In the first week of the September school holidays the First XI cricket team went on a one-day, week tour to Brisbane to play in a cricket tournament being hosted by Brisbane Boys Grammar.

The team consisted of a number of regular 1st XI players, plus a few younger players with the goal of developing their skills to a higher level. The opportunity to build towards the coming season with some valuable match practice plus the experience of playing in Australian conditions was exciting.

The team stayed in the CBD in Brisbane which gave the boys an insight into city living in a large urban city. In our down time the team went shopping at the large DFO outlet in Brisbane, had a day at Wet ‘n’ Wild, enjoyed Streets Beach in Southbank (central Brisbane) and also spent one time walking Brisbane’s CBD. Several parents also ‘ came on tour’ and their support and help was appreciated. 

A special thanks to Mrs Jacki Morris who took time out of her precious holiday in Brisbane to come along and support the team playing for a couple of hours.

The team would particularly like to thank Darrin and Ellen Entwistle for being the driving force behind the tour. Their vision and determination made this tour happen and their wish is to make it a 2 yearly tour. The team would also like to thank all the sponsors and parents who contributed towards our fundraising.

The team had an excellent tour results wise winning all 5 games they played (3 50 over games and 2 T20 games). All our games were played at Marist College Ashgrove a private boy’s school in North West Brisbane. The school has superb cricket facilities and has produced some outstanding sportsman such as John Eales (rugby) and Matthew Hayden (cricket).

Results:

v St Pats (Wellington) WIN - a good all-round performance in our 1st game and some good middle order batting resulted in a sound win.

Shirley 208/9 (Quinn Bungard 48, Jayan Goldsworthy 43, Ryan Entwistle 31)

St Pats 156/10 (Connor McLaughlin 2-14, Rhys Watson Webb 2-15, Phillip Smith 2-23, Nick Thomson 1-12)

v Cranbrook (Sydney) WIN the highlight of this game was Jayan Goldsworthy’s 94 and an unbeaten last wicket partnership of 36 runs between two of our youngest players Jamie Ehau and Caleb Watson Webb which won us a game we probably should have lost.

Shirley 241/9 off 48 overs (Jayan Goldsworthy 94, Quinn Bungard 40, Jamie Ehau 20*)

Cranbrook 229/6 off 50 overs (Connor McLaughlin 2-21)

v Scott College (Adelaide) WIN - an unbeaten 137 run partnership between Jayan Goldsworthy and Quinn Bungard on the beautiful Marist College cricket oval lead to a win with plenty of overs and wickets to spare.

Shirley 188/2 (Jayan Goldsworthy 85*, Quinn Bungard 50*, Alex Trowbridge 20)

Scott College 187/10 (Tanurag Singh 4-35, Ekamjot Singh 1-16 [off 6 overs])

T20 Games

v Marist College Ashgrove (Brisbane) WIN - the highlight of this game was a strong all round performance from Tanurag Singh and a wee gem of an innings from Caleb Watson Webb. In a tight finish we won the game in the last over which was well bowled by Tanurag Singh

Shirley 146/7 (Tanurag Singh 33, Ryan Entwistle 29, Caleb Watson Webb26*)

Marist College Ashgrove 140/10 (Tanurag Singh 4-17, Todd Ehau 2-17)

v Cranbrook (Sydney) WIN - the highlight of this game was an 80 run partnership between Quinn Bungard and Ryan Entwistle which enabled us to post a competitive score. Some good fielding and a solid bowling effort saw us win in a game which was closer than the scores suggest.

Shirley 139/7 (Quinn Bungard 59, Ryan Entwistle 39)

Cranbrook 124/3 (Phillip Smith 1-15)