EIGHT OF THE BEST
Career-best figures guides Wests to Harding-Madsen win
CRICKET: Reigning TCI A-grade champions Western Districts made a winning start to their Harding-Madsen Shield campaign.
In the process we witnessed one of the finest spells of bowling in recent Toowoomba cricket history.
Ipswich-based visitors Northsiders were sent in to bat at Captain Cook Reserve, where they were met with a tirade from opening quick Shaun McCarthy.
The paceman took the first five wickets to have the visitors reeling at 5/22, before adding another three to leave them in a world of bother at 9/38.
An incredible 10th-wicket partnership of 94 runs gave Northsiders a total to defend at 132.
Wests weren’t in any danger throughout the chase, losing just two wickets to chase down the total with 12 overs to spare.
The damage was done with the ball, with McCarthy finishing with figures of 8/16 from his 10 overs.
“It’s not very often you get to eight wickets, and they’re career-best figures for me,” McCarthy said.
“I’m pretty happy with that and it will be very memorable.
“It was just one of those days. Some days you can bowl really well and not take wickets, while on others they seem to fall for you.”
With a number of new faces in the side, McCarthy praised the way they were able to cohesively start the season.
“Losing Sam (Neale) was always going to be tough,” he said.
“We’ve picked up Regan Hoger from Gatton who will slot into the team quite well. He’ll open the bowling and bat in the middle order.
“Matt Spanner played his first Agrade game and will be a good asset with the bat.
“We’ve got three or four guys under 18. To bring them in surrounded by guys like Luke Neale, Brian (May), Chris Gillam and Cam Brimblecome, they can learn a lot.”
Metropolitan-Easts made a winning start to its HM Shield defence, edging out Northern-Brothers Diggers by five runs.
Solid knocks from Pieter van der Kooij (54 runs), Kyle Tonkin (43*) and Daniel Pollock helped the Trojans reach 8/227.
A strong start from Louis Reed (73), as well as 40 from Blake Anderson had
Diggers in the hunt, but ultimately they fell short at 9/222.
Tonkin and van der Kooij backed up their efforts with the bat, with both taking three wickets.
Highfields-Railways got off to a winning start with a 75-run defeat of Southern Districts.
Jacob Porter (60), Martin Kelly (55) and Kurtley Nielsen (58*) helped the Bulldogs to 4/223, with Tom Hughes (2/11 from 8 overs) restricting the Magies to 148.
Cameron Moodie provided some resistance for Souths with 41 runs.
University was downed by 73 runs by Laidley, with Andrew Johnston’s 4/33 a highlight.