Overall it was a good weekend for Manly, with all grades being in winnable positions after the first day’s play against Penrith.

Player of the Week – Aidan Baker

Aidan bowled an excellent spell on Saturday, taking 5-30 as 2^nd grade cruised to a first innings victory. In addition to this, he also saw the boys home with 51 in a fine all round performance. Second grade are mounting a serious push for the top 6 and will be no doubt aiming for outright points this coming Saturday.

1^st Grade Report VS Penrith – Jack Ritchie

Manly 150 (Crosthwaite 49, Edgell 32*) VS Penrith 1-54

Another disappointing day was had by first grade on Saturday. After being sent in on a pretty hard deck, our innings just never got going. Crossy and Luke Edgell were the standouts with 49 and 30 odd not out respectfully, while Dave Poskitt batted well for 20 to bump our overall tally to 150. With 18 overs in the day left to bowl we were hopeful of having Penrith 4 0r 5 out, however they batted quite well and we only managed the solitary wicket. They finished up at 1-60.

2^nd Grade Report VS Penrith

Manly 6-230 (A Baker 51, M Cleary 47) VS Penrith 137 (A Baker 5-30, McLachlan 3-26) & 0-74

3^rd Grade Report VS Penrith – Ian Prowse

Manly 6-272 Dec (Lindsay 98, Patterson 96) VS Penrith 1-7

Having made a great statement of our intentions the previous week against a strong Bankstown side, the main grade arrived at Rance Oval aiming to keep building momentum and put in a strong performance against a Penrith side sitting 7^th on the ladder.

The boys focused well on the task at hand, ignoring the probably less than ideal facilities, and after Genie won the toss, the top order set out to bat the day and post a commanding score. Unfortunately, everything didn’t go to plan early on. Loose and Doochman were unable to repeat their heroics of the previous week, so Gummer and the Prowler had to knuckle down to see off the new ball. Both looked well placed to convert their starts into big scores, but both fell in the space of a few overs just before tea.

At 4/71 off 35 overs, the game was in the balance. Penrith might have even hoped to sneak us out before the close of play. Scotty and Billy had other ideas. Billy set the tone straight after tea, hitting three fours in succession twice in the space of a couple of overs. Scotty kept pace at the other end and the game quickly turned in our favour. Both passed 50 in quick time, hitting boundaries with ease despite the footlong grass on the outfield. Some amazing hitting followed, including a sequence of five bombs in a row as the scoring rate kept increasing. By the time the partnership was broken, when Scotty was unlucky to chop a ball onto his stumps just short of his hundred, they had put on 185, hitting 20 fours and 10 sixes between them. Billy was also unlucky to miss out on a well deserved hundred, getting caught just two runs short of his ton.

It was an outstanding effort, and meant we were so in control of the game that we were able to declare at 7/282, just after Genie had missed another straight one that ‘did everything’.

With five overs left in the day we had a great opportunity to make a real indent into the Penrith top order. Reece Hodge bowled quick and got the breakthrough in his second over, nicking off their mouthy opening batsman, having been well supported by Genie at the other end.

With Penrith 1/7, the main grade are in a great position but we all know there’s still plenty of hard work to do next Saturday.

Finally, special mention must go to Doochman and Billy Lindsay for turning up sporting hairstyles that looked worse than anyone on the opposing side. This must be a first for a Manly side playing against a Penrith, so a great effort from the boys!

4^th Grade Report VS Penrith – Max Burgess

Manly 178 (R Alexander 61, Readett 39) VS Penrith 4-43

Turning up to a traditional Grahams deck and field with a new look 4^th grade team, led by season veteran Rowley Alexander, due to Maso having his 100^th wedding of the season. The team welcomed youngsters Jake Fraser and Mickey Edwards, with Jarrod Baker making a welcomed return and Ed Burgess playing his 3^rd celebrity match of the season. Winning the toss we elected to bat, Digits (congrats on getting one away also) and Bossy started us off, luck was not with us at the start with the umpire giving Boss out caught behind, but only to be then told it was LBW when a Penrith player corrected the umpire. Deano got himself off to a good start once again before getting out for 39. This has been the usual story for Deano this season, could we have a new ‘Mr. Thirty’ when Maso retires? From there we found ourselves 6 for 60 (usual story for 4^th grade this season), with Maxy and Rowley knuckling down to put on a 73 run partnership, with Rowley, once again being the rock of the innings with a well made 61. Ryan Farrell and new boy Mickey Edwards knuckled down and showed some tail-ender grit to put on a 20 odd run partnership, something that could be the difference at the end of the game. This took our score to 178, with 15 overs left in the day’s play.

We could not of asked for a better start with Mickey Edwards and Jarrod Baker bowling an exceptional opening partnership, that saw Jarrod on a hat-trick and Mickey picking up a wicket with a gem of a ball. Ryan Farrell was able to sneak another before the end of day’s play, having Penrith 4 for 43.

5^th Grade Report VS Penrith

Manly 7-271 (Anderson 42, Kaye 41, Ritchie 32)

1^st Grade Limited Overs Report VS Syd Uni – Jack Ritchie

Manly 212 (Hill 75, Crosthwaite 51, O Keefe 26) defeated by Syd Uni 8-235 (Bird 3-47, Davis 2-26, S Cleary 2-34)

Unfortunately we were unable to defeat Syd Uni in the Grand Final of the Limited Overs comp on Sunday. We lost the tos and were aske to bowl, and with Birdy taking 3 early wickets we were in a good position having the students 3-50. A couple more wickets followed soon after, and with Syd Uni at 5-133 we had hoped to dismiss them for a sub 180 total. However a good partnership between Henry and Larkin ensued, and Uni ended up with a competitive 235.

Our start didn’t get off to the best of starts being 2-12, however a few partnerships between Crossy and Sock, then Crossy and Nat kept us in the game. All the way through though, we were about 20 runs behind where we needed to be and we left our run a few overs late. In the end we finished with 212, with Crossy making 51 and Nat a well made 75.