SAINTLY SNIPPETS - Vol 3 2003/04

- By SMIT

****The Green & White Ball is on this Saturday night 21st Feb!!! Get your tickets off Matso, Trout or Chuck. Final numbers needed Tuesday night at the latest!! - Hurry!! ****

At last we find the business end of the season just around the corner and unless something out of the ordinary happens, we should have all three grades competing in the finals. This will be a tremendous effort for everyone involved and particularly Westy, as he has continued to keep everyone working very hard at training and reminding us of what we are trying to achieve and what will be required to get there.

Deano’s Firsts are still going about their business in a quiet, workman-like manner without any fan-fare, and you can see them steeling themselves for what will no doubt a very tough and even finals campaign in an effort to atone for last season’s disappointment, and to break a thirty year first grade premiership drought.

There will be plenty at stake for to those who are selected to play and with the amount of talent in the side, it represents a rare and great opportunity that should not be missed. Good luck and make the most of your desire, self –belief, hard work, ability and whatever luck you receive on the day.

Kenny’s boys have just suffered their first defeat for the season which probably wont harm them too much and will give them a reality check and ammunition for Kenny to make sure they don’t become complacent. I’m sure that like the rest of us, they will be looking forward to resuming two-day matches to ensure everyone gets a good hit-out heading into the finals.

The “Thirstys” (Thirds) are struggling for consistency and have lost a couple that they possibly shouldn’t have, but they will be there and when at full strength they will still be competitive and a realistic chance. The “promotion” of Jimmy from the seconds has certainly enhanced their celebrating ability and taken some of the pressure off Scanners. They also had a cameo wicket-keeping performance from the “difficult to hide in the field” Brad Howard. He had a great time taking 3 catches, dropping 4, missed 2 stumpings, dropped the ball 63 times, rolled around in the dirt 29 times, had 38 appeals for catches and stumpings turned down, actually made it up to the stumps 3 times, and saved a certain boundary when a batsman got a full blooded pull-shot off Scanners a little finer than he had hoped and smashed it into “Howie’s” stocky frame. (one of his 4 dropped ones).
But the real highlight of it was his outstanding entertainment he provided with his comical sledging and banter from behind the stumps all afternoon. At least he has that part of his game mastered – Well played Howie!!.

We are all hoping that many of the unanswered questions that have been circulating around the club will be finally put to rest by the end of the season. These include – .