VDCA round-up

Victoria and District Cricket Association

The Victoria and District Cricket (VDCA) 2006 regular season comprised two pools of five teams, arranged in equal strength groups. Every team played other teams in its group twice and then once against the teams in the other group. This meant a maximum of 13 league games. Colts came top of Pool A, followed by Incogs. In Pool B Albion 1 finished top, followed by Cowichan.

The season season finished with playoff games between the top two teams from each Pool in the regular season. The play-offs were one-game semi-finals and a one game final. The top team in each pool played the second placed team from the other pool.

In one semi-final, Cowichan bowled out Colts for 89. Tanzil Rehman, with 43 runs, provided the main resistance to Cowichan’s Luke Watson who took 6 wickets for 33 runs. Rick Fletcher made 35 not out and Steve Jesperson 25 runs as Cowichan reached 90 runs for the loss of 3 wickets, to win by 7 wickets.

Incogs beat Albion I in the other semi-final which was also low scoring. Albion was all out for 93. K. Cheema 21 provided the main resistance to the highly effective bowling of Adam Price (3 for 16), Jim Wenman (3 for 20) and Mark Ely (3 for 36). Incogs were made to struggle for their runs but had the one man to make a score on the day: David White who made 45 not out. Kulvir Sidhu with 4 for 15 was the pick of the Albion bowlers.

The final was a competitive battle with the bowlers well on top. Cowichan made 102 runs for the loss of 9 wickets in their 45 overs .Dan Ferguson, 18 runs, and Steve Mayall, 16 runs, were the leading scorers. Adam Price (Incogs) took 3 wickets for 36 runs and Roger Zwicky 2 for 12. Price then made the highest individual score of the day, 27 runs as Incogs reached their winning target in 28 overs. Matt Wenman was 17 not out in Incogs total of 104 runs for 5 wickets. Luke Watson (Cowichan) had to settle for 2 wickets for 27 runs. I am told that “Incogs were good value for their win”, which comes from Howard Martin whose affiliation is with Cowichan.

A separate knock-out competition was played, won by Cowichan. They reached the final by beating Carico and Albion 1 beat Metchosin. Sadly, the final was not actually played. Albion 1 defaulted to Cowichan.

Tony Cordle, the former Glamorgan stalwart in the County Championship, is assisting the VDCA with coaching.

A couple of noteworthy achievements have been brought to my attention. Marshall Travis (Alcos) lead the Island’s batting with an average of 85. Steve Jesperson (Cowichan), bowling against Oak Bay, had figures of .9 overs, 3 maidens, 11 runs, 7 wickets. This included two hat-tricks. One came in his fourth over, the other in the sixth. Remarkably five of the six hat-trick victims were bowled. Ah, the values of bowling line and length; easy to say, harder to do.

Eddie Norfolk