‘Water Wallys’ sink Hills

By Marc McGowan
A WATERING blunder ended Endeavour Hills’ finals hopes on Saturday.
The curators at Sydney Pargeter Reserve watered the pitch more than usual last Friday in anticipation of the extreme conditions that were forecast.
But the pitch was still wet when play was due to start on the weekend and ultimately cost the Hills almost two hours on day two of its crucial clash with Noble Park.
Endeavour Hills made a late charge at first-innings points, but fell four wickets short and had to settle for a draw.
Noble Park’s innings finished on 6/176 in reply to the Hills’ impressive 6/323 declared.
Endeavour Hills captain-coach Vaughan Baxter was furious after the match.
“We’re very frustrated and it was out of the playing group’s control,” he said.
“It’s the first time we’ve made 300 runs declared (this season) and we don’t get the opportunity to defend it.
“When we started it was actually the best pitch we played on all year and it played really well, but the fact was it took until 3pm to get the wicket right.”
Noble Park appeared to be cruising at 2/142 before medium-pacer Chris Peake (3/15) removed visiting skipper Dean Edmunds (40 runs off 78 balls) in just his second over.
Baxter then hauled in a great catch in the slips in the next over off left-arm spinner Shane Peake (2/61) to restrict Noble Park to 4/142.
And the Peakes were not done yet.
Chris Peake bobbed up again soon after, combining with teenage wicketkeeping brother Neil to dismiss Lance Baptist.
And when Chris Peake picked up his third scalp – and the Hills’ third straight dismissal behind the stumps – Noble Park was staring at a shock defeat at 6/157.
But number-five batsman Rod Douthie (21 off 60), who had managed just one other double-figure total this season until Saturday, stood firm for the second-from-bottom side.
Baxter reintroduced opening bowlers Richard Saniga and Matthew Foenander into the attack, but they were unable to produce the vital breakthrough.
Douthie and fellow spinner Andrew O’Meara survived the final half-hour of play to earn Noble Park a share of the six points.
Baxter praised his bowlers’ display.
“We had pretty attacking fields because we knew they wouldn’t have scored the runs and they probably scored more runs than they normally would have,” he said.
“I thought we bowled pretty well overall – I had no complaints about the bowling.”
Endeavour Hills faces Croydon in a one-day match in the final round at Croydon Park Oval this Saturday from 12.30pm.
The Hills is an insurmountable 12 points behind third and fourth-placed clubs Malvern and Box Hill, but Baxter hopes his players can end the summer on a high.
“The blokes have had a very successful year and we want to finish it off,” he said.
“If we can finish a game or a game-and-a-half outside the four it will be a very successful year.”