Collie fall short in Country Week

The Collie team was assembled with variety in mind with players from all three Collie Cricket Club grades being represented. 

These included young Tyson Hayes at 17, through to 73-year-old Country Week icon John Bird.

Day 1 on Sunday saw Collie take on Upper Great Southern on a well-worn pitch at Iluka Sports Complex in Joondalup. 

Against all odds, captain for the week Matt Tanner managed to win the toss and chose to bat first. 

All things pointed to Tanner making a rookie decision with Collie reeling at 8-43 in no time with one end having some variable bounce. 

Some brilliant batting down the order by veteran swing bowler Kim Rush with the help of Bailey Moloney and Tyson Hayes got the total to 73.

Best Batsmen: K. Rush 21, G. Tomasini 15, B. Moloney 8.

With only 73 to defend Collie needed to do everything right from the first ball. 

This didn’t happen as the young boys of the team were late back to the game after lunch which forced Collie to start with nine players. 

With only one over missed, Moloney, Hayes and Connor Mumme slipped back on the field trying to avoid the death stare of captain Tanner. 

Collie bowled brilliantly with minimal runs being scored and regular wickets falling. 

Brayden Kent and Kim Rush worked well together until the ball was thrown to Adam “Bam Bam” Johnson with the score at 3 for 66. 

Johnson then proceeded to bowl one of the best spells of the week taking 4 for 10 and putting massive doubt into the opposition. 

With Upper Great Southern at 7 for 68 they rallied to pass the total however “Bam Bam” finished off his spell to take his first five wicket haul ever. 

The only thing topping the quality of Johnson’s bowling was the quality of celebration. 

Collie finished the opposition’s innings at 81 which was a great effort.

Best Bowlers: A. Johnson – 5 for 10 from 5.4 overs, K. Rush – 2 for 16 from 8, G. Tomasini 1 for 5 from 3.

Day 2 saw another toss won by Tanner against Esperance and Collie batting first once again. 

Tanner was more confident of the pitch with the Ferndale surface being synthetic with no variable bounce. 

Collie put together a better effort with many batsmen contributing to get the score to 164 from 49.5 overs.

Best Batsmen: M. Tanner 40, B. Kent 30 and A. Hutt 20.

Esperance made a good start with the help of some poor catching from Collie with the score at 0 for 64. 

Collie rallied and begun taking consistent wickets with all bowlers chipping in. 

Swing bowling legend Wayne Brown was the pick of the bowlers taking just two wickets and going for nine runs off seven overs at a crucial time in the game. 

Collie kept building pressure and taking wickets and eventually dismissed Esperance for 142 bringing up the first win of the week.

Best Bowlers: M. Tanner 2 for 7 from 5.1, W. Brown 2 for 9 from 7, G. Tomasini 2 for 13 from 6.

Day 3 had the big game of the week, Collie against arch rivals Bunbury. 

Tanner somehow went three in a row with the toss and sent Bunbury in to bat. 

With it all on the line, Collie went with the big guns first with two A-grade players opening the bowling to try and get early wickets. 

The plan would have worked except Tomasini is a wicket keeper. 

Luckily Brayden Kent was a bowler and did extremely well with the new ball. Collie again took consistent wickets while keeping Bunbury at bay in the runs department. 

Collie dismissed Bunbury for 145 in the 47th over.

Best Bowlers: B. Kent 3 for 43 from 14, M. Tanner 2 for 13 from 7, W. Brown 2 for 21 from 5 overs.

Collie opened with Bailey Moloney and Brayden Kent who chased down the total with gusto. 

Kent in particular was damaging taking the bowlers to all parts. 

Kent looked assured at the crease as he breezed past 50 runs and was homing in on 100 and the total when he fell for 97 with Collie just two runs short of the total. 

Country week legend John Bird was thrust up the order to use all his experience to get the team over the line. 

He did so scampering through for a quick single to a ball hit most of the way to the boundary from Moloney. 

With the total passed, Bunbury allowed Collie to bat on with Moloney near his 50. 

John Bird got off the mark working one to the boundary to continue his country week record going. 

Moloney unfortunately fell short of his 50, being dismissed for 47 and Collie’s second win was in the bag.

Best Batsmen: B. Kent 97, B. Moloney 47 and J. Bird 1 not out.

With the Wednesday rest day being enjoyed by all players there was a few questions within the playing group. 

Would Connor Mumme’s off field form make its way onto the cricket field? 

Where would the epic battle between John “Feathers” Bird and Pete “Postie” Rose end up?

And how has Matt Tanner won the toss everyday so far?

Thursday saw the cross overs with Collie playing Lakes who were top of the opposing group. 

A very confident Lakes spoke of going to the Scorchers T20 game later that afternoon and with Tanner’s streak with the coin coming to the end, Collie were sent in with Lakes believing that Collie would be bowled out cheaply for a fast result. 

The openers from the last game continued their good form with Braden Kent putting on one of the best country week batting performances for a long time. 

Brayden Kent put on 149 by himself with a contribution finally from Connor Mumme and runs from the other batsmen getting the Collie total to 7 for 279. 

Kent’s innings was perfectly timed with little brother Austin being there for the day to see how it is done and proud mum Karina Kent there to take photos.

Best Batsmen: B. Kent 149, C. Mumme 42 and B. Moloney 34.

Brutal captain Matt Tanner thought Brayden Kent still hadn’t done enough and threw him the new ball. 

Kent’s day out continued with the left arm bowler taking five wickets to go with his 149 to single handedly win the match. 

Lakes lost early wickets and never even looked close to chasing down the mammoth 280 required for victory. 

Kim Rush and Jacob Denholm chipped in to take the wickets Brayden left behind and Lakes were bundled out for 94 in a game that was dominated by one player.

Best Bowlers: B. Kent – 5 for 31 from 10, J. Denholm – 3 for 12 from 5, K. Rush – 2 for 15 from 7.

The win saw Collie into the final on Friday against opponents from the first day, Upper Great Southern. 

Tanner won the toss and Collie went in to bat. Tomasini and Moloney opened the batting and put on 31 before Tomasini was first to fall. 

Mumme got the score to 44 until a collapse saw Mumme, Moloney, John Shepherd and Kim Rush fall with the score only getting to 50. 

At 4 for 50 captain Tanner and Josh Fraser combined for a handy partnership getting the score to 90 before Tanner departed for a well made 29. 

Fraser, Tyson Hayes, Jacob Denholm, Adam Johnson and Wayne Brown all contributed to get the score to 110. 

Not what Collie was hoping for but after bowling UGS out for 81 earlier in the week, Collie was still in with a chance.

Best batsmen: M. Tanner 29, B. Moloney 17, G. Tomasini 16.

It turned out that Collie simply didn’t have enough runs on the board with Upper Great Southern chasing down the total easily with the loss of just three wickets. 

The Collie bowlers fought hard but were unable to take the consistent wickets needed to defend the low total. 

The loss put a dampener on what was a fine week for all who took part.

Best Bowlers: T. Hayes – 2 for 35 from 7, G. Tomasini – 1 for 19 from 6, M. Tanner – 0 for 2 from 2.

BDCA cricket starts again after the country week break with the Collie A-grade team taking on Colts at home at Roche Park on Saturday.