Stanhope hosts Master Blasters cricketers

By Rohan Aldous

Dec 4, 2023

In full swing: Emma Chapman is at full stretch as she disposes of this delivery in Kyabram Fire Brigade’s match with a Moama Cricket Club Under-10 team. Both clubs had three teams involved in Sunday morning’s Master Blaster Goulburn Murray Cricket competition on Stanhope Recreation Reserve.

Stanhope Recreation Reserve was the site of six Goulburn Murray Cricket Master Blaster games on Sunday — the sixth round of the under-10 competition.

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Twelve teams from seven different clubs were featured in the carnival, which operated under special rules.

In the previous five weeks, Rochester, Tongala, Moama, Northern Oval at Kyabram and Echuca’s Victoria Park had all hosted rounds of the Master Blasters series.

The final two rounds of the competition will be held in the two weeks leading up to Christmas at Bamawm and then at Moama for the finale on December 17.

A modified rules format, teams are made up of six players aged from eight to 10 and every pair of batters face four overs — volunteers keeping a close count on deliveries as each batter is given 12 balls from which to score.

No scores are recorded and each member of the bowling team is allocated two overs.

If a ball is bowled outside the batter’s reach it is then placed on top of a cone and the batter is given a free hit.

At Stanhope on Sunday there was a good mix of boys and girls involved in the competition, while it is a perfect feeder format into the under-11, 13, 15 (boys and girls) and 17 Goulburn Murray competitions which are this year sponsored by the Community Bank Tongala and Mathoura.

On the front foot: Kyabram Fire Brigade Cricket Club had three teams involved in Sunday morning’s GMC Master Blaster competition, one of those was an all girls team that included a focused Mia Boylan

– Kyabram Fire Brigade’s unbeaten start to the 2023-24 Under-13 Goulburn Murray Cricket Community Bank Tongala Mathoura Competition continued at Tongala’s Brose Reserve last Wednesday.

It was the only game of the five scheduled that managed to produce a result (due to rain), the top of the ladder Fire Brigade team bundling Tongala out in 15.5 overs and then scoring the winning runs in just 6/1 overs.

Four rounds into the season the Fire Brigade team now has wins against Echuca White (by 40 runs), Kyabram Redbacks (by 13 runs), Echuca Green (by 10 wickets) and Tongala to their credit.

Facing the music: Harry Fisher isn’t that much taller than the stumps that he is protecting while playing for Stanhope on his home ground during Sunday’s sixth round of matches in the Goulburn Murray junior cricket competition.

They now face second ranked Moama Black in the final round before the Christmas break, this Tuesday (December 12) at Moama’s Brick Alley.

The competition will then resume on Wednesday, January 24 and three more rounds will be played before the finals in the 11-team competition.

Last week’s Fire Brigade win came on the back of Tongala’s decision to bat after winning the toss.

Tongala was 4-5 before Lucas Pyke and Angus Greenman added 19 runs. The last five wickets then fell for 13 runs.

Archie and Billy Sheppard combined for figures of 4-5 from 3.5 overs, while Jonty Sefton took 2-6 from his two overs.

Sefton then scored 18 from 12 deliveries and both Aiden Greiner and Hudson Boylan contributed to the winning total.

If the cap fits: Jacob Morgan was among the Tongala Mini-Blues who tackled the weekend’s sixth round of Goulburn Murray Cricket Master Blaster action at Stanhope Recreation Reserve.

– In the Under-15 match between sister sides Fire Brigade White and Red, at Brose Reserve on Thursday, top of the ladder White has set Red 122 for victory.

White is unbeaten after three rounds and Red sits seventh on the ladder, so restricting the more favoured team to 9-121 from 40 overs was an outstanding achievement.

Red bowlers Archer Backway, Mitch Wilson and Max Stockdale all took two wickets after White started its innings in positive fashion.

Star White batsmen Oscar Carver was the pillar of the innings, batting for 74 deliveries to finish with 51 not out (including three boundaries).

He had early support from Ethan Greiner (10) and Paddy Westerveld (10), but of the remaining batsmen only Nicholas Barbagallo (not out 11) made it into double figures.

He faced an amazing 60 deliveries to support Carver in setting a reasonable run chase for the Red team on day two of the round four contest.

It’s all in the wrist: Fire Brigade bowler Harry Pyke adds a little extra spin to this delivery during the sixth round of Master Blaster competition. There are two more rounds remaining in the under-10 Goulburn Murray junior cricket competition.

– Tongala’s under-15 team had Echuca South 9-42 on day one of its match, after just 22.4 overs, with Tyler Robinson the star.

Robinson took 4-3 from just 10 deliveries, backing up River Townsend, Mitch Cornwall and Seth Chantler.

– Fire Brigade’s under-15 girls team scored a 12-run win against Rochester in the Friday night match.

Rochester batted, after winning the toss, but was soon after 5-11 as Sophie McDonald (2-2 from 2.3 overs), Sienna Brennan (2-6 from three overs) and Phoebe Perrella (2-3 from two overs) all did their bit to influence the result.

Rochester and managed to reach 7-47 at the end of their innings.

Brennan (not out 18 off 41 deliveries) was the star of the Fire Brigade run chase and had support from McDonald and Perrella as the team scored its first win of the season.