After the dizzying heights of a last ball, against all odds semi-final victory the MOCCC 3rd XI weren’t quite able to pull off the David Vs Goliath victory twice in a row. After a season that had us use what seemed like 700 different players we somehow found ourselves in a grand final against a team that had beaten us comfortably twice already this year (three times if you include our forfeit against them early in the season).

Richmond Union won the toss and put on an impressive 5/212 off their 40 overs. Losing our captain and wicketkeeper Keogh to a broken finger requiring us to field with 10 players didn’t help the cause, but neither did short pitched bowling and 5 dropped catches. Vinuka was the best bowler for the day with an impressive 3/39. Andrew Dallimore also bowled quite well but had his fair share of dropped catches off his bowling.

Cimoli and Lowry opened up aggressively both hitting boundaries and taking a few body shots along the way. Unfortunately, wickets fell quite regularly and the only batsman who could hold his head high was Mick Lowry who made an entertaining 41. We were all out for 106, the only other highlight being Danny ‘The Wolf’ Day continuing his Herculean achievement of never being dismissed in a Grand Final.

Big thanks to all the lads who played regularly throughout the season, particularly our fearless leader Trev ‘Andrew’ Keogh who had the at times very difficult task of convincing 11 people each week that playing cricket was a good idea.