Great Cricket All Round at the Over 70s State Tournament

Our PJs O70s team again travelled to Port Macquarie in March for the 3rd annual O70s State Championships (1st to 4th of March). Up to 10 participating teams this year. As expected, the standard of cricket continues to rise, and the level of competition was much fiercer. Indeed, we were unable to defend our title from 2020!

Unfortunately, the mid-north coast had experienced considerable (indeed a record) falls of rain in the weeks leading up to our Championship. This greatly affected preparation time and quality of grounds and pitches. Astro ground were fine but the turf pitches were slow. Indeed, the main Oxley Oval was still flooded and unavailable. The Championship organisers did a magnificent job in managing the limited number of grounds and getting all games played under these circumstances – we are indeed thankful for their efforts.

Despite the cricket results, the team had an enjoyable week in Port Macquarie. Lots of catching up with fellow 70yos from around the state. The Championship and team dinners were again a highlight – including another evening at the Thai Touch Tide, and our last night of fabulous food at Cuthbert's choice of Bills Fishhouse and Bar.

And it was great to see several wives joining us for the week – including Raj, Margaret and Mei Lai.

And special thanks to Douglas Latto for entering the MyCricket scores.

Over 70s Port Jackson Red:

Standing: Jeff Matchett, Ray Pallister, Peter Harrison (Manager), Cuthbert Berenger (Captain), Bill Ireland, Garry Winney, Geoff Ainsworth, Tom Wood, Kevin Pereira

Kneeling: Bushy Pillay, Douglas Latto, Harry Solomons, Mike Fursland

Match 1 v Central Coast: Monday 1 March 2021 at Landrigan Park at Wauchope.

Scores: Central Coast 8/47 (dec) off 35 overs defeated by PJs 8/268 off 40 overs

Not unexpectedly due to rain, Match 1 was on astro. Cuthbert won the toss and batted, and in what ended up a very one-sided affair, PJs scored 268 for loss of 8 wickets in our 2 lots of 20 overs. Tom Wood top scored with 59 off 50 balls; Peter Harrison scored 40 off 30 balls. Contributions from Bill Ireland (12), Bushy (14), Geoff Ainsworth (31) and Jeff Matchett (30) helped build our huge score.

Our bowlers were very disciplined, and CC could not score.

Tom Wood won man of the match for his fine innings.

Match 2 v Lismore: Tuesday 2nd March 2021 at Wayne Richards oval

Scores: Lismore 8/85 off 38 overs defeated PJs 10/83 off 32 overs

Cuthbert won the toss and batted. Our reliable openers of harry Solomons and Tom Woods was cut short when Tom feathered to the keeper (off a John Jackson rearing ball!) Wickets continued to fall until Cuthbert and Garry Winney put on a strong partnership but late wickets saw us all out for 83.

Lismore really struggled on the slow pitch, and assisted by our missing quite a few chances, they eventually overtook our score with 2 overs to spare.

A difficult game that we didn’t play well enough to win. And so, with this being a knock-out competition, there went our chances of retaining the Championship trophy!

Match 3 v New England/Quirindi: Thursday 4th March at Andrews Park at Wauchope

Scores: NE/Quirindi 5/140 off 40 overs defeated by PJs 5/175 off 40 overs

Another toss win for Cuthbert and we bat first as usual. What was not usual was us “lending NE Garry Winney who batted and bowled magnificently for the opposition!

Our first 5 batsmen all retired at 30 balls – we were 134 before we lost our first wicket. It was then the opportunity to use all 10 of our bowlers in the NE innings…with Kevin Pereira and Jeff Matchett the stars.

A wonderful game played in the right spirit as the NE skipper Rowan Chandler proudly pointed out.

For the number crunchers: