All Stars Turn It On in the Senior C Final.

The All-Stars powered to victory over of Suburbs in the Claude Hamilton Cup Final.

We were at absolute full strength and knew we would be hard to beat if we played well.

As it turned out we played very well! In fact just about everything we tried turned to gold.

The Skipper won the toss by a clear margin and had no hesitation in sending Burbs out to bat.

We had Pieter and Eban to open up and they started well against Burbs two best batsmen.

The tone was set for the day when Eb got Russell to mis-time his favourite pull shot, hitting the ball only as far as Yap at midwicket who took a comfortable catch over his head.

Three overs later their #3 was back in the shed! The skipper adjusted the field, and Eban detected a change in the wind during his run-up and so bowled an outswinger thus inducing the nick which was nicely taken by Gibbo. We were on our way!

Meanwhile Pieter (5 overs 0-22) was plugging up an end nicely, and deserved a wicket - he didn't get it, so the skipper made the change, bringing in Dave Gunn.

Results were immediate and spectacular! Dave picked up the other opener with a perfect long-hop, hit straight to Shabbir at point, then the next over he had two more - bowling one with a jaffa that just flicked the top of off stump and then having the new man well caught by John at Mid-Off. The wickets dried up from there for Dave but he finished with great figure of 7 overs 3-13.

Meanwhile Eban (7 Overs 3/33) had finished his spell with a wicket in his last over, getting the batsman to top edge a pull, which was well called for and taken by Gibbo.

The mediums seemed to be doing the trick - so we went with Duncan to replace Eban, and Duncan made us wait a whole over before picking up an LBW, it must have been plumb because umpire Ricki had the finger up before Duncan had turned around...

In his next over Duncan had his second LBW - catching Nathan in front and we only needed one more wicket to bundle Burbs out.

The tail didn't wag for long as Shabbir (3.2 overs 2/8) delivered the coup de grâce, bowling their #10 for 16.

So an outstanding effort from the all-stars - we bowled well, and took our chances, no dropped catches and only couple of "croquet hoops" in the field. It would be churlish to name names - so ask Dave if you want to know who it was.

We were left chasing a comfy 111 for the win.

Burbs tried to stay positive but they needed a quick wicket to put some pressure on us. But they didn't get it, with Yap neatly negotiating the first over, before Duncan took 12 of the second.

Yap only lasted into the fifth over, but at that point we were on our way at 33/1.

Dave was down to come in next but he didn't like the look of the bowling and sent Gibbo out instead.

It looked like a master stroke for a while as Gibbo looked set to roll along in multiples of 4. But he was adjudged LBW and departed for 3x4. 47/2

Dave was next in, and he shared a solid 40 run partnership with Duncan, to which he contributed 1. But then he too was adjudged LBW - a tough call as he was well down, but the Umps finger was spring loaded and ready to go! 87/3 and the end was in sight.

Eban contributed a solid 13 (giving Duncan a chance to rest), but was out in comical fashion - struck on the pad, he assumed he was out and started to walk, only to have the keeper whip of the bails as the umpire gave him not out LBW. We pointed out to him that he was in fact not out, but he seemed happy enough to come and have a sit down. 104/4.

Safe to say that with only a few runs needed and tons of overs in hand that Duncan knew what to do, and the skipper started warming up his handshake. Unfortunately Duncan thought he was supposed to run down the wicket straight past the ball and get stumped - which he did and so departed for a hard hit 67. (Well played)

So we needed 3 for the win - and it fell to John to trick the bowler into a wide and then bust out his trademark "where the f**k did that come from" pull shot to seal the win with a four. 113/5 off 18 overs.

A great win to end a fantastic first season for the All-Stars. The old-guys enjoying the opportunity to relive some glory days - and the new-guys having the luck to win a championship in their first season.

Onward and Upward!!

POD Points

Duncan 2

Dave 2

Eban 2