It was February 2nd, 2003; Northern Districts were in the One-Day Semi Finals but it wasn't the ideal run - they had lost their previous four games in a row leading up to the playoffs.
The opponent makes for almost comical reading; Western Suburbs v Northern Districts would be written into the scorebook for the 4th week in a row. No typography mistake here, the Butchers were indeed playing the Red Devils for the third straight game. In peculiar scheduling circumstances, Jan 11 was the regular season 1-Day fixture between the two while the following two weeks (Jan 18 & Jan 25) was the regularly scheduled 2-Day fixture.
Thus on this weekend, Feb 2, Northern Districts hoped to turn around an ordinary month and a half and avenge two heavy defeats at the hands of the Western boys.
Previously lower order cameos from Michael Stephenson, Steve Brooks and Kyle Connor was the only reason the Butchers posted anything other than a diabolical total in the 1-Day fixture: 7-27 had been the score before finally resting on 113. Wests got there in a canter for the loss of two wickets.
A little better in the longer format when Stuart Tobin and Shay Connor helped post a more respectable 159, but Wests almost laughed that off with a six wicket win.
Winning the toss and batting first on a good Figtree Oval deck Northern Districts got off to a much better start, openers Scott Beckett (36) and Steve Heydon (17) responsible for setting up a platform for the middle order. Matt Pogson (11), Matt Owers (18) and Mark Johnson (38) all chipped in and when Stuart Tobin (60*) and Brad Carey (52) came together the score read 5-136 in the 37th over.
With Carey knocking the ball around for ones and twos, Tobin was able to play his natural game and find the boundary each over. With four overs to go the score had moved along to 184 without further loss. Perhaps recognizing the ease of which Wests had previously chased, Carey and Tobin turned on one of the most extraordinary fireworks displays seen in 1st Grade.
Esquerro and Andonovski had been near unplayable in all three games, picking up twelve wickets between them and were tasked to bowl the final four. Carey and Tobin absolutely got stuck into them, first smoking Esquerro for 16 in his first over before turning even more heat upon Andonovski. His figures had read 1-39 off 8 but when the carnage was over read 1-77 off 10. Sixes and fours to all parts as the strike bowler went for 38 in his last two overs. 5-184 (46) became 5-246 (50) as the Butchers went to the sheds buoyant.
It was all over in a frenetical five minute passage during the chase. At 2-61 (20) Wests were decently poised before a run out sparked a four wicket spree for no additional damage to the scoreboard. Two Tobin wickets and another run out and suddenly Wests were 6-61.
It was only a matter of time now and though a 10th wicket partnership of 46 held things up a while, Northern Districts came out resounding victors by the margin of 101 runs. Simply massive turnaround from events over the previous three weeks, the ideal way to strike back by knocking Wests out of the competition. See the scorecard here.
Northern Districts would go on to win the 1-Day title for Season 2002/03 when they would again knock off a team they had previously lost twice to.
The fall of Wests (third time lucky) - another Butcher Top 50 moment.
The # in the title of this article in no way represents the ranking of the 50 Greatest Moments - it merely represents the order in which the article was submitted.
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