Quarter final of the Statewide Tweny20 competition. The game kicks off at 2pm and we are hoping for a bumper crowd. There should be plenty of action and excitement in this very popular form of the game. The Crows players are very eager to give it their best shot.