B Grade:
Pyalong’s B Grade outfit continued their winning streak with a tight one wicket win in Broadford on Saturday.

With Broadford winning the toss and batting, opening bowler Damo Zoch pulled up sore after the first over of the match with a neck injury, meaning Jess Donnelly and young Mike Fairweather (in his first B Grade game) took over with the new ball. Both bowled well together, with Mike snagging the first wicket after a good catch from Jayson Meade. The next over saw Jesse get his first, with a faint knick finding Jamo’s gloves. The next two Broadford batsmen put on a long partnership of 81 from 20 overs. After a few dropped catches, we finally got a breakthrough after Wilko snuck one through the gate. The score being 3/103 from 30 overs. Meadey took the next, and Jesse returned for his second spell to get the wicket of their highest scorer after a speckie from Meadey. CJ bowled the final over of the innings to pick a stumping from Jamo off the last ball. Broadford 6/152 at the compulsory close.

A positive start from Pete and Joe had us flying to 25 after 5 overs. However when Joe gloved one to the wicketkeeper, and a couple balls later CJ was caught for a duck, Jamo soon found himself out in the middle at 2/27. He and Pete put on a small partnership, waiting for bad balls to put away. Pete, who was batting beautifully, played his shot a bit too early to one and found himself caught in the covers for 31. Meadey was also very watchful, until he was caught and bowled for 4. Dave “Rooster” Clark joined Jamo in the middle, and smacked the bad balls to the fence from the very start. The pair shared a stand of 47 for the fifth wicket, and the runs required began to shrink. As a win became closer, Jamo, who had dug in for 23 overs, was removed for 33, and that triggered a batting collapse. Wilko (5), Roo (a well made 38), Jess (4), and Harv (0), all fell in the space of a couple overs and the game had been well and truly flipped on its head.

Young Mikey and Damo, who could hardly move, linked up with 20 runs required. Mick batted like a seasoned veteran, getting right behind the ball and watching it hard, as he and Damo steered the ship home with 19 balls to spare and 1 wicket in hand.

The hard fought win makes it three on the trot for our B Graders, as they get closer to the top four.

Broadford 6/152
J Donnelly 2/20

Pyalong 9/156
D Clark 38
J Pryor 33
P Campbell 31

C Grade:

Our C Graders had a tough day at the office on Saturday against Broadford Red at the High School Oval, going down by 80 runs.

Being sent into the field, our boys struggled to find wickets, as Broadford posted a massive total of 1/230. Latt Mane took the solitary wicket, coming from a catch from Nick Bender.

With the bat, both Sheepy’s (Simmo and Ure) opened up. Coming off a 50 last week, Simmo couldn’t do the same, as he was caught and bowled for 5. Jase Ryan (0) and Latt Mane (1) soon followed and in reply we had started at 3/18. Ross Fairweather joined Sheepy in the middle and the pair steadied the innings nicely, getting the score to 4/65 before Ross fell for 27, after smacking three 4’s and two 6’s. Sheepy fell a few overs later for a well made 22. We then had Mitch Wittig and Nick Bender at the crease, putting on a solid partnership of 43 from 13 overs. Nick departed for 18, and Mitch went for a handy 24, before Lockie Bender (19no) and the Mermaid (9) smacked them around at the end as the score finished at 7/150, still 80 runs shy but a great effort nonetheless to bat the overs.

Broadford Red 1/230

Pyalong 7/150
R Fairweather 27
M Wittig 24
J Ure 22

U16s:
Our junior side hosted Kilmore on the Sunday, and put in a good effort despite being two players short.

Batting first, a solid opening stand from Matt Pratt (23) and Finn Magee (30) pushed the score to 57 before the first wicket came. However once this partnership was broken, our young and undermanned lineup fell to some good bowling. Pyalong finished at 8/108.
In reply, Kilmore chased the total down in 14 overs for the loss of just one wicket.

Pyalong 8/108
F Magee 30
M Pratt 23

Kilmore 1/120

T20 Sunday – Seany D

Kilmore won the toss and elected to bat.

Mikey and Grassy opened the bowling with Mikey breaking through with the first ball of his 2nd over (Jamo keeping) catches the edged ball. Grassy (0/26 off 3) as always backed Mikey up, keeping the pressure on the batsmen. Mikey (2/28 off 4) having a great spell knocks over the next batsman with Meadey catching a ripper, Kilmore 2/69 in the 7th over.
The next spell sees JD start off with a few looseners and his first over getting hit for 18 runs. JD’s knuckles down to bowl a good spell with CJ who got Robbo 44 (ex Pyalong premiership player) driving, firmly to young Mitchy Wittig who didn’t flinch at all to catch him at mid off, Kilmore 3/75 in the 9th over.
With JD (0/46 off 4) finishing, Meadey comes on to get amongst it and gets his first wicket in his 2nd over to get the second highest scorer for Kilmore with another edge to Jamo when the score is 4/121 after 15.

Kilmore inside their last 5 overs start to hit out, Matty D (0/11 off 1) bowls a good over which sees Meadey in his next over clean bowl the next batsman, Kilmore 5/135 in the 17th over. Meady (2/31 off 4) and CJ (1/30off 4) bowl out the remaining overs to keep Kilmore to 5/172.

Pyalong’s batting innings had Jamo and CJ striding to the crease. Ready to get stuck into Kilmore’s bowlers, CJ started well scoring with 14 runs in the first three overs. CJ got a dodgey call, going out for LBW leaving a nice wound on the upper part of the thigh.
Seany D joins Jamo in the middle and never really looked comfortable but with some good form from Jamo the pair put on a 41 run partnership in the next 6 overs. Seany D (8) exits with a edge through to the keeper bringing Meadey to the crease, Pyalong 2/60 in the 11th over.
Meadey and Jamo put on another 26 run partnership when Meadey gets bowled for 11 runs. Jamo watched the next two batsmen (Matty D bowled and Camo Hoey LBW) fall to the following two balls give the Kilmore bowler his hat trick, Pyalong 5/86 of 16.

Jamo’s love of beating Kilmore sees his excellent batting innings come to a halt after trying his heart out. Jamo (61) got caught in the covers in the very last over leaving Mitchy Wittig (3 not out) and Nick Bender (not out) to finish our innings off, Pyalong 6/100.

Boys hold your heads high as our never die attitudes as Pyalong Pirates put up a great fight against a fully loaded Kilmore side this weekend.

Go Pirates!

Seany D

Kilmore 5/172
M Fairweather 2/28
J Meade 2/31

Pyalong 6/100
J Pryor 61

This week:
B Grade vs Nagambie @ home
C Grade vs Broadford Black @ Broadford High
U16s vs Alexandra @ Alexandra