Kensington District Cricket Club

Prospect won the toss and batted in overcast and still slightly humid conditions that would remain bowler-friendly until some late afternoon sunshine.

The continuing absence of Elliot Opie and David Grant after a mid-week Toyota Futures League match, as well as of Dan Worrall on Redbacks Shield duties, meant more opportunities for Cameron Fatchen and Nick Palmer in support of season-leading wicket taker Scott Aufderheide.

Fatchen (pictured) had a day out, taking Prospect’s first three wickets on his way to 5/48. Also not out with the bat at stumps, his form would even carry over to early rounds of the club’s fundraising bingo night that followed and might have yielded even stronger returns but for a penalised late claim without all finer bingo details having been explained. While he’s yet to forgive the number 22, Fatch’s minor transgression quickly paled in comparison to club president Grant Chapman’s serial bingo confusion.

A wicket to Palmer (1/31) and two to Aufderheide (3/31) saw the visitors adjourning to an unsavoury lunch score of 6/69. Prospect further collapsed to 9/95 upon a Lloyd Pope (1/19) wicket half an hour after the resumption but Lachlan Blunden (47no) and Krutarth Suthar (23) managed to compile 46 for the last for a total of 141.

In reply, our batsmen appeared to find Prospect openers Isaac Boylan (5/68) and William Daniel (2/42) a handful, Kensington sliding to 3/11 and 5/53 before Alex Ross (62) found support from Jake Brown (23 towards a fourth-wicket partnership of 38) and Euan Fletcher (28no, 24 of them as part of a stand of 69 with Ross for the sixth). It all means Kensington will next Saturday resume on 7/135, just seven runs short of first-innings points that would see a likely push for more.

An eventful day’s cricket at Henley & Grange Memorial Oval has seen Kensington secure first-innings points against West Torrens but narrowly fall short of an outright win while also narrowly avoiding an outright loss.

The start of play saw English pair Adam Hose and Robbie White at the crease, in their last appearances for us before resuming county pursuits, as we resumed just 26 runs behind the home side’s first innings 153 and with six wickets in hand. Tidy bowling, however, saw us take an hour to achieve the target – by just three wickets – thanks largely to Hose (79no), who remained composed as three more wickets fell at the other end. A fourth, to an impressive run-out, saw skipper Jake Brown declare a ball earlier than would otherwise have been the case.

As we looked to dismiss West Torrens for a second time to set up the game, we were already missing Redbacks opening bowler Dan Worrall on Shield duties but on day two were additionally again missing Elliot Opie and David Grant, due to more approaching Toyota Futures League commitments, Cam Fatchen and Nick Palmer their mid-game replacements. Our attack impressively did the job all the same.

Scott Aufderheide (3/38) led the way with two early wickets, including one in the opening over secured with a Hugh Cranendonk catch despite calls to the contrary and a collision with Palmer in the process but thankfully without apparent injury. Brown (2/19) and Palmer (2/31) chipped in with two wickets each before Lloyd Pope again efficiently cleaning up the tail, a peach of a wrong’un putting him on a hat trick which the home side’s number 11 narrowly evaded before falling a matter of balls later.

West Torrens’ dismissal for 136 inside 41 overs set the Browns a victory target of 135 off 40 but Ben Williams (7/43) put the home team in contention, just as Jake Brown (72no) – pictured bringing up his 50 with a six – singlehandedly kept the visitors in the frame and all four results remained possible into the final over.

We slumped along the way to 4/37, 7/70 and 8/85, Fatchen and Aufderheide offering some late support as Brown kept us on course. The fall of our ninth wicket and Pope’s judicious leave of the one ball he faced left Brown on strike for the final over and needing 13 for maximum points. He swung but managed a six on only the fourth ball before a two on the last ultimately left us five shy of the target and both sides narrowly denied.

Not losing a wicket in a day’s play will help win you most games of cricket and this is exactly what occurred on a glorious Saturday at Parkinson Oval.

Alex Ross came into the side, replacing debutant Sam Rahaley, for his first match with us since late November and some strong BBL performances with the Brisbane Heat but spent the day padded up to be next in, needing to get up only each time a piercing alarm in the adjacent Burnside rugby clubhouse inexplicably went off – three times.

Skipper Jake Brown (106no off 153 balls) hit the first three boundaries of the day but Englishman Adam Hose (175no off 200 balls) then began to score more freely and impose himself on the game with the innings we’d known he was capable of producing. Including two boundaries the previous Saturday while with nightwatchman Elliot Opie before his dismissal late in the day, Hose’s innings featured 22 fours and 4 sixes, while Brown hit 12 fours and a six, as they compiled a staggering and near-chanceless unbeaten partnership of 284 over the course of 57.1 overs.

Session by session, the pair compiled 97 off the 28 overs before lunch, 145 off the 24 overs between lunch and tea – including a rapid 96 off 10.5 punished overs after the drinks break, which had been taken early while one of several ball searches took place in and around the creek at the southern end – and 40 in just four overs after tea.

Hose brought up his 100 off 148 balls in 192 minutes and his 150 off 189 balls in 245 minutes, while Brown – pictured being congratulated by Hose – reached his 100 off 150 balls in 237 minutes, shortly before Hose scored the boundary that took the Browns to 3/304 and past Southern District’s 10/301 for a win that had looked unlikely at 3/20 let alone with all seven wickets from day two’s start of play still intact.

Tea Tree Gully’s batting depth and a failure to apply bowling pressure consistently for long enough in defence of a sub-par total proved too much for Kensington to manage a much-needed away win over the ladder leaders at Pertaringa Oval.

 The Browns resumed at 8/202 but with David Grant (15 not out) unable to continue his innings and neither he nor innings principal salvager Elliot Opie (83) on hand to bowl, due to approaching Toyota Futures League state commitments in Fremantle, Nick Palmer and Cameron Fatchen their respective incoming replacements.

 Just eight runs were added, Lucas Froude six of them to reach 64 not out, as the innings lasted only a further 3.4 overs, moments short of any being witnessed by the team’s late-arriving and duly fined scorer Anthony ‘Buck’ Rogers who was evidently victim to a village alarm-programming error (AM ≠ PM) combined with the half-hour earlier start, distant away venue and some very sleep-accommodating air conditioning on another scorcher as the mercury rose from a ‘low’ of 23.7 to reach 38.5 at West Terrace/ngayirdapira.

 Defending just 210, our bowlers were up and about in the session to lunch – Fatchen, skipper Jake Brown (2/27, one each with fast medium and slow orthodox) and Palmer each grabbing an early wicket before Scott Aufderheide (2/57) removed both set batsmen immediately before the interval to see the Gullies 5/100 and the Browns still in the game.

 The home side would lose just one wicket in the second session, however, and another just three runs shy of victory, as the pitch flattened and skipper Matthew Weaver (49) all but saw his side home before a Brad Evans six clinched the result half an hour after the tea break.

Elliot Opie and Lucas Froude have engineered one of Kensington’s more significant innings recoveries, steering the Browns towards a defensible total from what had been a ruinous start.

As gathering weather threatened some favourable conditions for bowling on a green-top, Tea Tree Gully captain Matthew Weaver elected to field before sweeping showers, heavy at times, delayed the start by more than two hours and saw an early lunch taken. Players stayed sharp with a solid session of P-I-G circle kicking, making use of a verandah area to inject a degree of rebound difficulty. 

Wind and emerging sunshine saw Pertaringa Oval fit for play from 1.15pm but opening bowler Ben Atkinson proved an immediate handful from the northern top end – he clai

med the first seven wickets in a 12-over spell of 7/23, as slip catches and lbw and bat-pad decisions saw the Browns slide to 7/39 before Opie (83) joined Froude (58no) for some methodical rescue. The pair each posted their highest 1^st Grade score as they compiled 138 for the ninth wicket, first negotiating the hour to tea (7/59) after which Opie and later Froude scored increasingly freely.

 Joshua Macey’s lbw dismissal of Opie, also from the northern end, has removed any chance of Atkinson joining the select few to have taken 10 wickets in innings. Froude and David Grant (15no) safely navigated the closing overs to 6.55pm stumps at 8/202. Play will resume half an hour early this Saturday to make up remaining overs lost to the weather.

Saturday’s play capped a remarkable week for the Browns and some of its leading players – Lloyd Pope was in the starting XI for the Australia Under 19s World Cup warm-up win in New Zealand over Sri Lanka, John Dalton and David Grant both featured for a Cricket Australia XI in a warm-up win for the touring England one-day side in Sydney, Dan Worrall took 2/25 in his season-first BBL hit-out for the Melbourne Stars and Alex Ross scored 27 off 19 for the Brisbane Heat before being controversially dismissed for obstructing for the field when even non-geometers could have reasonably concluded he’d avoided injury and wilfully obstructed nobody.