West Gippsland Wombats Over 70’s have finally converted recent competitive performances into victory after a hard-fought win over Gippsland Goannas at Toomuc Reserve on Sunday.
The day began well for the Wombats with skipper John Moore winning the toss and sending Gippsland into bat.
But initially it appeared to be a bad decision, with Bob Phillips injuring his knee in the first over and being unable to bowl again.
Both openers belted the ball to all parts of the field until Carl Muscat bowled Andrew Smith 13 (14) and Jim Gregory trapped Fred Debono 12 (23) LBW.
The Goannas were 2/42 in the 8th over and well on target to score over 200 runs.
Captain Ian Southall 11 (15) was first batter to be stumped by Russell Ferguson, this time off the bowling of Gregory.
The second stumping was Warren Dummett 14 (24) off the bowling of Muscat.
The Goannas were 4/64 in the 15th over, before Steve Lincoln 25 (30) retired and the score was 4/89 after 20 overs.
Tight bowling and good ground fielding restricted the run rate and the bowlers were hard to score off; this resulted in five wickets falling for 10 runs in a seven-over spell.
Gordon Cowling 15 (20) was run out by a brilliant stop by Muscat…throwing to Keith Houghton. Graham Davey took the next two wickets, both bowled, with Barry Nunn 8 (11) and Dave Noble 4 (7) his two victims.
Houghton then bowled the next two batters, Ron Lovel 5 (8) and Kel Bond 1 (5).
Gregory took the 10th wicket when he bowled Wayne Tatterson 10 (20).
The Wombats reject, Ron Milnes 5 (9) remained not out and after 30.5 overs the Goannas were all out for 128.
Wombats Bowling: (Man of the Match) Jim Gregory 4.5-3/20, Graham Davey 6-2/20, Keith Houghton 5-2/15, Carl Muscat 6-2/15, Pieter Loos 3-0/18, Mike Newton 3-0/14, Brendon Thomas 2-0/15 and Bob Phillips 1-0/10.
The Wombats opened with Barry Cain and Graham Davey, with accurate bowling by Gordon Cowling and Ron Lovel seeing only one run scored off the first four overs.
Cain then straight drove Ron Lovel for four and the Wombats were away.
Cain 5 (19) was unluckily run out by Andrew Smith with a direct throw from 25 meters that hit the wicket.
Davey 18 (25) retired before the Wombats lost three wickets for 10 runs in three overs.
Jon Martindale 18 (23) was caught by Fred Debono off the bowling of Barry Nunn, Pieter Loos 2 (3) caught by Warren Dummett off the bowling of Kel Bond, and Brendon Thomas 3 (7) was Bond’s second wicket when he was caught by Dave Noble.
Carl Muscat 25 (28) retired before the 20th over when the Wombats were 4/85, this was four runs less than the Goannas total at the same time.
David Wells 11 (10) retired hurt before the Wombats lost three wickets for three runs when Mike Newton 10 (20) was caught by Gordon Cowling off the bowling of Dave Noble, Jim Gregory was bowled for a second ball duck by Ian Southall, and Keith Houghton 13 (28) was bowled by Southall.
The Wombats were now 7 for 111 in the 29th over, and the equation seemed simple with 18 runs required off 11 overs.
But accurate bowling by the Goannas saw John Moore 2 (4) became Ian Southall’s third victim when he was bowled.
By the 34th over the Wombats had crawled to 124, then there were three maidens in a row before Russell Ferguson 8 (25) retired.
This brought the first retiree back to the crease, Graham Davey, who hit two fours in three balls to take the total to 132 on the 5th ball of the 37th over.
Davey 26 (32) and the injured Bob Phillips 3 (22) were both not out.
Goannas Bowling: Ian Southall 8-3/14, Gordon Cowling 7-0/12, Ron Lovel 7-0/21, Andrew Smith 2-0/22, Barry Nunn 2-1/10, Fred Debono 1-0/11. Ron Milnes 2-0/9, Dave Noble 4-1/9, Kel Bond 4.5-2/19.
This was a great game of over 70’s cricket played in the right spirit, which could have gone either way, but finally the Wombats have won a game.
The next game for the Wombats is on Sunday 12 November at Outtrim against the Glen Waverley Hawks.
-John Moore-
