Despite the very wet weather leading up to last Saturday the Kingston Crows A grade clash with Blackmans Bay was able to proceed as normal although both sides were missing key players.

The Bay won the toss and elected to bat however began losing wickets immediately. Backed up by some wonderful catching behind the wicket, Dale Punshon (2/10 off 9 overs) and Nick Townsend (2/22 off 10 overs) had them in deep trouble at 5/32. Jason Wicks 3/16 and Shannon Woolley 2/18 then continued on with the good work as the Bay was dismissed for only 69 in the 31^st over.

The Crows innings looked a little shaky at 3/27 but Jason Wicks 29no and Jim Murray 19no took us through to victory without further loss in the 17^th over. A highlight of Jason’s innings was the three sixes he smashed over backward point.

Our B grade went on the road to Blackmans Bay where we batted first and lost a wicket immediately. Damien Pearce once again led the way with the bat and while he was at the crease we looked capable of making an extremely competitive total. Once he was dismissed for a well made 82 with the score 4/126 our innings fell away completely and we were all out for 171 in the 45^th over. Jason Jones was 21no and Manning Parkinson made 20. It was disappointing to see seven of our batsmen out bowled.

We gained our first wicket without a run on the board and were well in the game with the score 3/56. The Bay then gained an ascendency but with play lost with rain falling, adding to the late start, the game was abandoned in the 28^th over with Blackmans Bay well placed on 4/106. Andrew Downie, Brad Bailey and Trent Pearce all took a wicket and there was a run out.

C grade took on Longley at home on Sunday and fought back well after the Bunyips had reached 1/93. Gab Lefleur 4/17, Mal Scriber 3/23 and Dean Heywood combined to dismiss the opposition for 160 after 42 overs.

We lost an early wicket but looked to be travelling along all right when we reached 1/25, but once again a batting collapse proved our downfall as we were dismissed for only 49 in the 24^th over. Gab Lefleur, Shane Hall and Extras were the only ones to reach double figures. Although our C grade side is a young one the lads really need to put a higher value on their wickets.

Thanks to the girls for the pre match entertainment.

The entertainment value of Twenty20 cricket was highlighted in our clash with Snug on November18. Batting first we amassed 6/158 off our allotted overs with Brett Stevenson 45, Nick Townsend 38no and Jarrod Collis 29no being the major contributors.

Snug lost a couple of wickets early before Randal Webb added some quick runs but once he was dismissed it appeared that we were well on top. But enter Rodney Carmichael who basically went ballistic, scoring 76 off approx. 25 balls with some of the biggest hitting seen on the Crows ground for some time. When he was dismissed Snug only needed 20 odd runs with almost 7 overs in hand. With Dan Elliott slowing up their hitting and a couple of great catches taken, the Crows fought back wonderfully and at the start of the 20^th over Snug required 5 runs to win with their last 2 batsmen at the crease. Robert Chapman after suffering a hammering earlier was required to bowl the last over and he responded well and with one ball remaining the scores were level and the large crowd in attendance were spellbound.

Robert’s delivery was right on the mark and the batsman could only bunt it back to him and he then threw the wicket down at the bowler’s end and the result was a tie. Nick Townsend completed a good match with 3/33, Dan Elliott took 2/17, Shannon Woolley 2/44 while Dale Punshon took a wicket and only conceded 12 runs off his 4 overs.