THE Coffs Harbour and District Golden Oldies Cricket Club members have travelled to play in the Queensland Veterans Winter Cricket Carnival on the Sunshine Coast.

The ‘Sunshine’ Coast presented great weather for the first two days, but an east-coast-low pressure system led to the final game being abandoned because of heavy rain.

The Coffs Harbour side opened its carnival with a convincing win against a very strong Queensland Bilbys team.

Coffs won the toss and elected to bowl on a softish wicket, and tight bowling by Joe Nolan and Bruce Mackie, who opened the attack, set the stage for an excellent day in the field with the Bilbys being restricted to 4 for 158 off their allotted 45 overs.

All bowlers bowled tightly and an indicator of this was the restriction of the Australian hard hitting Over 60s
representative, Peter Jensen, who scored 21 off his allowed 35 deliveries.

Eric Higgins and John Leahy commenced the run chase and all batters followed their example of attacking play.

Bruce Mackie and Bruce Lumb took to the bowling and the game swung in Coffs’ favour.

The score was passed with seven overs to spare.

Man of the match was captain Bruce Mackie who bowled well and scored 45 runs off his allotted 35 deliveries.

Coffs Harbour player Graham Doust shared an amusing anecdote from the match: “A comical footnote to the innings was the arrival on field by Kosta our wicketkeeper forgetting his pads, and the slow return after the drinks break of Rob McDonnell, who had to be summoned from his camper van, where he was enjoying a refreshment or two, so that he could continue his excellent bowling spell,” he said.

“It is, after all, Veterans Cricket and we all play to have fun!”

The second game of the carnival saw the ACT Galaxies have a 76-run win against Coffs Harbour.

The game was played at the Maroochydore Cricket Club and the ACT amassed 6 for 197 off their 45
overs.

While the Coffs bowlers played well, some entertaining stroke play by some of the rather young ACT batters, particularly in the middle stage of the innings, kept the scoreboard ticking over.

The Coffs innings started strongly but the ACT capitalised on the early dismissal of Eric Higgins, and at the 15-over mark Coffs were 3 for 40.

Very tight bowling by the ACT kept the run rate down.

Eventually Coffs lost wickets attempting to increase the run rate and were bowled out for 121.

Bruce Mackie was once again awarded man of the match scoring 25 runs and bowling six overs for
just 10 runs.

The scheduled third game of the carnival was cancelled because of heavy rain.

The annual general meeting of the Coffs Harbour and District Golden Oldies Cricket Club is slated for Boambee Hall on Sunday, 14 August at 2pm.

All members and those interested in seniors cricket are invited to attend.

For further details phone Graham Doust on 0414 711 951.

Coffs Harbour and District Golden Oldies Cricket Club players train each Wednesday afternoon from 1pm at the Richardson Park cricket nets, with new players always welcome.

By Aiden BURGESS