After hat trick and runouts Shell City repeats DMW under 11 success
After washouts for the under 14A and under 14B tournaments the previous weekends, the DMW trophy tournament finally got underway last Sunday in the under 11s at Port Kembla. The DMW one day tournament consists of 10 over a side round robin, followed by semis and a final. The modified rules of the day ensure everyone gets a bat and bowl. The report from Martin King of Port Kembla Club follows:
“Starting with 8 teams this year in 2 pools at 2 ovals and 2 semi finals, we finally arrived at the 2008 champion team for the Under 11 DMW. Shellharbour City returned as premiers and defended their title 5/46 defeated Wests Red 7/33 in the final, on Sunday 17 February 2008, played at Darcy Wentworth Park, Warrawong.
Standouts for Shellharbour were Brody Hawkins with 12 and Jack Willis with 6no. Wests managed to affect 4 run outs, Jake Austin picked up the only wicket. Best for Wests with the bat was Joel Moore with 6 and Ryan King with 5. Lachlan Ruddock picked up 2/2 with ball for Shellharbour assisted by Ben Edwards, Chris Josevski, James Milton and David Todd all picking up a wicket each.
In two closely contested semis, Shellharbour City 4/42 defeated Port Kembla 6/38 and Wests Red 0/56 defeated Helensburgh 7/54.
During a round match J Edwards from Wollongong picked up a hat trick in the last over against Wests Red to finish with figures of 4/1.
Port Kembla wishes to thank all the participating teams, Wollongong, Wests Red, Shellharbour City, Albion Park Rail, Helensburgh, Balgownie, Thirroul and Port Kembla for making the day an enjoyable one that was not too warm and sticky with any threat of rain holding off. It was nice to play some cricket in what has been a very damp summer. Thank you to all the Port Kembla support personnel. Congratulations again to Shellharbour City.”
Illawarra junior cricket representative teams win awards and accolades
The hosts of the recent Western Junior Cricket tournaments at Orange have provided high praise to the Illawarra Junior Cricket’s under 13 and under 15 cricket teams. Their letter to the IJCA follows:
“We recently hosted your Under 13 and Under 15 cricket teams at the Western Tournament in Orange and I particularly wanted to write and compliment you on the way your teams were presented and their on and off field conduct.
Unfortunately, I did not see a lot of the Under 13 team as they did not stay at Kinross. However, the Under 15 team did, and during their stay with us, they were well behaved and polite and very well supervised and managed.
The Under 13 team performed well and was just beaten on the quotient for second place to ACT. Your team won the Under 15 Tournament and they were very worthy winners of a very tight competition. The umpires during the four days all spoke well of their attitude and we are grateful for this in view of the many complaints that we see at the higher level of cricket these days.
In the Under 13's, Corbin Brown won the batting average while Chad Wilson won the fielding award. In the Under 15's Geordie Crawford had a great tournament winning both the batting aggregate and average as well as receiving a special award for a well compiled century. Matthew McKenzie was also outstanding in the field and won the umpires fielding award for the week, given to the player who puts in the best effort in the field.
I am sure you would be pleased to receive some positive feedback so we would just like to say that your teams will be very welcome back here in the future and please pass on our thanks to your managers & coaches, who did such a great job. Brett & Troy with the 13's and Michael & Brad with the 15's were always co-operative and deserve special mention at your appropriate meeting.
From Carl Sharpe & Beth Norrie (Quality Sporting Services, Orange)”
SportsLive congratulates all team members and officials who have done the Illawarra proud.
Illawarra baseballers play in Olympic qualifiers.
The two Illawarra members of the New South Wales Patriots – Trent D’Antonio and Tim Atherton – will be involved in selection and qualification games for the 2008 Australian Olympic Baseball team commencing this weekend.
Both players were members of the New South Wales Patriots team that lost the 2008 Claxton Shield Finals series (2-0) to the Perth Heat in Sydney two weeks ago.
D’Antiono has been named in the Olympic train on squad that will play two games against the Patriots at Blacktown Olympic Park this Friday and Saturday, February 22 and 23.
Following this series the Olympic squad moves to Queensland to play a series of four “friendly” games against the Canadian national team. These games will be played at Redlands on February 29 and 29 and at Palm Meadows on March 1 and 2.
The Olympic team then quickly relocates to Chinese Taipei on March 4 in readiness for an Olympic qualification tournament to be played between March 7 and 15. Eight nations – Australia, Canada, Chinese Taipei, Germany, Mexico, South Africa and Spain will play off for the three remaining positions at the Beijing Olympics. Five nations have already qualified – China, Cuba, Japan, Netherlands and the United States.
Australian Head Coach, Jon Deeble, is excited about playing the Canadians on home soil – especially as he puts some of the National squad’s youngest talent through the rigors of the two-week selection camp.
“For the first time in a number of years there are several spots in the team that are wide open (for selection) – I’m really looking forward to letting these guys go at it,” Deeble said.
“In terms of our preparation, we have had the benefit of the recent Claxton Shield season to identify some emerging talent and now we get the chance to see how they perform against Canada – one of the World’s top sides. Truth be told, nobody is guaranteed a ticket to the qualifiers, so I am going to take whoever’s “hot” at the time,” he said.
Additional information on this story can be found at www.baseball.org.au
Hurley’s great Olympic trial dress rehearsal with silver behind Hackett
The NSW Open Swimming championships were held last Friday through Sunday and, in many respects, this meet was a dress-rehearsal for the Olympic qualifying trials being held next month (commencing 22nd March). These championships featured the "who's who" of Australian swimming plus a handful of competitors from Japan, Britain and NZ.
Wollongong’s Robert Hurley (formerly of Wests Illawarra Club now at AIS in Canberra), like most of the swimmers, is currently in hard training and was not fine-tuned to produce any special performances.
Photo: Robert Hurley shows his style in an earlier meet
In Friday's 400m freestyle event, 19 year old Hurley drew the same heat as 27 year old Grant Hackett and pushed Hackett through most of the race to finish second in easily the fastest heat. Then, in the final on Friday night, Hurley kept in touch with Hackett most of the way before finishing second in 3:49.55, a time which makes him the equal 8th fastest-ever Australian. Australia's #2 middle distance freestyler, Craig Stevens, finished in 3rd place, some 2.5 seconds behind Hurley.
On Friday night, soon after his outstanding 400m freestyle effort, Hurley finished a close equal-3rd in the 50m backstroke sprint final against our best backstrokers who were fresh for that event. His time (26.02) was a half-second PB.
On Saturday morning, Hurley backed up to swim a heat of the 200m backstroke (which he won) and then raced Grant Hackett and Kenrick Monk (Australia's top 2 200m freestyle swimmers) in a heat of the 200m freestyle event. In the respective finals on Saturday night, Hurley finished 3rd in the 200m backstroke final, a good result considering his tough schedule. Soon afterwards he lined up in the 200m freestyle final against the cream of Australia's 200m freestylers but not-surprisingly finished towards the rear (7th) due to being "fairly tired" before the race even started, but all part of his development program. He was the youngest swimmer in the final.
On Sunday morning Hurley won his heat of the 100m backstroke event in fast time (55.88) and then he returned to Canberra with his AIS team-mates without contesting the final that evening (as planned).
The tough weekend racing was just part of Hurley’s training program. On Monday he commenced altitude training in Thredbo and returns to Canberra on Friday ready for more top class racing next weekend at the AIS pool. This will be the last chance for any Olympic-hopefuls to have race practice before the Olympic qualifying Trials.
Another former Wests Illawarra swimmer, 20 year old Josh Minogue was in the winning SOPAC (Sydney Olympic Pool) club for the 4 x 200m freestyle relay. He also made the final of the 400m freestyle won by Hackett.
Calling for representative coaches for junior cricket
Illawarra Junior Cricket is looking for representative team coaches and managers for the 2008/09 season. Single or joint coaches can apply.
For further information contact Paul Brockley on 0438 611 260 or email Thebrocks@vtown.com.au
Coaches and Managers job descriptions can be found in the library at the following link: http://www.cricketnsw.com.au/ijca/hgdocs.cl?PT=sd
Cricket Humour
Australia’s Merv Hughes & Pakistan’s Javed Miandad:
During 1991 Adelaide Test, Javed called Merv a fat bus conductor.
A few balls later Merv dismissed Javed. "Tickets please," Merv called out as he ran past the departing batsman.
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