Our mens 1st grade made it 2 from 2 with another fantastic win against a quality Norths outfit on Saturday at Graceville Mermorial Park.
The Bulldogs were once again in the field first on what proved to be a batting friendly wicket, with Norths making a very good start with the bat puting on 68 for the first wicket. The wicket coming from a deflection from Steve McGiffin’s hand from his bowling follow through to find opener Josh Brown short for 50. Wests then scrapped hard to get another wicket and had to wait until the 39th over when Darcy Murphy had Nathan McSweeney (79) caught at point leaving Norths 2 for 208. Murphy then knocked over Kendal Fleming for 6 and McGiffin removed Sam Wilson for a duck. Norths finished on 6 for 268 from their 50 overs with Darcy Murphy having impressive figures of 6 over 2 for 22, McGiffin (1) and Watterson (2) were the other wicket takers.
Wests needed a good start with the bat and they got exactly that with century making openers from the first practise game Brendan Smith and Isaiah Snell puting on 137 for the first wicket. Smith once again was in a hurry with him being removed caught and bowled by McSweeney for 79 from just 67 balls. Snell was next to go stumped for 68 after a 45 run partnership with number 3 Sam Truloff. At this point wests were 2 fro 182 in the 31st over. A little stumble then occurred with Steve Paulsen falling for 1 and then a mini partnership between Truloff and McGiffin steadied things until Truloff was dismissed for 45 caught behind. Solid contributions from middle orders players McGiffin (18), Sippel (29) and Maynard (21) got the bulldogs over the line in the 45th over.
Wests begin the official season next weekend with 1st and 2nd grade taking on the Sunshine Coast in round 1 and our Lord’s Taverners taking on Ipswich Logan on Sunday.
