PAKENHAM VETERANS
Pakenham and District Veteran’s Cricket Club rolled out the welcome mat for Canterbury Veterans at Toomuc Reserve on Sunday.
The two sides could only muster 10 players each, and rain was anticipated to end proceedings early, so both captains agreed to split the innings into 16 overs each before lunch and the same format to follow after the lunchbreak.
David Leach, the Pakenham captain, welcomed Leigh Murray into the Pakenham team to play his first game for 30 years before he won the toss and elected to bat first.
Pakenham opened with Carl Muscat and Phil Brooks.
By the eighth over, when Brooks 14 (25) retired, the score had reached 37.
Muscat 18 (25) and Dallas Wyatt 24 (30) both retired and by the 16th over Pakenham had reached a total of 0/69.
The two not out batsmen were Peter Ross 4 (12) and Leach 2 (7).
Canterbury started its first 16 over innings with Gavin and Loy opening the batting.
In the third over, with the score on six, Peter Ross caught Loy 1 (4) off Jim Gregory’s bowling. Goldstein 13 (24) was the second wicket to fall, when he was bowled by Phil Brooks.
Gavin 26 (25) then retired and by the 16th over Canterbury were 2 for 70, one run ahead of Pakenham.
After lunch, with rain imminent, the captains agreed to shorten the second spell of innings to eight overs each, hoping that the two teams could get that in before the heavens opened.
Pakenham resumed with Leach and Ross batting.
But unfortunately, for the fourth time this season, Ross strained his hamstring again and had to retire after making five off 19 balls.
In the 21st over Les Jones 6 (11) was bowled by John Kent.
On the last ball of the 24th over Leach retired after scoring 41 runs off 27 balls.
Alan Reitman 4 (8) was not out and Pakenham had scored 54 runs from its eight overs to take the total to 1/123 from the allotted 24 overs.
Canterbury bowling: J Kent 4-1/16, L Cavill 3-0/10, P Kemp 4-0/24, J Segar 3-0/16, P Parikh 3-0/11, L Bergman 2-0/19, A Goldstein 5-0/24.
Canterbury resumed its innings with Parikh 22 (25) and Bergman 13 (25), who both retired before Canterbury lost its third wicket when Jim Gregory bowled J Hind for a second-ball duck.
Dallas Wyatt took two wickets in as many balls when he caught and bowled P Kemp 14 (17) and bowled Cavil first ball.
Stephanie Leach, who was a substitute fielder for the injured Peter Ross, stopped the ball and threw it to Les Jones, who threw to Dallas Wyatt to run out J Kent 5 (7).
This was the third wicket to fall in the 21st over with the score on 97.
Canterbury now needed 27 runs off three overs but tight bowling and good fielding restricted the score to 6/109 off 24 overs, with the game officially being was called off.
Pakenham Bowling: Jim Gregory 6-2/27, Dallas Wyatt 6-2/12, Phil Brooks 6-1/22, Carl Muscat 2-0/9, David Leach 2-0/13, Peter Ross 1-0/4 and Les Jones 1-0/14.
This was the second win for stand-in captain David Leach who is unavailable for the last game in 2022 for Pakenham, against Endeavour Hills Green on the turf at Endeavour Hills on Sunday 18 December.
-John Moore-
