Photo provided by UWA Cricket Club
By Libby Caldwell and Matthew Moroney
Last weekend, the University Cricket Club (UCC) 2nd Grade lost their Elimination Final narrowly to Scarborough.
UCC fell twenty-one runs short in a fighting performance which featured five UWA alumni and current UWA students in the twelve-man team (Greyling, Howieson, Chhabra, O’Keeffe, and Drennan).
UCC battled hard against the top team on their home turf in front of a hostile crowd but were unable to keep their season alive. Bowling first, UCC made a solid start to the match with Dominic Miles leading the charge with figures of three out of fifty to help limit Scarborough to a score of 223.
After a solid bowling performance, UCC struggled to build partnerships with the bat as top-order wickets tumbled. Alexander Melville top scored for the visitors with a gritty sixty-seven runs but found himself playing a lone hand as the visitors chased an Elimination final win. Returning from a six-week stint on the sidelines with a fractured finger, the wicketkeeper batted for three hours in a defiant middle order stand. In the end, it wasn’t enough as UWA fell agonizingly close to a spot in the Semi Final.
It was a heartbreaking loss for a young team featuring two 2021 high school graduates. Melville will commence his studies at UWA in 2022, joining a young student core that will be instrumental in driving the team towards bigger and better things next season.
10/223 Scarborough (D Miles 3/50, TW Gosling 2/22, M O’Keeffe 2/26) def University of WA Cricket Club 10/202 (AK Melville 67, B Greyling 31, D Aldridge 29).