ISLAND Park at Casterton enjoyed a day of firsts as Casterton District cricket club unveiled its brand-new turf wicket, defeating St Andrew’s in the Hamilton and District Cricket Association (HDCA) A Grade match of the round.
Club president, Jake Balzan, was excited to see his team walk out onto Island Park 2 for the first time this season and congratulated and thanked his predecessor, Rick Killey, for his work in making the new turf wicket a reality.
“Rick has worked very hard to get this up and going, I think we’ve had three Saturdays where we’ve had this ready to go and unfortunately, due to the rain, we’ve been called off,” Balzan said.
“But it’s looking a treat and we’re happy to get on it, finally.”
He said the installation of a turf wicket was a game-changer for the club, increasing the appeal to other clubs and players, potentially attracting home-ground finals and giving juniors the opportunity to experience playing on turf, from the outset.
“This is massive for the club … it’s been all-hands on-deck … we got the funding and some of the work from the council and (the club members and players) have just been here to support Rick as much as we can,” Balzan said.
“He tells us what to do, he knows what needs to be done.
“This has been Rick’s dream for as long as I’ve known him, ever since he’s played, he’s the one that pushed forward to get the funding, all the paperwork and even when I took over as president, I kept him in charge of this project, because he knows everything that needs to be done.”
HDCA President, Lloyd Ilet, was on-hand to see the first use of the new turf wicket, named umpire for the day’s match.
“It’s an outstanding day for the association and an even better day for the Casterton District Cricket Club,” Ilet said.
“I’ve been kept up to date throughout all of the preparations throughout the last 12 months by the club and it’s been a brilliant job on their behalf.”
The next stage of redevelopment for Island Park 2 is the construction of new rooms beside the oval, which will house a social area, kitchen, bathrooms and storage area for both the cricket club and co-tenant, Casterton Little Athletics.
Glenelg Shire Council Mayor, Scott Martin said he was pleased the club could finally reap the rewards of last year’s funding announcement.
“A lot of work goes into getting a turf wicket up and running and it’s a credit to the club,” he said.
“It’s a fickle thing turf … a lot of people don’t know the hours of watering and rolling that go into maintaining a turf wicket, the weather can completely spoil the hard work you put in … all the work Rick and the club have don’t there is fantastic.”
Councillor Karen Stephens, who, along with shire chief executive, Greg Burgoyne, visited Island Park to announce the funding last year, was on-hand on Saturday to get the pre-match wicket report and see the first ball bowled, congratulating the club on its efforts.
“This is something that has been wanted and needed for local cricket, for a long time and full credit to Rick, as former president, not just for pursuing the funding from council, but leading the club in working with the shire team to develop the turf wicket and maintaining it through some very tricky weather conditions,” Cr Stephens said.
Weather still has a say
THE other “first” was that game became the first match in the history of the HDCA to be decided under Duckworth-Lewis-Stern rules, which tabulate the required target score when a match is weather affected.
Kaden Humphries (Casterton District) won the toss and elected to send the visitors in to bat on the fresh surface, no doubt due to not knowing how this new wicket would play.
The most in-form batsman in the competition, Brendan Huf, had the honour of facing the first ball bowled in anger on the pitch and he played down the line to find the middle of his broad bat.
He took a single from the fifth ball from Jacob Edwards first over, which brough James Guthrig on strike and the young opening batsman promptly played the ball on from his only ball and he was gone for a duck.
Huf looked at ease on the surface where the ball did move appreciably when the bowlers pitched it up and allowed it to move off the seam, but when they dropped short the ball sat up begging to be hit to or over the fence.
Liam Walsh came in at number three and he also looked safe in defence, but he too went for nought when he tried an attacking stroke over mid-off but failed to beat Ben Holmes who ran around and held a very good catch as Jake Balzan struck.
Damien Logan joined Huf and the pair took tally to 47 at the end of the 15th over when Rick Killey dismissed Logan (2), who became frustrated at not being able to score freely as he tried to lift the ball over the fence and was caught on the boundary.
Killey was bowling off-spin from the northern end and he gained appreciable turn from the new wicket, and he grabbed the prize scalp of Huf with a ball that pitched 60cm outside the off stump which the batsman shouldered arms too only to see the ball turn sharply and clip the off bail.
The run rate slowed as the bowlers tightened their line and length even more, as Killey finished with the remarkable figures of 3-9 from his nine-over spell.
The weather interfered with the Drew’s innings as a front passed through and restricted the run rate of the visitors, just as Russell Elton (25-not-out) was starting to tee off.
The final score from the 39.4 overs that the Drew’s were able to bat for stood at 7/126, with Darryl Fry posting 24 before being strangled down the legside.
Rain again fell further restricting the Casterton innings and under Duckworth-Lewis-Stern rules, the Maroons were set the target of 101 from 33 overs when they started the chase.
Ben Holmes took strike along with Sullivan Gibbs, as Dale Harris grabbed the new ball from the northern end and Holmes wasn’t going to die wondering ‘what if’ as he tried to take the long handle to the bowlers.
Latham Wishart gained appreciable seam movement from the southern end and he repeatedly defeated the edge of Holmes’ bat.
Gibbs tried to pull a ball from Harris and managed to gain a top edge return catch that the bowler gleefully accepted and the home side was 1-29.
From there though, Casterton District batted confidently as Holmes and Rick Killey took the runs on offer and despatched the bad balls to and over the fence.
Holmes raised his bat for the first 50 on the wicket and finished with 62 against his name, while Killey finished with 31 as the pair brought up the winning runs inside the 26th over and earning a bonus point in the process, as the team posted 1-106 in reply.
