Runs and wickets - big day for Matt and Sam

Moonee Valley was left to count the new records at the end of play over the February 17 and 18 weekend.

The Seconds racked up the Club’s highest-ever VTCA score, Matt Thomas in the Twos became our first player since 2001/02 to score back-to-back centuries, and Sam O’Brien (left) in the Mighty Fighting Eighths piggy-backed on his previous game’s effort to snare five wickets in six balls.

Matt Thomas (right) and Ian Denny also set a new record for the fourth wicket partnership in the Seconds.

Following Tullamarine’s more-than-handy 9/291 at Ormond Park from the previous Saturday, our Seconds started brightly, with Sandro Capocchi and Jim Polonidis putting on 144 for the first wicket.

Matt, 19, and Ian came together with the score on 222, and pushed it on to 360 before Eggbert fell for 67. Matt went soon after for 126, with 16 fours and 6 sixes. His innings follows on from the 131 not out he scored in the previous match, when he played in the Sevenths due to non-availability for a two-day game.

Ian and Matt’s 138-run stand bettered the 135 set by Sandro Capocchi and P. Rogan in 1990/91.

And before this season, the best run chase in the history of the Seconds was 4/295 in 1990/91, when we ran down Gladstone Park’s 282 in the EBKCA Luscombe Shield Seconds.

Our total of 6/453 was the highest-ever score for the Seconds, eclipsing the 5/420 scored against East Coburg in the Moreland Moonee Valley Cricket Association B Turf grade in 2001/02, which was bankrolled by 155 by Mark Gauci.

And our Seconds had almost reached that mark earlier this season, when a club-record 300-run stand between Pat Felmingham and Darren Nagle enabled us to get to 7/403 against Seabrook.

That score had set its own records – at that stage it had been the highest score posted on the Ormond Park turf since we moved to the Victorian Turf Cricket Association for the 2002/03 season, and the highest score either for or against Moonee Valley in the turf grades in that time.

Moonee Valley’s previous highest VTCA turf score at home was our 317 for the Firsts in 2002/03, led by a Mick Harvey 145.

And while the Seconds are racking up some big scores this season, our Mighty Fighting Eighths are quietly going about their task of making the North West Cricket Association one-day finals by stringing a series of wins together.

Sam O’Brien – who still plays Under 14s with us – has proven to be more than a match for the adults in the Eighths.

In the previous week’s game against St Mary’s, Sam had the figures of 3/0 – taking wickets with his first two balls, then bowling a dot ball and then taking another wicket to finish off the innings.

On Sunday he started against Pascoe Vale Central with two wickets from his first two balls to finish with the figures of 2/0.

This means Sam took the equivalent of a hat-trick across two matches, and an amazing five wickets in six balls for no runs.

He’s Moonee Valley’s leading wicket-taker in the Eighths, and has got a bright future ahead of him.

*For more details on Matt’s first century, see the item on our News pages for February 8. For more details of the Seconds 300-run stand, see the News item of November 20.

19/2/07