FIRST WITH KINGLAKE CRICKET NEWS – AGAIN

October 21 saw the start of a two-day game between Preston Druids 3^rd XI and Kinglake at A.H. Capp Reserve in West Preston.

Preston Druids won the toss and elected to bat first. During the second over being bowled by Kinglake’s Captain Jason Gaffee, the bails were dislodged by a fine piece of bowling when the batsman failed to connect with the ball. 14 runs for 1 wicket.

The wickets seemed to fall at a fairly regular rate until the fourth wicket, lost at 79 runs. There was then a partnership of 53 runs for the fifth wicket, and a 107 run partnership for the sixth wicket. After 56 overs were completed Preston Druids declared their innings closed with the score at 345 for 6 with an unfinished partnership of 106 runs. Bets batsman for Preston Druids was R. Magripus with 88, and the not out batsmen S. Thompson (64*) and L. Claxton (62*).

Kinglake used 8 bowlers through the course of the innings and they had mixed success results with their efforts with the ball. Jason Gaffee 8-0-30-1, James Gibbs 16-3-90-2, Edward O’Hara 5-0-32-1, Max Murray 9-0-56-1, Tim Stonehouse 7-0-49-1 were the wicket takers while Lachlan Martin 3-1-5-0, Josh Green 5-0-36-0 and Ken Aitken 3-0-40-0 were the unlucky bowlers.

This left Kinglake with 14 overs to face before stumps were scheduled to end the day’s play. Kinglake opened their innings with Alex Hybinett and Jason Gaffee. Unfortunately Jason was bowled in the 10^th over by J. Magripilis having faced 26 balls 32 minutes for a total of 12 runs. This brought James Gibbs to the crease who partnered Alex for the balance of the allotted overs. He starts next week’s innings on 15 and his partner Alex resumes at the other end on 21 runs. This will leave Kinglake with a target of 292 runs for a possible first innings lead with a maximum of 70 overs for the day’s play.

– Bruce Stonehouse