Welcome back to all the Magpie supporters and players to yet another season of Magpie Reports and Ramblings. Despite the loss of 17 players in the off season we have managed to put together yet again four strong sides for this season thanks to the arrival of a small group of ex-convicts from the UK and the debut seasons for a group of talented CJCC players. Unfortunately though it was a disappointing start to the season for us as we lost ¾ games to Cardiff-Boolaroo. With the 2nds being the only winners they headline the report for this week.
Cardiff won the toss and batted first at Kahibah Oval where club debutants Rusty Green (4-0-2-16) and Nick Chapman (7-0-2-23) performed with the ball. They had economical support from Nick and Dan Standing with figures of 1-17 off 8 and 0-13 off 7 respectively and restricted Cardiff to 7-146 off their 40 overs. The highlight of the Magpie response was the return of Jacko Mace with an aggressive 60 and his p’ship of 91 with Lee Davies (30) took them from a precarious 3-13 to a match winning position. Rusty completed a good all round performance with a quickfire 15 off 13 to get the ‘Pies home with 7 balls to spare.

The 1sts also lost the toss at the impressive new home of Cardiff-Boolaroo: the Pasterfield Sports Complex. Once again we had to contend with the consistently impressive Rahul Bakshi whose 75 formed the bulk of Cardiff’s 146 in 37.3 overs. The encouraging sign for the ‘Pies was the bowling performance of Isaac who looks set to fill the gap left by the departure of Chilli to Gordon. His final figures of 8-1-4-28 were highlighted by his consistent line and length and he will be play a big part in our 1st Grade season. He received able support from Rory (2-33) and Jedi (2-13). In response despite five batsman getting starts we lost wickets regularly and eventually fell short by 20 runs. Andy Saville (29) showed that he is well up to 1st Grade standard and should be fixture in the middle order this season.

At Cardiff No 1 we won our only toss of the day but as Dave didn’t want to ruin the pattern he asked Cardiff to bat and they set the 3rds an imposing 184 for victory. For the Magpies Stando took up where he left last season returning figures of 8-3-2-27 and the debuting UK player Nate Cyrus showed he will be a handy addition returning 8-2-1-28. In reply the lads fell just 8 runs short with Cooper Sutton showing good early season form with 65 incl 12 x 4’s and his stand of 75 with Ben Standing (22) gave them a shot at a win but to no avail as they finished on 8-175.

The 4’s also had a bowl first at the picturesque Charlestown Oval a sparkling tribute to the toils of curator Ian Baggs. They ran into an experienced Cardiff line up which posted a challenging 6-230 off their 40. Joah Bradley, another of our UK players, returned the best figures of 6-0-2-32 with good all round support from the consistent Conrad Watson (2-43). Conrad’s 33 then providing the main contribution to Charlestown’s reply of 135. With five juniors making their grade debut the highlight was a p’ship of 42 between Riley Petrie (28) and Kade Sutton (13).