Australian Cricket Tour 2009
On the 8th of April 23 students, 4 parents, 1
daughter and 2 teachers, myself and Mr Tony
Simons, travelled by school Mini vans to
Auckland in preparation for an early morning
flight to Sydney. Once in Sydney the next 3
and a half days were spent seeing the many sights. Some of the highlights for
the boys were the day spent in Manly, and the Paddy markets.
On Sunday 12 April the group flew from Sydney direct to the Gold Coast where we were to spend the following
8 days. During the time spent on the Gold Coast the boys played a number of local teams and also visited
theme parks and took part in a surf lesson.
The first game played was the 2nd’s/junior team vs. the Burleigh under 15’s. We batted first and scored 192
from 35 overs. Jayden Wiggins top scored with 48. In reply Burleigh could only manage 156, with Luke Bradley
3-34. A win to Hastings by 36 runs. Unfortunately the senior sides scheduled game for this day was cancelled
due to poor ground conditions.
The next game played was also by the junior team who this time played a Gold Coast invitational rep side.
Hastings won the toss and elected to bowl, a good choice which saw us bowl the Gold Coast rep team out for
116. Luke Bradley once again featured with the ball with figures of 3 – 23, Jayden Wiggins 3 – 32 and Vincent
Miller 2 – 20. In reply, however, we could only manage 96 all out. Cameron Gichard was the only one to
feature with the bat, scoring 40.
The following day our senior side played the Gold Coast under 17 rep side which included 3 Queensland under
17 players. We batted first, scoring a well compiled 177. Jarrod Laban batted very well scoring 77 and was well
supported by Ryan Clare on 57. In reply Gold Coast was bowled out for 154. A very good win to us by 33 runs.
On the 20th April we packed up all our stuff and hit the road, travelling to the Sunshine Coast. On the way we
stopped at Steve Irwin’s Australian Zoo, where we all had the opportunity to hold a snake and see the crocs
close up. Once in the Sunshine Coast the boys played 4 games of cricket in great weather and on terrific
grounds.
Game 1 on the Sunshine Coast was against Maroochydore High School 2nd X1, for whom we fielded our 2nd
side. We once again won the toss and elected to bowl first. Another great bowling performance saw
Maroochydore bowled out for 89, Jarod Hughes doing most of the damage with 3 – 6. In reply we cruised to
victory in the 29th over for the loss of only 2 wickets. Because the game was over so quickly we decided to have
a 10 over per side game which our boys also won. On the same day our 1st team played against Maroochydore
High School 1st X1. We batted first, scoring 197, Jarrod Laban once again top scoring with 94 and Ryan Jones
44. In reply Maroochydore got the runs with 3 wickets to spare.
The next game on the Sunshine Coast was the 2 nd team vs. Sunshine Coast Grammar 2nd X1. This was a very
tight fought match with the local team winning with just 6 balls to spare. A highlight from this match was a solid
batting display from Alex Meade who scored 27. On the same day our 1st team came up against a Sunshine
Coast invitational XI. They batted first and scored 190 all out. In reply we were also bowled out for 178, Jarrod
Laban once again scored 50, Ryan Clare 35, Luke Bradley 38, so a loss by 22 runs.
Overall I feel the boys played well whilst in Australia, with some outstanding performances from the likes of
Jarrod Laban and Jarod Hughes who consistently did well with the ball. He bowled 31 overs in total on tour and
went for only 27 runs and took 4 wickets.
.