At Punt Road, the 1^st XI, although greeted with a soft and green-top wicket, batted first after captain Neil Schlittler again called correctly, how many tosses is that he has won so far this season?  But that decision didn’t initially look great as wickets fell regularly to have the team at 4/36 after just ten overs.  James Wild (12), Steve Seymour (15), Grant Chessari (0) and Steve De Bolfo (0) hadn’t really troubled scorer Karl “The King” Hieser, sitting in for James “The Professional” Higgs who was on Bushrangers duty.

Not for the first time this season, it was the middle order that was required to bring some sanity to the batting and put runs on the board.  Schlittler and Adam Bull (23) put on 49 runs for the fifth wicket before the latter was stumped.  Sam Coates joined his captain and they moved the score into triple figures and then passed the 150-mark as the pair posted a 76-run sixth wicket partnership before Schlittler (74) fell to express Tiger bowler Fekete.

Coates and Sam Jones moved the score past 200, a mark that looked decidedly unreachable earlier in the day before Coates fell for a well compiled 67. Jones and Cam Huckett who was particularly severe on all bowlers and launched a massive six, added another 42 runs before the former was out for twenty-two.  The trio of Huckett, Leigh Alford, playing his first 1^st XI match for Prahran and becoming player number 556, and Adam Drinkwell combined to have the teams score finish at 274.

The Tiger batsmen were required to face thirteen overs to finish the days play.  And what thirteen overs they were.  It could rightly be called the Steve Seymour Hour as he tore the heart out of the strong Richmond line-up. 

In his second over, Seymour enticed opener McKenna to steer a catch to Adam Bull at 2^nd slip and the first victim was on the board.  With good support from Cam Huckett, the first seven overs had produced just sixteen runs for the one wicket.  In his fourth over, with the first ball, Seymour bowled gun Tiger, and Bushranger, batsman Blizzard and followed up by bowling Tiger captain C.Taylor next ball.  His attempted hat-trick ball to S.Taylor was close, but no cigar.

Following his pattern of even overs, his sixth was the clincher for the day.  He had classy opener Nash trapped in front for an LBW decision with the first ball, and then bowled ACT import Sheridan with his fourth ball to make the batsman’s debut to Premier Cricket a memorable one, and followed up next ball by bowling Adams.  Again Seymour was on a hat-trick, and again, unfortunately, he was denied by the Tiger batsman.

Seymour’s opening spell was 6-0-6-19.  He gained good support from Huckett and Leigh Alford, who started rather nervously in his opening over but settled down in his second.

The team will no doubt be pressing for quick wickets next Saturday, and depending on the outcome of the first hours play may decide to bat again before putting Richmond to the sword and press for an outright.

The 2^nd XI, gaining momentum for a finals berth took to the field at Toorak “The Batsman’s Paradise” Park as Richmond elected to bat in the warm conditions.  A brilliant caught and bowled by Chris Garcia in his second over was probably the main highlight of a very long, and exhausting, day for the players.

A 118-run second wicket partnership, powered by former Prahran Dowling Shield squad member Rickarby, saw the Tiger batsmen generally control proceedings all day.  Marcus Glenister struck either side of the tea break, and at 6/254, the faithful on the benches were looking to have the Tigers restricted to around three hundred runs.

Brent Warren was rewarded for his long spells when he had Rickarby caught, but Tiger coach Loughman had other ideas.

The Tigers score ballooned out past three hundred and then three hundred and fifty as the coach hit out against the tired Prahran bowlers.  Chris Williamsons was the best of the Prahran bowlers, picking up two scalps in his 31^st over to finish with 4/109.

With a strong batting line-up, the 2^nd XI will be ken to extract some revenge from the Tigers next Saturday and keep the teams winning momentum going.

The 3^rd XI have all but lost first innings points as the batsmen were unable to cope with a very under-prepared and varied playing pitch at AK Lines Reserve.  Batting first, openers Jonny Wright and Brendan McGuinness were very cautious, putting on just sixteen runs for the first eleven overs.  Disaster struck in the thirteenth over when Wright (12) and Jack Jarvis (0) fell in successive balls and Michael Nyary (5) was out in the next over to have the team tottering at 3/24.

Alister Lloyd (22), McGuinness (34) and Dawit Mulholland (30 no) combined to push the score into the 90s, before the first two fell.  Mulholland continued to be the rock of the partnerships, which weren’t adding too many runs to the total.  It wasn’t until the tenth wicket partnership with captain Rohan Schreier that produced a double figure partnership, before Schreier (21) was out and the team score finished at 136.

The Richmond batsmen didn’t appear to have any fears of the pitch in their innings, and an opening 107-run partnership has virtually handed Prahran a first innings loss, with the Tigers at 2/113 at stumps.

The 4^th XI batted first in their match at Como Park, but the innings didn’t start off o the right foot with Sajeev Panduwawala and Greg Connor back on the grassy hill before the team score had reached double figures.  Opener Hafis Mathews was joined by Jarryd Wilkins and the pair added 58 runs to the total before Wilkins (22) hit a simple catch back to the bowler.

The ever confident Josh Green strode to the wicket intent on keeping the scoring rate moving and his partnership with Mathews (42) got the team total into triple figures.  At 5/116 after 36 overs though there was a need for an increased scoring rate. And the partnership of Green and Ben Friggi did just that.  Both took to the Tiger bowlers crashing a 99-run partnership before Friggi was out for a solid 37 (six 4s).

Green continued on, and reached his maiden Premier Cricket century, before falling for 102 (104 balls, two 6s, thirteen 4s) with the score at 7/247.  HE had been at the wicket and helped increase the score from 67 to 247.

The Prahran innings was eventually closed at 270 off 74 overs.  The Richmond openers had to face just two overs and finished at 0/6.  The match is evenly poised with the 4^th XI team keep to notch up a win on Saturday.

    
The Prez as Scorer for the 2nd XI,                       and the Murphy Clan watching the 2nd XI