02 May 2022
Teamwork. Courage. Determination. These are all words that would spring to mind if you happened to be watching the Lennox Head PS cricket team play against Alstonville PS on Friday 29th April. The gritty team from down Lake Ainsworth way were victorious scoring 5/125 in their innings and bowling out the plucky Alstonvilliains for 26.
Captain Tully C won the toss and with some lingering rain forecast for the morning, asked the team from the plateau to have first use of the Kookaburra. Henry R and Beau G strode to the wicket to take on the Alstonville quicks and posted a respectable opening stand of 21 runs before Beau received a peach of a delivery and lost his leg stump. Jacob P then joined Henry with the pair also clocking up a partnership of 21 runs due mainly to some speedy running between wickets. Enter the Lennox captain, Tully, who took guard with the score on 2/42 and was still standing at the end of the 25 overs on 31 not out having guided the side to a strong total. He was more than ably supported by Henry who finished with a well-crafted knock of 27 runs and was impressive with scoring shots around all aspects of his wagon wheel. Harry R, Ed N and Kobe M also chipped in late with some big hitting to help boost the run rate. Lennox finished with 5/125 from their overs.
After a short interval it was Lennox's turn to show what tricks they could muster with the leather ball. Ever reliable Harry R took the shiny new rock and soon upset the castles of both opening batsmen with a classy display of line and length pace bowling. Known for thinking outside the box and going against the cricketing norms, Tully C then called upon the spin twin duo of Max P and Archie B to take the first change. It was a stroke of genius as the boys from Alstonville were bamboozled by the variation, turn and bounce with Max taking one wicket (unlucky not to be more with multiple edges found) and Archie bagging two scalps. Zac D and Hayley A were asked to slow the run rate and quickly obliged with a clinical exhibition of seam and swing bowling. At will they managed to regularly land the seed on a dime with both bowlers claiming a wicket each. Beau G and Ed N then cleaned up the tail to put the visitors out of their misery and seal the victory for the home side. Special mention must also go to Joel W who had an outstanding game minding the stumps only giving away one bye and taking a screamer of a catch down the leg side in what was easily his best game for the school.
The side now progress to Rd 3 of the knockout and await the identity of their next victims. Mr Robb would like to thank all the parents who helped out on the day with a special mention to Nathan Pollock for performing the scoring duties. Thank you.