MPCA 2019-20: Tom McEncroe hits Main Ridge Cricket Club record score
Main Ridge batsman Tom McEncroe bettered his previous best score of 36 by some distance on Saturday, smashing 238 in a one-day game.
South East
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Days after blasting a club record 238 for Main Ridge on Saturday, Tom McEncroe was still scratching his head, trying to make sense of it all.
“It was pretty funny how it came about because I’m not much of a cricketer, to be honest,’’ 24-year-old Tom said.
With a previous best score of 36, Tom arrived at Main Ridge for the fourths game against Crib Point not even expecting to get a bat.
“I normally bat about seven,” he said.
But just before the start of play, destiny intervened.
The side’s regular opened Al Fuller was running late and, suddenly, Tom found himself padding up.
“I just decided to put them on and go out there and, yeah, I must have been seeing them alright,” he said.
See them alright he did, Tom bludgeoning the bowling to all parts, sending 22 deliveries to the boundary and 18 over it in a relentless display of big hitting.
All this in a 40-over one dayer.
So rapid was his innings, Tom, once out, even had time to take off the pads and do a stint on the scorebook for the last few overs of the innings.
“It was unexpected, that’s for sure,” he said of his knock.
“All the boys on the sidelines, I could hear them laughing every time I hit another six.
“I mean, it is a pretty small deck up there to be honest.”
So, with so many fours and sixes, there must have been some memorable shots, right?
“I reckon I hit one good shot in the whole innings,” Tom said.
“There was probably a nice cover drive over mid-off. That was probably shot of the day. I reckon that landed in Flinders.
“I hit plenty with the edges, no doubt.”
Tom says he is very much a social cricketer and many of his teammates are friends he plays footy with at Red Hill, including Josh Mold who, coincidentally, was the holder of Main Ridge’s previous record score (224, made last season).
As Tom piled up the runs, Josh watched his record fall.
“I think he’s a bit dirty with me now that I’ve got the record so I think he’ll be looking to go out and break it next time we play I reckon,” Tom said.
“He shook my hand but I reckon deep down he was a little bit dirty with me.”
For a small club, Main Ridge has a relatively high number of double centurions. The Cougars have five of them — Tom McEncroe 238, Josh Mold 224, Leigh Holmes 203, Travis Barker 201 and Gareth Wyatt 200 and 201.
“Compared to the other blokes who’ve made 200s I am nowhere near a cricketer that they are,” Tom said.
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“That’s the funny thing about cricket, sometimes you just have your day and you can end up doing something that makes a lot of people happy.”