Trio of wins in Round 12

ROUND 12

Sunday February 01, 2026

F I R S T X I

OLD SCOTCH 1XI 3/169 (27.4)

def. MACCABI AJAX 167 (39.3)

H. Boreham 74*, M. Sparks 40, N. Sparks 4/22. S. Goodwill 3/33

On Sunday we returned to the Meares and thankfully in slightly cooler conditions this week. With some rain around in the morning, we uncovered the wicket and saw a fairly soft and green surface. However when the coin went up and Maccabi won the toss, we were shocked when they decided to bat themselves. Much to our joy, we happily but the whites on and headed out into the field. N Sparks and Clark take the new ball and continue their strong form at the top of the innings, building a strong partnership between the two of them. Sparks was the pick of the bowlers and was able to pick up an early wicket in his 3rd over and was unlucky to not collect a couple more with Dawbs and Stickers both grassing edges off Sparks, the bowling was tight as we restricted Maccabi to 1/17 in the powerplay.

Tight bowling would continue as Sam Goodwill and Mike Sparks were thrown the ball. It didn’t take long for Stickers to get back to some of his best picking up his first wicket in his 2nd over and another in his 4th, the later dismissing the #1 batsmen in the league with an unplayable delivery taking the top of off stump. With Maccabi 3/50 at drinks, we were in a strong position. However, after drinks Maccabi was able to arrest the moment and begin scoring quickly. During the next 15 overs, we weren’t at our sharpest with Ball in hand and allowed Maccabi to get to 5/150 after 35 overs. We were able to regain moment through the last 5 overs taking 5/17 and giving up just 1 boundary in the final overs. N Sparks would end up collecting another 3 wickets at the death to finish up with 4/22 whilst Clark got the broom out and collected the final 2 wickets.

With the target at 168 and a tricky wicket, this wasn’t going to be the easiest chase. Dawbs and Boz wandered out together and as per usual got off to a flyer until Dawbs was dismissed for a quick 20 in the 3rd over, Wisey would go soon after and all of a sudden we were 2/26. Maccabi were up-and-about and bowling nicely but insert Mike Sparks. No man enjoys putting his head over it and grinding away better than Mick. Boz and Mick would see us to drinks and put together a 94-run partnership with a great mix of composure and elaborate stroke play. As the season as progressed we have been able to watch the rise of Boz and his shot making, with every game he is gaining more confidence and this was on full display. Whether it was the lofted off-drives, the big shots over the fielders on the boundary or his iconic pull-shot, Boz was in the zone and batting beautifully. Mike would be dismissed for a well built 40 straight after drinks and had us 3/120 needing another 48. Boz would continue to anchor the innings and Burchard managed some valuable time at the crease guiding us home without losing another wicket. We would reach the 168 target in the 28th over with Paddy ending on 32* and Boz a brilliant 74*. A sensational innings from Boz and a strong win from the boys has us set up perfectly for the final 3 games of the season. Onto Wesley next weekend at home.

— Will Clark (1XI Captain)

VIEW IMAGE GALLERY

S E C O N D X I

OLD SCOTCH 2XI 6/217 (40)

def. MCC 9/187 (40)

M. Sennitt 49, J. Sparks 44*, A. Callaghan 5/29, T. Hucker 1/13

Round 11 had much anticipation attached to it when the fixture was released for the seconds, with a game at the Albert beckoning. With over 300 runs piled on the day before at the ground, we were promised a batting friendly surface, with the skipper winning the toss and in an off brand manner choosing to bat.

Dethridge and Fish opened up, with Fish choosing to attack the new ball after a shaky start. The boys pondered wether the attacking start was due to the presence of his parents (“you haven’t watched my cricket in 5 years dad why change now” said Fish) or just that he thought it was the best way to go about it on a dying pitch. Out for 19, the decision was made clear, “I couldn’t even see the ball”. Dethridge and Sennitt looked to dig in, seeing off the opening bowlers and moving into the middle overs. Unfortunately 2 quick wickets had us 3/57 and in need of a good partnership. Murphy joined Sennitt at the crease and looked to work hard through until drinks and beyond, progressing the score in a tidy manner. Murphy was dismissed for a well made 37 and Sennitt for 49, but they had provided a nice launch pad for our powerful middle order to attack the back end at 5/131. Loveridge paired with Sparks who struggled initially to get bat on ball, but a brutal innings earlier in the season against Caulfield was always in the back of our minds. Both got going, Loveridge running smartly with Jim who was struggling with the 22 yards so opted to try and take full use of the crisp outfield on the Albert. Loveridge was dismissed for 27 off 26 bringing an exuberant Winneke to the crease after a really nice sleep the night before. Sparks continued to work hard until the end, and we finished 6/217, sparks 44* off 39 and Winneke a run a ball 12. We felt it was a good target to bowl to on a pitch that was slowly dying.

Hucker and Loveridge opened the bowling innings for us, and like clockwork Truck got us off to the ideal start, taking a wicket in his second set. A run out 2 balls later had MCC 2/10 and in a bit of trouble, however a good partnership ensued, with 2 MCC batters absorbing the pressure. Despite that, we always felt we were in the game due to some slower batting by the pair who failed to put the game out of reach. A dropped catch from Winneke prompted umpire Raph to question “how long have you been keeping for”, with the MCC pair refusing to give in. Ben McMahon (0/40) bowled some incredibly tidy sets and was unlucky to not take a few wickets, however the MCC pair were looking ominous. Fish and Callaghan came into the attack for a fresh look at breaking the partnership, and it was Callaghan who got the breakthrough, with a good catch from Loveridge at mid off. From there the game changed. The new bat from MCC was seeing them well, as he’d already faced 100 throws before coming to the crease, and played a crisp lofted drive straight to Detho at long off. The young MCC batsmen on 100* still had some concerns for us, but some smart cricket by Murphy and some confusion from the batsmen had him run out. The floodgates opened from that point, with MCC losing 7/30, with some good bowling from fish (1/34) and Callaghan (5/29) seeing the game out for a 39 run win.

An incredibly good win against the top side puts us in equal first with a finals spot locked up. We look to next week again against MCC to attempt to secure a home final.

— Andrew Callaghan (2XI Captain)

T H I R D X I

OLD SCOTCH 3XI 102 (33.2)

def. by MACCABI AJAX 8/104 (37.1)

N. Bennett 19, C. Warner 15, F. Strong 3/21, O. Sparks 2/13 & 15*

After previously having 2 games washed out without play, we finally managed to get a game against Maccabi Ajax. Playing out at a very lush Albert Park we all struggled before play even began. With F1 works well underway and a pride rally the commute to the ground was very complex Sparks, Warner and Bennett had jumped fences and crawled beneath grandstands to access the ground while the rest completed laps of the circuit looking for the entry point to the ground. Fortunately we had won the toss and were batting, Warner who was expected to bat 4 and Bennett who was expected to bat 6 were the best available batters at 12:30 whilst the rest were still locating the ground and opened the batting.

Warner and Bennett got off to a hot start 0-16 after 2, Warner ran himself out the next over returning for a 2nd after flicking one down to fine leg for a quick 15. Bennett was dismissed 3 overs later snicking off to the keeper after scoring 19. We then had a collapse going from 2-38 to 5-41. Gancey, Normy and Fyfey helped stem the flow with smart shot selection soaking up the pressure yet failing to turn their starts into big totals being dismissed for 9, 7 and 7 respectively. Strongy went out slogging, scoring a quick 12 off 8. Thankfully, Sparksy and Schmidt put on a valuable 10th wicket partnership for 24 runs giving us a total of 102 from 33.2 overs.

Sparks opened the bowling snagging an early wicket with a fantastic LBW dismissal with Charlie Smith steaming into the wind holding down the other end. Sparks managed to catch an edge which was caught behind by Warner and was given NOT OUT! Outrageous! Ollie didn’t let this phase him as he got the other opening batsmen out caught by Prior at a fly slip. Gancey and Strongy managed to tie the batsmen up and slow the run rate with Freds bowling craft and Lachs quick over rates unsettling the opposing batsmen which saw us nab 2 wickets in quick succession. Maccabi Ajax were 4-46 after 16 overs and we knew we had a chance to take the game deep. In Strong’s 2 overs leading into drinks he claimed two more wickets, making them 6-56. Gancey got another in his 2nd over post drinks with a great catch taken by Shearer that was blasted to him at short cover.

Maccabi Ajax then proceeded to steady with a slow run rate the chipped away slowly at the remaining total until Sam Norman claimed their 8th wicket with 12 runs required to win. Chances still came as balls went aerial but they seemed to land just safely short of a fielder and they managed to chase out score after 37.1 overs.

A chaotic game of cricket to say the least yet, the boys should be proud of their efforts to hang in the game.

— Nic Bennett (3XI Captain)

F O U R T H X I

OLD SCOTCH 4XI 7/156 (40)

def. OLD CAMBERWELL 90 (27.4)

M. Griffiths 72, J. Fish 17 & 1/1, J. Ross 3/12, T. Lindholm 3/37

After winning three on the trot and coming up against top-of-the-table Old Camberwell (with finals hopes basically meaning we need to win everything from here), this Sunday on the Melville was a massive one. It was also our first home game since - coincidentally against Old Camberwell - so there was a bit of extra spice in this one.

We won the toss and, with a deep batting lineup this week, made the call to bat first - a decision that paid off immediately with the Melville outfield running like a carpet. Mark Griffiths (72 off 88) made the absolute most of his chances, cracking 11 boundaries and running hard between the wickets alongside Nick Bruce (17). It was a classy opening stand that set the tone early.

The middle overs saw some handy contributions from Howie Japp (welcome back to the side) and Will Hucker (welcome back to cricket), as we went to drinks at 3/95 - collectively our best start with the bat all season. We kept the runs ticking with Sammy Marinakis (11), James Fish (17 – season high, well done Jim), and Josh Richards (4), taking us to 7/144.

Then our heroes from last week, Deep Jhajj (5*) and George Strong (9*), came out and pinched some valuable late runs to push us up to 7/156 off 40 overs, a total we were more than happy to defend.

The intent in the field was clear from ball one — we were ready to go before Old Camberwell even had pads on. Tom Lindholm (3/37) and Jack “The Clinic” Ross (3/12) tore through the top order, bowling eight overs each and leaving Camberwell 6/49 early, with the bonus point suddenly well in play.

From there, George Strong (1/17) and Deep Jhajj (2/16) came on and continued the carnage, having the visitors reeling at 9/78. The final wicket was fittingly taken by our now partnership breakers, James Fish (1/1) and Will Bracegirdle, to bowl Old Camberwell out and seal a massive win.

Today showed exactly how good we can be when we bat the full 40 overs and hunt in the field. Howie Japp and Will Hucker were electric, saving runs every time the ball went near them, and we had seven different catch-takers - with not a single one put down.

We take on Maccabi Ajax next week with a chance to make it five in a row and keep the finals dream very much alive.

— Tom Lindholm (4XI Captain)

Join in the Toyota Good for Cricket Raffle and support the club. Tickets available online now!

Toyota Good for Cricket Raffle

#surroundyourself