Dry start for Corne
On a lovely sunny morning the Carlton boys were gearing up for their big rival game away against Grange. Warm up kicked off at 11.10am with the oldies getting their weekly thumping on the football pitch. The team then progressed into their cricket-focused drills to prepare for the game. The team was on a high, especially with the addition of our new pro Corne Dry.
Carlton won the toss and decided with the blue skies and a good deck that we would have a bat. Kyle and Murray made their way out to the middle looking to start off positively and get the team moving in the right direction. Grange opened up with Goudie and Davidson, both bowling their military mediums with a nice bit of movement. Murray fell early, unfortunately snicking off to a good ball from Davidson. Rory McCann then made his way out to the crease for his first appearance of the season. Kyle and Rory pushed on steadily until Kyle misplaced a cut shot and was caught at point. Our Captain for the day then made his way out to the crease. Arun and Rory only managed to add a few more runs to the total before Davidson collected his second wicket of the day also snicking off our captain.
This brought in the old reliable Mr Shah, the two added a tough thirty to the total. McCann battled his way to 26, feeling in he decided to bring out the big reverse sweep. However, this did not go to plan and he was unfortunately caught at cover. With the score at 65 for 4, heads turned to the big money transfer Will Hardie to steady the ship with Mr Shah. Will managed to get himself to off the mark with a good single and four overthrows. Will and Ali both departed shortly after to Foulds. This brought the pro to the crease, a highly anticipated innings for the boys sitting on the sidelines. Dry and Cheeky knocked it around nicely to add a further 20 before Cheeky also departed and Gupta came and went.
Allardice came to the crease looking good and nudging the ball around providing Dry with the strike. Unfortunately, Allardice was talked out of the game by the Grange bowlers. A couple of choice words was enough to put Rory off, and clean him up the next ball. Chad then joined Dry out in the middle, but not long after they were both on their way back after an unfortunate run out. Carlton finished on 125 all out.
The boys filled themselves up with teas, (not up there with our Carlton teas of course) and got back out in the field ready to push hard and put up a fight.
Dry and Shiv took the new ball but found it hard in the first couple of overs with the Grange openers coming after them. Shiv turned it around and bowled well once again with the new ball picking up the wicket of Hairs. Only a few balls later the new batsmen drills one to point and begins to run, Kyle diving with one had picks the ball up, gets himself to his knees and hits the one stump he can see, removing their No. 3 bat. This bit of magic rallied the boys for another push. Shiv managed to pick up the wicket of Budge, leaving Grange 58 for 3. However, we struggled to find another wicket and Grange went on to win the match by 7 wickets.
This was a tough defeat for the boys to take, however it only gives the team more reason to go after them hard in the return fixture at Carlton later in the season. On to the next.
Calum Everett