Sawty Round Up -10 Christmas Edition

SAWTYCRICKET ROUND UP

ROUND 10 - Christmas Edition

This newsletter covers the last couple of weeks. Many of our teams finished two weekends before Christmas but our top grade players finished 2025 with an extra T20, grade and Community Cup matches.

At the Christmas break we sit with most grades havinga team in the top 4. Our U10s team has grown and we look like having an extrateam in the new year. It’s great for our club to grow in the juniors as folksee the physical, social and mental health benefits of community cricket clubs,for their kids.

There are some exceptionally good match reports following,(especially if you go for Sawty). I suggest you put on your club shirt and grab a beverage before reading them. Charles has written another 3rd grade saga through a new set of tears and Richie has written a delicate, yet gritty Community Cup prose with a climax that surprises and delights, (if you go for Sawty).

Our club team has made the finals of Community Cup and play the next round at Richo Park on the 11^th January. Put it in your calendar.  This is quality cricket-Bazball, Travball and Sawtyball. Let’s get to the game and lend our support to the lads. I’ll post more details on the team chats as they arrive.

Seniors start back on 10^th January and Juniors with U16s on Fri 30^th January.

Coffs Harbour Toyota has donated 10 tickets to our club, to the Big Bash game in Coffs Harbour. Committee member Paul is organizing a ticket raffle for all of our juniors. Check you team chat for details and get yourself or your child in the draw for the tickets.

A special Christmas thank you to all the folk that volunteer their time and energy to our club. Our society needs the kindness that you bring.  Our committee is a hardworking lot sorting stuff behind the scenes. The sponsors for parting with their money. Our captains and coaches making the BIG decisions each week before and during games. Those folk who score or umpire each week. The parents and partners  who spend their Saturdays getting players to matches and then dry the tears or put up with the 15^thretelling of that pivotal moment in the match. To every player in our club thanks for playing cricket for Sawty and challenging yourself.

On behalf of the Committee, to all players and their families have a great Christmas and New Year full of Test Cricket or even better…. Backyard Cricket.

SPONSOR OF THE WEEK- Toormina Chicken Butchery

‘Probably every families favourite, the humble chook,is transformed by Nathan and his team everyday into a huge range of gourmet chicken dishes with a wide choice of flavourings that really takes the hard work out of deciding what to cook.

Seasoned barbecued chickens, free range eggs, and ducks are also all part of the quality produce always available for family dinners, bbqs or a special occasions.

Located at the Southern end of the Centre, opposite Woolworths Supermarket.’

https://www.toorminagardens.com.au/stores/chicken-butchery/

Nathan and the team supply the chicken trays for our raffles each week. Next time you buy your chicken let them know that you appreciate them sponsoring the club. They fixed me up with a couple of chooks for Christmas dinner. The whole team are always ready for  banter/sledging as they serve you the best chook in town.

U10s

Wet

U12 Sixers

Wet

U12s Sloggers

12s had a great win against Nana Glen restricting them to 60 odd with very disciplined fielding and bowling. The runs were chased down with the highlight  the running between wickets.

U14s

Wet

U16s

Wet

4th Grade Gold

Congratulations everyone who turned up for the win in Nana Glen on Saturday. We picked up another win, finishing the first part of the season on a high.

After yet again losing the toss, we were tasked to bowl. Liam S and Lucas opened with the new pill in hand, taking a wicket before the second spell of Lincoln and Liam W. The two bowled some tight line and length up to drinks break, taking a wicket and only conceding 14 runs off the 8overs, giving the score line of 2/49 off 17 overs. This also marked the point where Jai put on the keeping gloves. With already creating scoreboard pressure ,Ben and Percy continued the trend with some real quality off stump bowling. The kids from Nana must be bred different, after surviving this spell, as well as a quick spell between Walter and John. With the end of the innings approaching, Lincoln was put onto bowl again, where he not only broke the partnership, but took another wicket two balls later. This was followed by Ned who took two wickets in his first two balls. With all the pressure building up, his hat-trick ball ended up nowhere near it needed to be. This was followed by the leg stump getting taken out the very next ball. Liam S was brought back on to finish up the north end of the pitch in the first innings, not letting the tail order Nana batsmen have an easy end to the innings. Ned then took another wicket, followed by a run out to his name while bowling the final over. This finished the first innings with a total 106, us needing 107 to win.

With the bat in hand, John and Ned were taken down in the opening spell. The Martin’s steadied the ship, following the run rate together until the 13th over, giving Lucas the golden opportunity to break his streak. The tension held in the air like fog, everyone on the sideline were biting their nails watching Lucas defend out the rest of the over. There were promising signs showing. After facing a few, he swung through on one, catching the edge and it flew into the air. One of the Nana veterans stood underneath it. Reaching one hand into the sky to house the ball, his fingers clasped around nothing, the ball rolled out of his palm onto the grass beside him. With Brett eager for a single at the non strikers end, he called a run for the off chance that this would happen. Lucas crossed the stumps on the other side of the pitch. The run was awarded. The sideline spectators, scorers and umpires all erupted with cheers loud enough to be heard back in Sawtell for Lucas. One small accomplishment achieved can be why we all come to cricket. The pair held out together until the 22nd over, where Lucas was dismissed for 8 runs. Jig was next up to the crease. He and Marto took easy singles for the next few overs until Marto had to retire for the second week in a row with 40*, including two fours and a six. Liam W had a short stint at the crease, followed by Jig hitting two fours in a row, followed by a six. Lincoln wanted to be part of the chase, he hit the winning runs back over the bowlers head, ending the innings in the 29th over with 5 wickets remaining. Jig finished his innings on 31* off just 20 balls, including his five boundaries.

Congratulations on everyone who has played so far this season, after 10 rounds we have a record of 5-1. A special thanks to Kelly for scoring the game, as well as anyone else who played a part in organising. Everyone have a wonderful Christmas and enjoy your summer. Next game is in January, so rest up.

Many thanks - Liam S and Ned

4th Grade Blue

4th grade went down to top placed Macksville at Bray St. We batted first making 130 odd. Macksville chased down the runs but another 40runs or so would have made it interesting. In the end the saying catches win matches really hurt us.

3^rd Grade

Sawtell vs Nana Glen Blue

What a day for cricket! Perfect weather, Toormi as green as it gets and no storms scheduled. It was a day made for a hungry Sawtell 3rd XI taking on the infamous top of the table Nana Glen Blue. A win would be a much needed boost to some depleted spirits (mainly mine) before the Christmas break. It would also be making others worry we had 'come good'.

It started regularly enough with yours truly losing the toss and Nana deciding on a bat.

The team were pumped and even went through a warm up. Ready to play.

I had an embarrassment of riches for bowlers at my disposal and started with Eden and Ben de.

Eden was looping and tight and Ben de was making it hard to play any shots coming from The Gardens end. Eden 8 overs 2 for 16 and Ben de 8 overs 2 for 13. Outstanding.

Pete T and The Blingman were next up. The Blingman was bowling at a variety of paces with his slower ball catching the batsman every time. Pete T, our hard nosed South African, he loves digging a couple into the ribs and then trying to blow your stumps out of the ground. Again, hard to play and just what the doctor ordered.

Like I said, I was rolling in quality bowlers, and brought on Josh de and Mr Reliable Finny B. Josh delivered some great overs and should have probably bagged a couple except that every dropped catch of the afternoon seemed to come off his bowling. Unlucky mate. What do I need to say about Finny B? The bloke does it for me week in week out.

Elijah and Henry rounded it out and were unluckily on the end of a couple of blokes who had their eye in and were tired of running. Henry had his revenge taking the partnership down.

40 overs Total 145.

Chris H and Elijah opened the batting and got off to a solid start. Quick runs and the killer humidity of Toormi had the Nana boys feeling the pinch. Chris's nonchalant defence to their opening bowlers was classic. Elijah was also taking his toll as he couldn't keep the ball on the ground but it repeatedly dropped between fielders for runs.

Henry had to leave for work but first went to work on the Nana attack. He asked if it he should 'go the slog'. I agreed. He dispatched the first one off his legs for six and I thought "what excellent Captaincy." A quick fire 26 and he was gone.

Peter T and Josh de's partnership broke the back of the chase. Both produced tidy totals. It almost broke Pete too with Josh's running between wickets in the heat.

Busby came out to finish the game with Pete.

He quickly got started with his array of unusual butreliable shot making. Batting to win, 2 weeks in a row. Not out Clutch.

Nana's defeat was complete.

2^nd Grade

Sawty V Urunga 20^th Dec

Urunga batted first but weren’t able to cope with the accurate bowling of Brayden-3fa and Denzel-1fa, having Urunga 4 for 19. A middle order recovery gave some hope to Urunga . James A crashed the party taking the last 2 batters cheaply.

Having us at 2 for 9 Urunga were getting a warm feeling but then the depth in the team showed. The game was all over in 30overs with Alex,  Denzel, Zac, Casey and James contributing. This young team has powered to second on the table with the top spot in sight.

1^st Grade

V Woopi

Sawtell batted first and put 50 on the board before any loss of wicket. Everyone fired up Tyh 26, Will 88, Jesse 23, Tom 21, Richie34 and Adam17 ensured a flow of runs ending in a massive total of 249.

At 5 for 24 and ducks were flying everywhere.  Dave and Aaron gave Woopi a chance but the bowling and fielding were good enough to protect the 249 on the board. Richie with 4 for 19 and Tom and Flynn with 2 each didn’t let Woopi in the game.

Undefeated so far, 1sts are very much enjoying their cricket.

T20-Sawtell Blue

Sawty v Diggers 18^th Dec.

Batting first and finding themselves 5 for 28 ,including 2 ducks in the top order Sawtell looked gone. But as usual the tough got going and the tail wagged and wagged. Mitch 18, Casey 17 and Elijah 22helped us post 96 on the board.

Diggers were cruising to victory with a steady flow of runs and a steady fall of wickets. Then, cricket being the game that it is ,things changed.  James A bowled a wicket maiden in the 17^th over and James. K bowled an over where only one run was scored. Diggers still needed 9 off 2 overs. Unfortunately for Sawtell Diggers luck changed and they nervously got the runs with only a few bowls left in the match.

The game highlighted how important the little things can be.

This is a team full of rapidly developing young cricketers. They should come home in the back end of the competition scaring a lot of teams.

T20- Sawtell Gold

DNP

COMMUNITY CUP

After a strong win over Rebels on Saturday and being undefeated across all formats this season, there was a good feeling when we gathered at 6am Sunday morning to head to Newcastle to take on Waratah-Mayfieldin the Community Cup.

Spirits were high on the bus with the boys all preparing in their different ways. Some napping, some singing, some talking nonsense, but ultimately enjoying each others company.

We arrived at the ground to find the boundaries not much bigger than the car park at Richo, which left us a tough decision on what to do if we won the toss. We also felt the opposition were extremely confident they had our measure, which only gave us more motivation to perform.

With fearless leader Murph looking like patient zero and barely able to breathe, let alone play cricket, he handed over the reins and Richie won the toss (heads again) and we sent Waratah into bat, with a feeling that it would be a hard ground to defend a score on, and we would rather know how many we need to get.

Big Flynnys first over was a beauty, but his second went for 5 sixes. A tough start for the big fella and gave them some momentum, but fortunately for Flynny his day wasn’t over.

At drinks through 10 overs Waratah were 4/110, going along at a nice clip at 11 an over. We didn’t panic and knew if we kept taking wickets we could restrict them to a gettable target and that’s what we did, wrapping the innings up at 9/171.

It was a combined effort with the ball with everyone pitching in and taking wickets at crucial times. Toby Bailey was the standout though, bowling 4 overs straight through the middle of the innings. The man known as Moose would have had 4 wickets instead of 3, but big brother butterfingers Will dropped a sitter. One to discuss round the dinner table.

All in all a great team effort in the field in difficult conditions, and we were confident we could continue on our winning way if we approached the task professionally.

The innings got off to a flying start with Murph (23off 13), despite looking like he should have been going to hospital instead of taking centre, clearing the fence a few times and getting the ball rolling. This allowed Richie to nurdle it around and start his innings a bit more circumspect.

Trent Diereck came out at number 3 and proceeded to do what he does best and make batting look easy. Trent (45 off 35) and Richie (39off 34) combined for a partnership to have us well placed at 1/81 off 10 overs at drinks. With plenty of depth and power in our lower order we felt we were in control of the game.

Unfortunately Richie departed just after drinks while trying to hit their leg spinner into the next suburb. This brought our English import Tom Rawding to the crease. Despite England meekly handing back the urn just mere minutes before he came out to bat, Tom (18 off 13) managed to find the fence a few times and keep the momentum of the innings up.

Tom’s dismissal brought the in-form Jesse Buckle to the crease and Sawtell required 58 off 42 balls. The game on a knife edge. Jesse and Trent started their partnership beautifully and Jesse (21 off 11) hit the best shot of the game, an upper cut over point that would have been 6 at any ground. Trent then got bowled around his legs to end a quality innings, and Jesse followed this up not long after with the worst shot of the game. His dismissal left us needing 22 off 17 balls with 5 wickets in hand.

With the experience of Dave Angus at the crease being greeted by Will Bailey (coming off a classy 88 the day before) the boys were confident we could get it done. Unfortunately Dave came up a couple of metres shy of the boundary and was caught, leaving us 18 to get from 10 balls. Now wewere nervous.

Enter Big Flynn who had a point to prove after being hit for more sixes in one over than he got hit for last season.

The big unit slapped his first 2 balls for a 4 and a 6to get the lads up and about and now we felt the game was surely ours!

Going into the last over we needed 3 to win. In typical Sawtell fashion it wasn’t without incident, with both Bailey brothers selflessly getting run out attempting the winning run. Maybe a bit more fitness training for Will.

All of a sudden we were 8 wickets down and it was 1run to win off 2 balls. Enter Alex Cheers-Flavell, who didn’t seem to be showing the nerves we all knew he must be feeling.

With all the boys nervously watching on, Cheersy nonchalantly blasted the ball to the cover boundary to seal a famous Sawtell victory, that really highlights what the club is built on; team effort, staying alive in the contest, and icing the game when it’s on the line.

There were some battered, bruised, cramping bodies after playing the game in 40+ degree heat, but I believe the boys rehydrated adequately after the game and enjoyed their hard earned victory.

A huge shout out to Murphs much better half, Hayley who was essentially our 12th player. She drove the bus down and back, kept the eskies and fridge stocked with cold drinks, went around the boundary giving the boys these drinks, and somehow managed to get enough medication into Tyh to get him out on the field for us. The boys appreciate you Hayley!

We are now down to the final 8 in the Community Cup and play a team from Tamworth on Sunday January 11. Should we be successful in that fixture we will head to Sydney for the semifinals the following week. We’d love to get as much club support as possible on the day and can promise the spectators a high quality game of T20 cricket at Richo on the 11th.

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