3rd Grade Captain’s Report 2016/2017 was an improved year for the 3rd Grade, however, finishing in 8th place was a disappointing result. Inconsistency in performances throughout the season, a common trend, as well as being in a strong position to win the game only to let it slip. With a vast amount of players filtering through the team we are able to see the bright future this club holds with its young players who will only benefit from experience of playing senior cricket. Looking back, our goal at the start of the year was to develop consistency in performance, this may have not been achieved as a whole game approach, however, there were plenty of positives to come from the season. Rounds 1 & 2 had put us on the back foot straight away with losses to East Torrens and Adelaide University. We had put ourselves in a strong position for both of these games, but our inability to maintain partnerships throughout our batting innings was disappointing. Steven Heatley started the year off strongly with scores of 31 & 33 and was one of our most consistent performers with bat throughout the season. With the ball, having the likes of Liam Thompson, Lachlan Combes and Lawson Forster filter through early on was beneficial. Unfortunately Round 3 against Sturt ended up in a draw on the 2nd day due to wet weather, although this happened to be one of our best batting displays for a while finishing day 1 on 285. John Douvlos turned back the clock with 108, while Jayson Bartolo and James Nicholson showed their ability with bat by scoring 50’s. In Round 4, we were able to continue our strong performance with the bat and post 6/413 in a one-day game and post our first win of the season against Port Adelaide! Joel Garrett stood above the rest with 214, our DLCA import Ollie Tikare posted 78 and Jayson Bartolo continued his good run with the bat with another 50. With the ball Lachlan Combes tore the Port Adelaide team apart with figures of 6/29 and really pushing hard for 2nd grade selection. Round 5 was another draw that saw the game called off due to wet weather and, with only 20 runs to win it was a frustrating result for the team. Lachlan Combes was in the wickets again with 3/17, whilst Chris Broad and Steven Heatley were both unlucky to finish not out in the 30’s when play had stopped.
After the Christmas break we had the bye, followed by Tea Tree Gully in Round 9 in which we posted 131, which proved to not be enough in the end as they passed it 6 wickets down. However, Round 10 was another story completely, with a comprehensive outright victory against Southern Districts. After posting 7/186 with Joel Tilbrook and Jayson Bartolo scoring 50’s, Daniel Clarke and Lawson Forster proved too good taking 7 and 5 wickets respectively over both innings in which Southern Districts only managed 80 and 60. Another good performance in Round 11 kept our hopes alive of making a finals appearance, falling just short of another outright victory against West Torrens. Scott Applegarth showed his experience in both innings with 37 and 60* and Lachlan Combes continued his fantastic season by taking 8 wickets for the match. Unfortunately we finished the season how we started, with 2 losses. Being in a dominant position against Prospect in Round 12 only to lose wickets consistently in the middle/lower order lost us the game. Compared to Round 13 against Adelaide where our top order failed to fire finishing all out for 145 and not being able to do the job with the ball as they passed the score 7 wickets down. Overall, our strongpoint as a team was our bowling, with Lachlan Combes showing that he was a standard above with 21 wickets. Lachlan had an outstanding season with the ball and season in general by being rewarded with a 2nd grade selection, in which I’m sure he will maintain! Following was our front line spinner James Nicholson with 14 wickets, who thrived in an all-rounder role. However, credit is also due to the likes of Jay Turlan, Lawson Forster and Max Tonkin who were more than serviceable. Efforts with the bat this year were quite indifferent again with players moving between Grades, as well as making starts and not being able to convert. While only playing one game Joel Garrett won the batting trophy, however, Jayson Bartolo and Steven Heatley showed great improvement and were rewarded with playing in the 2nd Grade. Finally, I want to thank Matthew Chapman for all the hours of work he has put into this great Cricket Club as Head Coach, it is greatly appreciated and I wish him all the best for the future! Thank you to all of the other coaches, as well as the 3rd Grade playing group for their support throughout the season. A big thanks must also go to Ian Milne for being our scorer, you do a fantastic job. Here’s to hoping for an enjoyable and successful 2017/18 as a club!
A loss in Round 6 to Kensington followed by a win in Round 7 against Northern Districts again showed our inconsistency in performances to string some momentum together. Our batting lacked composure and was evident with collapses early on or in the middle in both games. However while being 4/17 chasing 115 against Northern Districts was worrying, we came away with the win. Glenelg District Cricket Club Annual Report 2016/2017
Robert Pearl 3rd Grade Captain
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