Guyra came agonisingly close to claiming an opening-round win in Saturday’s first grade cricket clash against Easts.
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Guyra won the toss and elected to bat to finish their innings all out for 128.
Easts’ quick Jackson Gwynne landed the wickets of Guyra’s top three as well as former opening partner Tyson Burey to finish with figures of 4-13 while Sam Constance also managed three scalps after stepping up to the top grade.
Brandon Burey claimed two while Tom Toshack finished with one. Stepping up to bat, Easts were dealt an early blow when Cody Graham was dismissed for a duck by Mitch Woods.
In his first grade debut, Kieran Wicks landed the next two wickets to have Easts at 3-21 before Woods claimed another to put his opponents at 4-21.
Clarrie Moran (22) and Micheal Smoother (19) steadied the innings for Easts. Sam Uphill came in at the death and with Guyra needing just one wicket to win, he scored the winning runs off the bowling of Wicks.
While it was disappointing to miss out on the victory against his old club, stand-in captain Matt Jackson believes it will spur his side on.
“I thought it was a great first hit out, it’s always tough to swallow getting so close and not getting the win but I think that will only motivate us to work harder for next game,” he said.
“We dropped a couple of catches that could of been the difference in the end but that’s cricket.”
Guyra’s top four fell cheaply but up stepped Demielle Landsborough for a quickfire 28 while Jason Campbell, Mitch Woods and Jackson chimed in to add runs on the board.
“Demielle especially, he showed great patience and some text book shots on his way to 28 and Mitch Woods chipped in with valuable 20 at the end,” Jackson said.
“We’ve got a really talented bowling attack as well – Mitch Woods did as only Mitch does, hit the spot from the first ball and then young Kieran Wicks in his first game of first grade showed some of his talents after being on a hat-trick in his first over.”
With the first week of the two-day game washed out, followed by more rain last week, question marks were raised as to whether cricket would commence on Saturday. Jackson highlighted the work the local curators did to ensure the fields were up to a playing standard.
“It was a massive effort to get a wicket prepared last weekend among all the rain but the wicket was one of the best we had played on in the past five years,” he said.
“Although the scores didn’t reflect it, if that’s the standard of wickets in store for the year we are in for massive scores.”
Both teams were slopping in adding extra runs to their opponents’ scoreboard and Jackson said they will have to tidy it up when they face Hillgrove for round two.
“This weekend I think we need to show a bit more determination with the bat and value our wickets,” he said.
“If we can do that I think we will give Hillgrove a real run for their money.
“I’m expecting a massive year from [Hillgrove skipper] Matty Schaefer so, like always, getting him out early is a priority.”