This last week saw the North Nowra Cambewarra Cricket U11 Blues team take on the Shoalhaven Ex-serviceman’s team on the hallowed turf of the Nowra High School.   A great venue for cricket!   We were lucky enough to play on the furthest pitch away from the car park so everyone’s car remained dent free.

So that brings us to the highlights and the lowlights.  The low point of the match was losing the toss.   So now we have the bad news reported, we can devote the rest of this article to shameless team promotion and over-the-top self-adulation!    We were talking about the toss.   The captain of Ex-servos won the toss and chose to bat first, however he was over-ruled by a higher being, one twice his height, and of the female variety.  Their captain was forced to concede as all good men do.  He agreed to field first, sending us in to bat.

Let us begin by getting one thing straight.   It was champion batting performances from all players of our great club.    The running between the wickets was breathtaking with the entire team piling on runs.  Opening batters Jack Sweet and Jack Walsh putting on 35 runs without loss of wicket.  Harry Evans and Alexander Jelavic followed adding 2 for 22 runs to the scoreboard, then Troy Sweet and Toby Huard pulling off 51 runs, scoring at more than 10 runs an over!    Just for pure entertainment value, a couple of suicide runs were undertaken.  This excited the spectators and gave the other team a fighting chance.   Tully Dennis and Jacob Zerafa scored 29 Runs losing 1 wicket and the wicket keepers Cameron Murray and Micah Edwards scored 17 runs losing only 1 wicket.

North Nowra Cambewarra team then came out to field.    Troy Sweet bowled the stumps down 3 times, Alexander Jelavic took a mark or catch that an AFL player would have been proud to add to his highlight reel.   Jacob Zerafa took a hot catch in the field and Jack Sweet pulled off multiple run-outs, hitting the wickets from square leg.  Harry Evans bowled and fielded very well, saving quite a few runs in the field.   A special mention for the wicket keepers, Cameron and Micah both standing up to our fast bowlers.  Well done boys!  Jack Walsh saved plenty of runs and bowled tightly as he always does.  Tully Dennis chipped in with a wicket, and Toby Huard again was very unlucky not to snare a bag of wickets.

Before we conclude this match summary, you may have noticed that the best bit has been left till last!    Yes, this is a cunning plan that ensures you read the whole article to get the sordid details!  Yes, we haven’t mentioned the final score yet!   North Nowra Cambewarra 6/160 winning to 16/62.    Although the result was decisive, the Shoalhaven Ex-Serviceman’s U11 team played quite well.  They had a few younger players, including a player participating in his first match.   We certainly enjoyed playing the Ex-servos, and look forward to our next meeting with them in a few months.