Hornets Over 40s secure big win first up!

A very solid first up win for the “junior” section of Ipswich Hornets Veterans Cricket with the Over 40’s having a great result against the strong and highly fancied Gold Coast with a number of debutants in our side.

Skipper Stephen Humphreys won the toss and with only ten men, sent Gold Coast in. They were away to a good start but then Amila took two quick wickets to start the rot. Good catching from debutant Kev Cumming, Cameron Packer and Nathan Fisher kept slowing the Gold Coast innings. Craig Mackay celebrated his recent selection in the Australian Over 40’s World Cup side by taking 4/30 and the ageless Cameron Packer came on to knock over the last couple of wickets that restricted Gold Coast to 122 all out. Solid bowling from Sharrad 1/15 off 5, Amila 2/19 off 5, Fisher 1/24 off 5, Cumming 0/28 off 4, Mackay 4/30 off 7 and Packer 2/2 off 1.4 along with a great team effort in the field really kept the pressure on all day and never really gave Gold Coast a chance to get on top.

After losing an early wicket, Amila and Mackay got going and Cricket Ipswich were off to a decent start. Amila went trying to push the score and that bought another debutant, Marcus Hillier to the crease. Mackay and Hillier then just went about putting the bad balls away and running well between wickets. The partnership all but put the game to bed and when Hiller was dismissed on a solid 34 the game was fairly over. Craig Mackay finished on 48* to top off a good day all round as the Hornets ran out winners by 7 wickets and with 9.3 overs to spare.

A great team effort all round and well lead by skipper Humphreys. As the winners of the last two Over 40’s QCA competitions, this team is hungry to win again and be the inaugural winners of this new competition.