Round 1.
Sydney Uni all out 143 (Cam Hawkins 30, Dave Gatt 27, Daniel Domenici 14 not out) lost to Sydney 5-144 (Hawkins 2-23, Ruhnau 2-31) at Sydney Uni no. 2.
After all the hard work Dave Jessep put in to us, it was a relief to finally get out on to the field for the start of the Green Shield. Unfortunately, the only thing he forgot in his thorough lead up was to give Jono Momsen a double-headed coin so we could win the toss. Having lost the toss we were sent in to bat and the Sydney opening bowlers got some good use of a pitch that had some early juice.
At 2-5 it was not an ideal start and certainly not helped by opening batter Alex "Sticks" Logan forgetting he was playing cricket and not soccer. Alex did a great Ronaldo impersonation, back-heeling the ball on to his stumps! Jono "Captain" Momsen and Cam "the pocket dynamo" Hawkins tried to steady the ship. Cam might be knee high to a grasshopper but he protects his wicket like Matt ''Buddah, Dirty Bird'' Ruhnau protects his food. Getting Uni back into a good position they put on 43 runs before Jono lost his middle stump for a patient 14 off 65 balls in 85 minutes. Five more wickets, including that of Hawkins, who frustrated the Sydney attack for a wonderful 30 of 98 balls in 114 minutes, and we were 8-93.
With things look pretty grim; our gritty and determined wicket-keeper Daniel "DD" Domenici and yours truly Dave "the VC" Gatt, in good touch with the ball but struggling with the bat, went about trying to rescue the innings. Coming in at no 10, Gatt was following in the footsteps of Luke Truisham, last season's Green Shield most valuable player. Hopes were not high given the VC's recent batting performances. Somehow the duo conjure 46 of the finest runs, the best partnership of the innings, you'll ever want to see (well, that's my story and I'm sticking to it). Domenici played a great anchor role, batting sensibly and a final score of 143 is more than what we expected after our batting woes and at least gave us some momentum going in to Sydney's innings.
Unfortunately, the pitch was now a batting paradise and the Sydney opening batters had luck on their side and survived to put on 56 runs and knock a bit of the stuffing out of us. We got some help getting the first wicket when one of the openers had to go off the field for a toilet break, much to the amusement of all. It was a bad move. He came back on and was promptly bowled by Hawkins. Two more quick wickets had them at 3-65 and raised hopes of a miracle win. We tried all sorts of tricks to put the opposition off, including producing a middle stump that had been knocked out of the ground, refusing to go back in to the hole and forcing an early tea. Despite a brilliant piece of fielding by Alex "Ronaldo" Logan hitting the stumps for the second time in the day this time in favour of Uni and a timely run out, the visitors got back on track and survived claiming victory in the 48th over.
So now now it is on to Sutherland on Tuesday and hopefully the SUCCers will get on the board in Green Shield.
Report by Dave Gatt
Round 2
Green Shield vs. Sutherland.
The boys were looking to get their first win of the season after a loss to Sydney only a couple of days before.
Things looked bright when skipper Jono Momsen won the toss and sent Sutherland in. Travis McKenna took advantage of the new ball, claiming a wicket 3rd ball. Sutherland fought back to be 1 for 79 before Matt Ruhnau got a wicket and brought us back into the game. Soon enough Sutherland were 4-114 and then 6-137. It was a great effort from the Uni boys to get back on top before lunch, but work still had to be done. Sutherland fought back with Uni being caught dozing after a nice lunch. Travis McKenna worked really hard and managed to pick up 3 more wickets. Will Kemp and Matt Ruhnau picked up 2 wickets each in Sutherland’s total of 216. It was a solid effort but too many runs were let through the field and the boys particularly need to think about picking up the ball before worrying about throwing it.
Unlike the great start we had with the ball, it was a disastrous start to our innings with 2 wickets falling in the first over. Matt Ruhnau and Cam Hawkins got us back to a respectable position but as in previous games wickets fell just when we didn’t need them to fall. The scorebook shows most partnerships only produced about 10 runs, which just doesn’t cut it. But it was good to see again the tail managed to wag a bit with Dave Gatt top scoring with 34 to get the total to 102. We need to learn to build partnerships and I think the boys need to work hard for it and not just sit back and wait for it to happen - the runs aren’t going to come unless you work for them.
A tough game coming up next in the New Year against Hawkesbury and the boys will have to rise to the occasion and take their opportunities.
Alex Logan
Round 3
Green Shield v Hawkesbury.
Sydney University 10/144 Ruhnau 35, Bromhead 20
Hawkesbury 3/145 Ruhnau 1/25 (8), Gatt 1/23 (7.1)
The students made the trek out to Hawkesbury looking to claim the first win of the season. Aeroguard was the order of the day with swarms of flies engulfing Owen Earle Oval. Things started well with uni electing to bat first. It was a steady start with the Dirty Bird putting on a controlled 35 to all parts of the ground while being supported well by those around him.
After reaching 2/64, wickets began to tumble and we found ourselves 6/96. That brought the VC and leading run scorer to the crease who combined with Robbie to make another late addition to the total. The last wicket fell with the score on a much improved 144. Again a few batters (and the odd bowler) got a start and weren’t able to put on a big score but the signs of a good innings were all there.
The lunch break was more eventful than most were hoping for. A certain team member wasn’t happy with the quality of the décor in the change rooms and decided to take matters into their own hands. The offending tennis ball was confiscated and this person will remain nameless.
Dave “Mirrors” Gatt took the first wicket in the 9th over with the score already on 41. Pete took the next just 3 overs later and a comeback was on the cards. We took the momentum into drinks with the Hawks losing 2/12 to be 2/53. Some short bowling let their captain get away to a half century, despite our best effort in the field. The dirty bird flighted one through gate to claim his wicket before the score was passed in the 39th over. Regardless of the result there was still plenty of intensity and aggression in the field until the final delivery.
A better performance this game by the nerds but we were still not able to come away with the points. Eyes now turn to Blacktown for round 4 and our next chance to get on the scoreboard. Let’s just hope the 7 years of bad luck don’t affect us all,
Jono Momsen
Round 4
Sydney University vs Blacktown
Joe McAleer Oval
6-1-2009
A sweltering hot day in the west, further west than some of the boys have ever been I think, and if you had asked us if we were going to have Blacktown at 1/40 at the luncheon interval we would have probably told you to keep dreaming. That was however the case after a rather slow scoring, sloppy first session. Unfortunately, we had already batted by the lunch break, and Blacktown only required a further 19 runs to beat our meagre total of 58.
The captain had won the toss and decided to have a bat, whether this was a good idea or not was to follow. With Matt ‘Dirty Bird’ Ruhnau to face the first deliveries from the Blacktown quicks it was set to be a nice long day batting, and when the fifth ball was well placed through gully’s hands for four it was looking good. But then the bowler struck to claim his first and not last wicket of the spell to get Dirty Bird caught behind for 4. Out to the crease strides Will Kemp. Jono “Big Ranga” Momsen was then required to face the bowling of one of the tallest U/16’s in the known universe, and he calmly negotiated that over. Unluckily perhaps Will was then caught behind on his first ball when it appeared the umpire wasn’t gonna give it out, but Will had already walked, 2/6 off two, a common poor start from the top order boys at the moment. Cam was to follow and seemed rather comfortable until a delivery rose off the deck and he was also caught behind for 1, 3-9, a bit worrying but not entirely devastating. Then Robbie came and went and we started to get a bit worried, 4-10, Jono to follow, 5-10. With Dave Horton and Jarrod Waterlow at the crease though, the largest partnership posted by Sydney Uni of the match was to follow. A rather solid 21 run partnership helped to steady the ship, but when Dave flashed at one outside off stump and got caught behind the alarm bells started to ring. 6/31, Alex “Sticks” Logan came and went without troubling the scorers, and in came the ever reliable Dave “Mirrors” Gatt to play another vice captains knock in the lower order. 7 runs later though Jarrod was walking off after spooning a short ball to short cover. 8-38 and in serious trouble. Daniel “DD” Domenici then came out and hit the ‘scary’ Jake Lalor over the top for 2, but then hit a return catch to be out also. 9-43, what was happening. Alex Liggins then came out as a solid number eleven, and with Gatt boosted the score to 58, when Gatt was out caught behind also, Liggins finishing not out for 1 again and Uni finishing all out for 58.
Could this total be defended, we had our doubts, but with a surprise opener Dirty Bird firing down his offies we had a wicket in the first over, caught and bowled. There was then a dropped chance by our normally very reliable keeper DD which Ruhnau will never let him forget. However though Blacktown were just going through the motions and the economical Liggins and attacking Ruhnau, supported by Gatt, Zivkovic and Kemp, we held our Blacktown to actually make the lunch break, 1/40 at lunch off 11 overs with only 19 runs to get. After the lunch break we managed to make then wait for another 6.4 overs before the winning runs were eventually hit and a disappointed Uni trudged off the field.
With a relatively strong Randy-Petes team to follow on Thursday we hope we can improve to possibly take a win and get a bit of form going into the next two after that.
Round 5
Randwich Petersham 7-203 (Matt Ruhnau 2-33, Alex Liggins 2-33, Cam Hawkins 2-38) beat Sydney Uni (Jono Momsen 25, Dave Gatt 17) at St Pauls.
This was a game Uni could well have won. We had Randy Petes 1-0 in the first over then 5-103 after some great bowling from Matt "Dirty Bird'' Ruhnau and Alex ''Schwarznegger'' Liggins. Unfortunately, we allowed the opposition to get back on top, despite two wickets from Cam, and they posted a solid 203.
Despite our batting woes of previous games, we were confident of giving this a real shake. Skipper Jono ''Ranga'' Momsen and pocket dynamo Cam "Jennifer's love child'' Hawkins put on a slow but solid opening partnership, frustrating the Randy Petes bowling and putting on 25 runs in 65 minutes. Playing a true skippers knock Jono and John Hungerford (4) then put on 26, taking the score to 51. But it started to go downhill from there. Despite a blazing 17 from Dave ''Mirrors'' Gatt, promoted up to number 5 after starring in the bottom order, Uni lost 7-41 to record a disappointing loss. Jono top scored with 25 and Cam Hawkins completed a great double with 11.
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Round 6
Northern Districts 7-250 (Travis McKenna, Dave Gatt, Peter Zivkovic, Alex Katsaros one wicket each) beat Sydney Uni 96 (Matt Ruhnau 24, John Hungerford 17, Robbie Bromhead 16) at Uni no. 2
And, so it was on to the next match against the powerful Northern Districts. Despite five losses in succession spirits were still high. Even though we lost the toss we were comfortable bowling first in overcast and steamy conditions. "Mirrors" Gatt and Travis "the Brain" McKenna bowled a great spell, producing some almost unplayable deliveries but unluckily not getting their just rewards. Northern got to a daunting 250 in an innings highlighted by two direct hit run outs from Mirrors Gatt, who showed he can throw down cricket stumps just as well as he can throw down dressing room mirrors!
Once again, however, our batting left a lot to be desired. We lost Ranga Momsen to a dubious LBW in the first over and at 2-9 we were on course for another disaster. Wickets continued to tumble despite yet another great contribution from Dirty Bird Ruhnau (24) and good support from John "Ranga the Second'' Hungerford and Robbie Bromhead and Uni was eventually dismissed for 96.
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Round 7
Manly 3-138 (Travis Mckenna 1-7 off 6 overs, Liam Davidson 1-24) beat Sydney Unin 135 (Jono Momsen 46, Matt Ruhnau 30,Daniel Dominici 18) at Manly Oval.
Yet another tough match against a side needing to win to make the finals. As it turned out, Uni got the rough end of what turned out to be an imposing draw. We played three sides (Blacktown, Nth Districts, Manly) that made the finals (Blacktown will play in the final), another (Randy Petes) that was in contention in the last round and two (Hawkesbury and Sutherland) that were in the hunt with two rounds to go. We played against some awesome cricketers including Blacktown's Jacob Lalor, who has played first grade (6-40 and a hattrick on debut!!!) and an amazing amount of 6 foot plus gorillas. The telling factor, however, was that a lot of our opponents had players with plenty of experience thrpugh all the grades. Unfortunately, we did not have that ''hardened'' experience and did not know how to cope.
The Manly match was always going to be a hard assignment but Uni was determined to try and finish on a positive note after six lossess in succession. We lost the toss and were sent in to bat. Matt Ruhnau and Cam Hawkins were comfortable in putting on 19 for the first wicket before Cam copped a dubious LBW. 1-19 soon became 6-52 as Uni put on its usual batting collapse. Ruhnau was steadying factor with a wonderful 30 before Ranga Momsen, coming in down the order, smacked a beautiful 46 after looking on course to produce our first individual 50 of the season. Sticks Logan produced a highlight with a massive six in his innings of 14 while Daniel "DD" Domenici produced a great 18 as we reached 135.
Despite some thight bowling from "The Brain" McKenna, 1-7 off six overs and Liam ''Fairy Bread'' Davidson claiming his first wicket in his first match of the campaign, Manly did the job comfortably.
So, that ended a disappointing campaign, but one which should provide a huge learning curve for every player in the squad.
At the tea break the side presented coach Dave Jessup, who is now sporting a lot less hair and a few grey ones as well after this campaign, with a token of its appreciation for all the hard work he put in to the side. Despite the tough times, Dave worked tirelessly and his enthusiasm and passion never waned and was very much appreciated by all the squad. It won't be long before he will fashion a Green Shield side that will give the competition a shake. We know he deserves to enjoy and spend a little more time with his wife and young child.
The team would also like to thank manager Phil "Sticks senior" Logan for his words of wisdom, the huge amount of time he put in to the squad and his faith.