200 up for Joe Ansaldo

200 up for Joe Ansaldo

Jovial Joe Ansaldo became just the 11th player to reach 200 games for the Moonee Valley Cricket Club when he took to the field in the Sevenths last Saturday.

The Club gave Joe the honor of the captaincy for the game, and selected a team prepared to have a red-hot go to try and celebrate his milestone with a win.

Unfortunately it was not to be, but the Socials had to scrap until 12 balls before the end of their innings before their hauled in Moonee Valley’s total.

Typically, Joe (left) led from the front and scored a swashbuckling 28, peppered with fours on the leg side.

Joe lost the toss at the Socials ground, Wallace Reserve in Glenroy, and Moonee Valley was sent in to bat – which would have been Joe’s preference had he correctly called.

We got off to a steady start with regular two-day player Theo Berkis opening with William Lai, and they put on 35 before Will snicked one behind and we lost another wicket immediately after.

New player Mark Madden came to the crease and put on a 79-run stand with Theo. Mark (28) and Theo (64) both lost their wickets in the over after the drinks break, but then hard-hitting contributions from Jesse Nankivell-Sandor (35) and Joe Ansaldo (28), which included a 45-run partnership, gave us a total. A hard-hitting 10 by Peter Fenaughty at the end enabled us to finish our 35 overs at 8/194.

Wickets were hard to come by in the Socials innings, with the only two falling to Theo Berkis catches off Jesse Nankivell-Sandor and Francis Tran. But Socials needed around 5 or 6 runs an over throughout their innings, and if they’d slipped at any stage we were ready to pounce.

Back at Ormond Park after the game, Joe’s achievement was honoured with a speech by life member and six-time Firsts premiership captain Greg Peters.

Greg welcomed Joe to the Life Member’s club pointed out Joe’s contribution to Moonee Valley – past committee member, Fourths captain and numerous other roles around the Club to help maintain our club spirit.

Moonee Valley innings
Theo Berkis                     run out                                      64
William Lai                      c J. Corelli       b D. Dimitrovski      6
Francis Tran                                            b D. Dimitrovski    0
Mark Madden                  lbw                  b M. Basile           28
Jesse Nankivell-Sandor                             b D. Dimitrovski  35
Neil Wilson                       run out                                       2
Joe Ansaldo                                               b D. Dimitrovski 28
Peter Fenaughty                not out                                      10
Richard Cooney                c D. Farrugia    b P. Caruana           1
Jackson Clarke                  not out                                        0
CharlieWalker                  did not bat
Extras                               (2lb 13b 1w 4nb )                        20
Total                                                                          8 for 194

FoW: 1-24 (W. Lai), 2-24 (F. Tran), 3-103 (M. Madden), 4-103 (T. Berkis), 5-128 (N. Wilson), 6-173 (J. Ansaldo), 7-183 (J. Nankivell-Sandor), 8-184 (R. Cooney).

The Socials innings
D. Dimitrovski                                          not out                       114
C. Nugent                     c T. Berkis             b F. Tran                     26
K. Chand                       c T. Berkis             b J. Nankivell-Sandor   21
Extras                            (9b 5w 4nb )                                          18
Total                                                                                 2 for 200

FoW: 1-53 (C. Nugent), 2-148 (K. Chand)

Bowling                    O   M   R   W
J. Nankivell-Sandor   7    0    33   1
F. Tran                    8    2    27   1
W. Lai                     6    0    34   0
J. Ansaldo               8    0    60   0
M. Madden              4    0    37   0

20/2/06