The 1^st game of the season produced some good performances for the Eagles. Undoubtedly it was Mitch Wakeford and Matt Burton’s brother Dan that stole show, putting on an unbeaten 274 for the 9^th wicket. Mitch scored 141*, his maiden ton for the club, and Matt’s brother scored 137*, his 2^nd in 2 years. Good performances also came from Charlie Leonard 5-10 off 6.1 overs, Jason “JNo” Novosel 66*, Nandana Dissanyake 61, Jamie Heywood 51, Mark “Collo” Collison 51 and Shane “Cooky” Cook 5-70.

 

1^st Grade 4-136 vs. NWS 190

The Hurricanes won the toss and decided to have 1^st use of Castlewood. Cooky got us off to a good start picking up one of their openers to leave them 1-9. 23 runs later it was Matt “Burto” Burton that picked up his 1^st wicket for the Eagle, in his return to the club he left long ago, clean bowling the opener. Cooky picked up another one on the same score then it was Michael Stevens that picked up his 1^st wicket in Oz to leave the Canies at 4-37. A good partnership saw NWS reach 72 before Cameron “Womble” Watson picked up his 1^st of the season and Womble picked up his 2^nd 30 runs later with a nice quicker one that left the batsmen plumb in front.

 

A mini fight back from the Canes saw them reach tea at 6-150. Cook picked up the dangerous Whitford not long after tea and Milnes was gone soon after when Burto had him caught on the boundary. The tail put up little resistance and the Hurricanes were all out 190.

 

We set about eating as much into their total as possible and Collo was his usual aggressive self smashing 51 in no time. The rest of the top order got starts with Kirwan making 21, Stevens and Greentree on debut making 18 and 13 respectively. Womble and Craig “Smithy” Smith saw out the day for us to finish at 4-136.

 

2nd Grade 6-246 vs NWS 106

2^nd grade’s bowling attack had a new feel to it with Matt “Slim” Szady and Dom “Moose Knuckle” Papanis opening up in both their 2^nd grade debut for the Eagle. It was Slim that was the pick of these taking 2-29 off 6 which should have been more with Will Affleck dropping the self confessed easiest catch ever. A change of bowling from both ends saw Raoul Barbon pick up a wicket early in his spell and Charlie Leonard pick up a wicket with his 1^st ball down under to leave the Canes at 4-70. 5 runs later Barbon picked up 2 wickets in 2 balls, one bowled and one a screamer by Aaron “AV” Vella, to have some at the ground prepared to give the game away if he picked up a hat trick. Thankfully for me the batsmen negotiated the delivery and I did not have to hang my spikes up just yet. Charlie Leonard then picked up the next 4 wickets to finish with the outstanding figures of 5-10 including 3 wickets in 4 balls to finish off the innings and Barbon took 3-32.

 

Daniel “DB” Bettiol then took some angry pills in the break and slapped 4 4’s on his way to 18. Jamie and Will the safely negotiated things to tea leaving us at 1/40. After tea Will and Jamie got on with things and reached 102 before a mini collapse saw us lose Will, 24, Jamie, 51 including 9 boundaries, and Max, 0, before we passed the score. JNo and Nandana then added 114 for the next wicket with some nice shots all around the ground. To be perfectly honest I think these 2 guys achievements on Saturday were lost in the background of what was happening on back oval. But take nothing away from these 2 they helped set the platform for what looks like a big win for 2^nd first up. JNo made 66* with 10 fours and Nandana made 61 with 9 boundaries. Raoul added a little cameo at the end with 2 fours and a maximum to end 14*.

 

3rd Grade 8-353 vs NWS

The less said about the 1^st 34 overs of the day the better. The real excitement came in the afternoon session with Mitch Wakeford and Dan “Matt’s Brother” Burton taking the game out of the Hurricanes grasp.

 

Things started poorly losing Geoff “Gay Eye’s” Sheargold and Raffee in the 1^st 10 overs and by the 34^th over we were struggling at 8-79 with only Tony Ross and Emran doing any scoring of note making 19 and 17 respectively. At tea we were 8-101 with plenty of work to do.

 

Mitchell showed a maturity beyond his years batting for 4 and a quarter hours compiling his 141*. Mitch gave a few chances but other than these it was sensational batting that wrestled the game back in the eagles favour.

 

At 1.45pm Dan walked to the crease as he does most Saturdays a little under the weather. At 5.25pm he walked off still quite under the weather but with 137 runs unbeaten next to his name. It was a flawless innings that saw 2 of the best cover drives you will ever see.

 

Here are some stats from the partnership and their innings.

 

1. In 3 hours 20 minutes they put on 274.
2. It is the highest 9^th wicket partnership in all grades for Auburn.
3. It is the 2^nd highest partnership in any grade for Auburn and highest for 3^rd grade.
4. Mitch hit 18 boundaries, and Burto hit 20 fours and one 6
5. Their 1^st 50 runs came off 13 overs, next 50 off 11 overs, the 150 came up in 33 overs, the 200 hundred came off 41 overs and the next off just 5 overs.
6. After tea they score 252 in 41 overs. Including 100 off the last 10.

 

With rumours of them batting on next week it would worthwhile, if you can, making it down to the ground to see if they can get the 5 runs they need to break the all time partnership record held by club legend Greg Ryan and Greg Westerberg

 

4^th Grade 217 vs. NWS 3-68

With the pressure of the previous days results and performances there was some pressure on 4^th grade to produce a good result. Jason “Jewy” Jewiss won his 1^st toss as skipper and rightfully chose to bat.

 

Trent Miller smashed 47 and Jason Bell, in his return game, made 41 opening up. Grant “the Colonel” Sanders made 26 but form there it was only some good hitting from Jewy, 36*, and Steve Duhigg that got us to 217. There were a lot of starts in the top order that need to be converted to push for higher grade selection.

 

Michael Croucher bowled probably the fastest and loosest spell of bowling I’ve seen in 4^th grade. This saw him taken off after 2.5 overs for 3 full tosses. All the bowlers did a good job on a wicket that wasn’t offering much to the seemers. Pete “Boods” Abboud saw us get off the mark in the field with a brilliant one hand pick up that saw the batsmen well short of his ground. It was Boods that was involved in the next wicket frustrating their best bat into playing a loose shot to Mark “The Parcel” Freeburn, because he’s just not the full package yet, who took a good catch down low at cover. It was the parcel that removed their skipper in the last over with a well flighted delivery that hit him on the full plumb in front.

 

With two of their clubs better bats playing in 4^th grade for some reason or another we have done well to get one out already. This match is evenly poised and will take something special from both sides to get a victory up.

 

Ask Burto

 

Dear Burto,

 

I have recently returned to the Eagles nest after a few years in the wilderness. It’s great to see the vast improvements the lads have made to the clubhouse. I see that the excellent standard in lunches and service by Ned have not changed.

 

My question is, even though the food and beverages are still at the highest quality, I have noticed a huge increase in price for over the counter items.

 

What can this be attributed to? Inflation? Higher Interest rates? The price of petrol? Lows in the world economy? Trouble in the Middle East? Military build up in North Korea? Live AID? Any help in shedding some light in this area would be greatly appreciated.

 

Ms S Purse

Wentworthville

 

Well, Ms Purse, you sound like a whinging, latte sipping woman who would drive a small convertible hair dryer, wear visor hats and spend too much money on hair products. However, I was last week stung by the cost of a pie that is only rivalled at Telstra Stadium on Grand Final day & was highly disturbed that when drinks were brought onto the field, we all had to pay $3 for a cup of cordial!!

 

Naturally, I went straight to Ned. Unfortunately, he was on his 5^th VB and was busy counting wads of cash, so he couldn’t reply. So, I arranged to meet Peter Costello over a beer and some Lamb Shanks in the bistro at Dooley’s. He danced around the topic, blaming all you suggested in your question as well as the drop in pokie revenue due to the new smoking laws, the increase in John Howard’s eyebrow waxing appointments and the Bali Nine. But after his 14^th glass of chardonnay, he let slip something that raised my curiosity, MBT. Now, it’s an election year, and after past election disasters such as the GST, he was reluctant to say much more other than it was recently introduced, but only in the Auburn electorate.

 

I have spent all week chasing answers on this mystery MBT but so far, can get no one to go on record. All I know is that for a pie and beer to go from $5.50 last year, to $46.70 this season, is a huge hike and something fishy is going on. Habibi’s Kebabs near the station are second only in price now to that terrible kebab shop at Perisher.

 

So, if anyone has any answers to this mystery & can explain what MBT is, please contact me via this column. It can be done in strictest confidence and I won’t divulge who told me (Well, at least until I’ve had a few beers anyway)

 

Burto

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