In a replay of the 2017/18 grand final, the Yass Bowling Club Pirates took on the Yass Golf Club Piranhas last Saturday, in a match that was eerily reminiscent of the pair’s last meeting.
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The Piranhas won the toss and elected to bowl first on Victoria Park, and at first that seemed to be a good decision.
They quickly reduced the Pirates to 3-33, and wickets continued to fall at regular intervals to end their innings for 107.
The only resistance for the Pirates came in the form of Shaun Davis, who scored a resilient 37 to anchor the innings.
Meanwhile, Ben King-Gee’s legbreaks were the standout for the Piranhas, and he collected 3-18 from eight overs to underline his value as an all-round player.
However, the Piranhas’ star bowler couldn’t replicate his early-season heroics with the bat, as he fell for a golden duck to begin an early collapse which left their chase wobbling badly at 3-8.
Ben Hutchinson and Phil Sparnon offered some brief resistance with a partnership of 43, but they fell in quick succession with the score at 51 to re-instigate the collapse.
Daniel Kemp (17) and Chris Bradley (23) were the only other batsmen to resist the Pirates’ well-rounded bowling attack, but Matt Rhodes (3-14), Andrew Holgate, Shaun Davis, and Nick Pollack (all with two wickets) worked off one another well to ensure that the Piranhas were all out for 101, seven runs short of the target.
“We sorta knew they were close [to reaching our score],” Pirates wicketkeeper Brad Wylie said.
“We tried to tighten things up and took a few wickets, but then Chris Bradley came in to bat and smashed us around the park.
“We just tried to keep things as tight as we could, and luckily we did.”
The Pirates’ start to the year has been far from ideal, with one win and two losses, but Wylie said that the team is finally beginning to shake off the rust and play with the freedom which won them last season’s title.
“Definitely after the weekend we’re starting to feel a bit better about things,” he said.
“I don’t know what happened to us the first couple of weeks, we just didn’t click. Hopefully that win on the weekend gets us going.”
The key area to improve for the Pirates will be their batting, which Wylie said has long been an area of concern.
“[Our batting] always seems to be our problem … we’ve always been able to bowl well,” he said.
“Some days [the batting is] really good, and some days it’s terrible.”
This weekend, the Pirates will take on the fourth-placed Yass Golf Club Snipers at Victoria Park for a position inside the top four.
