The Butchers NDCC 3rd Grade side have continued their unbeaten run for season 2009/2010, by rolling Port Kembla twice and taking outright points for the Round 10 (2 day) fixture.
Day 1 saw the Butchers win the toss and elect to bowl. The wicket seemed slightly moist and had a tinge of grass on the strip. Jed Austin (0-14 off 6 overs) and Pete Cleaves (4-30 off 13 overs) set the tone early in the piece with 2 displays of great bowling, however it was Pete's years of experience that brought the early breakthrough after seeing a weakness in the Port opener and moving Jeremy Lum into a leg slip position - resulting in a great catch by Jeremy and a wicket to Peter only a few balls later.
Matt Benstead was brought on after Jed's 6 over limit was reached and was able to capitalise on the platform set by Jed and Pete. Killer bowled well in tandem with Pete and was able to continue the damage, ripping through the middle order to take innings figures of 4-21 off his 7 overs. What made Matt's spell a little more impressive was that he was able to regain his composure after having a ball that bowled a batsmen - hitting the stumps on the full about 2 inches up - to be called a no-ball by the square leg umpire. Despite the furore that followed, Matt was able to compose himself and charge in to bowl the same batsmen with the very next delivery.
Brice Hilliard was also able to contribute by having Port's 10th wicket taken off his 1st ball to see Port dismissed for 67.
The Butchers went out to bat and passed the Port score with relative ease, despite Matt Benstead being dismissed early for 11, and Ryan Davidson departing for a hard fought 20. The latter part of the innings saw some lusty hitting by Jeremy Lum (18*) and Chris Brown (50*) as the Butchers looked to declare and get Port back into bat with an hour of play remaining.
After a huge sideline rev-up from their captain, Port showed a little more fight in the 2nd innings and showed some tenacity against some more great bowling by the Butchers. Jed Austin (0-6 off 4 overs) and Pete Cleaves (1-17 off 6 overs) again led the way. As the day came to a close, Brice Hilliard was again brought into the attack and again took a wicket off his very first ball. Unfortunately a hat-trick did not follow for Brice but kept up some tidy innings to finish with 1-1 off 2 overs at the close.
The hottest conditions of the season greeted the Butchers on Day 2 and due to rep duties, found themselves missing Jed and Pete this week as they had moved up to 2nd grade, but the Butchers were not let down as Matt Benstead (3-13 off 5 overs) and Curtis Wilson (2-13 off 6 overs) bowled extremely well in the heat and were able to make short work of the middle order. Killer finishing with match figures of 7-34.
It's probably fair to say that at 7-61 (with scores pretty much level) the Butchers probably took their foot off the pedal slightly in the ~40*C conditions, letting Port get away from 7-61 to be all out for 126, nonetheless, The Butchers stuck at it and were able to dismiss Port and restrict their lead to only 60.
The Butchers decided to take the opportunity to give some of the lower order a turn at the crease with Dan Bond (2) and Brice Hilliard (6) not able to make the most of their opportunity. Jorey Wilson (2) was looking good before a mix-up saw him runout and then Ryan Davidson was bowled for a duck. The Butchers were not looking quite so good at this point, however captain Pat Tobin decided it was time to send in the "batsmen". Rob Potter (30*) made short work of the remaining runs smacking 3 x 4's and 2 x 6's to show it was time to get the Butchers out of the heat and set about demolishing the small total on his own. Jeremy Lum (9*) again played a great supporting role as the Butchers passed the total for a marvellous outright win.
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