Ray Blaas and Mark Rollestone are the two most recent Butchers to just miss out on joining an elusive club - those who have scored a half century and taken five wickets in a single match.
Blaas, who carried his bat with 54* and took 4/78 in the mostly forgettable match against Balgownie last weekend, had no choice but to throw caution to the wind when set the task of chasing 397 for victory. Only Jon Lowe provided reasonable support in what was a decent all-round day for the 4th Grade all-rounder. Blaas hammered six boundaries and two sixes in his knock and removed four of the top five Balgownie batsmen. Blaas in in great form already this year with 110 runs at 36.67 and 9 wickets at 19.89.
Rollestone, only a week prior, belted 83 (81) at the top of the order for 3rd Grade, largely responsible for setting the strong score of 8/228 from the allotted fifty overs. Rollestone's innings featured seven boundaries and one six. With the ball, entering the attack at 2nd change, he ripped through the middle order with 4/13 in six frugal overs to all but end Helensburgh's slim hopes of victory.
This list of near misses is growing quite large. In last years' 2nd Grade 2-Day Final Captain John Robinson scored 58 (138) and took 4/29 to earn player of the final but narrowly miss the double. Curtis Wilson remarkably didn't bowl in the 1st Innings against Port Kembla 3rd Grade last season but took 4/5 in the 2nd Innings after his 60* setup outright victory.
Stuart Tobin has missed out three times; his closest being fifty and five wickets in the match (but not innings), when first scoring 67 (84) then rattling Helensburgh with 4/3 in the 1st Innings and 1/7 in the 2nd. Previously, back in 2002-03 he had a double of 60* and 4/20 against Wests, and just months prior a double of 4/27 and 59* in a big win over Keira.
Way back in 1993-94 John Chapman took 4/48 and scored 70 in a high scoring but narrow loss against University 4th Grade. Looking forward to more recent times Eric Denhartog took 4/24 and then belted a highly entertaining 51* at #11 against Helensburgh 3rd Grade and Adam Van Wijk (68* & 4/19) was easily the man of the match in the win over Balgownie 4th Grade in 2008-09.
In NDCC Gold's (then known as 5th Grade White) first completed match in their very popular short history, Scott Perkiss (4/27 and 92*) joined with Gold Pioneer Renn Murphy (56, score - not age) to resurrect a dire 6/56 into a winning 9/204 in one of the greatest comebacks in Butcher History. Perkiss ran out of time to join the other near-miss club - the just missed hundreds and five wicket hauls.
Finally Jackson Stewart is the sole player, to date, to also sit in the near miss of fifties or hundreds and five wicket hauls when taking 4/40 against Helensburgh 2nd Grade and following it up with an epic 105 in NDCC's successful chase of 255 in 2009-10.
So who is in this elite group of Fifties and Five For's?
Rob Sheeley - 5/19 & 54* vs Port Kembla 4th Grade 2002-03
Shay Connor - 5/25 & 61 vs Keira 4th Grade 1995-96
John Chapman - 6/20 & 72 vs Wollongong 4th Grade 1993-94
John Robinson - 5/14 & 62 vs Wests 4th Grade 2000-01
* Statistics from available scorecards only.
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