Gordon Stags makes the T20 final at Chatswood Oval

WORDS: NICOLE LENOIR JOURDAN

Gordon cricket club’s first grade squad celebrated making the finals of the Sydney Sixers Conference on Sunday 15 January. They won five consecutive games from round two to six to reach the semi-finals.

The 2022/23 team was bolstered by the availability of captain Tym Crawford who scored 214 runs in his eight matches with a blistering 89 off 43 balls in the semi-final against Randwick-Petersham. Axel Cahlin also returned to the club, partnering Crawford at the top of the order. He scored 176 runs for the tournament with a highest score of 60 from 28 balls against Randwick-Petersham in Round three.

New recruit Dale Mckay was the pick of the batsman with 316 runs from eight starts. McKay scored consistently in all matches. However, his best two scores of 99* from 53 balls and 55 from 36 balls were scored were it counted most, in the semi-final and final. The three other new recruits in Jack James, James Newton and Smit Doshi also made strong contributions throughout the tournament. Doshi hit 179 runs with a top score of 67* of 38 balls while James scored 120 runs with a best score of 50* from 43 balls. Wicket keeper Newton picked up eight catches and three stumpings.

The Stags also had some great performances with the ball, none better than Ben Parsons who took 12 wickets from his 19.2 overs. Parsons claimed four wickets in a match twice with 4/24 against Easts and 4/23 against Randwick Petersham. Quincy Titteton and youngsters Connor Cook and Callum Bladen all took 11 wickets, while Matt Wright claimed nine wickets to go with his 126 runs. Cook saved his best performance of 3/25 for the final.

After convincingly defeating 2021/22 champions Randwick-Petersham in the semi-final, Gordon fell just two runs short in a nail-biting final against Sydney. However it was a great effort and a vast improvement on last year’s performance when the Gordon did not win any T20 matches.