Premiership 2009/10 Second Eleven - Peter Golding report

Lou wisely ignored these ridiculous calls until Wilson’s batting (attempting to imitate a clone of Josh and Evan/Peter at the same time) got so boring that Bede was tossed the ball. Exit Wilson, brilliantly caught by Bryce in the gully – exactly as Lou had predicted one ball earlier.

The score was now 3/46 and not long to go until stumps. During the next week Bryce was unable to train as he had broken his finger in the effort of the catch.

We continued to bowl at Sardi – a gun bat – who regularly pushed the ball in the air through the on-side from just about any ball bowled to him, and Jennings – another gun bat who did not-much-at-all for some time until Lou, just before stumps, relented to the near-continuous warming up from Dean Jukic and gave him a bowl.

Peter Golding and Dean conferred before the first ball, as they had done all season. As per all season Dean told Peter to signal for a ball down leg side and the Valleys would be sure to get a wicket from a leg side stumping. Peter knew better than that, having seen every first ball from Dean go down leg side all year.

First ball, down leg side, bails whipped off and lo-and-behold Jennings was not only out of his crease, but the umpire rightly gave the decision out! 4/74 and the C’s had only one real batsmen left in the sheds.

It had been a fantastic two days of cricket from the Valley boys, who were well in the game prior to Week 2.

A short sidetrack – the best umpiring I have seen up close – no mistakes and a clear head kept over four days – congratulations to Umpires Campbell and Tranter.

The Valley boys had practiced with some anticipation during the week and when the weather dawned fine again on Day 3, we were first out onto the ground keen to take on Sardi and the Tony Greig impersonator (Johnson).

Sardi continued to bat streakily as Lou closed the gap on his shots through the leg-side only for both Sardi and Johnson to edge through slips and gully for the first few overs. No catches were given or dropped, but there was lots of frustration.

Soon enough Sardi lost concentration and popped a catch to mid-on where Jim gleefully pocketed the chance off Evan Blythe – 5/108.

Next over Chris Stafford beat Jennings and another simple catch to Peter Golding ensured – 6/108 and the Valley boys were crowing. By this time most of the C’s were busy watching their A Grade get pummelled by Gauch’s Greats.

Enter Allister and Crea – two finer batsmen you have never seen. Allister played one streaky shot backing away from Chris Stafford and was then promptly caught and bowled for 4 – score 7/112.

Dean Taylor entered the scene with smoke coming out of his ears, scored a quick 6 runs and departed when easily caught by Peter Golding off Chris Stafford – score 8/122. Phil Green came and edged the ball around the park for a little while until he too could not resist the combination of red hair and pink painted toenails paraded by Bede Gannon which resulted in a little too much excitement, a big swing and Chris Stafford pouched the resulting simple catch – score 9/142.

Finally, the batting star that was McAlpine entered (on a par with Peter & Evan in his books, but a total of 5 runs for the season did not support his case). Sam Crea who had done nothing at one end while the world collapsed around him. He was so inspired by McAlpine’s first shot that he smashed a ball from Bede Gannon straight to Lou Raffaele at mid-off and the innings was over – all out for 143 and a lead of 72 for the Valleys.

McAlpine’s parting gift to the Valley boys was to point his bat menacingly at all and sundry. We know not why, as he was not there long enough to be sledged.

The Valleys were loud and proud but recognised that the match was not over, despite bowling of 21-8-2-38 from Evan Blythe, 24-7-4-61 from Chris Stafford, 10.1-2-3-13 from Bede Gannon and his toenails and a cameo 3-2-1-1 from the master, Dean Jukic.

Our openers quickly returned to the crease, determined to score runs batting second and put the match beyond the brave and gallant C’s.

Spud and Josh continued to torment the C’s with another solid opening partnership before Spud was caught for a well-made 20, the score at this stage being 1/21. Josh was playing the same role as the first innings and the C’s were loving it.

Enter Ben Thomas. About an over in, with the spinner on, a ball went past the keeper and nearly all the way to the unoccupied boundary. Our two great communicators, having learnt from the first innings, refused to move from their crease at all – much amusement from both teams, but it was the right decision.

Ben then tore apart the C’s attack for his highest score of the season (the third individual Valley batting season-high score in the GF), making 45 before being dismissed just before stumps with the score at 2/96. Josh and Lou survived until stumps with the score on 2/112 and a lead of 184 – surely we had more than one hand on the prize?

Day 4 dawned a little cooler, with a fair breeze blowing, but the pitch was still true – if a little lower and slower again at the far end.

Josh and Lou started brightly, with Lou taking a particular liking to McAlpine before his tasty treats got a little too much and Lou was caught in the gully for a well made 36. The score at this stage was 3/154 and a lead of 226 was looking pretty good, although there was still plenty of time for a determined team to chase the runs.

Another dreaded mini-collapse followed with Bryce and Dean not faring too well – 5/159. Chris Stafford joined the Rock who by now had passed 50 and appeared to be making winning the GF his own personal mission – he certainly showed more skill, fight and concentration than all of the vaunted C’s batting line-up throughout the match.

Eventually Josh was adjudged LBW for a well-made 63 to go with his first innings of 53. More importantly he had batted without a chance for around 165 overs in the match – 6/175. Bede was out soon after at 7/189.

Jim joined Chris and they put on a few before Jim was dismissed for a brisk 4 – bringing his match total to 50 (not bad for a No. 9 and more than most of the C’s leading batsmen) – score 8/197.

Peter Golding joined Chris Stafford, who, having seen the first few balls that Peter attempted to place into the hands of the slips fieldsmen, copied Sam Crea and holed out first ball of the next over for an important 18 – score 9/197.

Evan managed to give out and receive a few well-placed sledges in the two or three balls he faced before the innings ended on 197 after 74 overs – the second-longest we had batted all season, after the first innings.

We had left the C’s 269 to chase off 55 overs and to their credit the two young openers came out and gave it a go – Simpson looking a better batsman in the second innings but Duffin remained looking like his name for a few overs.

Soon enough Duffin missed a straight ball and was LBW to Evan Blythe, who, having been slogged for a few runs had smoke coming out of his ears. Evan congratulated Duffin on his innings with a hearty cheer and the Valleys were away at 1/30.

Sardi came in and played in his usual careful GF style – providing half-chances to all and sundry in front of the wicket, while Simpson was batting by numbers at the other end.

Soon enough Simpson played a top-edge pull shot off Evan Blythe that skied towards deep mid-wicket. The players all watched as Jim Polonidis (rumored later that day to have been recruited by a scout from the Greek Olympic team) ran a full 100 metres at top speed – never looking like catching the ball – dived full length and took it cleanly in two hands before the rest of the team joined him in a celebration that broke the spirits of the C’s players that had bothered to watch their own match. 2/59.

Wilson (Captain) entered and promptly played and missed for about seven overs while Chris and Evan congratulated him on his batting ability at regular intervals. Sardi lost patience with the events at the other end and holed out to Lou at mid-on from the bowling of Evan Almighty – 3/63.

Jennings entered and was also frustrated by the Valley’s tight and accurate bowling machines (Stafford and Blythe) and was out bowled by Evan with the score on 4/77. Wilson’s tedious innings was ended shortly after – caught by Ben with the score now on 5/78.

Johnson and Allister batted slowly for a while – all the time getting tips on the low, slow pitch from Peter Golding.

After about 15 straight overs Chris Stafford was relieved at the far end by Bede Gannon, who promptly removed Allister LBW and then bowled the very angry Taylor with the score at 7/113.

Meanwhile, Evan was soldiering on from the crowd end, which had swelled with support from Gauch’s Greats who had already wrapped up their Grand Final and what seemed like 500 other Valley supporters.

He soon broke Johnson’s toe with a slow straight ball and the C’s had plummeted to 8/127. At this stage the C’s needed nearly 10 runs an over.

Enter Sam Crea and Phil Green. Lou spotted the problem fairly early on in their partnership – they could not bat much, but could run between wickets, so he promptly despatched most of our fielders to the boundary, with a few placed to stop the twos – except Ben Thomas, who was placed for the hit that goes straight up in the air. Phil saw through that ploy and did in fact hit it straight up in the air to Ben who – with 1000 spectators watching – dropped the catch. The Earth did indeed open up and swallow him.

The young C’s continued to hit the ball around until Evan decided that 22 straight overs was enough, Bede swapped ends with Chris and the scoring was again slowed to a trickle.

As the final over commenced, the C’s needed 54 runs to win and the Valley boys relaxed a little. Chris obtained a well-deserved wicket in the last over, which allowed us to welcome McAlpine to the field one last time.

He was offered batting coaching by most players in hearing distance and this seemed to work, as he edged his sixth run of the season to the resounding cheers of the remaining C’s supporters.



A great season for the Valley boys, who performed brilliantly in most matches but kept a season’s best performance for the GF, both as individuals and as a team.

Peter Golding.