ON FIRE: Ulladulla’s Peter King bowls non-stop throughout Nowra’s innings to claim seven wickets. Photo: ULLADULLA TIMES
ULLADULLA’s Peter King produced a sensational performance with the ball against competition leaders Nowra at Nowra Showground, putting the home side’s top order onto the back foot from his very first over to claim seven wickets.
King bowled 24 consecutive overs to cut a swathe through Nowra’s batting line up and help dismiss the home side for just 124 runs in the 49th over.
King’s unbroken run included nine maidens and dismissed some of the strongest batmen in the competition, including Sam Watts, Rohan Hutchison, Daniel Bryant, Ben Lahene and Michael Coulter.
Ulladulla’s first grade captain Mark Jackson described King’s performance as one of the best he has witnessed.
“It’s certainly the best display of swing bowling I have ever seen and probably the best all round,” Jackson said.
“King can swing the ball both ways, and on the weekend the batsmen had no idea which way the ball was going to come from.”
Jackson said the decision to let King bowl throughout the whole inning without a break was an easy one to make.
“While he was taking wickets and on a roll I wasn’t going to take him off,” he said.
“He’s a fantastic young player and it’s great to be able to play him in a two day match where there is no restriction on the number of overs he can bowl.”
King finished the inning with figures of 7/42, one better than his previous best.
“I claimed six in a single innings when I was playing juniors, but this one’s a bit more special being first grade,” King said looking back on his achievement.
“Taking Coulter’s wicket was the most satisfying; he’s such a highly regarded batsman so to bowl him for a duck was pretty special.”
In reply Ulladulla posted 2/48 from the 26 overs they faced before stumps. They will start day two of the match on Saturday afternoon in a strong position to take first inning points.
Crapp stars for Berry again
Berry’s David Crapp may find himself batting further up the order if he continues to produce similar results to those posted on the weekend.
After scoring a quickfire 71 in Friday night’s Kiteley’s Roofing Twenty20 semi-final, Crapp again swung
the bat against the North Nowra – Cambewarra bowlers to post 67 runs that included five boundaries and two sixes. Crapp’s performance helped build Berry’s first inning total to 8/278 (dec) after 61 overs. Opening batsman Kerry Penfold continued his good form with 63 while Ty Cherry (33) and
Tom Gibbs (24) put a real wag in the Berry tail.
Best for Norths was Liam O’Brien with 4/61 from 18 overs, and Hugh Gillen, 2/40 from seven overs.
In reply Norths faced just 12 overs to finish day one at 1/38 after Hugh Gillen was caught by Chris McCarron off the bowling of Ty Cherry for just nine runs.
The Matthews and Muggleton show
Bomaderry has found itself locked into a close tussle with Shoalhaven Ex-Servicemen at Hayden Drexel Oval after the home side managed to dig itself out of a hole caused by a top order batting collapse.
Once again the Bomaderry duo of Muggleton and Matthews terrorised the opposition. The pair had ex-Servos at 2/0, with a wicket apiece, and then 4/10 before Jason Bell was given the opportunity to take a wicket, bringing the scoreboard to 5/27.
George Dickie (34) and Matt Ganderton (42) helped put some respectability into the Ex-Servos score sheet before the team was dismissed in the 39th over for 121.
Five of the six Bomaderry bowlers shared in the wickets with John Muggleton the best with 3/37 from eight overs.
In reply Bomaderry also got off to a patchy start when Brady Spelta and Lain Beckett had Bomaderry at 2/4. Jordan Matthews looked settled on 29 until he was forced to retire.
At stumps Bomaderry were 5/79, still 52 runs short of first innings points. Lain Beckett leads the bowling with 3/35.