Classics vs Nepean 23/11/25

OICC 9/118 (Goradia 39*; Frawley 31) defeated by Nepean 8/234 (Frawley 4/38; Goradia 1/20; Garling 1/52; Toal 1/55)

PLAYING WITH 9 was never going to be easy, made even harder with only 4 bowlers – Thankfully Sharpie made it to bat.

Losing the toss, Nepean chose to bat. We did remarkably well to restrict them to 2 for 93 in the 20th, however let ourselves down in the field, with possibly 6 dropped catches and 1 dolly from Frawls.

Buttsy (0/36) bowled a great 8 straight over spell, and deserved reward, but for dropped catches, and he was well supported by Toalie (1/24 in his 5 over spell), in the unfamiliar new seed role.

Rav (1 for 20) was his typical miserly self and bowled excellently, supported by Frawls (4/38) at the other end, and we had done well to take a few wickets and really slow them up to be 5/116 with 15 to go.

Unfortunately their umpire didn’t give Rav a direct hit run out, and this guy retired and then returned to finish with 65*, which probably hurt us.

With only 4 regular bowlers, we resorted to Garlo (1/52) and Pete Thomas (0/21) for our 5th & 6th bowlers. We had to get 4 overs from each of them, and required Toalie (1/55) to complete his last 3 overs. Unfortunately, with 3 in the bank, we couldn’t contain them, and they finished with 8/234. A tough ask on an unusually slow Ryde outfield.

Excellent effort everyone with only 9, particularly Rav, Pet & Buttsy who covered plenty of kilometres and the ever reliable Steve Geyer in covers.

We didn’t get the start we wanted, losing Bomber (0) and Steve Geyer (0) in the 1st over to be 2/0. Rav (39*) continued his excellent season and reached his 30 retirement with some excellent stroke play, while Fordey (9) continued to hold up his end remaining resolute in his innings of 9, but fell in the 18th over.

3/73 in the 20th was OK, but unfortunately lost Garlo (2) caught on cow corner boundary (Unfortunately, on the middle wicket of the square the 6 was just out of reach). Frawls (31), was trying to give us a flicker of hope by also getting back to the shed. We then lost Toal (7), Sharpie (10) & Pete (6) to be 7/108 in the 29th, bringing Rav and Butsy together.

Rav began where he left off, putting on a further 8 until unfortunately Buttsy (6)was run out, bringing Frawls back to the crease, requiring 117 off 10.3 overs. Both Rav & Frawls were going to give it a crack, if only Frawls didn’t get stumped 2 balls in.

All out 118. Nepean boys brought a great spread and were very generous in their after match camaraderie, all 11 hanging around and chatting until about 7.15pm or so.