CHRIS Ninness showed he’s as handy with a cricket bat in his hands as a hockey stick, digging McCarthy out of a sticky situation in its Ron George clash with Oxley High on Monday.
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McCarthy was struggling at 8-124 but a 94-run ninth wicket stand between Ninness and Cameron Clout lifted them to a competitive – and what proved to be match-winning, 8-218.
Oxley could only manage 5-150 in reply.
In the all-Calrossy game at Riverside 3, Calrossy 1 batted first and posted 5-226.
It had contributors all the way down.
Brennan Sinclair again provided a solid foundation at the top hitting 26.
He and Phil McDermott (53) put on 50 for the first wicket.
Dan Newman then finished off the innings with 77, while AJ Pretorius chipped in with 45.
Year 8 student Aaron Madirazza was the pick of the 2s bowlers with 2-23.
They then got bogged down and lost wickets and could only muster 7-108 in reply.
Russell Johnson was their top-scorer with 26 with Ben Grant – another Year 8 student – making an unbeaten 20.
Will Burke was the main destroyer claiming 3-16.
At Riverside 2, McCarthy had an up and down innings.
After losing a couple of quick wickets early and being 2-6 Matt Hughes and Matt Dunn (35) steadied things with a 42 run partnership.
Another flurry of wickets saw them slump to 8-124.
But Ninness and Cameron Clout batted out the remaining nine overs to give McCarthy something to defend.
Ninness was the aggressor and finished unbeaten on 96.
Clout was unconquered on 18.
Matt Bryant (2-32) and Tom Byrnes (2-46) were the pick of the Oxley bowlers.
Oxley in reply staggered to 150. They lost wickets at regular intervals and it was only a late 71-run partnership between Brynes (45) and Tom Fitzgerald (31) that got them as close as they did.
Most of the remaining runs came from Harrison Pettit (43).
McCarthy defended well – bowling tightly and fielding well.
Hughes and Clout were both among the wickets, Hughes claiming 1-7 and Clout 1-9.
Josh Miles also chimed in with 1-17, Tom Finn 1-19 and Beau Alderton 1-24.
Both teams were playing short. McCarthy only had 10 players and Oxley nine.
The clash between Farrer 1 and Farrer 2 has been deferred to next week. Farrer 1 were away playing in the Davidson Shield quarter-final.
It leaves at this stage McCarthy, Oxley and Calrossy 1 sharing top spot on four points with Farrer 1 and Farrer 2 on two and Calrossy 2 yet to get off the mark.
