On another fine & warm Dunedin Saturday the Bottle-O Eagles played their final game of the season, whilst the Turkey’s still have one more week and the Kilda hoping to be hosting the 40 over final next Saturday.
The Bottle-O Eagles were up against the undefeated Taieri team out at Brooklands. After winning the toss Taieri decided they would have a bat. Mason Clarke and skipper Tommy clout (playing his last game for the Eagles before he heads overseas for a few years) had the new ball. In the 6th over Mason mad ethe initial break-thru. Taieri then put together some good partnerships to reach 125/4 as Matt West & Dylan Fletcher claimed two wickets together at this score. A further partnership took the score to 198 when Dylan got his second. A steady flow of wickets and runs saw Taieri dismissed off the last ball of the 50th over for a very healthy 256. Tommy led the bowling with 3/43, whilst Mason, Dylan and Patrick Arnold claimed 2 each.
The Eagles reply got off to a good start with Dylan being joined at the top by Ethan Price, after Josh Olliver was injured in the field, and Ethan looked very good as the score moved to 41 in the 6th over when Dylan was out for 10. Ethan kept batting nicely but was out for 41 (off 41 balls) and the other players just did not have good days as wickets continued to fall in fairly rapid succession with only Luke Marsh (19) and Josh (11) making double figures as the Eagles were bundled out in the 25th over for only 101 – not a great way to finish what has been a very disappointing season for the team.
Over on Brooklands No 2 the Turkeys were also up against Taieri and after Taieri won the toss they also decided they would have a bat. The turkeys were a little light on numbers, but thanks to skipper Ollie Ritchie calling in three flatmates they had an 11 for the match. Taieri lost an early wicket when Liam Fisher took the first wicket at 2 and the second wicket went at 29 before Taieri put on a good partnership to have the score at 78 when the 3rd
& 4th wickets fell quickly – from this point the turkeys bowlers really got on top and took regular wickets to have Taieri all out for 131 in the 41st over. Young Luke Ritchie led the way taking 4/24 off 7.4 overs. Eagles Assistant Coach Kurt Johnston had come across after the Eagles warm up to fill in due to a late withdrawal and bowled 9 overs of spin to claim 2/30 as the other wickets were shared amongst the bowlers.
The reply got off to a disastrous start as the turkeys found themselves in real trouble at 21/4. Two of Ollies flatmates then made 14 & 15 before another clump off wickets fell together to have the score at 8/55 and the finish line looked a long way off! Liam had been joined by the 3rd flatmate and they nudged the score to 95 before the flatty fell for a patient 16. This brought young Luke to the wicket and Luke delivered a couple of 4’s then a 6 before he put his head down and Liam batted very sensible and together they took the Turkeys to a memorable victory as they ran a bye to reach 132/9 and Liam was 32* and Luke 18*.
Meantime at Culling the Kilda also took on Taieri – with both teams guaranteed a spot in the final this match would determine who hosted next week’s match. After winning the toss skipper Scotty McCormack decided the Kilda would bowl first. Richie Buchanan took the new ball along with Ryan Wheeler who made the first break thru when he skittled the Taieri opener with 20 on the board. Richie then chimed in as he bowled his 8 overs on the trot to finish with 2/17. Taieri kept losing wickets regularly with Devin Stapley taking 3/26, but it was the skipper who did the damage with 3/18 off 7 overs before Darryl Stringer finished off Taieri with his third delivery to have them all out for only 98 in the 30th over – an excellent bowling performance from the Kilda lads.
Dazza was promoted to open the batting along with regular opener Kurt Brocklebank – unfortunately Kurt retired hurt early on as Chris Morris joined Dazza and they advanced the score to 43 before Dazza was out for a run a ball 20. This brought veteran Andy Arnold to the wicket and together with Chris they moved the score to 83 before Chris missed one and was bowled for 33 (off 31 balls). Shaun Wheeler joined Andy and they cruised to the finish line with Andy 26* and Shaun 13* as they reached 101/2 in just the 17th over – so into the final next week at Culling.