CAMERON TAYLOR swaps his cricket bat for a pen in his Melbourne Country Week tour diary recapping the Bendigo District Cricket Association’s recent carnival.
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DAY 1 - MONDAY
After a long build-up and plenty of preparation we’ve finally made it to our first game of Melbourne Country Week.
We have a strong squad and everyone seems to be responding well to first-time coach Matt Pinniger.
Our first game was at Windy Hill where we took on Murray Valley.
Monday has always been a tough day for us and Murray Valley have beaten us our previous few meetings. With this in mind we were keen to get our campaign off to a good start.
The Wiz (captain Linton Jacobs) won the toss and we were having a bat.
Gunny (Ben Gunn) and debutant Steppo (Brayden Stepien) got us off to a flyer, batting aggressively and taking it to the bowlers.
We probably had an opportunity to really blow them away, but fell into a bit of a hole losing three quick wickets.
We set about a rebuild and some good tight bowling meant we were going to need a strong final 10 overs to post a competitive score.
Bowlesy (Gavin Bowles) was terrific, pacing his innings well to ensure we had a good total, if not quite what we were hoping for.
The wise head of Burnsy (Adam Burns) was at its best again and he got us off to a great start with the ball.
A couple of excellent catches and a great fielding performance by the team set the standard for the week.
The rest of the bowling cartel, Smooch (Liam Smith) in particular, followed on from Burnsy’s great start and we maintained a strong position throughout the run chase.
We managed a 50 run win and gained some valuable momentum for the week.
The night brought about dinner on Lygon Street and one of the more memorable efforts by high performance manager Ronny Poulter.
Dinner also brought about an emotional moment for our skipper when he found out we were at the only restaurant in all of Carlton that didn’t serve pizza.
Bendigo 6-206 & 2-6 d Murray Valley 150.
DAY 2 - TUESDAY
After a good win on the first day, we were keen to get under way on day two against Traralgon.
We had an early start with our morning walk around Princes Park to get ready for the day.
After having our fill at the hotel buffet breakfast we hit the road for Werribee.
A few wrong turns and some grinding of the gears and Noonie (Tony Ryan) had us at the ground only 20 minutes late.
The Wiz won the toss again and we were batting first.
Gunny had a nervous start trying to get through his innings without any dashes to the toilet after a couple of dodgy oysters from the night before.
Some hard hitting once again from our openers and we had ourselves a good foundation for a big innings.
In similar style to the first day, we lost our way a bit through the middle period and lost a few wickets at bad times to slow the run rate down.
Some good finishing from the lower order ensured we had another defendable total on the board.
The bowling started in typical fashion with Burnsy taking an early wicket.
A good partnership for the second wicket though had Traralgon in a strong position.
We picked up another couple of wickets, but the run rate was still on track and we were in for a fight.
Enter the ultimate fighter in Rooey (Ben DeAraugo) and a spell of bowling that turned the game our way.
Somehow the big fella still manages to surprise me with the quality he can produce at important times.
We managed to get right on top and even bowl them out with four overs to spare.
This meant we were back out to bat and looking for some quick runs to improve our points for the week.
A flurry of sixes from Big Pappi (Adrian Pappin), spurred on by some captain-offered incentives helped us on our way to 67 off our four extra overs.
After the game we headed back to the hotel for a swim, some recovery and our usual debrief and fines.
Bendigo 8-220 & 2-67 d Traralgon 174.
DAY 3 - WEDNESDAY
Day three arrived and we were taking some good form into the game against Bairnsdale.
The bus trip out to Melton was again one of poor navigation and plenty of grinding through the gears.
We did, however, manage to arrive at the ground before the start of play and were ready to roll.
Wiz won the toss again and this time we were having a bowl. It was more of the same from the bowling cartel and it wasn’t long before we were in a strong position.
Wickets fell regularly and the bowling was tight to enable us to bowl them out for 99 in 40 overs, leaving us 60 to bat.
We lost an early wicket in the chase, but it wasn’t until we were level that the next wicket fell.
Once we had won the game it was time to up the scoring rate on a difficult wicket.
The batters through the middle order did a terrific job of upping the run rate and supporting Gunny in his monster innings.
The coach put it to the side that someone in the top order needed to make 100 this week and Gunny made a ripper.
With a little help from a Sammy J (Sam Johnston) cameo and his broom, we managed to finish with a valuable 249 runs on the board to keep us in a strong position for the week.
After the game we headed to Lygon Street again for dinner. Much to the skipper’s pleasure there was plenty of pizza on the menu this time and the tears were avoided.
After a big feed and the revelation that Noonie was terrified of clowns, it was back to the room to call it a night.
We packed our gear ready to check out, but all hoping we’d be checking back in tomorrow night.
Bendigo 6-249 d Bairnsdale 99.
DAY 4 - THURSDAY
Day four was a huge day for us. We knew going into the day that a win would get us a spot in the final.
We had our usual start to the day, but this time jumped on the bus a little earlier to accommodate the daily navigation issues.
Fortunately, we arrived on time to the ground and were ready to take on our Purple-capped nemesis from Mornington.
Wiz lost the toss this time, but we were sent in to bat on a good wicket anyway.
The boys at the top got us off to a flyer once again and this time they looked like they might not let up.
Young Steppo was showing he was improving everyday and Gunny was fully loaded (#gunpun), continuing on from yesterday.
We finished up with 280 on the board and another brilliant 100 from Gunny.
We had a great score on the board, but we needed to bowl well on a good wicket to get the win.
Mornington got off to a great start, but once we took the first wicket we were able to put the pressure on.
The bowling performance was again terrific and the highlight was Burnsy picking up his 100th Country Week wicket.
It was certainly a privilege to be out on the field when he took the wicket. An amazing achievement.
From then on we managed to take regular wickets and walked away with the win.
Tonight we had a change of hotel and did our usual recovery.
Tomorrow we head to the big dance to take on Sale-Maffra. Hopefully, we can keep doing the things we’ve done well and win.
Bendigo 8-280 d Mornington Peninsula 179.
DAY 5 - FRIDAY
We’ve made it into the final and we’re excited for a big day ahead.
A bit of a different morning though as we were staying at a new venue just down the road from the Albert Ground.
Walking to the ground unsettled Smooch as he was unable to listen to his favourite Taylor Swift song “Style” to properly prepare for the game.
Every year seems to bring about somebody’s guilty pleasure song that we must tolerate for the week.
It was fantastic to see all the supporters from Bendigo who had made the trip down the Calder to get behind us.
We were keen to keep our winning form going and do our home town proud.
Unfortunately, we lost the toss and were bowling first, but the wicket looked magnificent and it wasn’t going to change much throughout the day.
Sale-Maffra had a strong side and we bowled well to keep them to 250.
Sadly, our run-chase fell 12 runs short and it was a disappointing end to our week.
It’s certainly hard for a group of players who are all so competitive to stomach any loss, so it was hard to be positive about our efforts.
But I think it is a week we will all be proud of once we have a chance to look back at it and hopefully, that hurt can help us to go another step next year.
Overall, it ended as an almost successful week with some highlights from everybody.
As always we were very lucky to have the support crew looking after us and it was a great effort by first time coach Matt Pinniger to take us to the final. Bring on Country Week 2016!
Bendigo 8-237 lt Sale-Maffra 249.
