Student - Jock McClure
LAST weekend saw the first round of finals of the Under 14 Hall Trophy.
Penola/Naracoorte came up against first placed, South Gambier.
Conditions at Frew Park were cloudy and cool and both teams were ready for a good game.
South won the toss and elected to bat.
Bryce Catlin and Josh Manninen opened the bowling, with Catlin taking the wicket of Jaggar Geary in the first over.
After six overs, the first bowling change was made, with Jock McClure and Finn Malone coming in.
McClure bowled two overs when Sid Ebert replaced him, bowling alongside Malone.
They quickly picked up two wickets of the set batsmen, putting pressure on South, with Malone picking up his second wicket in his last over.
Catlin came back in with Ebert bowing the over after picking up his first wicket of the day.
Manninen, Jack Pilkington and Henry Batt bowled the last overs before drinks.
Pilkington and Batt returned with the ball, bowling well.
Will Harris and Jack Lambert bowled next, with a run-out occurring in Lamberts first over.
Harris then claimed a wicket in the next over, removing both set batsmen.
Charlie Pearce and Mawson Kidman were the last of the Penola/Naracoorte bowlers, with Kidman picking up another wicket with his first ball.
Pearce and Kidman bowled well to keep pressure on South to score runs.
Ebert and Malone came back in with Malone picking up another wicket, his third of the match.
Naracoorte only needed one more wicket to bowl South out.
Eventually a bowling change needed to be made, with Catlin coming back into the attack.
He picked up the final wicket Penola/Naracoorte needed for South to be bowled out.
South finished with 137 runs, all out after 36.5 overs.
The seconds innings saw Naracoorte needing to chase down 137 runs to make it to the grand final.
Ebert and Harris opened the batting, blocking out the good balls and scoring runs on the bad ones.
Both retired after their 45 balls.
McClure and Catlin came in next, both looking to lift the scoring rate.
Both played their shots into the gaps and scored the odd boundary.
Eventually a wicket came about, with McClure trapped LBW for 17 runs.
Wickets soon fell, with Malone and Manninen quickly dismissed, with both players unable to add to Penola/Naracoorte’s score.
Catlin was run out for 21, bringing Pilkington and Batt to the crease.
Batt was out quickly, leaving Naracoorte in a tough position.
Kidman was next in and the batsmen started to put the foot down and the runs began to flow.
This eventually led to their wickets, which enabled Sid Tucker and Charlie Pearce to come to the crease, but Tucker got out shortly after.
Ebert returned to the crease, trying to push runs to give Penola/Naracoorte a chance, but this lead to Pearce being run out.
Harris came back in, looking to get Penola/Naracoorte to 40 overs, which he did and finished not out with Ebert.
Unfortunately, Penola/Naracoorte lost the game, 9/108.
It marked the end of the season for the young Penola/Naracoorte cricketers and the reports for the year.
Thank you to everyone who has supported and given me advice on how to improve my stories this season.
This will be my final report since I have started school in Adelaide.
Thank you again from both me and the Penola/Naracoorte team.
