The day was surprisingly cool when the game got underway at 1pm. Sporties won the toss and decided to bat first. The old adage of catches win matches, is not always true, but today it was a massive factor. Both Nick Scala and Brodie McGhie were dropped twice in the first 10 overs, and both compiled good scores in the meantime. Scala was the first to be dismissed when he had scored 60 runs, in an opening partnership of 89.
Man of the match, McGhie went on to make 71, and he was joined in the big hitting stakes by Luke Nimmet who scored 31 in about 5 minutes flat.
Sporties made 178-5 off their 20 overs, which should have been more than adequate to beat the youngsters of Seminyak Barong.
We must stand back a little at this point and say that these youngsters had probably never seen anyone with the speed and accuracy of Nimmet and the shear pace of Josh McDonald. Those young boys must have been terrified by the standard of the opening bowlers.
The game was almost over before the third over started. Barong were blasted out of the game by losing their first 4 wickets for only 12 runs after 2 overs.
The next wicket took longer than expected when the lads took the score to 60-5 and then 112-6. This was a marvellous effort by the locals, Agus scored 30, Sudhin 46 and Suda 39.
It really was a great end to a great week. Barong made 146-9 in the end and fully deserved the plaudits given to them in the speeches later on.
I think it only right to say that if John and Maureen Stewart could have seen what has blossomed since they inaugurated this competition about 11 years ago, I'm sure they would be very proud. Others to thank would be Trevor and Jodie Kearsley for their efforts to get this off the ground again. Tim Park for being the constant in every competition. I'm sure he'll say, constant what?. The other umpires Mark Tomsons, Greg Blight and a special thanks to Steve Park, who did a marvellous job.
The captains of the touring sides, Mick Hanson, Graham (Boony) Green, and of course Luke Nimmet of the champions, Kingsway Sporties. These competitions don't just happen, there is an unbelievable amount of work that started almost a year ago for this one week.
Special Club Award went to Ballajura-Landsdale for all their work with the local children.
Boony presented a huge bag of equipment from the Joondalup Cricket Club.
Mark Roberts generously gave an incredible package of gifts from his own business to the youth of Bali.
Guest speakers from the Bali Tourism Dept thanked everyone involved in getting the competition running so successfully. They said they were already looking forward to next year when the tournament could be opened to clubs and countries further afield.
Now that's its all over, we can all start our holiday.
It's now back to Perth where we have to do the gradings, and the fixtures, compile any new bylaws, set up the new competition changeover from "My Cricket" to PlayHQ. The association website has to be finished off. All this for the start of the season in 5 weeks. Again, these things don't do themselves.
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