Fab Five lead Bulls charge to premiership glory

THEY are Tea Tree Gully’s Fab Five. Matt Weaver, Tim Davey, Adam Somerfield and Tim and Brad Evans boast a remarkable 47 SACA first-grade premiership medals between them and have been instrumental in an unrivalled era of Premier Cricket dominance from the Bulls.

FAB FIVE: Tea Tree Gully stalwarts, from left, Tim and Brad Evans, Matt Weaver, Tim Davey and Adam Somerfield have 47 SACA premiership medals between them. Picture: Emma Brasier (AAP).

THEY are Tea Tree Gully’s Fab Five.

Between them they boast a remarkable 47 SACA first-grade premiership medals and have been instrumental in an unrivalled era of Premier Cricket dominance from the Bulls.

Captain Matt Weaver, opening batsman Tim Evans and all-rounder Adam Somerfield have been a part of all 10 of the Gullies’ premiership wins in the past 10 seasons.

They include a two-day flag in 2014/15, one-day premierships in 2011/12, 2012/13 and 2013/14 and Twenty20 titles in 2007/08, 2011/12, 2012/13, 2013/14, 2015/16 and this season.

Wicketkeeper-batsman Tim Davey has played in nine of the grand final wins and giant paceman Brad Evans has been involved in eight.

The experienced quintet will lead the charge again today when the minor premier Bulls start their two-day premiership quest against fourth-placed Glenelg at Pertaringa Oval.

“They’ve all been outstanding players, people, clubmen and leaders for us,’’ said Gullies coach Peter Sleep, who has been at the helm for nine seasons.

“Weaver and Davey have had a taste of first-class cricket for SA and Somerfield, in the short-form of the game, and Tim Evans have been very unlucky not to have been given a chance.

“Brad Evans also has been outstanding and has been a key factor for us not only opening the bowling but making some good contributions with the bat in the lower order.

“I take my hat off to them for what they’ve done for the club and hopefully they are not finished winning premierships just yet.’’

All are in the twilight of their illustrious careers, with batting allrounder Weaver the oldest at age 32 and Brad Evans the youngest at 26.

Davey, Somerfield and Tim Evans are 30.

Tim Evans, who has taken 135 wickets with his left-arm medium-pacers, ranks second in club history for runs with 5668 behind former State batsman Martin Faull (6770).

Davey (5261) is third and Weaver (3789) sixth.

Davey is the club’s all-time dismissals leader with 259 (235 catches, 24 stumpings).

Brad Evans ranks third in wickets with 193 behind club record holder Gary Chillingworth (258). Somerfield sits seventh with 174.

Sleep says he expects all five of his star veterans to play for at least one more season but is uncertain how long Weaver will remain club captain.

He this season handed over the Twenty20 captaincy duties to Redbacks-contracted batsman Patrick Page, 20, to help with his leadership development.

“This could very well be ‘Weaves’ last season as captain so we would love him to go out and win another two-day premiership because he deserves it,’’ said Sleep, who played 14 Test matches for Australia and 127 first-class games for SA from 1976/77 to 1992/93.

“As a club we probably deserve to win it this year because we’ve been close a few times in the past few seasons, winning three years ago, but losing a couple of grand finals (in 2013/14 and 2015/16).

“We’ve worked really hard as a group to give ourselves a good chance this year and I hope we have some more success for those five people in particular. I know they’ll be trying their butts off.’’

In the other semi-final, to be played today and tomorrow, second-placed Sturt will host third-placed Adelaide University at Price Memorial Oval.

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