Cricket Report

 2014 Byrnes Shield Cricket

The Open Boys cricket team went within an ace of making it back to back premierships in the prestigious CWWHSSA Byrnes Shield cricket competition going down to rivals TRAC (The Riverina Anglican College) in the grand final.

Mater Dei commenced their title defence with a victory against Wagga Wagga High School. They won the toss and batted scoring 5/132. Ayden Hill took 2/28. Despite losing early wickets we had a superior run rate throughout and with 5 overs remaining we required 18 to win. Losing Ayden Hill for a very well compiled 61 with the score on 116 created a little nervousness, however, we managed to get the win with a ball to spare. Liam Dedini and Tom Byrnes made valuable contributions scoring 18 and 13 respectively. In our next pool game we scored a convincing win over Kooringal High School. Batting first after winning the toss, Kooringal mustered 6/110 from their 20 overs. Stuart Carey and McGregor Hanigan both took 2/17 and Elliot Himmelberg bowled well without taking a wicket. Mater Dei attacked from the beginning. The early loss of Tom Byrnes saw Ayden Hill join Brayden Ambler and together these two added 64 runs for the second wicket. Brayden finished with 35 and Ayden went on to score an unbeaten 53 to ensure victory and a place in the semi-finals against Kildare Catholic College.

The semi-finals were postponed due to wet weather and were played the following Monday. Kildare batted first after being sent in and posted a score of 7/100 against some good steady bowling from Nicholas McCormack (2/9), Elliot Himmelberg (2/12) and Stuart Carey (2/26). Our players started cautiously and only managed 6 runs off the first 4 overs. Tom Byrnes (12) and Brayden Ambler scored at will, adding 65 for the first wicket. Ayden Hill joined Brayden and they slaughtered the attack. Brayden hit 6 sixes and 5 fours in his impressive score of 75 not out while Ayden hit 2 sixes and 2 fours in his 23 not out. Mater Dei ran out winners by 14 runs with 3 overs to spare.

The Grand Final was a repeat of last year’s clash between TRAC and Mater Dei. Confident about chasing down a total in the final, Mater Dei began well with some tight bowling which resulted in only 5 runs off the first 4 overs. TRAC steadily worked their way back into the game aided by a dropped catch and some average fielding. Their 20 overs realized a score of 6/118. Elliot Himmelberg bowled very well to finish with 3/19 from his 4 overs. Mater Dei’s innings started steadily and Brayden and Tom added 32 runs for the first wicket. In fading light Mater Dei suffered a batting collapse from which they did not recover. Brayden, Tom and Ayden fell cheaply and at 4/36 we were in trouble. A great knock from Elliot Himmelberg who made a quickfire 33 gave us hope, however, the required run rate of more than 10 an over was too great and we were eventually all dismissed for 91.

Special thanks to all the boys: namely Tom Byrnes (Co-Captian), Ayden Hill (Co-Captain), Brayden Ambler, McGregor Hanigan, Liam Dedini, Matthew Geppert, Elliot Himmelberg, Lachlan Flagg, Stuart Carey, Nicholas McCormack, Matthew Anderson, Brady Morton, Michael Whiting, Samuel Byrnes and Harrison Himmelberg  for their commitment and dedication to the competition. Your interest and enthusiasm was appreciated. Special thanks to Mr Buik for his assistance as Co-Coach and Manager of the team.

Finally, on behalf of the College I would like to sincerely thank Mrs Barbara Hill for her contribution to cricket over the past 8 years. She has travelled far and wide to score for Berg and Downie Shield competitions; as well as attending local Byrnes Shield games. Her  care and generosity with food, drinks and cakes which she supplied the boys with over the years was very popular and really appreciated. Thank you Barb.

 Mr John Preston 

Co-Coach and Manager