Today’s memorable moment takes a look back at the lowest opposition total In A Grade in the modern era, which occurred against Mt Barker in the first game of the 2002/03 season.
Batting first, Mt Barker compiled a respectable but below-par 1st innings score of 137 led by 51 from a D. Karayiannis before Wistow responded with 193, with Wayne “Willow” Willis top-scoring with 81. It was when the Kookaburras went in for a 2nd innings, with only about 30 overs remaining on the second day, that things really took a turn, with Mt Barker bundled out in their second dig in just 14.2 overs for a scarcely-believable 16!
Fresh from tasting GF defeat in the previous season, the Echidnas had recruited strongly over the winter to help them go one step further, luring the prized duo of Brett “Barrel” Lynn & Brayden Leckie over to the Hill from the Murray Towns league. Barrel showed some promising signs in his debut in the maroon & gold, collecting 2/38 in Mt Barker’s 1st innings before chipping in with a useful 21. Surprisingly (given the nature of this post), Leck was quieter, finishing with figures of 1/26 and 1/1 and making 6.
Rather, the star of the show was a 17 year old tearaway and future club legend, Steven “Sticks” Nettle who led the Wistow attack with figures of 3/30 in Mt Barker’s first innings before tearing the Kookaburras apart in their second dig to collect 5/11.
That Mt Barker team ended up with a strong Wistow connection, with three players subsequently going on to play at the Hill – Daniel “Fans” Hughes, Travis “Moose” Lynn & Simon “Noons” Nunan (Simon Nunan). Unfortunately for them, none of them did well with the bat in this match – Fans made 0 in the 1st innings and was absent in the 2nd, Trav made 3 & 0 and Noons made 0 in the 2nd innings coming in as a replacement player. Their bowling was much better, however, with Trav collecting 3/32 from 17 overs and Fans 3/14 from 5.
Finally, as noted above, it was a fairly auspicious Wistow debut for Leck, collecting just 1 wicket in each inning, however, Sticks’ dominant performance clearly stirred him on as he collected a lazy 12 wickets in the next match against Macclesfield, including 8/18 in the 1st innings, on his way to a whopping 46 poles for the season (at 8.20!!) – one of only 2 players to have taken 40 or more wickets in a season in A Grade for the club since the 1960s; the other, perhaps unsurprisingly, is Sticks who took 42 wickets in the 2013/14 season.
