I had a rather interesting saturday...

[Hawk]

I will try not to bore you, but I thought that those who enjoy cricket (and maybe one or two of you who actually know me) might like to hear my story.

Saturday the 19th of March is a date that I will remember forever. I went to my God-daughter's third birthday party in the morning and had plenty of sugar and birthday cake. Great fun. I did however have to leave early because I had to play cricket that afternoon. It was the third and final day of our Grand Final, and after we made 68 & 109 the previous weekend, with the opposition making 62 and 0/12...it is fair to say the match was in an interesting position.

They needed 116 runs total in their final innings, we needed 10 wickets.

They were 0/40 at one stage, and were eventually 5/90. Obviously looking as though they were in a strong position. Needing only 25 runs, with 5 wickets in hand, with plenty of overs to go. Fair to assume they could simply cruise from there.

Then my captain told me he was making a bowling change and I would be bowling the next over. I am a medium pace bowler who gets a reasonable amount of outswing...for those who don't know.

Anyway, I ran in to bowl and what do you know, because of my slow-ish pace the batsman tried to attack me...except he proceeded to get an edge and out flew his off-stump. Beauty...I got a wicket first ball in a Grand Final. That was a nice feeling. Next ball I proceeded to knock the batsman's middle stump out of the ground. Beauty...on a roll and on a hat-trick in a Grand Final. I unfortunately missed out on my hat-trick, but made up for it by getting my third wicket in four balls next ball when the batsman hit the ball in the air straight to point.

So after being 5/90....they were then 8/90. Eek. We were starting to feel a bit happier as a team. We ended up getting them out for 95, and I played in a premiership in my first year at Riverside Cricket Club in Melbourne. I also ended up with figures of 4.1 overs, 3 Maidens, 4 Wickets for 3 Runs.

After celebrating for a while I went to my Sister's house for a family get-together to celebrate my Brother's 26th birthday...needless to say I didn't stay too long so that I could get back to the cricket club and drink.

To top it all off though, I got the biggest surprise of my life when I won the club raffle that night and won $1000.

I am not going to forget this weekend any time soon.

Cheers,
Shawn