The West Coast Rollers concluded their Golden Oldies Festival with a comfortable four-wicket win against the Queensland Cricket Club on Friday afternoon.
Having bounced back from a hangover-inspired opening defeat to Griffith University on Monday by beating Trinity Tigers on Wednesday, we were looking for a perfect end to an amazing week.
It didn’t start that well though. Batting first on a lively wicket, the Aussies got off to a fine start through John Fitzgerald and Larrescy, putting on 27 for the first wicket before Claude Louw (8-2-23-1) struck.
That was as good as it got though, with Fitzgerald and former first-class player Mark Gaskell then putting on 61 for the second wicket, taking the score to 88/1 after 20 overs.
But Gaskell’s stumping off Jacques Laubscher, along with Fitzgerald’s retirement, saw the last nine wickets fall for just 42 runs, with Jacques Laubscher the star of the show with 8-0-20-4.
So not the biggest target, but then the Rollers have been known to bottle the easier ones.
And that was certainly on the cards early on as Hannes Carlson (0), Andrew Young (9), Ryan Cooper (12) and George Kamfer (5) back in the hut with just 35 runs on the board.
But the reliable Darren McGurk (24) and Mark Haselau (15) got us back on track, before Neville Cooper (30) and Jacques Laubscher (16 not out) got us over the line with four wickets and six overs to spare.
Once again a great deal of fun was had with our Australian visitors, with the festivities continuing the following evening at the Golden Olden Gala Dinner, where the Rollers were once again the last people to leave.
So an excellent week of cricket and camaraderie, lots of new friends made, and some battered Rollers bodies and livers.
A big thank you to all involved, and a special mention to team manager Carmen Lottering for a some excellent work throughout the week, and of course to chairman Dave Hillman for his tireless work behind the scenes to make this tournament a reality for the Rollers.