Adelaide Hills Cricket (HCA, TVCA & A&EH)

[Barkeroo]

- Lobey with a bit of a shocker against Hahndorf on the weekend.
- Nairne set a good total but couldn't defend it in what is almost certainly their season done.
- L Creek and Strath with easy wins.
Top 4 is set its just in what order.

In A2s, we've had a couple of poor games in a row leaving us on the edge of the top 4. Lobey by far the best team in the grade but can be beaten on an off day while Nairne also very good as well.

Top 4 in A Grade was settled long ago. Now just probably in a mathematical sense. Nairne have been HUGE under achievers this season. Strath not far behind them. Cally had a SHOCKER . Were 9/17 until 10 & 11 added some respectability to the score by adding 32 for the last wicket.

Be interesting to see what the A Grade comp looks like next year? Wistow and barker should be striving to go up but are they ready ? Maccy and Cally should be striving to stay up but they need to be more competitive.
Lobey clearly the team to beat despite their shocker on the weekend. Their ego is their biggest danger.

Yeah definitely the top 4 we thought we were going to end up with long ago.
A Nairne win on the weekend couldve made it a little interesting at least but Woodside also have Maccy and Cally in their last 2 matches it probably wouldn't have mattered anyway.

As for next year. I think the senior group is keen to make a push to go up to the highest level hopefully they can be back up there sooner rather than later.

[King Konstas]

Hills cricket is heating up coming into finals time with 3 round left. 4 teams vying for the final 2 finals spots.

Ladder is as follows

Lofty - Comfortably the best side. Incredibly solid from 1 to 11, with the best bowling line up in the competition.
Stirling- lost a couple In a row but still super dangerous with Read and Mcfayden up top. Issue for them is Mcfayden can't play the GF.
Aldgate- the surprise packet. Callaghan has them enjoying cricket again and it's amazing what happens. Hansen and Smet keep taking poles. Remarkably defended 106 on the weekend.
Mylor - lost 2 on the trot and unfortunately lost Durnford and James for year. Any team with Tom Plant is dangerous though and Warby knows how to lead the team very well.
Bridgey- 2nd most form team in the competition. The inclusion of Dawson is huge to go with the guns of Tait and Waton. There time is now as they are not particularly young.
Scib - Massive win for us on the weekend and playing much better post Christmas. Need everything to go right to make finals however.
Kangy - Keep getting in good positions and losing. Quality bowling outfit that just don't chase well.
Meadows- been a long time since they have been bottom. Unfortunately it's Rohan with not alot else now. Bowling lacks some punch.

Agree. Lofty are the best side and theirs to lose this year.
Bridgey are the smokey for me if they make it, Dawson has changed that team since coming in.
Aldgate and mylor with tough finishes and I’d like to know the winning percentage when Plant doesn’t play for Mylor
SCIB will have confidence to go back to back if they can sneak in. Shearwood, Thompson and Knight need big finishes.
Kangy are disappointing, best bowling group but have struggled to make runs for 10+ years. Need to find some batters for 25/26.
Meadows reign finally over. I see no Brown or B.Dawe this season, ageing list and no depth. Rohan carrying them.

[whufc]

How has Joel Durnford gone up there.

Real good bloke, played a fair bit against him when he was back home at Booleroo.

He always did pretty well here.

[batmanbegins]

1 game left in the HCA with the top 2 spots sorted but 4 teams fighting for for 3rd and 4th.

Lofty - Been secured top for a few weeks. No team can make a run against them at the minute.
Stirling- slipped up but have come back strong the past 2 weeks. Need a Ready special to beat lofty.
Scib - won 3 on the trot after being on the brink. Win this week and secured 3rd, lose badly and may be in trouble.
Bridgey- great bowling performance on the weekend pushed them to 4th. Simple equation for them beat Kangy and they are in, lose they rely on Mylor and Aldgate losing.
Mylor - Lost 4 on the trot and just can't buy a run. Have to beat Stirling and Hope Bridgey lose basically.
Aldgate - Can this young side do what they have done all year and pull off a surprise? Need to pump SCIB in t20 fashion to make it so expect them to bowl first to see what they can do.
Kangy - Played pretty well other then the Saturday just gone when they rocked up with an awful side. Can't win the close ones basically.
Meadows - Bottom for the first time in many a moons. Batting is still good just can't bowl anyone out.

[batmanbegins]

How has Joel Durnford gone up there.

Real good bloke, played a fair bit against him when he was back home at Booleroo.

He always did pretty well here.

He was doing well, took 5fa first game of season and picked in association squad. Unfortunately did Shoulder against Mt lofty slipping on the matting and required surgery which ruled him out for 12 months. Seems a good lad.

[whufc]

How has Joel Durnford gone up there.

Real good bloke, played a fair bit against him when he was back home at Booleroo.

He always did pretty well here.

He was doing well, took 5fa first game of season and picked in association squad. Unfortunately did Shoulder against Mt lofty slipping on the matting and required surgery which ruled him out for 12 months. Seems a good lad.

Jesus, he finds weird and wonderful ways to injury himself. Reasonable footballer who has had to retire early due to concussion issues.

Amazing golfer. Was on a scholarship over in the states at a university for golf.

[Corona Man]

How has Joel Durnford gone up there.

Real good bloke, played a fair bit against him when he was back home at Booleroo.

He always did pretty well here.

He was doing well, took 5fa first game of season and picked in association squad. Unfortunately did Shoulder against Mt lofty slipping on the matting and required surgery which ruled him out for 12 months. Seems a good lad.

Jesus, he finds weird and wonderful ways to injury himself. Reasonable footballer who has had to retire early due to concussion issues.

Amazing golfer. Was on a scholarship over in the states at a university for golf.

I recall watching the incident live on frog box. It was in the round 1 - T/20 game on Nov 30th. 4th ball of the first over. He was bowling to my son at the time. You can watch the replay of it on Play Cricket. It didn't look all that serious at the time.....

[jackpot jim]

Interesting last round in A&EHCA

After Lobethal appeared to have a lock on Top spot up til only last week, they will now be battling it out against the Creeks to see who finishes top with the loser likely to drop to 3rd
Lobethal having 7 players missing last week against Strath saw them go down narrowly by 12 runs which may prove costly for them although in recent years have overcome every obstacle in it's way to win 3 flags on the trot and are faves to make it 4 .
Hahndorf sitting in 3rd spot will be looking to crush Bremer Callington to increase their NRR as they are well within reach of overtaking Lobethal if they lose to the Creeks. They' already have a better NRR than Creeks so just need the win against BC if Creeks lose.

With the forecast at Creek Saturday being 37c could Lobey and Creek both mutually agree that in the interests of Health and Safety that they dont play and split the points that would guarantee them both a double chance
The precedent has been set with Strath and Bremer Cally calling their game off the other week which was against the Associations heat policy. It was the ONLY game across ALL grades to be called off on the day which makes a bit of a mockery of things

Woodside sit in 4thy spot and could move to 3rd by beating Macclesfield and Cally upsetting Hahndorf which looks a very very remote chance of happening. The likely scenario is the just sit back and wait to see which of the 3 teams above them finish 3rd.

[King Konstas]

Interesting last round in A&EHCA

After Lobethal appeared to have a lock on Top spot up til only last week, they will now be battling it out against the Creeks to see who finishes top with the loser likely to drop to 3rd
Lobethal having 7 players missing last week against Strath saw them go down narrowly by 12 runs which may prove costly for them although in recent years have overcome every obstacle in it's way to win 3 flags on the trot and are faves to make it 4 .
Hahndorf sitting in 3rd spot will be looking to crush Bremer Callington to increase their NRR as they are well within reach of overtaking Lobethal if they lose to the Creeks. They' already have a better NRR than Creeks so just need the win against BC if Creeks lose.

With the forecast at Creek Saturday being 37c could Lobey and Creek both mutually agree that in the interests of Health and Safety that they dont play and split the points that would guarantee them both a double chance
The precedent has been set with Strath and Bremer Cally calling their game off the other week which was against the Associations heat policy. It was the ONLY game across ALL grades to be called off on the day which makes a bit of a mockery of things

Woodside sit in 4thy spot and could move to 3rd by beating Macclesfield and Cally upsetting Hahndorf which looks a very very remote chance of happening. The likely scenario is the just sit back and wait to see which of the 3 teams above them finish 3rd.

Interesting regarding Strath and Callington a couple of weekends ago. Was this due to the extreme fire conditions that were potentially heading towards Strath that day or other reasons for calling the game a draw??

Creek and Lobey going to be a ripper this Saturday I reckon, all on the line!

[Barkeroo]

Interesting last round in A&EHCA

After Lobethal appeared to have a lock on Top spot up til only last week, they will now be battling it out against the Creeks to see who finishes top with the loser likely to drop to 3rd
Lobethal having 7 players missing last week against Strath saw them go down narrowly by 12 runs which may prove costly for them although in recent years have overcome every obstacle in it's way to win 3 flags on the trot and are faves to make it 4 .
Hahndorf sitting in 3rd spot will be looking to crush Bremer Callington to increase their NRR as they are well within reach of overtaking Lobethal if they lose to the Creeks. They' already have a better NRR than Creeks so just need the win against BC if Creeks lose.

With the forecast at Creek Saturday being 37c could Lobey and Creek both mutually agree that in the interests of Health and Safety that they dont play and split the points that would guarantee them both a double chance
The precedent has been set with Strath and Bremer Cally calling their game off the other week which was against the Associations heat policy. It was the ONLY game across ALL grades to be called off on the day which makes a bit of a mockery of things

Woodside sit in 4thy spot and could move to 3rd by beating Macclesfield and Cally upsetting Hahndorf which looks a very very remote chance of happening. The likely scenario is the just sit back and wait to see which of the 3 teams above them finish 3rd.

Interesting regarding Strath and Callington a couple of weekends ago. Was this due to the extreme fire conditions that were potentially heading towards Strath that day or other reasons for calling the game a draw??

Creek and Lobey going to be a ripper this Saturday I reckon, all on the line!

The Strath vs Cally A Grade game was at Callington 1 and the D Grade game on Callington 2 still went ahead.
Our A2s and Bs played at Strath and Ashbourne respectively that day and while we were keeping an eye on that fire, it didn't effect those two games at all.
Think they literally just called it off because it was hot and the game wasn't going to have any impact on finals etc.

[jackpot jim]

The Strath vs Cally A Grade game was at Callington 1 and the D Grade game on Callington 2 still went ahead.
Our A2s and Bs played at Strath and Ashbourne respectively that day and while we were keeping an eye on that fire, it didn't effect those two games at all.
Think they literally just called it off because it was hot and the game wasn't going to have any impact on finals etc.

Spot on Barkeroo.
Very poor by both Clubs to agree to it. If they truly believed the heat was dangerous the Clubs would've withdrew all their teams on the day which they didn't because all their games had finals implications.
The Association ok'd it and allowed them to split the points which i think has caused a dangerous precedent.
I'll leave it at that.

The Creek v Lobey game held centre stage in the last round with the Minor Premiership up for grabs and the loser likely to have to win the Flag the hard way by dropping to 3rd.
Lobey won the toss and elected to chase and would've been happy removing the Creeks for a very below par score of only 129.
Lobey were cruising at 3/80 until they inexplicably collapsed to lose 7/38 to be bowled out for 118 and as a result have fallen to 3rd after being top of the ladder the entire season

Week 1 Finals
L Creek v Hahndorf at L Creek
Lobethal v Woodside at Lobethal

With Lobey dropping to 3rd it has really opened it up for the Flag after they have been hot favorites all season
Hard to see Woodside winning 3 Finals on the trot but Lobethal would still be backing themselves to.
Interesting tho that Hahndorf have thrashed Lobey both times and Creek have won 2 out of 3 against them this season.
Creeks comfortably defeated Hahndorf in both of their encounters.
So with all that it's basically a lottery as to who might win?
Nairne finished Top in A2 C & D Grade whilst Strath finished Top of B Grade

[batmanbegins]

Another fascinating finish to HCA minor round similar to last season. Mylor win off the last ball to sneak into 4th after Bridgey let slip of there stronghold on 4th by losing to Kangy. Unlucky for Bridgey not having Tait due to injury but pretty disappointing for them considering they'd have expected to make finals last couple of seasons with the side they have assembled.

First week of finals sees the below

Lofty V Stirling- lofty go in heavy favourites having not lost since round 2. Alot rests on the shoulders of Read and Webb with the bat for Stirling although Picky has batted well in big games before. Loftys bowling is hard to stop and there batting just always gets them to that 180 to 200 mark which has proven to be the score to win you most games. Lofty to win and secure another home GF.

SCIB V Mylor - We go in with good form having won 4 on the trot but Mylor would be on a high after sneaking into the 4 for the second year running. We played them 3 weeks ago and had a good win but with Plant around they are going to be hard to stop. We have got him for under 10 both times this year which I'm not sure is a good thing now as he's due Aaron is in fantastic form with 2 hundreds on the trot and he's going to be a massive qicket for Mylor. Should be a cracker and is definitely a 50/50 game.

[King Konstas]

Looks to be a hot day tomorrow for cricket with 39 degrees forecast, from memory the semi final weekend last year was a hot one too. Teams will be sweating on the BoM forecast for tomorrow this afternoon.

AEH

Creek v Hahndorf: Creek will be too strong at home, O'Dea named to play, Blackwell and Clements frontliners with the ball. Can Allegretto, Jenner & Williams have a day out with the bat and make enough runs.

Lobey v Woodside: Lobey will be kicking themselves they dropped the last couple to slip to 3rd. Expect a bounce back from them and a win, too much class in their line up.

Hills

Lofty v Stirling: Lofty been the best side all year losing just 1 game, even spread of contributors across the board. Will be hungry for a flag after dropping the last couple at home. Will take a Jack Read special and contributions from their other senior heads to knock them off.

SCIB v Mylor: SCIBS in red hot form with the big guns firing with the bat late in the year and go into finals with all momentum. Like the other game will take a huge innings from Tom Plant and some support with the bat around him if they are going to win.

[Dutchy]

What is the temp cut off for the HCA these days?

[saintal]

Birdwood to battle Cambrai in both the TVCA A and B Grade grand finals.

As outlined in the Courier this week, the Bulls endured an 11 year period which saw them win just 10 A Grade games. 6 winless seasons in that period, and pretty sure they won the spoon every year except for 2013/14 when we (Lenswood) were more awful than they were.

The Skunks have won the past 2 A Grade flags after being regular finalists the decade previous.

[Barkeroo]

At least AEH brought in a reserve day for finals so if tomorrow is heated out we will be able to play Sunday. Although Sunday looks like it would be affected by rain

[batmanbegins]

Lofty V SCIB this weekend in the HCA preliminary in a rematch of the GF from last year. Both sides slightly different with us only have 6 out of the 11 from last year and lofty 8 out of the 11. Lofty just had one of those days last weekend, probably not a bad thing to have it then and I can't see that happening to them again. We go in with good form having won 5 on the trot but unless you play 90 overs of quality cricket you don't beat a good side like lofty. Stirling await the winner and well done to them on making another grand final, having a super run as a club.

The Bs GF is SCIB v Uris in a rematch of last season. Our Bs have been in great touch and have beaten them all 3 times this season but Uris top end talent is incredibly dangerous. Hopefully our boys get the chocolates after losing by 1 wicket last season.

[Corona Man]

Lofty V SCIB this weekend in the HCA preliminary in a rematch of the GF from last year. Both sides slightly different with us only have 6 out of the 11 from last year and lofty 8 out of the 11. Lofty just had one of those days last weekend, probably not a bad thing to have it then and I can't see that happening to them again. We go in with good form having won 5 on the trot but unless you play 90 overs of quality cricket you don't beat a good side like lofty. Stirling await the winner and well done to them on making another grand final, having a super run as a club.

The Bs GF is SCIB v Uris in a rematch of last season. Our Bs have been in great touch and have beaten them all 3 times this season but Uris top end talent is incredibly dangerous. Hopefully our boys get the chocolates after losing by 1 wicket last season.

Yeah... what can I say, other than the Lofty Vs Stirling game was a tough watch on the frog last Saturday. I was thankful when the vision actually dropped out for a while!
The Eagles really applied the pressure with the ball, and their fielding was top notch. Not that you can see it on the frog, but several good catches taken in the deep. They didn't drop a thing.
McFadyen bowling little darts, did the job. Webb is a bloody good bat, never misses out in big games.

[Dutchy]

Im hoping this is a blessing in disguise for the redcaps!

[Barkeroo]

Hahndorf take down Langhorne Creek in a low scoring game to go straight through to the GF. Creek v Lobethal in a final again but this time only one will go through to the decider.

Grand Finals this week in other grades:

A2s Lobethal v Nairne @ Lobethal
B Grade Strathalbyn v Woodside @ Strathalbyn
C Grade Nairne v Lobethal @ Nairne #1
D Grade Nairne v Mt Barker @ Nairne #2