Wednesday Div 1 (2004)

We won the toss an elected to field for our season opener against the King Browns knowing we would be a bit rusty. And rusty is how we started as the King Browns got off to a flier with 38 runs in their first partnership. Our fifth over went for 4 runs to see the King Browns reach 42. But that was as high as they were going to get. In an inspired spell of bowling, Damo #8 bowled the 6th over for -11 runs and the 8th over for -13 runs. Adding to the mix was Browny #1 who bowled the 7th over for -12 runs which saw the King Browns' total drop by 36 runs in 3 overs. The procession continued as we kept the third and fourth pair to negative totals to see us chasing a meagre -26.

Lewie #9 and Browny #2 batted well as our first pair but were unable to chase down the big skin. With the pressure off the batting stuggled a bit from there as we plodded our way to 63. The 89 run win with 3 skins was a great way to start the season, especially seeing we certainly weren't at our best. To view the scorecard, click here.

Coming in to face the Van Wilders was always going to be a tough contest, which wasn't helped by losing the toss and being sent in against the new ball. In the end we scraped together 65 runs with Browny#1 and Chenzo#23 getting 32 and Browny#2 and Gilly#7 getting 20. Not a huge total but something that could be defended.

Unfortunately we weren't on the ball 100% from the start. A little loose bowling and not our usual sharpness in the field, allowed the first two pairs to accumulate a total of 59. The Van Wilders' third pair managed to pass our total and come out with the score on 80.

To our credit we regrouped and didn't allow the last pair to get away from us and make the game into a total blow out. We restricted the last pair to -1 and notably contained the Van Wilders' big hitter, Justin, from hitting a boundary.

In the end not a bad effort second game back, to take two skins in a close game, against the in form team that has being playing all summer.

A solid batting performance in scoring 129 set up this comfortable win. As for the poor fielding, we'll put that down to the game being at 9:45 game and on bay 13.

We had to work hard to post the decent total of 76 runs. In particular Howesy#5 and Tim#18 stuck at it best and got 35. Then just like the good old days, we came out with all guns blazing in the field and we had them at -12 after three pairs. Their last pair got away from us, but we still recorded a comfortable win in the end.

We got off to a flier thanks to Browny#1 and Chenzo#23 who made 52 as the opening pair. The remaining pairs then got us to 86. We again started well in the field having them in the negatives at the half way mark of their innings but we took our foot off the pedal with the win in the bag at that stage and they won the last two skins. In the end though, a comfortable victory.

A good performance with the bat in scoring 96 runs set up the win. Howesy#5 and Tim#18 top scored with 34. We had a few good moments in the field without being great but it was good enough to defend the big total.

The Generals had two players at the start of the game and only five in total so Hopesy stepped in for them just to make it a game, but it wasn't really a game with them playing that short. We fielded and bowled fairly well to keep them to just 2 runs and making that total was never going to be a problem.

Our fielding and bowling wasn't good but to Bitter & Twisted's credit they put away the bad ball and posted 95. We did our best to chase it down but in the end we were chasing just a few too many.

We fielded and bowled at nearly our best tonight, despite not having our best side, to contain Ball Terrors to 36 runs. Fill-in Matt Howes bowled the 12th over for -16. Then our batting just fell to bits as we gave away our wickets far too easily. Unfortunately our two fill-ins, whilst trying to save the game, recorded the lowest Sultans partnership on record but still kept the team score above zero.

A devastating 66 run opening partnership by Cam and Browny#2 set up the massive total of 133 runs. We were ok in the field, unfortunately losing two skins on the way to the comprehensive win.

We were sent in to bat and batted ok against Ballajura making a total of 61 runs. Jeffro#69 and Ranga#35 fought hard and didn't lose a wicket in posting our highest partnership of 23. We tried hard in the field but never really got the intensity up and Ballajura posted 116 to give us our fourth loss this season.

We didn't actually field that well, but still managed to keep the Stingers to just 4 runs. Then we posted our biggest ever score, 180 runs, to equal our biggest ever winning margin of 176 runs.

We had our ups and downs with the bat and ended up on 66. Browny#1 and Chenzo#23 making 32 of them. Having regularly defended these kind of scores, we were confident of victory again. The King Browns got close though with a wicket on the last ball sealing their fate. Lewie#9 thankfully didn't spill the dolly at the back on the last ball (despite looking like doing so).

We fielded first and did what we needed to do, keeping the Leppers to 7. Browny#1 and Browny#2 opened up with 54 and we finished on 104 - a comfortable win.

The Seam-it Babies elected to bat first and despite being under pressure early, did well not to lose wickets. But we got on top of them eventually, keeping them to -27. We then went out and made 111. See the scorecard here.

After the third over, once Chenzo#23 had his shoes on, we were ok in the field keeping the Middies to 36 runs. Then after a slow start we made 106 with Browny#2 and Matt Howes bringing it home with 53 runs of their own.

Gilly#7 and Browny#2 started superbly with 42 runs but we seriously fell away in the middle two partnerships before coming back at the end to post 63. We again started slowly and the Ball Terrors got to 60 after 8 overs before we started playing. We gave it a good run from there with the game not being decided until the last few balls. We got three skins in the tight loss which gives us just one less point than our opposition.

The best Generals side Seamers has seen this season rocked up to play us for a blockbuster in which we wore our original Sultans shirts as part of heritage week. Unfortunately we could only manage five Sultans plus two fill-ins to leave us with seven players.

We put on a solid bowling and fielding display despite being a fielder short and we kept the Generals to 31. We started ok by winning the first two skins but our lack of good batsmen in the side cost us in the end, falling short by 19 runs.

Bitter & Twisted were late arriving so they batted first. We again did quite well in the field to keep them to 30. We went out and won each skin to record a comfortable win.

We lost the toss again and were sent into bat. We put our heads down, batted with some professionalism and posted 100 runs. Moff#18 and Browny#2 made a magnificent 48 batting last. We started well in the field but our fielding fell away a little after that. The Van Wilders gave it a good shot, getting within 5 runs in the end but it was always going to be unlikely victory for them.

Browny#1 and a drunken Chenzo#23 smashed 55 to set up the team total of 101. Then it was just a matter of taking a few wickets to seal the win and we did just that.

Brett and Brendan came out and smashed 50 before we started playing and we then kept the Ball Terrors to 60. We batted well and cruised to an easy win.

We batted first and were pretty solid against the new ball and a full Generals line-up, making 88. Then the Generals, uncharacteristically, put their heads down and batted with focus to try and keep their season alive. We let a few pairs off the hook through missed opportunities in the field but in the end the Generals batted well for 102 runs and made it into the finals.

We finished in first place at the end of the regular season followed by the Van Wilders, Generals and King Browns. The Ball Terrors finished in 5th and missed the finals by just a couple of points, while Bitter & Twisted, Middies and Leppers finished in 6th, 7th and 8th respectively. Mick Hollows from the Ball Terrors won the best and fairest for the season.

We finished on top of the ladder and the Van Wilders finished second so they were our opponents in the second semi final. We batted first against a six man Van Wilders side and we, to put it simply, batted poorly. Being short in the field turned out to be advantageous to the Van Wilders because we saw the gaps in the field, batted too aggresively and we ended up on just 45 runs. With not too many to defend we came out firing in the field but our total turned out to be a little too low and the Van Wilders got over the line by 8 runs.

The Generals defeated the King Browns in the first semi final so they were our opponents in the preliminary final. The Generals won the toss, elected to bat and were off to their usual 20 start thanks to Spives and Mick. We let the second pair get away from us before taking our chances in the third pair to get us back in the game. The Generals finished on 48.

Probably an even money game at this stage, Chenzo#23 and Browny#1 made 19 runs as did Gilly#7 and Tim#18. We faltered in the third pair but Browny#2 and Moff#18 held it together batting last to get us over the line by 3 runs and get us into our fifth consecutive division one grand final.

We weren't going to let the Van Wilders get under our guard in this, the biggest match of the season. We were the team that turned up to play indoor cricket and we took out another premiership - our third on the trot.