Sport
27 March, 2023
Back-to-back Brook in classic A reserve finale
A dramatic A reserve grand final full of twists and turns was ultimately resolved in favour of Carisbrook, who recorded back-to-back premierships with a 12-run victory over Colts Phelans. Brook won the toss and decided to bat first, backing their...
A dramatic A reserve grand final full of twists and turns was ultimately resolved in favour of Carisbrook, who recorded back-to-back premierships with a 12-run victory over Colts Phelans.
Brook won the toss and decided to bat first, backing their top order which had dominated for most of the season.
But Colts had other ideas, and were inspired from the opening ball.
Daniel McGregor took the opening wicket of the game with the score on three, luring Cole Harris into playing a shot straight to Patrick Pritchard.
Soon after, Ethan Chaplin would come on and take the second wicket of the game, with William Coutts hitting a ball straight to Kane Shepherd.
Martin Mark and Dean Nalder provided some resistance, putting on a 23-run stand, but Chaplin would strike with two quick wickets, taking Nalder’s and Jarryd Coghlan’s wicket.
When Mark was bowled by Beau Govan, Carisbrook were in trouble at 5/47.
An important 31-run stand between Leigh Koop and Caleb Cluff was critical for Carisbrook, as they were able to get the score to 78 before Cluff was trapped in front for LBW by McGregor.
Koop was the next wicket to fall, falling similarly to Cluff, leaving Carisbrook at 7/85.
Nick Broad provided some quick runs to allow Carisbrook to creep towards 100, and an important 13-run partnership between Brian Knight and Richard Ough got the score above 100, with Brook eventually bowled out for 108 with an over to spare.
Chaplin led the way with the ball, taking 3/15, while McGregor took 3/16.
In response, Carisbrook were desperate to get early wickets to stay in the game.
Luckily enough, they succeeded, with Harris proving to be the man for the job in the early stages.
He lured Peter Egan into edging a ball straight to Coutts for five, before Pritchard and Forde were his next victims for five and zero respectively.
Sebastian Borg was proving to be difficult to get out in the early stages as he was playing a critical anchor role, which helped Colts get to 3/47.
But it was Carisbrook bringing on Adam which changed the complexion of the game.
Adam clean-bowled Borg on 30, before he was on a hat trick after claiming the wicket of Grant Rogers, trapping him in front for LBW.
While just missing out on the hat trick, Adam’s exploits sparked his teammates into action.
First, Koop caught Dean Walker off his own bowling, before Adam struck again, with Mark taking a sharp catch at slip to remove Shepherd.
It left Colts in desperate trouble at 7/59, but Baker and McGregor were determined to steady the ship.
Baker was scoring runs consistently, but wickets were still falling around him.
McGregor was next to go with Harris taking a catch off Nalder’s bowling, before a dramatic Koop over saw him drop an easy chance from Chaplin, before bowling him two balls later.
Baker and Harrison Kurzke put on 18 runs in a dramatic finish, but Baker was last to fall, hitting a shot straight to Coghlan to finish off the game, with Brook taking a dramatic 12-run victory.
Coghlan said it was unbelievable to think that he was a back-to-back premiership captain with Carisbrook.
“It feels ridiculous. I never saw it coming. I took over the captaincy six or seven years ago now, and I didn’t imagine one premiership, let alone going back-to-back. It’s a miracle that we got it done,” he said.
“We got off to a bit of a rocky start, losing our first game and we weren’t happy with our start. We bounced back from there. The pressure Colts put on us throughout the season was insane, seeing us on top, then they were on top and we were leapfrogging one another on the ladder until we claimed top spot on the ladder. Colts have been a really good team all season — they have been a great team to play against.”
Coghlan praised his bowling attack for stepping up when they needed to at the most critical juncture of the season, while also paying tribute to the tail who provided key runs.
“Our top order struggled a little bit today, but our tail stood up and put on some precious runs for us which made the difference,” he said.
“Essentially, our bowlers stepped up. We knew we had struggled with the bat. But we knew how we needed to bowl while keeping the pressure on, and we had the belief to do it. We felt that 108 could be defendable and our bowlers proved it."
That included best on ground Adam, who was crucial in changing the course of the game in Carisbrook’s favour.
“James Adam is a very handy contributor. When he came on, we needed something to change, just to slow their run rate down and search for wickets. James is a left-arm orthodox spinner, and batsmen struggle with him thanks to his height,” Coghlan said.
Coghlan revealed that while a third A reserve premiership in succession would be nice, plans are underway for Carisbrook to get an A grade team together for the 2023/24 season.
“A third A reserve premiership would be the icing on the cake, but it will be a tough task — we’ll be pushing to get an A grade side in next year, but we have some talented juniors coming in. We’re hopeful we can still stay up there and show what Carisbrook can do,” he said.
“A grade is where we’ve been pushing to get back to for about five years, but we just haven’t had the players around and no juniors, which really hurt our club. But with juniors coming through now, we can really push to get back into A grade, and a lot of the boys are happy to get it up and running.”
