Quick Singles: Midnight high jinks sends veteran paceman into panic

A former paceman re-enacting his glory days caused a late-night stir, while a team whipped out the spray paint to prove a point. It’s all in this week’s Quick Singles column, looking at quirky happenings in local cricket.

Mordialloc appeal unsuccessfully for a wicket during the Cricket Southern Bayside Division 3 match against Bentleigh on Saturday. (Photo by Josh Chadwick)

We’ve uncovered some of the more unusual and quirky happenings in local cricket from the weekend.

And we highlight some memorable displays.

It’s all in this week’s Quick Singles:

OH, NO! I’VE LOST IT

Midnight shenanigans at Skye Cricket Club led to a frantic search on Saturday night.

It all happened at the club’s Halloween party when former paceman Darren Okley decided it would be a good idea to venture out to the middle (in the pitch dark) and re-enact his old bowling run-up.

It all went well until he couldn’t find his car key, a completely sober Okley thinking it had dropped out of his pocket during his hi jinks.

With panic setting in (he doesn’t have a spare key), the oval’s lights were switched on as Okley launched his own search party at 12.30am.

And then it hit him; the key was in his back pocket the whole time.

THE SECRET HERBS AND SPICES

An assortment of sandwiches and fruit? Nope. We’re told one local club opted against a traditional afternoon tea and put the money towards two Giant Feasts from KFC. The batting team, which was the away team, thought it had hit the jackpot as the bowlers went with the cautious approach. Luckily, it was a one-day game and no whites were damaged in the process of cleaning up.

COME ON, GUYS

One club playing away this week spent the final minutes of day one trudging around the boundary with a can of spray paint. They were spray painting underneath the cones to make sure they were set at the same distance from the wicket the following week. It’s the kind of pettiness we really enjoy at Quick Singles.

SUPER STEVO

Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it’s just Carlton’s Cam Stevenson taking an all-time specky late in the day. After bowling 24 overs for a return of 5-68, the big quick took one of the catches of the season to date. Out of the vision frame, he ran at least 30 metres and put in a full-length dive to remove centurion Mark Phelan. If you have any other classic catches, send them in.

BALL OF THE CENTURY!

Cricket can be a cruel game — just ask former Adelaide Crow Myles Poholke, who played for Sorrento’s fifths on Saturday. Myles’ hopes of a long innings were quickly dashed when he was clean bowled for a duck by Mt Martha’s Chris Masterson. “It was the ball of the century,’’ Myles muttered as he trudged off, comparing Masterson’s delivery to “a Mitchell Starc inswinger that nobody could have hit’’. Later in the day, Myles’ luck didn’t improve at the bowling crease when he had two catches (absolute sodas, we hear) dropped off his bowling in successive deliveries.

Myles Poholke. Picture: (AAP Image/Darren England)

GREAT SHOT

We have to dob ourselves in for a Quick Single this week. One of our journalists, who won’t be named, made a horrible — but equally funny — error when assigning photographers for last weekend’s round of cricket. With the rare opportunity of gun professional photographer Josh Chadwick on deck, our man read fixtures wrong and sent Chadwick to the round scheduled for this weekend. So, after capturing major events such as the AFL grand final, MotoGP and Australian Open, Chadwick took a selection ripping photographs of a couple Second XI matches last weekend.

WORTH THE WAIT

You’re never too old to score a maiden century. Two Baxter cricketers did exactly that in the Mornington Peninsula association on Saturday, with Andy Matheson cracking 136 not out in A3 and Linton East making 111 in A4. Andy is the father of under-14 player Peter. The father-son combination opened the batting, with the old man pushing on to achieve a special milestone. East is in his 50s but clearly is just hitting his straps, with more runs to come.

STILL GOT IT

Local cricket great Matt Chasemore is back in the runs, crunching a century for Berwick’s Turf 4 side. He finished 107no after hitting 14 fours and two sixes. Genius!

OUTRIGHT CONTROVERSY

An outright victory is being investigated by officials in the Mornington Peninsula association. Ballam Park took maximum points against Skye in a Sub District first XI match on Saturday. But it seems — through no fault of either team — an extra over was bowled and a wicket was taken in that added over. The alleged error is believed to have occurred on the opening day of the game. The association is looking at the scorebooks.