Sunday 13 October was the beginning of the Veterans Cricket Victoria over 60s competition for season 2024/25.
Pakenham and District Veterans Cricket Club played Kooweerup and Iona combined Veterans at Pakenham Cricket Ground.
The combined team only had 10 players and Pakenham had 11, so when they fielded, Pakenham suppled them an extra player.
Pakenham won the toss and asked the combined team to bat first.
Andy Parker and Graham Davey opened the batting, and after 13 overs they both retired, with Parker hitting 38 off 48 balls and Davey 12 off 29.
The combined team lost their first wicket in the 16th over when Andrew Patterson was run out for two by a throw from Carl Muscat to Warren Dummett.
Mick Skully retired after scoring 41 runs off 27 balls, including seven fours.
Three more batters retired, in Eric Olson (18 off 35), Russell Ferguson (18 off 27) and David Wells (10 off 25), before the combined team lost their second wicket, when Ron Milnes was judged LBW off the bowling of Peter Ross, for a fourth-ball duck.
The last pair, in Ross Farmer (14 off 18) and Jennifer Sullivan (eight off 11), took the total to 173 off the combined team’s 40 overs.
Ross was Pakenham’s only wicket taker and earned Pakenham’s man of the match honours, taking 1/14 from six overs.
Greg Johnston (seven overs, 0/37), Jim Gregory (six overs, 0/40), Les Jones (six overs, 0/10), Muscat (four overs, 0/23), Michael Barrow (eight overs, 0/26), and Gaya (three overs, 0/15) rounded-out the bowling efforts.
Pakenham’s opening batters Muscat 19 (30) and Dummett 17 (35) took the total to 40 before they both retired.
Johnston (seven from 13) was bowled by Patterson when the score was 60 in the 16th over.
Gerard Healey (22) and Ross (31 from 30) both retired before Jones (one off three) was bowled by Scully.
In the 33rd over when Alan Reitman (12 off 26) was bowled by Parker and Barrow (22 from 31) retired, the score was 3/143.
Pakenham now needed 30 runs off seven overs.
In the quest for quick runs, the tail did not wag; Gaya (two from 14) was run-out by a direct hit from Ferguson, Gregory (two from seven) was bowled by Davey and Moore (one from five) was bowled by Scully.
The score was now 6/155 in the 37th over when the retirees returned.
They did not fare much better than the tail – Muscat added two runs off four balls before he was caught by Scully off the bowling of Patterson, Dummett added two runs off four balls before he was run out by Ferguson and Barrow was bowled by Parker, the first ball on his return.
With one ball remaining and eight runs needed, Ross scored a single and Healey had added four off five balls to be not out 26.
Pakenham finished at 9/165, having lost 7/22 runs off seven overs.
Parker was named Koo Wee Rup and Iona combined Veterans Man of the Match after taking 2/44 from eight overs.
Scully (2/14 from eight overs) and Patterson (2/26 from seven) joined Parker with two wickets each, with Milnes (0/25 from four), Sullivan (0/15 from two), Farmer (0/8 from two), Davey (1/22 from eight) and Olson (0/6 from one) all contributing with the ball.
It was an exciting and close game to start off the new cricket season.
Next Sunday Pakenham play Gippsland over 60s at Glengarry, and Kooweerup/Iona combined Veterans play Essendon Vets-St Bernards Over 60s
-John Moore
