Cornerstone Pub Tauranga Grasshoppers Cricket Club

After a comprehensive abandonment last Saturday, the final has been rescheduled for Easter Monday.

We're having to slum it this week though. Due to a lack of ground availability, we've been bumped all the way down to Bay Oval #1.
While the standard of ground might be lower than we're used to, we need to make sure we keep our standards at their usual, highly professional level.

The side selected is:
Bob Curran
Andy Balfour
Anthony Beatson
Ben Goodall
Chris Uden
Craig Williamson
Hayden Goodall
James Hope
Jef Holmes
Lachlan Balfour
Sarn Lee
David Fergusson (12th man)
Wayne Anderson (13th man)
Kerry Blomquist (14th man)

The game starts at 11.30.

I don't expect it will be a sellout, because it's only against Mt Maunganui.
If it was Grasshoppers A vs Grasshoppers B in a 6 a side though, there would be queues all the way to the netball courts, and children at the end of the queue crying because they missed out on the chance to see their heroes.

The Grasshoppers comfortably saw off Albion last Saturday as Hayden Goodall racked up his highest score for the club with 98*. In partnership with Anthony Beatson, they rescued the side from a precarious 48/4 through a 123 run partnership with Beatson contributing 41 to the cause. When Beatson was dismissed at 171,the side looked to push on and a few came and went in pursuit of runs with Uden playing a good hand with 11* in an unbroken 7th wicket stand of 45. The final total of 224/4 looked a bit above par.

Albion are a side that have had the wood over the Grasshoppers in recent seasons, and you have to go as far back as 2020 to find the last 'hoppers win. Until last Saturday that is.

With Uden never having beaten Albion with the Cornerstone Pub Tauranga Grasshoppers Cricket Club and Hopes never having lost a game for the side, there was some existential discussion before we fielded on whether voodoo was more powerful than juju or whether they were so closely related so as to be the same thing. After agreeing that the sacrifice of a live chicken was probably the right course of action, and the exact requirement to ensure a comfortable win, the 'Hoppers ignored all the signs and took to the field.

The always-dangerous Summerville opened for Albion who had to get a wriggle on early but were tied down by Uden and Balfour. Uden constantly beat the bat and made life uncomfortable for the openers but they survived through until the 8th over where the wheels didn't just fall off, they completely disintegrated. In the space of 7 balls, the heart was ripped out of the Albion batting lineup by Balfour. He bowled Summerville with the first ball, then Blakely set off for a suicidal run hitting the ball straight to Williamson who lobbed the ball back to Balfour to complete the run out, then on the last ball, Balfour again rattled the timber, mopping up Nix. From 20/0, Albion had plummeted to 20/3. Balfour wasn't finished yet as first ball of Uden's next over he scampered in quickly and picked up a little drop and run and fired the ball to keeper Hopes and Espitalier was run out without facing.
Albion were now 20/4 and staring down the barrel of a heavy defeat. And they got one. Wickets fell at regular intervals and it was only a niggly 62 run 10th wicket partnership that gave the scorecard some respectability. Albion finished on 151/9, for a 71 run Grasshoppers victory.

If we can a) win a semi final and b) beat Albion then the gods are on OUR side. All of them. They must be.

Voodoo and juju, I spit in your face. You have no power here. The jinx is broken. The curse has been lifted. The Hoodoo Gurus are a great band.

We're off to Blake Park #2 this weekend to finish off the season with another resounding win against Mt Maunganui 4th XI.

The side to play the final is:
Bob Curran
Andy Balfour
Anthony Beatson
Ben Goodall
Chris Uden
Craig Williamson
Hayden Goodall
James Hope
Jef Holmes
Lachlan Balfour
Sang Ly
David Fergusson (12th man)

The Cornerstone Pub Tauranga Grasshoppers Cricket Club take on Albion in the semi final of Division 3 at Mitchell Park today.

First ball at 1pm.

You've got 2 hours and mins to cancel your plans, arrange a baby sitter, sort out a sober driver or order an Uber and get down there.

Seating is limited, so get in quick.

Here we go, it's that time of the year again.

First competition game today, for the Cornerstone Pub Tauranga Grasshoppers vs Mount Maunganui 4th XI at Mitchell Park.

Skipper Curran has selected an exciting side featuring a couple of new, although familiar, faces.

Bob Curran
Anthony Beatson
Ben Goodall
Chris Udezz
Craig Williamson
Andrew Balfour
David Fergusson
Hayden Goodall
James Hope (debut)
Jef Holmes
Lachlan Balfour (grown-up debut)
Sarn Ly (12th man)

That looks like 12 all-rounders to me.

The trainings so far have been superb, with good numbers and everybody fine-tuning their skills, locking their bad habits in for another season and trying to hit Jef in the arse.

There's no doubt the squad is stronger this season with the new additions, so big things are expected for the Grasshoppers. The Greerton to Grasshoppers production line continues, this time with James Hope earning a promotion to the Grasshoppers. Another new addition is Lachlan Balfour, who last played for the Grasshoppers when he was 12. He's now back again and we expect the competition between Balfours to be intense as they fight it out for Alpha Male status in the household. I'm particularly looking forward to them umpiring when the other bats. Hayden Goodall will be looking to learn from Bob how to run an absolute dictatorship, while still maintaining a fun atmosphere, in his first season as Vice Captain.

Day for it!

After 6 matches, 36 individual innings, 57 days, 1368 hours, 82,080 minutes, and roughly 4.9 million seconds Chris Uden was finally able to get rid of the duck bat.

And he was spoilt for choice too.

It could have gone to Ben Goodall who spent 12 balls not getting off the mark, although he may have been somewhat harshly adjudged LBW.

It could also have gone to Hayden Goodall who wasted almost no time in his 2-ball duck.

But, even that 2-baller was upstaged by Andy Balfour who chopped his very first ball back onto his stumps via some outrageous spin. If he could spin the ball that much when he bowled, he'd be a happy man.

And thus, the circle was complete.

The duck bat had returned to it's spiritual home for the final game of the season.

Now, we await the final totting up of the stats to see who has the pleasure of proudly displaying the duck bat on their mantle piece for the winter.

The Grasshoppers season finished at the semi final stage yesterday as we were fairly comprehensively outplayed by the Falcons, who now play everybody's second least favourite Te Puke side, Te Puke Blue who upset BAAJ in the other semi final.

Personally, I hope the Falcons win that. They seem like a decent bunch of blokes.

Chris Uden collects the gold-plated duck bat from a grateful Andy Balfour.

Hoppers finish year with a bang.

The Cornerstone Pub Tauranga Grasshoppers Cricket Club fnished off 2022 in emphatic fashion with a 6 wicket thrashing or Cadets Cricket Club on Saturday.

I don't know what happened as i wasnt there, but suffice to say the G'Hoppers were dominant in every aspect. From the toss to the bowling, from the fielding to the batting, from the banter to the good looks, the Grasshoppers ruled the day.

Few words can describe the bowling and fielding perfomance other than spectacular, incredible, astounding, amazing, clinical, faultless. The same could be said for the batting.

I'm not sure if they're the right words or not, because as i say, i wasn't there.

But, it appears Jef Holmes was the pick of the bowlers with 4/26, although Balfour 3/12 from 8 and Reece Tapara 2/19 from 5 could also be in the conversation. Ivan Foord picked up 1/27.

Cadets were rolled for 89 in 24 overs, with only Hoskin really getting going with nearly half the teams runs.

Balfour and Curran got the reply off to a VERY Grasshoppers start - 2/2 with both openers failing to trouble the scorers although Bob Curran avoided the duck bat by using up 4 balls to not score while Balfour only lasted 3.

Ben Goodall and Tom Foord broke the back of the chase with a 49 run partnership before Foord was dismissed for 27. Lee promoted up to #5 shared a 22 run partnership with Goodall before he fell for 7 with the score on 72 and the game nearly finished. Beatson joined Goodall and helped knock off the runs fairly quickly.

The Hoppers chased down the total in the 24th over, winning by 6 wickets.

Fantastic end to the year and cementing our place in the top 4 based on points average. Another what might have been, with the two losses to Papamoa and the relegated Mt Maunganui sides really hurting the points average. We could easily have been 2nd at least.

Still, it's been a good season so far, where we've shown we can compete with the top sides. We just struggle against the others.

Anyway, i have no idea how accurate this is as i wasnt there, but i still enjoyed the game immensely.

Merry Christmas to all Hoppers far and wide. See you all next year.

Just catching up on some duck bat admin.

Ivan Foord to Reece Tapara vs Mt Maunganui

Reece to Andy Balfour vs Cadets in today's comprehensive 6 wicket win.

Grasshoppers breathe life into relegation battle

Fresh off a loss to 2nd from bottom Papamoa last week, the Grasshoppers continued to give generously to those less fortunate this holiday season, by surrendering meekly to bottom side Mount Maunganui on Saturday.

For the second week in a row, an inability to either score enough runs or take enough wickets, unsurprisingly lead to a shabby defeat. Only Williamson (41), Beatson (18) and Anderson(17*) really came to terms with a generally pretty tame bowling attack. Most batsmen got themselves out, as the side crawled through to 142 all out in 36 overs. Balfour and Simpson opened and got through to 14 before Balfour skied a Friend full-toss to midwicket to go for 10. Simpson was bowled by Friend an over or so later for 7 leaving Curran and Williamson to begin the re-build project. They had put on 27 before some incredibly lazy running from Curran saw him found well short at the keepers end, while Williamson jogged through for the easiest of singles, and he had to depart for 9. The look in Currans eyes said everything. They said "that was my fault, I should have responded straight away, in no way do I blame you". Beatson strode gainfully to the crease and settled in.

There was some controversy as Williamson played and missed at a wide delivery and the 2 players behind the wicket had no doubt there was an edge. The umpire disagreed, which caused no end of consternation in the Mount Maunganui camp as accusations flew left, right and centre. First slip was adamant that there was an edge. I suspect the noise was probably caused by the daggers that Curran was still staring at Williamson falling onto the pitch. I won't embarrass the player concerned, but a comment was overheard about how Williamson's refusal to walk and Andersons refusal to give the catch was tantamount to "playing those Indian teams". So, we have a bit of casual rac......no, I won't go there. I'm sure that anyone who has played against the Grasshoppers over the years is well aware that we don't cheat, for the most part we walk when we nick it, and we give decisions that we think are out. Often, like when Reece is umpiring, the decision is 100% NOT OUT LBW, but he thought it was, so he gave it. That was against Mt Maunganui too. They were still mindlessly droning on about it 10 overs later, and tried to square the ledger when batting. Not something we want to see in our game.

Beatson was unlucky to drag a wide slower ball on with the score at 88. Uden (3), Kotze( 5) and debutant Taratoa (0 from 2 balls) quickly fell in the space of 9 runs. Taratoa should be commended for making his LBW decision ridiculously easy to give has he jumped up and back and was about as plum as you're ever likely to see. Anderson and Williamson again found themselves having to do a repair job, and they made it through to 112, before Williamson was cleaned up by MacMillan for 41. Tapara followed 2 balls later slogging one straight up in the air and joined Taratoa in the fight for the duck bat. Lee came in at 11 and played a couple of beautiful shots. A glorious drive through cover was very pleasing to the eye, but it couldn't last and he was dismissed for 10 with the score on 142. A really poor batting performance all round.

The two biggest mouths in Mount Maunganui opened the batting and meandered through to 42 before Livingstone cut one to Taratoa at point, who surprised everyone by clinging onto it. After showing off his long barrier a few balls earlier, which was actually more like the Channel Tunnel, it was a good catch. So, a duck and a catch on debut. Good start. The other opener Evans got through to a painstaking 36, before he was caught by (someone, can't remember who) off the bowling of Balfour. 62/2 and the Hoppers were back in the hunt. Fox succumbed to the wiles of Anderson as he tried to moose one through cow corner but missed by a long way. I'd say he swung in about the Cretaceous period 65 million years ago, and the ball arrived in the Pleistocene period, 300,000 years ago. The score was now 85/3. Rhodes at the other end was teeing off, and somehow survived an embarrassing square-up LBW decision from Evans, before being clean bowled by Taratoa. A duck, a catch AND now a wicket on debut. In fairness, Taratoa bowled some absolute peaches, and could have had another couple of wickets in his 2 overs. Silcock came out to bat in his Bay Dreams costume, and quickly clobbered a couple of boundaries, before also falling to Anderson, but the score was creeping up. Botha and Stainton put on an unbroken partnership of 38 at about a run a ball to finish the game off in the 32nd over.

Once again, the 'Hoppers were left to lament a poor performance. Still, we'll start the next round in Division One, while Mt Maunganui will probably have to take their accusations, mutterings and insinuations with them down to Division Two.

The Grasshoppers are scheduled to play their final game of Round One at Mitchell Park against top side Cadets tomorrow. It does look a little damp though. Might end up with one of those little puddles that need to be dried out again.

The side is:
Bob Curran
Andy Balfour
Dylan Taratoa
Sarn Lee
Johann Kotze
Jef Holmes
Anthony Beatson
Ben Goodall
Ivan Foord
Tom Foord
Reece Tapara

Grasshoppers slip to defeat against rejuvenated Papamoa.

Short report this week as I've been flat out.

The Grasshoppers had a shocker. Bowled first and made immediate inroads into the Papamoa batting lineup.

Somehow we let Papamoa make their way from 91/5 at drinks to 181 all out. Once again, the inability to finish off the tail came back to haunt the 'Hoppers, as Young and youngster Wilson put on 49 for the 10th wicket. Young top scored with 41 and Wilson finished on 24* at better than a run a ball.

Ivan Foord was the pick of the bowlers with 4/29 including the murder by yorker of Cooper.

Other casualties included Tapara rolling his ankle(he bowled TERRIBLY after that), and Williamson's leg exploding after saving 4 with it.

Batting-wise, only a 41 run 10th wicket partnership between Anderson and Tapara saved the 'Hoppers from an absolute thrashing.

Wides top scored with 48, including 30 from Heuberger who also picked up 2 vital top order wickets.

Anderson was the last man dismissed for 28 and the main beneficiary of the Grasshoppers insipid batting performance was Babbage with 5/29 from his 8 overs.
He showed the benefits of good line and length with 4 of his wickets being bowled.

The Grasshoppers finished on 150 with 8 overs still to bowl.

Foord picked up the rare double of Player of the Day and the Duck Bat.

Top effort!

Today we take on Mt Maunganui at Mitchell Park.

The side is:
Bob Curran
Andy Balfour
Wayne Anderson
Anthony Beatson
Chris Uden
Craig Williamson
1 leg alien
Johann Kotze
Reece Tapara
Rob Simpson
Sarn Lee
Dillan from Twilight cricket (Debut)

Let's get this show back on the road!

KOTZE SMOKES TE PUKE THUNDER.....ERR, I MEAN TE PUKE BLUE

The Johann Kotze Show rolled into Mitchell Park on Saturday as he blasted 21* off 10 balls to finish off a testing chase for the Grasshoppers.

He put on 39 runs with Ben Goodall as the Te Puke side completely shat the bed when the pressure came on. Completely. Wides, no balls, 5 wides, no balls hit for 6, the last 4 or 5 overs had it all. Te Puke were put out of their misery with 13 balls left as Goodall ran one down to fine leg (between pad and wickets) with 13 balls to spare.
Earlier, Tapara struck in the very first over as skipper Curran won the toss and elected to field. Tapara brought one back beautifully through the gate to mop up opener Tandon. Balfour was a little unlucky not to pick up another very early on after a horrendous decision from the square leg umpire to turn down a stumping. Harpreet 'Happy" Singh, Te Puke skipper survived.

The bloke is actually still out of his crease now.

He was so Far Out Man that he should have been in a Cheech and Chong movie.

He should have walked.

He was over halfway to the carpark as it was.

The umpire couldn't see the line apparently. I reckon that was bu****it.

Fortunately it didn't cost the Hoppers too dearly as Williamson snaffled a tidy little catch close in on the offside as Singh departed for 11. Te Puke 20/2. Sohal was the next to go with the score at 35 as he tried to plant Balfour over the fence but Hayden Goodall ran back and took a very good catch over his shoulder at mid on.

By this stage Foord had replaced Tapara as after producing a pearler in his first over, Pingu bowled a shower of sh*te for the next 5. He came back later and carried on in the same vein. Foord bowled without luck as he induced a number of false shots and nicks.

Sandhu and H Singh were tootling along quite nicely by this stage.

Beatson replaced Balfour at last weeks surf club end and immediately struck. The Turtle has broken more partnerships than a new entrant into Love Island, and so it proved again, when he induced a feather (massive) of an edge from Singh and the whole cordon went up. Happy, now umpiring, was unmoved. It appears there are no successful appeals whenever Happy is involved. Fortunately, the batsman had more scruples and took himself off when it appeared that he was going to be given another chance, ending a 32 run partnership and leaving Te Puke in a spot of bother at 67/4.

This is NOT the first time we've had to deal with this when playing Te Puke. Not even the first time in this game. Maybe one day, we won't have to worry about either blatant cheating, or an appalling lack of umpiring ability, sight and hearing.

Maybe.

Anyway, Sandu was still in and gaining in confidence. He never really looked in in but he was the rock that the innings was built on. He shared in a partnership of 46 with Bhupi Singh, who was well caught by Ben Goodall out on the midwicket boundary off Lee. Lee struck again quickly, clean bowling Dhaliwal for 2 and then Sandhu found a capable ally in Sukhpreet Singh who immediately went on the attack. Singh took on all bowlers and blasted his way to 28 off 15 deliveries before Goodall got him to mistime one aerially to Ivan Foord and end his innings. 156/7.

Te Puke had the accelerator flat to the floor bu this stage and Sandhu was benefitting.

After a quick break for a short, sharp deluge, play resumed and there was enough time left for Tom Foord to run out G Singh and Sandhu to finish on a hard-fought 86*.

Te Puke's total of 200/8 would take some chasing.

With Curran restored to the top of the order to partner Balfour, the Hoppers set off in chase. The pair batted well, and had cruised through to 45 at about 6 an over, before Balfour fell, playing and missing at a straight one. Bowled by everyone's favourite Te Puke player Happy for 22.

Unfortunately, regular #3 Ben Goodall had passed away from heat stroke so #4 Williamson went in to join Curran. He quickly got off the duck bat with a 2, and the two settled in to build a total. There was enough good bowling to keep Te Puke interested, and enough scoring opportunities to keep thr Grasshoppers batsmen interested. They'd taken the total through to 94 just after drinks before Curran was adjudged (he reckons harshly, but for the purposes of this summary, you won't see a more plumb LBW all season, except later in this innings) LBW to the hooping in swing of Sukhpreet Singh, for 41.

With Goodall being administered the last rights by a passing chaplain, the other Goodall slid up to #4 and quickly slid down the pitch to the bouncy turn of Sohal, as the ball slid past the agressive waft and into the gleeful gloves of keeper (and also a bit of a dick) Tandon, who promptly fumbled it and then had to throw the ball onto the stumps to dismiss HG for 1. I say he's a bit of a dick, because he tried on a number of occasions to cheat the umpires into thinking he'd run someone out when he didn't even have the ball. At least twice.

The skies cleared, a beam of sunlight shone down from the heavens, and to the accompaniment of an angelic orchestra and choir, Ben Goodall was resurrected and made his way to the crease on a chariot pulled by pure white stallions with doves swooping gracefully around him. "It's a miracle!" came the cry. Women wept, men prostrated themselves on the ground, dogs howled and virgins readied themselves for sacrifice.

Goodall joined Williamson and showed few effects of his near death experience quickly racing through for singles, and twos and looking for threes. It appears a brush with the afterlife energises you.

Anyway, the pair settled down to build a partnership and put on 29 before Williamson mish*t a sweep off the bouncy offspin of Sohal and was well-caught by mid wicket running in from the boundary. Williamson was out for 32, with the score at 124/4. Beatson joined Goodall at the crease and didn't f**k around. One big 6 and another boundary and he was pinned in front by Sohal, out LBW for 13 with the score now at 142/5. Really, really out. Tom Foord was next in and put on another valuable 18 runs with Goodall as he did his best to turn over the strike, before he was cleaned up by (Soon to be very un)Happy for 5.

You wouldn't believe what happened next if it was a movie script. From 162/5, with the game delicately poised, suddenly in the blink of an eye it was all over. Kotze got a couple of sighters and then unleashed mayhem. Goodall picked off the bad ball for 1s and 2s, but Kotze went ballistic. 21 off 10 balls. He smacked a waist high no ball for 6 over mid wicket, he smacked another 6 just about over the goal posts, and with the bowling attack absolutely falling to pieces, it came down to Goodall to finish the game off. 201/6 in 37.5 overs.

You could hear a pin drop in the Te Puke camp. They were gracious enough in defeat, but then they had to be really, because despite all their efforts to (let's not beat around the bush here) cheat their way to a win, they'd lost.

If there hadn't been the sort of crap that we've come to expect from games against Te Puke, it would have been a helluva game. Actually, it still was a pretty good game, because we won and didn't have to cheat to do it.

Rumour has it that Kotze has been practising cricket in a high-tech VR environment. If he could just send a link to me on the down low, I'll put it on my Christmas list.

Tomorrow, the Grasshoppers travel to Gordon Spratt to take on a struggling Papamoa side. With 3 games to go before the Christmas break, the 'Hoppers will be looking to build on their current points average of 9.25. The team is:

Bob Curran (C)
Andy Balfour
Wayne Anderson
Reece Tapara
Craig Williamson
Ivan Foord
Sarn Lee
Johann Kotze
Anthony Beatson
Rob Simpson
Ben Goodall

Simmo chuffed to bits to finish off a day that started with a Red King to the chops by picking up the duck bat as well.

Grasshoppers paddle past TBC

Lake Hauroko is the deepest Lake on New Zealand, bottoming out at 462 metres. Lake Taupo is the largest at 616 square km. Well, they WERE, until Lake Mitchell was discovered on Saturday morning.

At 10.21, Grasshoppers groundwater hydrologist Bob Curran claimed there was "a puddle at one end that needed to dry, but apart from that we we're good to go". In reality, it took nearly 2 hours of sweeping, toweling, wringing and sloshing around to get the "puddle" shallow enough that we wouldn't need to call in lifeguards from Mt Maunganui Beach or wear life jackets while fielding at mid off.

Funnily enough, the missus rang me at drinks to ask where we were playing and if it was near water for the kids to swim in. If she'd called a couple of hours earlier I'd have told her to bring the kids and their boogie boards.

Various options were considered, including only bowling from one end and whether the Grasshoppers should field first because our bowlers wouldn't be using anything more than 2m of run up at that end anyway. Eventually it was settled on fielding first in a 35 over game starting an hour late at 2pm. That was quite a good result given what we found when we turned up.

The warm-ups claimed a victim when Simmo wore one on the snoz and had to spend 10 mins icing his face. With blood still flowing and a small pond still in front of mid-off, the Grasshoppers strode out to the field. Balfour was quickly into his work, regularly beating the bat with his flight and guile. He had a couple of catches dropped by an out-of-sorts Concrete-Hands Curran behind the stumps, before finally inducing a big nick through to Beatson at first slip who boobled (yes, boobled, not bobbled) it before snaffling the chance, and TBC were 29/1. Penguin was replaced by Big Jef and he produced the ball of the season so far, with some beautiful late swing and unlike an earlier attempt, Curran was able to make quick work of whipping the bails off with Swanepoel dragged out of his crease.

In a surprise change, Beatson replaced Balfour and got stuck in almost immediately. He blasted through the weak defenses of opener Cross and comprehensively knocked his pins over. There's something about the sound of leather crashing into spring-loaded stumps, isn't there. It's not the traditional woody sound, it's more like a car crashing into a fence without braking. Beatson quickly struck again, inducing some bad timing from Carter and he lobbed one up to Simpson. He'd learned his lesson from the warmups and kept his snotbox well out of the way, grasping a good catch around knee height. TBC 69/4.

A good partnership between Choubey and Crockford began to develop. They were never in danger of getting away from the 'Hoppers, but did a good job of repairing the innings either side of drinks. Lee came on to replace Goodall who had in turn replaced Holmes just before the break and picked up the wicket of Choubey for a well-complied 32 from 48 balls. Sometimes, you can't go back or forward to Lee, he's just got your number, and that was the case here. After a brief Anderson cameo appearance, Curran had turned to Beatson again and he picked up his 3rd wicket with Crockford lobbing one to Holmes who was fielding in the bog at mid-off. He managed to wade his way through to get under the ball to complete a straight-forward catch.

By this time, Stratton was teeing off from one end and having some success. TBC #8 Waller sacrificed himself in the quest to get Stratton back on strike late on as he tried to come back for a 2nd on Penguins arm and was caught well short. He's deceptively quick to the ball, old Penguin. Actually, that's not true at all. He generally looks like he's trying to run through quicksand with skis on, but on this occasion, he got there and threw the stumps down from the edge of the circle.

TBC finished on 141/7 from their 35 overs.

Stratton opened the bowling with some good pace and bounce and and troubling Balfour who snuck a single. Stratton quickly accounted for Simpson with one that nipped back at him and he was caught behind first ball leaving the Grasshoppers 2/1 after 1 over. Goodall came in at #3 and he and Balfour set about taking the game away from TBC completely. They defended well when required, and hit out aggressively when able to. Balfour was hampered by a shoulder injury, which has been plaguing him for around 3 years. He was still able to smash a cut shot for 6 over the cover point boundary, but for a bloke who bench-presses 100kg and dead lifts small cars, he sure as hell struggled to lift his 1kg cricket bat. Maybe instead of just skipping leg day, he should also skip shoulders for a little while. After struggling through to drinks and dosing up on some more painkillers, his innings ended with retirement (54*) just after the resumption and skipper Curran came out to join Goodall with less than 40 required and all the time in the world. High tide at Mitchell Park wasn't for another 3 hours, so the surf wouldn't be a problem. Unfortunately, Curran used all the time in the world to whack a long hop straight to mid-on and trudged back for 2. Williamson was next in and finally showed some glimpses of form putting away a couple of gentle half-trackers. He and Goodall finished the game off in short order with Goodall finishing on a well-compiled 55 from 61, Williamson ended up with 14 from 16.

A convincing 8 wicket win in what could have been rather a niggly chase had TBC made a couple of breakthroughs early. The experience of Goodall and Balfour meant that was never a chance and the chase was finished with 10 overs to spare.

With that win, the Grasshoppers took their all-important points average to 8.67 for the season and a firm grip on a top 4 spot. At least I think we've got a firm grip with that points average. I don't understand points average as a measurement. What's wrong with points? There's nothing you can tell me that would make me think PlayHq isn't a complete dogs breakfast. You could give me a million dollars to try and convince me it isn't and I'll have a million dollars and still think it's bo****ks. Go on, try me.

Anyway, we're back to the seaside in deepest, darkest Bellevue tomorrow as we take on Te Puke Blue at Playa Mitchell. Sorry, off to Mexico in January so practising my Spanish. That's Mitchell Beach.

The team for tomorrow is:
Bob Curran
Andy Balfour
Craig Williamson
Johann Kotze
Anthony Beatson
Ivan Foord
Reece Tapara
Tom Foord
Ben Goodall
Hayden Goodall
Sang Ly

If you're coming to watch, bring a lilo and remember, swim between the flags.