Cricket Gold Coast: Broadbeach Robina’s Conan Sternberg takes 10 second-grade wickets in round five

It was a weekend as special as they come for Broadbeach Robina’s Conan Sternberg as he snagged the eighth best haul in the country. Inside the remarkable feat and how he did it.

It was a weekend as special as they come for Broadbeach Robina’s Conan Sternberg.

He has announced himself as a must-watch bowler for the season’s remainder after claiming extraordinary match figures of 10-16 from 24 overs.

Sternberg started strongly on the first day of the round five second-grade clash with Runaway Bay, but it was his second day heroics with an extraordinary eight-wicket haul that lifted him to 10 poles for the match.

“Best haul of my career, definitely,” 46-year-old Sternberg mused.

He was exceptionally tidy in the first innings as the Cats skittled Runaway Bay for just 25, with figures of 2-4 from 11 overs.

Broadbeach would pile on 219 themselves before sending Bay back in and rolling them for 97 to claim an outright win for the ages.

“On the first day we knew the pitch wasn’t going to bounce a lot which gave us some leeway, we knew that stuff was going to hit the stumps that wasn’t all that pitched up and we could work in that channel,” he said.

“I got a couple of wickets moving the ball around on that first day, and the rest of the guys bowled really tidy lines and really restricted them.

“We just bowled the same way we did the day before (in the second innings) and things just paid off.

“I tried less variation to be honest and it seemed to work, it just seemed to be that channel that did the job.”

Conan Sternberg bowling for Broadbeach Robina’s first-grade side. Picture: Mike Batterham.

His second innings figures of 8-13 from 12 overs were the eighth-best across the entire country for the weekend – but it could’ve been even better.

“The captain somehow pulled me, I don’t know how, but he pulled me off after 13 overs,” Sternberg joked, noting it may well have cost him his ninth wicket.

Sternberg only started playing senior cricket at 36 years of age to “keep the joints oiled”, and he snagged first five-fa with a hat-trick only three years ago.

He’s enjoyed a strong start to the season and already has 21 wickets to his name, including a four-wicket haul against Beaudesert.

It was raining wickets across the board in round five, and Josh Reid had an equally enviable spell for Southport Labrador against Helensvale Pacific Pines, taking 7-24 from 18.2 overs en route to a 47-run win.

Despite the high of his 10-wicket haul, Sternberg said it wasn’t long until he came crashing back to reality, with a message to lift the spirits of those whose performances left a little to be desired.

“It’s those things that you just dream about and it’s probably more surreal than anything else,” he said.

“But it’s happened and I’ve still got to wake up and go to work in the morning, I’ve still got to come home and look after the kids and make sure everyone’s got oboe reeds for their musical instruments.

“Life goes on, it doesn’t matter how many wickets you take on the weekend.”

Originally published as Cricket Gold Coast: Broadbeach Robina’s Conan Sternberg takes 10 second-grade wickets in round five