By DAVID NAGEL
TAKING a hat-trick is a moment for a sportsman to saviour, like a golfer having a hole-in-one or a jockey passing the clock-tower at Flemington and heading for the finish line in the Melbourne Cup.
Only a lucky few get to experience the feeling.
Upper Beaconsfield’s Kyle Gibbs took a hat-trick against Cardinia in their Premier Division clash on Saturday … and he still doesn’t know the exhilarating and unique feeling of a completing a bowler’s holy-grail.
You see Kyle and his team-mates – they didn’t even know he had achieved it.
Brought on in the 36th over by his skipper Chris Savage, the talented 20-year-old left hander took the wicket of Cardinia coach Simon Parrott with the final delivery of his first over. He then had Mark Andolfatto caught with the first ball of his second over, before Brayden Browne hit one high to Jayden Joyce at cover, who accepted the catch and the hat-trick was complete.
“It was all pretty anti-climactic really, because we didn’t even know,” Gibbs said.
“Alex Nooy was walking out to bat and we were talking about tactics and getting ready for the hat-trick ball. He looked at us and said ‘What are you blokes going on about, you’ve already got it’, and that’s when it started to sink in. We tried for the double-hat-trick and I nearly caught the edge but he missed it.”
Gibbs, who has been on four or five hat-tricks before, started his cricket career with Pakenham Upper/Toomuc in the then under-12s. The next season he followed his step-father Glenn Kilburn to Upper Beaconsfield and, despite Kilburn moving on, has remained a loyal Maroon ever since.
“We lived on Stoney Creek Road, right next to the ground, and I went to primary school at Upper Beaconsfield,” Gibbs said.
“I live in Doveton now but I’m not going anywhere, there are a lot of good people around the club and I enjoy playing with blokes that I went to school and came up through the juniors with. It’s all about the mateship factor really.”
Gibbs said that despite some inconsistencies with the Maroons’ batting this season, he can see some promising signs under the leadership of Savage.
“Sav’s the sort of coach that you want to play with and achieve with,” he said.
“He’s had a real positive influence on the group, we’re still young, and the main goal now is to stick together and try to achieve some success for the club down the track.”
Gibbs, whose hat-trick was just the third in the club’s history in the top flight, finished with figures of 3/10 from his two overs, backing up his 3/13 off five overs against Tooradin a week earlier.
“The key for me now is to try and get some early wickets and have an impact at the top of the order instead of getting wickets in the death overs,” he said.
And when he does get the chance and takes wickets … hopefully he can saviour the moment!
