 |
| Match Details |
| Round |
Round 1 |
| Opposition |
Souths Juniors |
| Date |
20-Sep-2003 & 27-Sep-2003 |
| Ground |
Moore Park 17 |
| Match Summary |
| Result |
|
| Souths Juniors 1st innings |
all out, 196 runs
|
| Kurrajong Gypsies 1st innings |
3 wickets, 201 runs
|
| Match Report |
There comes a time in every man’s life when he must realize that he is doomed to mediocrity. He learns, through consistent and persistent under-achievement, that he will never reach the heights to which he once aspired. Take John Howard – he thought he would be the next Menzies, but (despite a valiant attempt) he just couldn’t grow the eyebrows. Or Steve Liebman, who will never be the next Ray Martin, and Dirk Wellham – the poor man’s…Dirk Wellham. And so the Gypsies entered their eleventh season; full of hopes, dreams, bravado and bullshit, believing that a flag was just a bees’ away if they were good enough, sledged enough and above all, were placed in a grade full of fruiterers, kids and card-carrying members of the Prosthetic Limb-Users Club.
In the week leading up to the first game, new skipper Tap Colman had worked tirelessly to assemble a side capable of a fair-dinkum tilt at victory, and it was not until late on the Friday that most of the players revealed that they’d rather be watching the footy finals instead. Undaunted, the Gypsies threw everything into their opening spell at the Juniors, who responded with a century opening stand. It was debutant Jim Gref who lulled the batsman into a false sense of security with three overs of appalling spin, before switching to out-swing to claim the opening scalp. It was at this point that the Yak, decided to unleash his new ball – the one that goes Polish. He steamed in, shouted “Solidarity!” and unleashed one that caught the edge, causing the Gypsy cordon to launch into a rendition of “The Whores of Gdansk.” The umpire, bamboozled by the assault on his ears, gave the batsman out, and the Gypsies never looked back. Gref claimed their aptly-named no. 3, B.Simpson, amongst his four scalps on debut.
The only pause in the wicket-taking proceedings came when the skipper brought himself on to bowl, and showed that age and experience is no substitute for the ability to land it, let alone turn it. The Gypsies faced an awkward 11-over session prior to stumps, and nine other players were relieved when Tap didn’t ask them to face it with him. B2 was the unlucky one, being dismissed for 7 and the score at stumps was 1/32, chasing 197 for a first-up win.
At the start of Day 2, Tap gave the first of what would become regular pre-game psyche-ups to the assembled Gypsies. “Preserve your wicket at all costs” was the theme, and the team thought this particularly good advice, especially if it was the skipper that followed it. Fortunately his partner, Jim Gref followed it as well, and they combined for a 90 run partnership for the second wicket. Just when the bowling looked well beaten, Tap chased a wide one and was caught behind for a fine 72. This served to fire up the Souths’ quick, and by the time Tap came off, most of the team had sensibly deserted the kit area, leaving Lindsay Cohen to come in up the order.
They say that you can set the tone for a season in the first game (not that I know who “they” are, where they live, or whether they could spare a cup of sugar) and Cohen, batting at number 4, began a season-long tradition that when pushed up the order, batsmen played like they belonged there. His resolute 23, in a 56 run partnership with Gref, removed any doubt of a Gypsy collapse. It was left to Jobie Lebler to put the finishing touches to the win with a hard-hitting 22no. For Gref, it was a dream debut – 54no (from 12,006 balls faced) to follow on from his 4 wickets – the sort of performance that had the Gypsy hierarchy scrambling for positions in the lower order.
Wins in September are only slightly less prized than wins in January by the Gypsies - or wins in AFL Grand Finals by Collingwood supporters who skipped the match to see their team embarrassed for the second year running. There was no escaping the fact that the Gypsies demonstrated the characteristic so singularly missing from previous campaigns – composure. But there would be harder questions asked of the 2003-2004 Gypsies before season’s end, and harder answers to find, particularly if they had to show all the working out.
Souths Juniors 196 Gypsies 3/201
|
|
|
| Souths Juniors 1st innings |
| Barnett, Tim |
11 overs, 1 for 47 |
| Cohen, Nathan |
10 overs, 1 for 30 |
| Wawrzyniak, Andrew |
13 overs, 1 for 26 |
| Cohen, Lindsay |
5 overs, 1 for 19 |
| Gref, James |
10 overs, 4 for 48 |
| Colman, Dave |
2 overs, 0 for 16 |
|
| Kurrajong Gypsies 1st innings |
| Barnett, Steve |
7 |
| Colman, Dave |
72 |
| Gref, James |
54* |
| Cohen, Lindsay |
23 |
| Lebler, Jobie |
22* |
|
|
