Saturday Sundries | C-grade food calamity and collapses galore in the weekend’s lower grade cricket

From lone soldiers to forgotten lunches and a mystery star batter, there was no shortage of eye-popping moments upon gazing at the weekend’s lower grade scorecards.

News photographer Rechelle Zammit was behind the lens as Karramomus stormed past Tatura in the Clyde Young Shield.

Hunger pains

Undera and Central Park-St Brendan’s went on a merry tour of the region on Saturday before a ball was bowled in their round three Jim McGregor Shield C-grade clash.

Despite Play HQ listing the game as set to take place at Undera Park Recreation Reserve, the Lions made the trip to Central Park Recreation Reserve after some consultation with an association representative during the week and were greeted by a pair of confused B-grade outfits — the Tigers and visiting Shepparton United.

This was at the exact time that four car loads of Central Park C-graders were pulling into a suspiciously quiet — and very green — Undera Park.

From there, the scramble to find a suitable hard wicket alternative led the sides to Victory Park, Kialla Reserve #2 and – eventually – McGregor Oval out the back of Princess Park.

The Lions eventually claimed an eight-wicket victory over the Tigers, after Russell Sheriff’s men rolled Tyler Maher’s Central Park-St Brendan’s side for 114.

The worst part of the mix-up?

Neither side had afternoon tea prepared as both believed they were taking part in an away match.

Luckily the entire C-grade competition has this weekend off to regroup – and check the online fixture ahead of round four.

Ducks and drakes

At Numurkah Showgrounds on Saturday afternoon, you could say Northerners' B-grade side got off to a decent start.

Northerners had their Numurkah opponents on their knees after the score sat on 4-0 after 3.2 overs.

Josh Sidebottom got the ball rolling for the away side claiming James Pruden for a duck with the second ball of the match.

Sidebottom then backed up his efforts in his second over by bowling Tyson Woods for a duck and trapping Numurkah captain Jahlan Lau for another duck two balls later.

By the time Sidebottom (5-10 off nine overs) had secured his fifth wicket, the Blues were on 6-35 and would eventually be bowled out for 87 — three out of Numurkah’s 11 batters made runs.

However, the famous cricketing adage, “You can’t judge a pitch until both sides have batted on it”, has never been more true as Numurkah came out of the sheds for the second innings and rolled Northerners for 62 to claim an entertaining victory.

Maddox no mates

Chasing 214 in the S J Perry Shield is a tall order for any side, but one Shepparton Youth Club United batter seemed up to the task.

Unfortunately for opener Maddox Widmer, none of his teammates could stay in with him for long enough as the wickets tumbled for United.

Widmer scored an impressive 39 runs before being bowled by Cayden Rogerson (5-21 from eight overs), but his efforts with the bat went in vain as United was bowled for 75, with the next highest run scorer being extras with 16.

Does he wear a balaclava?

Private Player has been in good form across the grades to start the 2024-25 season.

Player struck a classy 105* from 112 balls for Central Park-St Brendan’s against SYCU in the Clyde Young Shield.

The gun mystery batter has featured in three innings this season and is yet to lose their wicket, with scores of 105*, 10* and 24*.

A quick look at the FrogBox vision shows someone closely resembling B-grade premiership Tiger Michael Dann wielding the willow.