Glenelg cricketer Oscar Grant starts OG Bat Repair business from shed in Black Forest home
He is only 15 years young but Oscar Grant hopes to master an age-old cricket skill. Not a perfectly-timed cover drive, but the craft of bat repair. All that and more in this week’s Thrash Talk local cricket wrap.
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Welcome to Thrash Talk, your weekly fix of all things quirky in Adelaide cricket.
Whether it is a big score, a terrible run chase, notable on and off-field stories or anything in between, Chris ‘Thrasher’ Farrant and the Messenger Community News sports team will bring you several titbits each Tuesday.
Got an interesting local cricket score or story?
Send any news, photos or videos to thrasher@iinet.net.au and matthew.turner1@news.com.au
Here is what caught our eye at the weekend:
FIXING BATS AND SCORING RUNS
He is only 15 years young but Oscar Grant hopes to master an age-old cricket skill.
It is not a perfectly-timed cover drive or an in-swinging yorker – it is the craft of bat repair.
The Unley High School student has taken over his dad Graeme’s shed out the back of their Black Forest home to begin his own business of taking damaged pieces of willow and making them new again.
From major repairs such as toe and shoulder cracks to touch-ups, Oscar has honed his skills through practice and watching YouTube tutorials.
And if there was any better advertisement for the budding entrepreneur’s business it was last Saturday.
Oscar hit a career-high 96 not out for Glenelg’s under-16 white side in sweltering heat at Kensington Gardens Reserve – and his bat was in top nick when he did it.
“It’s my highest score ever in any form – my best was 58 before that,” Oscar, also a proficient wicketkeeper, says.
Hit by cramp, he hobbled off the ground after dragging the Seahorses, who were 3/50 when he came to the crease, to 8/178.
Oscar began dabbling in bat repair when he took stickers off one of his own willows and attempted to make the discoloured wood beneath blend back in.
“I got an interest in it and it just took off from there pretty much,” he says.
“I started with just some old bats we had at home, fixing and cleaning them up.
“Then a mate came over and needed his fixed and that was probably my first customer, you could say.”
Since then more mates and others have used Oscar’s services and he has also started Facebook and Instagram pages to drum up more business.
He finds it difficult to expand too much while still at Unley High, but for the moment he is enjoying spending hours after school and on the weekend hand-crafting bats from damaged to like-new.
As for Dad’s shed – now filled with bats, sanders and glue – Oscar says it’s all above board: “Dad’s a tradie so he’s helped out a fair bit with that sort of stuff – he’s all for it.”
Find Oscar’s bat repair service on Instagram
CELEBRATIONS CURTAILED
When Pooraka’s Mathew McCarthy celebrated his 300th game with easily his highest career score, he might have thought the euphoria would have lasted a tad longer than just day one. McCarthy made 111 – his previous-best this season was 15 – as the Bulls got to 245 in their Turf C2 game with Brahma Lodge.
The innings was curtailed by a hat-trick from Martin Ryan, who took 4/39.
From there, the party went downhill, as Brahma Lodge piled on an astronomical 4/507.
Ryan inflicted even greater pain with a pulverising 181 not out from only 99 balls.
He smashed 17 fours and 13 sixes.
With Jason Olsen, who carved 178 (21 fours, eight sixes), they put on 254 for the fourth wicket.
SIMON SLAYS
In Turd’s B2, Port Districts’ Simon Madden thumped 177 (18 fours, 10 sixes) to dominate his team’s 333. With David Thomas (73), they put on 125 for the fourth wicket, on the way easily accounting for Flinders Park’s 172.
UPSETS ALL ROUND
The women’s one-day grade cricket competition is heating up with just two rounds remaining before the finals begin. Last week’s round featured a few upsets.
Sturt jumped into the top-four and pushed West Torrens out following a victory over the Eagles.
Ellie Falconer (36) and Tahlia McGrath (43) led the way with the bat for West Torrens.
But Amelia Rault (3/24) and Annie O’Neil (3/42) were just as strong with the ball for the Blues to dismiss the Eagles for 162.
Eliza Bartlett (33) and O’Neil (22) put on a 77-run, opening-wicket stand for Sturt and the Blues reached the total with six overs to spare.
The Eagles are a win and 12 points behind the Blues in fifth.
Picture: Tricia Watkinson
Southern Districts continued the round of upsets, beating second-placed Northern Districts.
Northern openers Katie Rowe (6) and Tabatha Saville (6) were dismissed cheaply as
Southern’sHannah Sampson’s 3/6 ensured the Jets were held to 9/139.
Jess O’Reilly (23) Donna Clarke (22), Kelly Armstrong (20) and Rachel Andrew (26) got Southern to 5/140.
Port Adelaide again forfeited its clash against top-placed Kensington.
YES, HE KHAN
There were more runs in Turf’s LO5 competition as Concordia amassed 3/311 from its 40 overs.
Atir Khan led the way with 167 (16 fours, 12 sixes).
His third-wicket partnership with Richard Livingston (77 not out) produced 174.
This was Livingston’s third not out in a row and fourth from six digs, for a season average of 135.
The score was too much information for Athelstone (159).
WITH BAT AND BALL
Last week in Adelaide & Suburban Section’s Six, Kenilworth’s Roochullah Agha (43 not out) supported Mohamed Wazeer (182) in a ninth-wicket stand of 167 and a total of 9/279.
On day two, it was Agha who took the limelight, snaring 7/37 from 11 overs to keep Keswick to 204.
ROAD ROLLED
Mitchell Park made 4/258 in ASCA Section Five after a flying opening stand of 137 from Simon Richardson (86) and Stephen Dixon (66).
South Road was then rolled for 75, as Kyle Hanegraaf took 3/36 from 11 overs.
The real fun came in the second dig when Hanegraaf took his hat-trick and 6/19 from another 11 overs but the Roadies held on to finish at 8/61.
PHOTO OF THE WEEK
AARON ON TOP
Same competition, same grade, same one-man show theme.
Enfield United’s Aaron Callaghan cracked 138 not out (18 fours, three sixes) to totally dominate a score of 3/221 and an opening stand of 161 with Dave Martin (49).
North Pines limped to 5/137 from its 40 overs.
patrick.keam@news.com.au
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