Woodridge a bridge too far.

Day 10:

A warm sunny sky greeted us as we arose for breakfast on Friday morning. The boys had a good night sleep as the coaches heard our opponents for the coming game into the the wee hours. Beans, bacon and eggs, and then a quick shuttle bus ride to Knight Oval within Kingswood College led us to our opponents for the day; Woodridge College from Port Elizabeth.

Captain Bruce lost the toss and the Red Caps were sent in. Woodridge were full of confidence after bowling out Muir College for 72 and chasing them before the rain yesterday. The Reds batting failed to fire, perhaps too much biltong was the reason. With the score at 8/51, Brendan mounted a one man rescue mission, as he struck numerous boundaries in making the third half century of the tour. Brendan was well supported by Jeremy (who batted for a full 20 min to almost get us to morning tea) and Max (who showed amazing poise to get Brendan to his milestone). The Reds were able to post a respectable 107 when drinks were taken.

Woodridge looked to take the initiative early by playing an expansive game. Enter Lachie the Outfielder. After his heroics at Parktown (obviously Woodridge hadn't watched the footage) he fielded a ball three metres in from the boundary, threw across his body and hit the stumps at the bowler's end to have the batsmen out by two metres. James had the opener caught at slip by Adam and the PE school went to lunch at 2/48. Unfortunately, we let a couple of chances slip in the field and Jez's friends from Woodridge passed us just 2 wickets down. A funny moment in the game was when Lachie was given an English and grammer lesson by the official umpire when he asked "How much balls left in the over?"

After some jovial negotiations between the coaches, it was decided that the teams would play an international T20 - South Africa vs Australia - in a lead up to the February series. The hosts won the toss and decided to bat. Cameron was the hero with the ball, taking three wickets and bowling with some serious heat. The Aussies were set 8 per over to win, and looked a real shot to take the chocolates with Michael looking busy during his 20 and Todd hitting an impressive 64 off 42. The boundaries were coming thick and fast until Todd was run out on a hit straight back to the bowler. The Reds innings closed at 7/142 - just a bit short of our target. There are no pictures of the second game due to the fact that the team photographer / blogger / physio had to take over the scoring due to a couple of indiscretions in our innings. Todd volunteered to talk through his innings with those interested in absence of photographic evidence.

Tomorrow, we have the Albany Rural Invitational team, who like Barker are yet to register a victory. With a lot at stake, there is talk of Coach Thomlinson to open the batting and Coach Toth to open the bowling - only time (and rules of the festival) will tell.