Bats fail in Endeavour

By Marc McGowan
A THIRD straight batting collapse thwarted Endeavour Hills’ hopes of a strong score on day one of its encounter with Bayswater at Bayswater Park on Saturday.
The Hills’ batsmen entered the tea break at 4/136 and with a score in excess of 200 in their sights.
But the visitors slumped to 7/136 in a few overs of madness, with brothers Neil (37) and Chris Peake, and skipper Vaughan Baxter – for his second consecutive duck – departing.
Kane Gillespie’s and Shane Peake’s (29) 57-run partnership – which had several lives – settled the innings somewhat, but there was little left once Mark Collins dismissed the former.
Gillespie, Peake and Matt Foenander all lost their wickets on 193 as Endeavour Hills fell 21 balls short of batting out its 80 overs.
The Hills was on the wrong end of a double hat-trick last round and lost a combined 9/22 the week before that.
First XI debutant Lenard van der Werff (43) picked up where he left off in the lower grades to top score for Endeavour Hills.
Van der Werff, who replaced unavailable all-rounder Richard Saniga in the side, has not tallied less than 35 runs in an innings this season and is averaging 47.8.
Baxter is at a loss to explain his team’s batting collapses.
“It’s not like guys are throwing their wickets away – it’s just one of those things,” he said.
“I’ve made ducks the last two weeks, but it’s generally not the same guys each week (who are failing) and I really do think that batting is our strength.”
But Baxter remains confident in his bowlers’ ability to defy the odds.
“Once again our batsmen disappointed, but our bowlers have done well in the first three games,” he said.
“It’s still a 50/50 game. We need to bowl well and bowl to areas, but the bowlers have done the job all year.
“We haven’t got Saniga, but we’ve got enough depth in our bowling.”
The match resumes at Bayswater Park at 1pm on Saturday.