The 3A team finished second equal last season to Harewood and so this summer is focused on moving forward and hopefully regaining it’s title it last won in the 2005-2006 season.


The challenge will be even more difficult with the inclusion of six Fourth Grade CCA teams in this newly joint combined competition which will see twelve teams take the field in total.


The team has unfortunately lost a couple of players including former skipper, Marcus Thompson who has stepped up the ranks trying his hand at seniors. One of last season’s regular players, Sam Steele is also awaiting shoulder surgery. Compensating for these losses is the gain of three to four new players to the club who we welcome to the team.


 


 
BATTING
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10.
BOWLING (wickets)
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28/02/09 Sumner (8) lost to Hornby (9) at Hornby
Well if a short games is a good game then WOW this was the game of the century.

Batting first on a soggy pitch which reminded me of a soccer pitch our openers went out to bat. We made a reasonable start getting maybe 1 or two runs before their bowlers started to pick up the odd wicket. Joe was solid at his end and stuck around a good number of overs and made second top score of 2.

We had little batting collapses around the beggining , the middle , and end of our innings. Some of the batsman dug themselves in to put a single beside their name and was always an exciting challenge to see if we could score more runs than wickets. In the end it was a draw. 8 each. Dave McConnell highest scoring with 3. Since we were a couple of people down we ended up on 8 runs for 8 wickets and looking forward to bowling on the pitch.


They made a solid start until Joe decided rip into them, almost getting a hatrick but happy to claim 2 wickets. In the end they struggled to get to 9.... but they got there in the end. Then a few minutes later the rain came... but we had long since finished. Looking foward to how the 3a's do next week.



 
 
14/02/09 Sumner (114) beat OBC (48) at Hospital Corner
A once-again depleted Sumner side was sent in to bat on a pitch that had had several days' rain during the week. Our openers got off to a good start however with Andrew Bird (26) finding the boundary a few times. After he was out things slowed down a bit with the first four wickets lost for only 12 runs. Eighty was looking like a likely total until some strong hitting by Ray Steele (29) and Craig Buchan (21) saw us through to 114/9 (all out). Craig was so confident he didn't even bother to run for a shot which pulled up just inside the boundary.


Our opening bowlers Andrew Bird (2/17 off 4) and Mick Charlton (2/14 off 4) started well, frustrating the OBC batsmen who weren't defensive enough on the damp pitch. Ryan Burnett (4/11 off 4.5) and Craig Buchan (2/4 off 4) continued the good work, Ryan bowling a nice straight line and Craig unplayable with the ball inswinging fiercely. It didn't seem to matter that we only had 10 players on the park as the bowlers were doing most of the work.
The sun had come out and was drying the pitch nicely but the OBC wickets were falling left, right and centre, particularly behind the wickets including keeper Ray Steele taking 4 catches with suspected broken fingers! In the end they were all out for 48.


Many thanks (again) to Joel and Hazel for filling in for us.



 
 
28th Jan 09 - Season to date
To date the 3A’s have played 15 games, won four and had eleven losses. However of those lost, some of them were particularly close and wins easily could have gone our way.


The contributing factor to our lack of success is probably consistency. Not only in performance, but the fact that to date 31 players have taken the field for us and to avoid default on one Saturday, fielded four fill in players. Two of those were females, one 16 year old lad also boosted numbers and Des Lyons our grounds man, barman, you name it, the one and only Des Lyons came to the rescue. Thanks in particular to Des, and Hazel (Churchies girlfriend) for helping us make up our numbers on the day.


Thank you to the players who have made the commitment to play each and every week.


With over half of the season now gone, we look forward to some improved performances on the much harder and drier wickets. With nine weeks to go, hopefully we will have more success, gaining more wins than losses.


RESULTS AND HIGHLIGHTS TO DATE:


11/10/08
East Shirley 172/4
Sumner 60 (P Russell 30)


18/10/08
Sumner 86 (A Bird 53)
LPW 88/3 (C Buchan 3/22)


25/10/08
Sumner 122/9
Halswell 134/6 (39.3 overs) (J Tout 3/14)


1/11/08
Sumner 191 (R Burnett 56, A Bird 54)
Marist-Harewood 119


8/11/08
Sumner 146/7 (C Buchan 37, N Hadlee 35, J Edge 33)
Sydenham 150/4


15/11/08
Sumner 208/4 (D McConnell 82, R Burnett 73)
OBCC 196/9 (A Bird 3/20)


22/11/08
Predators 205/8 (R Burnett 3/27)
Sumner 129


29/11/08
Sumner 116 (J Tout 32)
Hornby 121/3


6/12/08
Sumner 54
St Albans 55/5


13/12/08
Merivale-Pap 172/8 (M Church 3/17)
Sumner 174/6 (M Thompson 45, A Bird 38)


14/12/08 (Chairman’s Cup)
Merivale-Pap 185/8 (D Vann 3/23)
Sumner 175/8 (P Russell 61, C Wilson 55)


10/1/09
Sumner 170 (S Turner 79)
East Shirley 171/8 (38.3 overs)


17/1/09
LPW 158 (M Charlton 4/23)
Sumner 162 (R Steele 54)


24/1/09
Halswell 201/7 (R Burnett 3/18)
Sumner 116 (R Steele 37)