THE North Nowra Cambewarra Manildra Group Under 10 Blues played their best game of the year to claim the premiership trophy on Sunday, March 2 at Drexel Park against Ulladulla.
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The Blues lost the toss and were asked to bowl and as the team always bowl first then this was no problem.
The two teams had played each other just once this season and this was during the Christmas holiday period when the Blues only had eight players and were minus three of their guns in Tayla, Jasper and Riley and they went down by 10 runs.
The Blues knew with these players back in the team they would perform much better and that is exactly what happened.
The team started incredibly with wickets falling from the second over and continued until the 10th over where Ulladulla were 10/34, which was effectively 10/14.
This straight bowling and terrific start had the team on the front foot and they stayed there until the finish.
Every player got a wicket except for Erica and Ruby, but both were economical from their two overs.
Captain Tayla Dunn was on a hat-trick at one stage and finished with 2/8 off three overs and her ground fielding was sensational as she had a direct run out off the last ball of the innings.
Little brother Jasper was awesome, clean bowling two batters in claiming 2/5 from three overs of fast bowling, and his fielding was electric.
Marley Arthur was dynamic with 2/7 from three overs and his first over he had 2/0 via super fast full pitched balls that also swung.
Brodie Arkinstall kept wickets early and took a great catch then had a bowl and was on fire with 2/13 from three overs.
Levi Webber bowled his best ever with 1/7 then kept wickets beautifully stopping plenty down both sides of the pitch.
Emily Burinaga (1/7) also bowled her season best with no sundries and every ball was right on the stumps, as were Ella Davidson’s, who claimed 1/6 including a wicket maiden from her first over.
Riley Sims had to bowl to the guns and jagged 1/18 via his inswingers that were often unplayable.
Ulladulla finished with 14/118 to make a net score of 90 and the Blues were confident as they have hit over 100 every game this year.
When Marley and Brodie got off to a flyer it was full steam ahead.
The two lads hit 1/35 from the first five overs with excellent running between wickets and Marley smashed two fours and Brodie some elegant strokes to both sides of the ground.
Levi and Emily were next in and combined for 2/28 in their partnership that had Levi smash 21 that included three memorable boundaries.
One of them was half a metre inside the perimeter that was the shot of the day as he stepped inside the ball and pulled it to square leg, narrowly missing being a six.
Emily ran fast with Levi’s loud calls and she defended well against the quicks that tried to bowl her out.
The next pair of batters, Riley and Jasper, did a good job with a partnership of 5/29 and both lads hit a valuable four that kept the momentum going to have the team only 15 runs behind Ulladulla with 10 overs remaining.
The rain came which halted proceedings for a while and there was only time for five more overs.
In walked Tayla and Ella who combined for 2/20 off just four overs as the Blues passed the target of 90 in the 19th over.
The two girls ran like the wind and had to face the big guns who were bowling fast on a slippery surface.
Ruby and Erica did not get a chance to bat as the game concluded at noon, but they were still padded up ready to go after the game stopped.
The team went wild as they realised what they had done and won.
The parents were equally excited at the result and the heart rates were through the roof during the whole game and were no doubt slow to come down to normal after the game.
The children all trained hard and long through the year and were taught to defend and block the good ball while instructed to smash the wide ball.
This defence saw them lose less wickets in the decider and this will be the most satisfying aspect of the game from the coach’s perspective.
The team lost just two games all season and each week it was smiles all round regardless of the result as the children had a heap of fun playing the game and making new friendships along the way.
Tayla Dunn capped her fine debut year by winning the batting award with 185 runs at an average of 37.
Riley Sims won the bowling trophy with 17 wickets at 7.9 average.
Marley Arthur won the all-rounder award with 288 runs, 12 wickets, 22 stumpings/run outs and five catches. Marley also took out the Foster Emery Shoalhaven 10s Aggregate Trophy and the Shoalhaven all-rounder award.
Ella Davidson and Levi Webber both won the coaches award for their improved play and keen attitudes.
The team thanked Manildra Group for its sponsorship for the season.