Kinglake Memorial Oval, Kinglake Central.
After winning the toss and electing to bat Kinglake planned to bat for all of day one, but the plan quickly fell apart when opening batsman James Edwards was caught (John Magnone) and bowled (Paul Unkles) for a duck in the first five minutes of play by Rivergum’s 3rd XI with Kinglake at 1 for 5.
By 3:30pm Kinglake were all out at 73 off 36.4 overs. Whilst it was a cold, overcast day the rain held off allowing a full days’ play.
Opening partner Jason Gaffee was Kinglake’s best performing batsman with 28 runs from 48 balls, including three fours before being bowled lbw by Sam Bowman after steadying Kinglake.
First drop Simon Andrews was then also bowled lbw by Bowman in a controversial lbw decision.
This was followed by James Gibbs who was caught Bowman and bowled Peter Cook for three off five with Dan Brown caught behind soon after with six from 26. Matthew McAllister was then sent in and in a split-second decision made by partner Damian Fitzpatrick went for another run only to see McAllister run out by Jim Grant.
Tim Stonehouse was then bowled for 0 by Darren Hodge. Eddie O’Hara and Ken Aitken made the final stand with a stand out performance by 11th man, the 11-year-old Lachlan Martin who did a fantastic job against men to be three from eleven before being bowled by Scott Mitchell.
At stumps day one, Rivergum were 2/85 from 32 overs with eight wickets still in hand. James Gibbs bowled out the Rivergum opener John Magnone for eight and Eddie O’Hara bowled Rivergum’s Gavin Van Arkadie for 20.
Any chances of Kinglake winning needs the Lakers to bowl out Rivergum very early on day two next weekend for Kinglake to gain a second innings.
Text & Images ©COPYRIGHT 2017 Kinglake Ranges News.
Article first published in The Local Paper, February 22, 2017.
