PAKENHAM VETERANS
Pakenham and District Veteran cricketers played their final game for the season on Sunday 5 March against Endeavour Hills at the opposition’s home ground.
Pakenham was fortunate to obtain the services of Ron Wernke from Kooweerup for this game as Kooweerup did not have a game in this round.
Pakenham skipper Bob Phillips won the toss and decided to bat first.
He tried a different pair of openers for this game in Maurice Esmonde and Michael Barrow.
But this decision was a dismal failure as both players were bowled by Mark McInnes without scoring.
Barrow made his duck off 8 balls and Esmonde lasted a little longer with 21 balls.
McInnes had his third wicket in the eighth over when he trapped Phil Brooks 8 (12) LBW.
After this disastrous start the Ross brothers added 36 runs in seven overs before Alan 9 (22) was stumped by Trevor Dangerfield off Jay Stent’s bowling.
Three runs later Stent had the other brother, Peter, LBW for 30 runs off 33 balls.
The score was now 5 for 49 in the 20th overs.
After facing 41 balls the new recruit from Kooweerup, Ron Wernke, retired on 18.
David Leach had helped the score reach 107 by the 32nd over before he was LBW to Jay Stent’s bowling for 30 off 44 balls.
Jim Gregory frustrated the bowlers in playing and missing for 20 balls in scoring 2 before he was bowled by Jay Stent.
The score had reached 127 in the 36th over when Bob Phillips 16 (17) was caught by Joe McMaster off the bowling of Russell Vincent, then next ball Alan Reitman was caught by Greg Hulm.
The pressure was on as John Moore came in facing a hat-trick.
Not only did he survive the first ball he faced off Vincent, but he finished not out 15 off 10 balls when Ron Milnes 5 (18) was caught by Jay Stent off Vincent’s bowling on the last ball of the 40th over.
Pakenham was all out for 146.
Endeavour Hills Bowling: Jay Stent 8-4/19, Mark McInnes 6-3/13, Russell Vincent 6-3/33, Ron Kasputis 7-0/12, Joe McMaster 7-0/30, Kris Elleperuma 3-0/23, Greg Hulm 3-0/21.
Endeavour Hills’ two openers retired after facing 30 balls, Greg Hulm 15 and Trevor Dangerfield 20, and also retiring was Jay Stent 25 (33).
Endeavour Hills lost their first wicket in the 21st over with the score on 85, when Alan Sauvarin 4 (11) was bowled by David Leach.
Four overs later the score had reached 105 when Pakenham claimed its second wicket when Peter Ross bowled Mark McInnes 31 (30).
Peter Hockey 24 (27) retired before the third wicket fell, then Sohail Nazeer 1 (6) was caught by Peter Ross off David Leach’s bowling.
Phillip Parsons joined Russell Vincent and the pair added 14 runs to take the Endeavour Hills total to 151 in the 33rd over.
Vincent 15 (20) and Parsons 6 (8) were not out.
Pakenham Bowling; David Leach 8-2/23, Peter Ross 5-1/16, Jim Gregory 5-0/20, Bob Phillips 5-0/26, Phil Brooks 3.3-0/16, Alan Ross 1.3-0/13, Ron Milnes 2-0/8, Michael Barrow 2-0/21.
And so ends the first season of Pakenham and District Veteran Cricketers in the Victorian Veterans Cricket Association.
A total of 29 different players were in the teams that played in these 16 games for the season, and many of them were opposition players who played when Pakenham was short of players.
Of the 16 games played, Pakenham won six games, lost nine, and one was abandoned.
Many thanks go to the three players that had captained Pakenham during the season in Bob Phillips, David Leach and Carl Muscat.
Pakenham and District Veteran Cricketers have entered a team in the Over 60’s Echuca Carnival which runs from 18 to 22 March.
-John ‘Run Machine’ Moore-
