Wednesday Div 1 (2000)

Our first season in the centre's strongest competition was a real learning experience for us. As the season progressed we improved in all aspects of the game and were learning off some of the best. We were able to win most of our games against the Middies while we won about half of our games against the Vets and the Ball Terrors. The Generals and the Routers were a different story however. We could only manage one win against the Generals and were unable to defeat the Routers all season, but came agonisingly close on one occasion. Chasing our score of around 70, the Routers' last pair put on 37, including 23 off the final over from one of our fill-ins to win by a run. To come so close, yet be so far from our first win over the Routers, was heartbreaking.

The Routers topped the table comfortably, with the Ball Terrors scraping into second above the Generals who placed third. We finished in fourth spot, just a few points above the Vets, with the Middies taking home sixth.

Our first division one finals campaign kicked off with a 1st semi-final against the Generals. After a slow start we resticted the Generals to a medium-sized score in the high sixties. Our first two pairs batted well, but the 11th over of our innings, bowled by Greg Matthews was a remarkable over as well as being a turning point for us. Thankfully the third ball rule wasn't in place because Snake beat the bat of Ranga #35 on all six deliveries but wasn't able to take a wicket, leaving the Australian star with no overs left to bowl. A nervous Vin #23 and Browny #2, batting last, withstood the pressure to see us home by just a couple of runs.

The Routers had beaten the Ball Terrors fairly comfortably on the other court, which left us with the Ball Terrors to play in the preliminary final. Still on a high from our big win over the Generals we won the toss and batted first. We then proceeded to put on possibly our best batting display of the season to score over a hundred runs which put us in the box seat to progress through to the grand final in our first season. Defending the total wasn't a problem, so we were to come back next week to face the Routers.

The Routers won the toss in the grand final and sent us in to bat. Browny #1 and Gilly #7 got us off to a fantastic start with 32 runs in the first partnership. But then the Routers showed why they finished on top of the table, by keeping Ranga #35 and Howesy #5 to -11, Damo #8 and Jeffro #69 to 6 and Browny #2 and Vin #23 to 2. Defending 29 runs was always going to be difficult and they ended up on 72 to see us fall one step short of the title. Phil Hall was player of the grand final but our own Browny #1 was the competition's best & fairest for the season.