Veteran’s Cricket contributor John Moore spent the last week of November in Bunbury, Western Australia, representing Victoria 5 at the 2023 National Over-70 Cricket Championships.
After losing the first two games to NSW and South Australia, the Vics were keen to bounce back against the powerful ACT, with a bronze medal match against NSW to finish off the carnival.
Here’s John’s report.
• Round 3 – Victoria 5 played ACT 2
ACT won the toss and batted and had a 49-run opening partnership in 15 overs before Victoria took its first wicket, when Joe McMaster took a catch off the bowling of Denis Drummond to dismiss Bill Rowe (22).
The other opener, Nicolas Brown, then retired on 35 off, 70 balls, which included a boundary.
McMaster was in the action again when he trapped Dick Stumbles (Ex Victorian) LBW for a duck.
ACT was 3/75 in the 26th over when Wavell McPherson made the first of his three stumpings, this time off Peter Cassell.
With the score on 113, the combination of ‘stumped McPherson, bowled Davey’ took the next two wickets.
In the 34th over ACT lost its sixth wicket when Paul Denton trapped Wayne Pash (15) LBW after 35 balls at the crease.
After 40 overs, ACT finished at 6/157.
Victoria 5 Bowling: Graham Davey 7-2/13, Paul Denton 7-1/23, Denis Drummond 5-1/14, Joe McMaster 7-1/15 and Peter Cassell 6-1/26.
The Vics needed to score at four runs an over to win, but started off disastrously, losing three wickets with the score on eight.
Davey went for three; Denton one, while Drummond made a duck.
The score had crawled to 23 in the 12th over when the next three wickets fell in three overs for five runs.
Cassell 3 (16), McMaster 11 (21) and Winston Deprazer 0 (11) were those to fall.
It took two eighty-year-olds to resurrect the innings and double the score in 10 overs before Ian McLeod 6 (32) was out.
The other octogenarian, McPherson 18 (56) was to lose his wicket 10 runs later.
Needing 90 runs off 12 overs, John Moore joined Arthur Manser and they took the total to 81 before Maser 10 (24) was out.
The last man in was Ernie Horgan who scored four runs off 34 balls.
Horgan remained not out, alongside John Moore…who only faced 10 balls from the last 12 overs and was 8 not out.
The Victorian score was 9/81 after 40 overs.
ACT would go through the championships undefeated and were Premiers in Division 3
• Round 4 – Victoria 5 played NSW (Bronze Medal Match)
The pitch was like rolled mud for this one; with numerous cracks and pieces of turf missing…it was the worst pitch that I had seen in 65 years of cricket.
NSW won the toss and sent Victoria in to bat, and both openers Graham Davey and Wavell McPherson made three runs before they were dismissed.
By the 10th over Victoria was 3/28 when they lost their third wicket, when Peter Cassell 6 (12) was run out.
Denis Drummond and Joe McMaster took the total to 91 before they both were out, Drummond 18 (90) and McMaster 26 (65).
This brought John Moore and Paul Denton to the crease and, without any addition to the score, Denton was out second ball.
Winston Deprazer lasted three balls in making his duck and Ian McLeod was out first ball.
Moore was down the other end while this carnage was happening.
Last man in was Ernie Horgan who faced one ball before the last over begun.
Moore had faced four balls and had made one run, before trying to lift the score to over 100, he was run out on the first ball of the last over and the Vics were all out for 97.
If it had not been for the 30 extras the total would have been a lot worse.
If the Vic’s were to win they had to get quick wickets, and by the end of the first over NSW was 2/1 with a wicket to Graham Davey and a run-out.
NSW were 4/4 by the fourth over, Paul Denton obtaining both wickets including another stumping by Wavell McPherson.
The Vic’s claimed their fifth wicket with the score on 15, a catch by Peter Cassell off the bowling of Denis Drummond.
NSW was 6/30 in the 18th over when Davey claimed his second wicket.
At this stage the Vics were possibly over confident, needing only four wickets for less than 67 runs in 22 overs.
But…the NSW tail had other views.
The seventh wicket fell in the 25th over with the score on 52, when Winston Deprazer took his first catch in five years off the bowling of Paul Denton.
The eighth wicket fell with the score on 61 when Joe McMaster took a wicket.
NSW was 9/70 when McMaster took his second wicket.
NSW now needed 27 runs in nine overs with the last pair at the crease.
At the end of the 39th over the scores were level, this was partly due to the 28 sundries.
Denis Drummond bowled the last over, and on the third ball the batter went for the winning run, but excellent fielding saw him run out.
This meant the game was a tie.
Victoria 5 Bowling: Paul Denton 7-3/8, Graham Davey 7-2/7, Joe McMaster 7-2/26 and Denis Drummond 5.3-1/8.
This was an exciting finish to an excellent Over 70’s Carnival.
Although we lost three games and had a tie, the four days of cricket were enjoyed by all the players
• Victoria 5 Player of the Championships
Wavell McPherson (aged 83) made 48 runs in four innings…averaging 16.
McPherson also kept wicket for 140 overs with six stumpings and two run outs.
McPherson just edged out Graham Davey (aged 75) who made 18 runs in four innings and also bowled 27 overs and 8 maidens, taking 12 wickets for 36 runs.
Results
• Thursday 23 November
NSW 8/40 (20) defeated Victoria 37 (26.1).
• Friday 24 November
Victoria 9/100 (40) defeated by South Australia (7/106 (40)
• Monday 27 November
ACT 6/157 (40) def Victoria 9/81 (40)
• Tuesday 28 November
NSW 97 (40) tied with Victoria 97 (40)
The next Over 70’s National Championships will be played in Dubbo NSW in the last week of November 2024,
-John Moore-
