After the disappointments of the pre-Christmas rounds, the Prahran Cricket Club's 1^st XI has finally won a two-day match.  And to make it a double celebration, the 2nd XI were also able to grab their first 6-points of the season.

In the 1^st XI match at Toorak Park, as expected, Captain Neil Schlittler declared the Prahran innings closed prior to the commencement of play, with Essendon to commence the run chase from the first ball of the day.

The Bombers innings started sensationally, when Cameron Huckett successfully appealed to Umpire John Lehane, a former Victorian and Richmond fast bowler, for an LBW decision off the second ball.  With Paul Sealey bowling tightly from the other end, the pair had the Bomber batsmen looking a little shaky, with Sealey grabbing the wicket of Macrae, who had come into the side to replace Rogers who had flown to Sydney for Victoria’s Twenty20 championship match.

Steve Seymour replaced Huckett, and eventually had success, with Huckett relieving Seymour a couple of overs prior to the lunch break.  This was a mater stroke, as Huckett struck twice just before the first break to have Essendon at 5/121 at lunch.

The second session on Day 2 was nearly a mirror image of the same session on Day 1 as the Essendon middle-order batsmen staged a fight back to put their team back into the match.  The 109-run sixth wicket partnership was broken when Steve Seymour executed a smart piece of fielding to run out the threatening Hutchinson.  When James Wild struck soon after the Bombers were back on their heels at 7/288.

Class batsman Berger was holding the Essendon innings together and 61 and then 79 run partnerships had the crowd tense with excitement.  But in the end he ran out of partners as Adam Bull snapped up three successive catches, as all the Prahran bowlers snared a wicket to stop the Essendon innings at 376. 

After having been in the action at the start of the day with Huckett, Umpire Lehane was again in the action right at the end of play, as he approved another rare LBW appeal, again by Huckett, to dismiss the last Essendon batsman.

The 26-run win by the 1^st XI was the teams first two-day match win for the season, and catapults them into sixth position (from ninth) on the competition ladder and with a great chance of securing a quarter final berth for the March finals.

To see Cameron Huckett in action click here:  Stonnington Leader 27th Jan 2009.

The 2^nd XI were defending a modest total of 259 in their match at Windy Hill and were further hampered with the loss, from the previous day, of opening bowler Stuart Mack (inj.), and during the match Charlie Burke (ill).  But the void was certainly filled by Adam Drinkwell, who captured all of the seven wickets to fall to a bowler during the day.

Resuming at 1/5, Essendon were soon in serious trouble as Drinkwell claimed three wickets in three balls in his tenth over to claim a hat-trick and put Essendon at 4/38.  The Bombers recovered slightly before two brilliant pieces of fielding by Brent Warren and Alister Lloyd (who was subbing for the injured Stuart Mack) resulted in successive run outs that put the Bombers total at 6/115.

Again, a mini recovery by Essendon had their small cast of supporters looking for a victory.  But that man Drinkwell struck again, claiming two more wickets to have them at 8/189.  Essendon’s lower order continued to score runs but was not able to counter the bowling of Drinkwell, who claimed the last two wickets to have the Essendon score stop at 221, some 38 runs short of victory.

Drinkwell finished with the remarkable figures of 27.3 overs, 6 maidens, 7/77, including a hat trick.

At this stage, the 2^nd XI are still  a little way off the top eight positions and would need to win at least two of their three remaining matches and hope others go their way to have a chance of making the finals.

After having posted a very healthy 8/377 on Day 1 of the top of the table clash at Como Park, the 3^rd XI captain Rohan Schreier declared overnight and invited Essendon to chase down the total.

Michael Nyary got the team away to a great start with wickets in his fourth and fifth overs to have the visitors reeling at 2/18.  But that was all for a good part of the day as the Bombers third wicket partnership put on 175 runs to have it ‘game on’.  Dawit Mulholland then stepped in with some clever bowling dismissed century maker Kennedy to put the breaks on the visitors and have them 4/219.

Again the Essendon batsmen were able to recover before Chris Garcia snared the wicket of Reece, who was racing to his century, and with another wicket soon after the visitors were in some trouble at 6/311.  Matty Wilcox dug a bigger hole for the Bombers with a wicket and at 7/317 the home side was looking like taking the points.

But time, overs and some stubborn resistance from the tail end Bomber batsmen saw them creep to 9/332 when stumps were declared, leaving both sides without any premiership points.  Prahran still remains atop the competition ladder in this grade after twelve of the fifteen rounds, and pretty well assured of a finals berth come late March.

After having wasted a good start to Day 1, the 4^th XI was defending 194 at the infamous Cross Keys Reserve.  With the front-line bowlers unable to make any significant break thru, Essendon had moved to 4.141 after Andrew Lennie captured top scorer Jonas.

The Essendon middle order continued to pile on runs as they quickly passed the required total.  Ben Friggi, who had captured an early wicket, came back into the attack to claim three more late order wickets, to finish with 4/32 off 9.5 overs, his best return for the club in his debut season.

The loss has virtually sealed the team’s fate for the season now placed in fifteenth position and fourteen premiership points adrift of eighth place and a finals berth.

 
James Wild bowls on Day 2 vs Essendon at Toorak Park