Glen 426
D. Anderson 235
Rob. Dilger 97
B. Cartledge 24
S. McGuire 18*
d North Hobart 142
N. Butterworth 6/ 22 (15.3)
N. Matthews 2/ 29 (14)
After 3 weeks of delayed matches due to rain, we finally kicked off the year at KGV against last years runners up & star studded North Hobart.
Rocking up to the ground we were all surprised to see what appeared to be a very hard & flat wicket, with Dane “fire crotch” Anderson taking the captaincy on again this year he started nicely by winning the toss & electing to have a stick.
Opening was Rob “The Freak” Dilger & younger brother Richie “Pipes”, after losing Rich & Brad “Melanoma” Absolom early Rob & Dane went about destroying the North Hobart bowlers & hitting some massive bombs along with some very sexy cricket shots.
Unfortunately once again Rob avoided the 100 club falling for 97 after going from 80 to 97 in about 1½ balls, Dane continued on his merry way treating the bowlers with distain & scoring at will.He found a stone wall partner in the new kid Brent “Twig” Cartledge (25) who seemed to take a session to get off the mark but provided a very valuable partnership with the skipper.
After reaching his 2nd 200 for the club Dane fell on 235 after holing out on the boundary with a shot that must’ve come off the stickers of his enormous Venom sword, as anywhere else on the bat would’ve seen another humungous maximum.
Declaring over night at a mammoth 9-426 the Pies bowlers were out to replicate the fantastic effort by our batsmen by taking down the daunting batting list of the Demons sporting names such as Marsh, Rogers, Clingeleffer & Dakin.
Starting up were the competitions number 1 & 2 leading wicket takers last season & didn’t take long for them to get back into the swing, with Trent “Sooky” LeRossignol taking the wicket of Russell Degroot & Nathan “Chimes” Butterworth snaring Demons captain John Rogers.
Steadily losing wickets the Demons only hope of winning rested on the shoulders of former Tigers captain Dan Marsh & the big hitting John Dakin, just as Marsh started to look comfortable & keen for a big score a Dwayne Bravo like caught & bowled from the returning Nathan “Diesel” Matthews saw the back of Marsh.
Dakin was bowled by what can only be described as a 140km ripping off break from Butterworth that swung around his legs after pitching & taking his leg stump, the wickets again started to fall rapidly but a statue with a bat in hand Sean Clingeleffer & number 11 Rhys Holmes stalled the Magpies for over an hour before Holmes was rapt on the foot by Butterworth giving him career best figures of 6-22 from 15.3 overs & securing a dream start for the Pies with a 284 run victory.
Next week sees the Magpies host Kingborough at KGV in our first limited over clash, will we see Rob finally bring up the elusive first century?
Watch this space for next weeks match report.
Go Pies.
By Nathan Butterworth
