After a huge weekend of near perfect weather and entertaining cricket Dolphin Oldies and Gettin’ Stiff claimed the “PartyTime” Over40T20 Challenge top prize. Other winners from the weekend included The Bulls Masters who redeemed themselves with a convincing win over Herbert Rivers 1st XI side as well as anyone who turned up for the Friday Meet ‘n’ Greet were Comedian/ Ventriloquist Darren Carr and legendary fast Bowler Jeff Thomson had the crowd laughing hysterically all night.
Friday Night saw the weekend start with laughter at the Menegon Centre as the Bulls Masters Billy J Smith started the evening with Adam Dale and Luke Feldman. But it was Jeff Thomson that was the highlight of the cricketers telling stories about his time playing for Australia and Queensland. Just when you thought you couldn’t laugh anymore Ventriloquist Darren Carr stepped the laughter up another notch. There was not a dry eye in the building.
Saturday saw nearly 200 cricketers take to the four fields at Butler Park and after two rounds of Over 40 cricket and a junior coaching clinic it was time for the Bulls Masters to play Herbert River’s 1st XI side. Bulls Masters won the toss and batted first and despite Mitchell Seri 2/37 (4) and Aiden Tennent 2/25 (4) claiming some early wickets it was Michael Nesser (86) for the Bulls Masters that belted the Herbert River bowling attack into submission. Some handy runs from Adam Dale (23) and Jimmy Maher (19) made sure that Herbert River would be chasing a very competitive 181 from their 20 overs.
Chasing over nine runs an over Herbert River needed a great start but when Andrew Bichel 2/5 (3) and Luke Feldman 1/8 (2) struck early Herbert River were in all kinds of trouble. Local boys Kyle Phillips 2/9 (2) and Jayden Swarbrick 0/6 (2) both playing for the Bulls Masters brought the run rate to a grinding halt. In fact Herbert River Captain Chris Bradshaw (32) was the only player to manage any sort of score. Queensland women’s cricketer and Ingham star Ashley Spina managed a catch and stumping for the Bulls while recently appointed Queensland u19 player Brad Bradford 1/10 (4) also showed some great form. In the end Bulls Masters home easily.
The Sunday saw three more rounds of cricket with Dolphins Oldies winning the A Pool competition for the second time after taking the honours in 2015 and now again in 2017. The B Pool was won by first time winners Gettin’ Stiff with both teams undefeated for the weekend.
Individual Awards went to A Pool Barry Miller (Vintage) and B Pool Darren Firth (Grumpy Old Men) for Batsmen of the Carnival while A Pool Michael Biasi (Plumb Dingers) and B Pool Alan Gusmeroli (Forty Shades of Grey) won the Bowlers of the Carnival Awards. The All-rounder of the Carnival went to Robert Rose (Vintage) in A Pool and Ricky Furber (Gettin’ Stiff) for the B Pool competition. The major award of the night, Paul Britton’s Award of Awesomeness which doesn’t necessary go to a cricketer, is hard to award to one person as in Paul’s words “Because of all the awesomeness involved in this event” . This year the Award went to Veronica Rooker for her volunteer work not only this year but every year. To round the evening off Herbert River Cricket Chairman Peter Aranas accepted the Australia Day Award for Community Event of the year from Over 40 President Greg Erkkila.
Special Thanks for all the volunteers, supporters and sponsors especially physiotherapist Stephen Bourke who was kept very busy all weekend and our major sponsor PartyTime. Paul Casanovas and his family have supported this event since its inception in 2014 and have decided this is their last year as major sponsors. Hopefully an Ingham business will step up and support this event which has been a proven crowd pleaser. Last but not least a huge thank you to all the spectators that once again were well entertained (and well behaved) in what is essentially a free weekend of entertainment. So if you still haven’t been to this fantastic event. See you next year.